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Ben Wakeman

  • Catch & Release
  • about
  • music
    • I'm Just the Same As I Was
    • Waiting for the Light to Change
    • Greener
    • The Overall Distance
    • Demos
    • A Quiet Place to Sit
  • Fiction
    • Rewind, Playback
    • The Memory of My Shadow
    • Harmony House
  • Events
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ViennaTeng.jpg

Episode 9: Vienna Teng Makes a Name for Herself

May 6, 2007

There is something very pure and inarguably sincere about Vienna Teng and the music she makes. She enormously downplays her talent and in talking with her, you get the sense that she is not entirely comfortable with her “sweet, pretty” voice as she refers to it. 


In her latest effort, “Dreaming through the Noise” it seems that she has begun to embrace her gifts and the result is an intimate collection of whispered stories woven into a lush soundscape of string arrangements and as always, her wonderful piano. She talks easily in this interview about where she came from, the challenges of living a life in music and why she does it.

← Episode 10: Pierce Pettis is a Poet and A GentlemanEpisode 8: Richard Shindell Knows a Good Song →

SHORT STORIES

LONGER THAN A SONG, SHORTER THAN A NOVEL...

I've always been enamored by the short story. It is probably the most difficult form to master. How can you possibly transport someone into a fully realized world in just a few pages? Songs can cheat because the music does the heavy lifting. Novels have acres of open land to plant the seeds and allow them to grow, produce fruit and even die. But short stories must be dense, concentrated and focused with an engine powerful enough to tow a freight train but small enough to fit in a pocket watch.

This collection of stories represents my meager attempt to learn how the form works. There are moments I hope where I get close, but you can be the judge of that, dear reader.