Meet Jared Saltiel | Singer/Songwriter, Composer & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jared Saltiel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jared, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
It’s hard to pinpoint a particular moment when I made the decision to be an artist and work in a creative field, and in that sense it’s hard to reverse-engineer exactly why I did. If I survey my thinking on these big questions over the years, going all the way back to my earliest pre-teen fantasies about who I wanted to be and what kind of life I wanted to live, it’s clear that there were only a few moments when I ever even considered any option other than a life in the arts. And in those moments, like the initial exploratory phase of college, I only ever dabbled in other passions or potential vocations. I did think “oh, maybe I’ll be a lawyer or a journalist,” in an abstract way, but whether consciously or not, those passing ideas were mostly directed at placating some imaginary external authority figure or throwing my family off the trail for a while. All that said, the longer I go trying to figure out a career in a totally insane and unstable field, the more I wonder what I would have accomplished in a more structured work environment. Maybe if I had a Grammy I wouldn’t have these thoughts, but they are probably pretty normal for this phase of life, in my late 30s. If I had chosen a more practical path, I suspect I would be consumed with regret about not exploring my potential as a songwriter and musician.

The other huge force that pushed me into an artistic life is my obsessive curiosity, and what I’ve eventually come to realize is a powerfully competitive impulse, albeit self-directed. There are few creative skills that I don’t expect myself to master or at least get decent at throughout my life, though I rarely seek formal education. This has driven me to dabble in just about every musical genre, including some left-field stuff that’s largely out of step with my sensibilities. I taught myself to do orchestral arranging. I’ve written musical theater, and I have a lot of other pent-up ambitions around writing fiction. I’ve learned to be at least decent at just about every instrument I could get my hands on. And then there’s the whole technical rabbit hole of recording and music production, an area where I’m finally starting to feel reasonably comfortable.

I do experience this obsessive intensity in other areas of interest, but ultimately it’s my creativity that’s always been the all-consuming and compulsive force, and all the acquired skills and genre experiments are just fuel for the fire. I experience that creative drive so intensely, it doesn’t leave room for much else. So even though I really struggle with the self-doubt and self-recrimination that accompanies the artistic lifestyle, it’s hard to imagine that I could have made any other choice. That said, I am the product of my environment, and it’s impossible to know who I would be and what different choices I would have made if my creative impulses hadn’t been supported and encouraged from a very early age, or if I’d been less financially privileged as an adult.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When I look at the throughline of all the music I’ve made in my career, the thing that stands out to me is my penchant for storytelling. That has taken a lot of different shapes from record to record, sometimes more literally than others. At my most nerdy and ambitious, I’ve found myself doing things like adapting classical mythology straight out of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. I’ve taken things a step further by writing directly narrative songs for musical theater, though I was never particularly drawn to that genre in my younger days. (I have since educated myself.) Plus I have an incorrigible habit of painstakingly sequencing my songs on albums to generate meta-narratives between seemingly unrelated mini-stories.

Even my songwriting that doesn’t adhere to some kind of rigid narrative structure tends to place an emphasis on story, directly or indirectly. It’s like I always want the song to move the listener mentally or emotionally from point A to point B. For me, it’s not enough to simply capture a vibe or a feeling and just coast on it. I certainly don’t look down on songwriters who do that. If anything, I wish I could do that more often, because I think that’s often the most enjoyable listening experience, whereas my approach seems to demand so much of the listener’s attention that it’s less of a soundtrack for their life and more of a movie unto itself. But for better or worse, that’s my creative impulse. Achieving that sense of movement or story is usually the measure of satisfaction that allows me to determine that I did what I set out to do and I can put away my pencil.

Being a musician is certainly not an easy life, especially in the streaming era, and while I can’t say I’m satisfied with where I am or what I’ve accomplished professionally, I try to take a longer and wider view of my goals. I’ve done a lot of harm to my self-image by comparing myself to people who are first and foremost performers, which is an arena that worships youth. Though I love performing, the world of music is a lot bigger than that, and lately I’ve internalized the fact that I am generally most comfortable when I’m writing, composing, recording, and generally creating atmosphere that serves a larger vision. As I sit with that, I’m learning to let go of my expectations and pre-conceptions about how Jared Saltiel The Artist needs to be received as a cultural product to be quantified through things like Spotify streams and social media followers. I’ve been at it long enough to say with confidence that that mentality is simply untenable for me, a total race to the bottom.

When I step back and think about where I can make the most impact or do the most satisfying work, I think it’s just as likely to be composing for film or writing a musical as it is to be releasing a single as a solo artist. The more I zoom out and see it all as an extension of myself as a creative force, the more I realize I’ve been trying to squeeze myself into the wrong mold in order to gratify some ancient ego-inflating fantasy. Though I would still love to reach certain goals with my music as a songwriter and performer, these days I would say I’m more motivated to collaborate with people who are making exciting stuff on a different scale or in a different medium. That shift in attitudes has changed “networking” from this awful nightmare where I have to pitch myself to strangers who unwittingly hold the key to my success to a much more organic, lateral process of connecting with people on my level and wavelength who are searching for somebody with exactly what I have to offer. And when I think of it that way, I’m liberated to realize that I have quite a lot to offer.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Though I know I live in a culinary goldmine, I’m not the most engaged New Yorker when it comes to bars and restaurants. I’m more of a neighborhood person and a creature of habit, so I’m happy with my pretty-good Thai restaurant and the coffee shop two blocks away. Which doesn’t make me the greatest tour guide for the city. But I love it when people come to my corner of central Brooklyn.

Nobody visits me without a walk in Prospect Park, weather permitting. It’s probably my favorite place in all of NYC. It’s got a more rustic feel than Central Park, or maybe the rustic parts are just more easily accessible. Both parks are idyllic in their own way, but there’s something particularly special about the great lawn in Prospect Park, especially on a nice day when it’s full of people picnicking and hanging out.

There’s obviously a ton of amazing live music in NYC, even though many of my favorite venues have shut down. One place I love to take people is Barbès in Park Slope. The listening space is so small and casual, and while it’s ostensibly a jazz venue, their calendar has a really eclectic mix of genres. And I love that they mostly host residencies, so you can dependably catch certain acts, like the guitarist Stephane Wrembel.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
So many people. First, this is a bit cliche, but I want to acknowledge my high school English teacher Stan Bidlack, who recently passed away. He was a fascinating, colorful character, a writer, and a hugely motivating presence during a very tumultuous period of my life. He always encouraged his creative writing students to be as weird and wacky as they wanted to be, and I really internalized that energy. I never acted on the impulse to reach out to him as an adult and share my ongoing creations, because it felt a bit self-indulgent, and while I do regret that I never got to tell him how much he impacted me, it’s nice to have the space to do it here.

Secondly, my oldest friend and musical collaborator Dave Koenig, who died in 2019. Dave was probably the smartest person and most effortlessly talented musician I’ve ever known, and I would never be who I am today without their influence. Beyond music, they had such a big influence on my intellect and how I think, and in so many ways I’m still catching up with attitudes that Dave expressed years and years ago. I try to imagine what Dave would think pretty much every time I make music, and I think I’ve become a more fearless and honest version of myself because I can no longer lean on Dave to model those attributes.

I’ve worked with a bunch of amazing recording engineers who have shaped my approach as a producer, but one engineer who has been an especially important mentor to me is Ken Rich, the owner and lead engineer at Grand Street Recording in Brooklyn. Ken has recorded and/or co-produced countless projects with me, and I am majorly indebted to his guidance and his amazing network of musicians. I’ve learned so much just sitting in a chair behind him in the studio, peppering him with questions and watching him translate my infinite hyper-detailed requests. Ken is the kind of perfectionist who does such impressive work it makes you question why it’s so often used as a dirty word.

I also want to shout out Max Moston and Olivier Manchon, two violinists, string arrangers, and beautifully kind humans with whom I’ve been lucky to work a number of times. Max and Olivier have been involved in making some of my favorite music ever, and when I first met them more than 10 years ago for string sessions that I arranged, I had a powerful case of imposter syndrome. Their encouragement and enthusiasm for not just my arrangements but my composition/songwriting in general was really impactful for me, giving me a sense that maybe just maybe I belonged in this wildly intimidating music world. There are tons of musicians I’ve met through recording sessions who have had a similar effect on me, but they are too numerous to list.

There are too many other friends and peers to mention so I won’t even try. But I can’t skip my wife Lee, who is my number one collaborator, the person who influences and bears witness to just about every element of my existence.

Website: jaredsaltiel.com

Instagram: instagram.com/jaredsaltielmusic

Facebook: facebook.com/jaredsaltielmusic

Youtube: youtube.com/jaredsaltielmusic

Other: jaredsaltiel.bandcamp.com

Image Credits
Savannah Lauren