A couple of months ago, we here at the RN&R put together
this big contest for local songwriters. It was a massive undertaking,
and we all spent hours listening to the submitted songs. Over time,
personal favorites emerged from the din.
One song I really like that didn’t place among the
judge’s eventual winners is called “Old and New.”
It’s a simple one-girl-and-one-guitar track, but with a pretty
vocal melody and unaffected singing. The lyrics strike me as an honest
narrative about memories and the thrills of young love. And I really
like how it’s a song about songs: the art of writing songs, how
they soundtrack our lives, what they mean to us, and how they bring
people together. These lines from the second verse epitomize this
aspect of the song:
“It was a walk through our old memories, listening to all
those songs. Peter Frampton gave us our first dance and the Yeah Yeah
Yeahs have moved us along. And I know those songs are from times in the
past, but they are here in our hearts in the present. And as I held
your hand as tight as I could, I knew the grasp of those songs would
never lessen.”
I’m not usually a fan of namedropping in songs, but I love the
unlikely pairing of Peter Frampton and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It strikes
me as a line written by someone who feels comfortable liking whatever
she likes, regardless of appearances.
I didn’t know who wrote the song when I selected it as one of
my picks for the songwriting contest, but shortly thereafter I found
out it was written by 19-year-old TMCC student Amber Scala. I was happy
the song that seemed like such an accurate and honest depiction of
teenage love was actually written by a teenager.
I met Scala for coffee. I told her I really liked “Old and
New,” and then I asked her, “What inspired that song?
What’s it about?”
“It’s about him,” she replied, and gestured toward
her boyfriend, Brenton Spinuzzi. He gave me a sheepish,
ain’t-I-a-lucky-guy grin.
“Most of my songs are about people,” said Scala.
“Or experiences I’ve had.”
They’re not all love songs. Her song “Pots and Pans
Brigade,” for example, focuses on a boisterous guy at a protest
rally. It’s one of the eight songs on her new CD And So it
Begins … the cover of which features a charming drawing of
what seems to be Reno as the Emerald City. The cover was drawn by her
older sister, Rachael. Her father, Gino, plays percussion on the album
and her younger sister, Holly, plays guitar on it. So it’s a
family affair, but it’s very clearly Amber’s vision and
voice and songs.
Many of her songs have vivid narratives and move through a
beginning, middle and end.
“I don’t like it when the second verse is just like the
first,” she says. “It needs to have a
progression.”
She says her songs usually come to her in quick flashes of
inspiration.
“It has to hit me,” she says. “Usually it’s
the lyrics before the music, just a phrase or a string of words that
just hit me.”