You don’t like being called a jazz singer. How do you describe yourself?
Pedinotti: It’s been a challenge with what to label it. I just have to ignore what it’s called and just do it—do what I do and let other people decide how to market it. I have such great respect for jazz music. What I do now is singer/songwriter, but the tunes that I write, there’s a lot of jazz in there.
What are your artistic goals?
Pedinotti: I want to really get into writing. I’m not really a fortune-teller, but I hope to have a thousand original songs. I have a little over a hundred now. The more you write, the more you develop. It’s almost like you’re working on one piece.
This one’s for each of you: Why music?
Pedinotti: It’s the storytelling aspect that is important to me. I think of people like Woody Guthrie, who was telling the story of the dust-bowl era. He was important to liven up a country full of very depressed people in a grim time. In that desperate time, it shows you the power of the music—a guy traveling with just a guitar—to get people inspired to want to live. Music has a transformative quality. We are living in a very disturbing moment in history and I cannot suppress the disquietude of our age. Hence the need for the healing, transformative power of music and poetry. I just need it to stay sane.
Shaw: I’ve always tried to play each song as though it was the last song I’ll ever play. You let the music get inside you. You’re clearly a vehicle. Music to me is like breathing. It’s that important.
