Where the music is in demand

For the average 22-year-old, experiences, wild or mundane, and emotions, vulnerable or ecstatic, are expressed first through the clipped characters of a tweet or the rambling manifest of a blog. But Baton Rouge-based pianist Rebecca Roubion keeps those life revelations for her songs, not her Twitter account. Lyrics, she says, come first and foremost, and those wanting to know more about this Mobile native-turned-LSU student learn plenty with one spin of her melodic debut, A Fine Place to Start.

Recorded back home in Alabama and produced by her musician father, Bob Roubion, the album’s chilled-out sound is filled with deep, river-current piano runs and Roubion’s breathy, confident vocals that lie somewhere between Norah Jones and the Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger. From the staccato soul of “Free” to the comely lover’s decree plastered across “Not A Thing Else (Pas D’autre Chose),” this is a confessional, au courant body of work with stories ripped from the headlines of the artist’s life. “Fool Over You” is all youthful melancholy and wintry shades echoed perfectly by a shuffling Vince Guaraldi jazz arrangement, as if Roubion is soundtracking a climactic couples skate for Charlie Brown and the Little Red-Haired Girl.

Throughout, A Fine Place to Start reveals Roubion’s love for Carole King, Carly Simon and Bonnie Raitt, those lauded female singer-songwriters of the 1970s who would bear more than torches for their legions of fans. With all these influences and life stories behind her, it’s funny that Roubion will be writing a song about herself only to realize that her recent experience sounds clichéd. But then, she says writing songs is a fine line between cliché and unique experiences.

“You can’t skirt around clichés,” Roubion says. “They are clichés because they happen so often, and sometimes they can be necessary for a song to connect with an audience, to connect with people you may never meet, which is one of the things I love about music.”

Roubion talks the way she writes, like someone who wants to be doing this for a long, long time; someone who has contemplated the intent and impact of her music as much as the sound of it, even if fans and friends occasionally get the wrong message. People will sing misheard lyrics back to her while professing their love for a song. “Maybe it’s my fault and I need to enunciate,” Roubion says laughing. “But I can’t bring myself to tell them, ‘No, that’s not what I was singing.’ It really doesn’t bother me at all, because clearly they like it.”

Though she’s yet to find her exact place in the industry, it is clear Roubion has found her voice. After a brief stint in Los Angeles working with other artists, she’s intent on recording more of her own work without being overly influenced by the legion of indie musicians following too closely behind superstars Regina Spektor and Rachel Yamagata—artists Roubion admires.

“Some of these musicians right now sound a lot alike,” she says. “I want to be wary of that. I do have to have a trend-oriented aspect to my music, but at the same time I don’t want to fade in and fade out. I always think back to Bonnie Raitt. I want to be like her. Classic.”

Roubion will graduate from LSU with a public relations degree in December, but the only press releases she’s likely to be writing would be those announcing her own music. She plans to move to Nashville, live with her sister and write and record fulltime.

“There’s a friendly spirit there,” Roubion says. “I think that’s something anyone who is passionate about their music should do—move somewhere where music is in demand.” rebeccaroubion.com