Photo Courtesy of Ed Seifert // Ed Seifert and Stimulus Package
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Sponsored by the borough’s recreation department, the popular Glen Ridge Singer/Songwriters Series takes the stage on Friday, Sept. 30, at 8 p.m., at the Glen Ridge train station on Ridgewood Avenue. Two acts fill the bill: Ed Seifert with Stimulus Package, and Loretta Hagen. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. There is a suggested donation.
Recently speaking to The Glen Ridge Paper, Hagen, a guitarist, said she grew up in Rutherford, where she attended St. Mary High School. She started guitar lessons at the age of 9 at a Kearny music school with an outsized name: the National Conservatory of Music.
“It was a small school run by a few brothers,” she said. “When I was 12, they brought in a vocal teacher, and I was very excited about that. The teacher was Jim Smith, from the Metropolitan Opera.”
Hagen had a cousin who would teach her playing techniques that she was not learning at the conservatory, and, at age 14, Hagen wrote her first song, “People, Look Up to Your Brother.”
“It was about peace,” she said.
Although she knew him for years as her big brother’s friend, she got together with her future bandmate and husband, Gary, in high school.
Hagen has had many day jobs while performing. She is currently a dog walker and pet sitter.
“I love animals,” she said. “I had my own grooming business. Then I got more involved with music. I was also a school bus driver for a while. If I got more busy with music, I’d leave the day job.”
As might be imagined, Hagan has written songs attesting to her love of animals. Regardless, her creative process is time consuming, and she usually hears a lyric in a melody.
“It can take me months to finish a song,” she said. “I might completely change everything or let it sit for a year. I think I’ve written a few in a week, but that’s not typical for me.”
Her influences include Lori McKenna, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Karla Bonoff, who has written for Linda Ronstadt.
“I don’t write every day,” Hagen said. “When the muse hits, that’s when I write. I have to be honest. To be a disciplined artist, you have to write every day.”
She generally does not collaborate for songwriting. She spent time in Nashville, where, she said, collaborations are common. But she did not do it.
“I need space and to be alone,” she said. “To sit across from another writer is not for me. I go blank.”
Seifert told this newspaper that he has lived in New Milford his whole life. He graduated from New Milford High School, Class of 1977, and attended Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. He retired four years ago, after 29 years with Verizon. He began playing guitar at age 15.
“I had a paper route,” he said, “and bought a right-handed guitar. It took me eight weeks to pay off the $80. But I always played left-handed and had the strings changed.”
He did not play in a high school band but still plays occasionally with a high school friend. They had performed in West Milford, at Music at the Mission, which closed its doors in 2016. Hagen also played this venue, and her husband, Gary, regularly performs with Stimulus Package.
“I met Loretta at the Mission,” Seifert said. “But when I started playing there, I wasn’t doing gigs. She helped me get gigs. She was doing what I aspired to.”
Seifert said his influences begin with the Beatles and include the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.
“I’m not a big fan of Dylan’s,” he said. “But with him, it’s like being a fan of oxygen.”
Other influences include Elvis Costello and Neil Young. But Seifert admits that, if he was asked the same question the next day, he would have different answers.
The first song he wrote was “You’re in Love With Me.” He said it was just as profound as it sounds. But it was another song, “Broken Lullaby,” that was made into a music video and received some attention.
Seifert said he likes to perform sad songs.
“I always felt, even other people’s songs, the sad ones are the most gut wrenching,” he said. “You’d think I had a terrible life.”
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