On January 27th 2004 Chicago Tribune published an interview with Jim James, edited by Cara DiPasquale and Victoria Rodriguez. The original interview can be found here.
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Bands from the South are suddenly attracting notice, but don't lump My Morning Jacket into any kind of Southern-rock resurgence.
The only thing the Louisville, Ky., band has in common with acts such as Kings of Leon or the Drive-By Truckers is that all three come from south of the Mason-Dixon line, says Jim James, the frontman for My Morning Jacket.
"I'm glad bands from this part of the country are getting attention, but I think it's silly to call it a Southern rock revival," James says. "I just have a hard time with the term 'Southern rock.' I'm proud of where we're from and stuff like that, but I think when you say that word, it limits people's minds and what they think a band can be."
My Morning Jacket has resisted limitations. The group's loose-limbed amalgams of rock, country and blues earned the quartet copious critical praise last year for its third album, "It Still Moves." James' voice is drenched in reverb, lending an emotional sheen to songs that calls to mind classic material by the Band.
The record was the band's first for Dave Matthews' ATO Records, and James says releasing "It Still Moves" was one of the highlights of 2003.
"It's always a nerve-wracking thing when you sign to a new label and you're making a new record and stuff like that, wondering if there's going to be any resistance to it or if they're going to like it or going to want to change it," he says. "Getting it to come out exactly how I wanted it to come out was probably the biggest thrill of the year."
James can't quite explain why, but he has a feeling that 2004 will be even better.
"This year's going to be a really good, weird year. It's the 10-year anniversary of 1994, which I consider to be a vintage, classic year in my brain," he says.
What was so great about 1994?
"I don't know, there was something about 1994 for me that was just an amazing year," says James, who turns 25 this year. "I mean, I've had other good years, but something about the way '94 felt, it just felt right. Something in the air was just awesome then."
Something in the air?
"Maybe it was just one of those first years when you really start to branch out as a person beyond what you've been as a kid and what you've been through adolescence and changing and trying to figure out yourself," he says.
James isn't sure how his hunch will manifest itself, but then, he doesn't figure he'll see it coming.
"I just want to learn more, and I want to keep changing. I feel it's going to be a big year of change, and a lot of weird things are going to happen, and it's going to be really weird and really confusing but really good," he says. "I just want to be able to roll with the changes and be a happy person and try to not get bogged down. I just want to keep making good music."
