MySpace (2011)

Jim James Change Begins Within interview, 2009

On March 30th 2011 MySpace publish an interview with Jim James, done by Dan Hyman. Original article can be found here.

Keywords: Band members, Holdin' On To Black Metal, Circuital sound/themes, Circuital concept

In the three years since releasing 2008’s Evil Urges, the members of Kentucky’s My Morning Jacket explored their respective impulses: frontman Jim James put out a solo EP of George Harrison covers under the moniker Yim Yames before forming Monsters of Folk, an indie-folk supergroup with Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes and M. Ward, guitarist Carl Broemel released his second solo album, All Birds Say, drummer Patrick Hallahan periodically played drums for the Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach’s solo band, and keyboardist Bo Koster manned the boards as producer for rootsy-rock trio Middle Brother’s self-titled debut LP. While apart for these various projects, according to James, this musical exploration helped give My Morning Jacket — which also includes bassist Tommy “Two Tone” Blankenship — perspective when they finally regrouped to record their new album, Circuital. “We know we love each other,” James says of his 13-year-old band. “We all encourage each other to play as much music as possible and have as much fun out there learning, (but) it always feel great to come back to what we have.”

Whereas Evil Urges was recorded in a proper NYC studio, for Circuital — the band’s sixth full-length, set to be released on May 31st — the five-piece opted for far more casual digs: tracks were cut in a church gymnasium in the band’s hometown of Louisville, while others were birthed from intense jam sessions in James’ own basement. “We had never made a record in Louisville,” the shaggy-haired frontman explains of trekking back to familiar grounds. “The gym and church became home to the record and the spirits there. It just felt nice to be home.”

Several cuts, including the more-than-seven-minute title track, were the product of these casual basement sessions, which James says have become a regular occurrence. “We work on things a lot this way,” James says of this uninhibited, loose creative process. “There will be an idea and then we will play with it, knock it around and explore (it).”

This same brand of sporadic creativity came to James one afternoon during the recording of Circuital. The 32-year-old was driving around listening to a song from a Thai pop compilation that had inspired a yet-to-be-titled track on the album. James’ head was suddenly overtaken by the voices of screaming women: they were yelling ‘Black Metal’. Just like that, James decided to add backing female vocals to the song, which came to be known as ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’. It seems, for James, this process of musical excavation, is forever ongoing. “You are always hunting and searching,” he says. “You could listen to a new song every minute of every day of your life and still never hear it all.”

Despite Evil Urges being the best-selling MMJ record-to-date, James wanted to flip the script, eager to create a new listening experience. For James, one way to articulate his band’s musical metamorphosis is via culinary comparison. “Evil Urges,” James says, “is very bubbly or triangular — like Sprite or soda or beer. Circuital feels more smooth like milk or water.

“(It) deals with returning to the same place that you started as everyone has to do,” James concludes of Circuital, seeming to hint at the way in which the album, in many ways, mirrors the band’s zig-zagging path towards it. “Hopefully you do learn more and come back to that same place as a new being with fresh thought.”