Billboard (2011)

On August 2nd Billboard published an interview with Patrick Hallahan, done by Gary Graff. The original interview can be found here.

Keywords:

Playing each of its first five albums in their entirety last October at New York's Terminal 5 has led Louisville rockers My Morning Jacket to "dig deeper" for the shows it will be doing in support of its new album, "Circuital."

"After playing all five albums in five nights... in New York, we kinda became re-acquainted with our catalog," drummer Patrick Hallahan tells Billboard.com. "So now we're really trying to just change up set lists, at least five or six songs every night that are completely different, and trying to dig deeper into the catalog and bring back some oldies and stuff."


Hallahan admits with a laugh that the quintet has "a tendency to put some songs in the doghouse, so to speak. We have a constant flow of things that come in and out of our good graces. This time we're trying to pull some stuff out of doghouses and put them back in. We'll see what happens."



Hallahan explains that My Morning Jacket -- which begins its tour Tuesday (Aug. 2) in St. Louis -- tends to seek a "template" set list "where we're real happy with the flow" and then making adjustments on subsequent nights. He says the group does look up old set lists for the last time it played in a particular city to avoid duplicating rarities and one-offs. Then, on a rotating basis, each band member gets to choose two rarities for a particular show and the rest of the band votes on one to play.


"A lot of it is about whatever we're feeling," Hallahan adds. "If it's a Friday night we might step it up a little bit. If it's a crowd we've known historically as a little more dancey or... enthusiastic, we throw in a few more upbeat tunes. It depends on the evening. We don't really know what we're going to do until we get there and feel the energy of the space."


My Morning Jacket is still buzzing about the No. 5 Top 200 debut of "Circuital," the group's best-ever chart showing. "It took off more than we could have ever imagined, that's for sure," Hallahan says. "Honestly, we try not to think about it too terribly much. Some people rise faster than others and fall faster than others, and for whatever reason our path is one of a slow incline so far, which has been a beautiful thing. To find out we were No. 5 on the Billboard charts, that's nothing to scoff at. That was a damn fine phone call to get."


With "Circuital" out, My Morning Jacket is making a few future plans. The Terminal 5 catalog shows, Hallahan says, were recorded and will likely be released as a vinyl box set and possibly as digital downloads. "We're looking to release 'em at some point. We just have a lot of listening to do, five nights of two and a half hour sets," he says. The group is also hoping to find a way to release the version of the "Circuital" track "Outta My System" that it recorded for a proposed re-launch of the Muppets' Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem band, which was scuttled after the executive who proposed the idea was fired. "At some point we'll release the Muppet version of it," Hallahan promises. "It's hilarious. We had the best time doing it."


For now, however, My Morning Jacket is focused on touring -- through Aug. 23 in the U.S. plus an Austin City Limits Music Festival performance on Sept. 17, then Europe in November and more in 2012. "We'd love to do some South American dates this time. We've never played south of Mexico City, so that would be great," adds Hallahan, who's taking nearly two months off to welcome a baby he and his wife are expecting in late September.


"We're going to try to pace this album cycle out. We had a tentative two or two and a half year schedule where we do three months at a time in various places -- wherever people want us, basically. We'll just kind of see how the path keeps taking us."

Billboard interview (2008)

My Morning Jacket at Glastonbury, England, 2008

On May 31st 2008 Billboard published an interview with My Morning Jacket, by Jonathan Cohen and Ray Waddel. Part of the original interview can be found here.

Keywords: The live music, Career and commercial success

(Billboard interview, May 2008)

It's 4 a.m. on the last night of South by Southwest, and Jim James is belting out Rod Stewart's "You're in My Heart." A few hours earlier, the My Morning Jacket frontman dazzled an intimate crowd at an Austin church with a mostly solo acoustic set, and the full band's three other performances during the week were some of the most acclaimed of the industry confab. But of all the places James could be right now, it's a cozy terrace suite at Austin's famed Driskill Hotel, surrounded by a few close friends, a bucket of Miller Lites and an iPod, singing and analyzing songs into the wee hours. As he says the following week, "Music is everything."


That guiding principle has helped MMJ grow from humble roots in Louisville into the American rock band many feel is most likely to take it to the proverbial next level in the weeks and months to come. Like so many bands that have managed to achieve staying power in a fickle environment, MMJ has developed its touring base and recording career on separate, parallel paths.

Still, "Both are important to us," James says. "We treat them both as equals."

It is true that the best-laid marketing plans are no substitute for enthusiastic word-of-mouth, and the buzz around MMJ is at a fever pitch, both internally and among fans. The reason? Beyond MMJ's ever-building reputation for epic live performances, there's tremendous excitement surrounding the band's fifth album, "Evil Urges," due June 10 via ATO.

"We've always felt that whatever commercial success was realized would be a residual to appreciation for the music," band manager Mike Martinovich says. "It's never been the band's vision to chase opportunities; they'd run themselves ragged and fear losing touch with their original motivations. We'll leave the marketing plan to our friends at ATO and [PR firm] Girlie Action."

Even with live performances that send fans into orbit and critically acclaimed albums, MMJ has not yet achieved neither widespread arena-headlining status nor platinum success. But the band's camp and its many supporters in the music industry at large seem to cherish MMJ's dark horse status, believing that a band that takes a while to develop is building the solid foundation for a decades-long career.

And if MMJ seems to hang its hat on the concert stage, it never shortchanges studio time. "If you ask any artist today if they would rather sell millions of records or millions of tickets, they would choose to sell millions of tickets, and it seems My Morning Jacket is well on their way to that goal," says Scott Clayton, the band's agent at Creative Artists Agency. "Having said that, my feeling is that once the world hears 'Evil Urges,' it will be clear that this band is achieving great things artistically both in the studio and on the stage."

LIVE IS THE THING

As the group built its live performance legend, MMJ has shown time and again that it is more than comfortable on a wide range of concert stages, whether it's marathon performances at festivals like Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza, headlining theaters and ballrooms, or sharing bills with a diverse range of acts that includes Guided by Voices, Doves, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan and John Prine.

"I wouldn't say there was a 'strategy' so much as the band is musically nimble and interested in playing with a variety of artists from different genres and generations," Martinovich says. "If there was any one overriding 'strategy' in the early going, it was to follow up a tour where the band opened for someone with a headline run to establish something of their own and not just hope that they were connecting with another audience."

Such a philosophy creates options and challenges for the band's agent. "Since January of 2002, Scott Clayton turned on a dime to work with the band and has had, until this day, an 'as long as it takes, no matter what' perspective that has only helped keep things on the right track," Martinovich says.

MMJ isn't adding any extra bells and whistles to its 2008 tour, which began May 22 in London and will run through New Year's Eve. But it's clear that demand is higher than ever. A June 20 show at New York's Radio City Music Hall sold out in 22 minutes, and observers are expecting big numbers for an Aug. 21 gig at Red Rocks outside Denver, with support from the Black Keys.

"The greatest thing about live music is that it's something you can't replicate," James says. "It's something very communal, and I think society is lacking that. People are so alienated and trapped in their little cubicles with their computers and texting devices. When you go to a big concert and you're in a room with a bunch of other humans, I think that's really healthy."

URGE TO RECORD

After self-producing its first three studio releases, including its 2003 ATO/RCA debut, "It Still Moves," the band turned to outside producers for "Z" in 2005 and "Evil Urges," with John Leckie and Joe Chiccarelli, respectively, helming the boards. "It Still Moves" has sold 197,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while "Z" has shifted 212,000.

The result has been a true evolution of the band's sound. More adventurous than anything that has come before, the new songs explore falsetto singing ("Evil Urges"), soft rock with a modern twist ("Thank You Too"), disco beats (first single "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2") and gritty, Prince-tinged funk ("Highly Suspicious"), without skimping on the two-guitar jams ("Aluminum Park," "Remnants") and mellow balladry ("Librarian") of MMJ's past work.

"Joe and John are both two very different people and they work in very different ways, but they're both great policemen," James says. "We go into the studio with the songs done; they're thought-out and ready to go. Always some things end up happening to them while you're recording them that you didn't think would happen to them, but Joe and John, their ears are just fantastic."

These outside producers have brought discipline and constructive criticism to the recording process. "They'll scold us when we've done bad and they'll applaud us when we've done good," James says. "And that's what we really need. You can get all excited and think you've done a great take, but it could be way too fast. Or you could think it was really emotional but it was just kind of slow. It's good to have somebody outside of the band to hear that stuff."

Billboard (2003)

On September 6th 2003 Billboard published an interview with Jim James. The original interview can be found here.

Keywords: Louisville, Reverb, It Still Moves

There's a good reason why the sweeping compositions on My Morning Jacket's ATO/RCA debut, "It Still Moves," conjure images of wide-open spaces and rolling green hills. Indeed, the quintet spent its formative years in Louisville and has utilized a farmhouse in even more remote Shelbyville, Ky., as its studio and all-around clubhouse.

"Where you're from determines how fast you move, how you respond to things and how you want to get things done," MMJ frontman Jim James admits. "Being from Louisville has made us a lot calmer and a lot more patient, but also, we have to work a lot harder, because not many opportunities in the music business happen here. You have to think outside the norm, but it also has to mean a lot more to you. You have to make it your whole life's mission."

James isn't kidding, attested by the group's single-minded determination to carve out its own niche in the rock universe. At first, Louisville audiences tied to the city's legendary avant-garde rock scene weren't overwhelmingly receptive. So, James says My Morning Jacket "looked for any place to play possible: parties, people's lofts, any club or pizzeria."

On the strength of two indie releases (1999's "The Tennessee Fire" and 2001's "At Dawn") and constant touring, the group built a dedicated following, eventually bringing it to the attention of larger labels. While the material on "It Still Moves" was taking shape, the group opted to ink with ATO, co-founded by Dave Matthews and also home to David Gray, Gov't Mule and Ben Kweller.

James says the group has never even met Matthews and that the decision came down to nothing more than creative freedom. "We told everybody we needed complete control over ever single aspect: the sound, the art, the length of the albums," he reveals. "ATO didn't bat an eyelash or ask any questions."

Labels aside, "It Still Moves" is bound to thrust My Morning Jacket further into the consciousness of the listening public. Although touching on the rootsy honesty of Neil Young and the Band and the most organic elements of Radiohead or Mercury Rev, the album sidesteps trends to deliver 12 tracks of rock that is by turns emotional ("Just One Thing"), whimsical ("Malgeetah"), nostalgic ("Golden") and dizzyingly creative ("Run Thru").

It all starts with James' voice, which he drapes in any number of effects. "I'm a reverb maniac," he confesses. "I can't even sing at home in my closet without reverb." This fixation has caused the band more than its share of grumbling from venue sound engineers. "They tell us it's unprofessional and that it doesn't sound right," James says. "Luckily, we're now able to start bringing our own sound guy and have more control over it."

Playing the songs live over an extended period proved crucial to their evolution, according to James. "That's one of the coolest things about being able to play so much before we made the record," he says. "When you initially write a song, it's one way. After you've played it live for a year, it totally turns into a different beast. It gets stronger and more powerful."

Having already toured with Doves and Foo Fighters and made appearances at such festivals as Bonnaroo, Field Day and Japan's Summer Sonic, My Morning Jacket is in the midst of a North American trek that wraps Oct. 24 in San Francisco. European dates are set through the end of November.

"It was eye-opening to see bigger rock concerts and how they're put on, plus what is required of the opening band," James says. "But it's great to be out there on our own."