On September 16th 2011 Ultimate-Guitar published an interview with Carl Broemel, done by Steven Rosen. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
Three years have passed since My Morning Jacket released Evil Urges, the band’s R&B-hybrid themed album as supported by songs like “Remnants” and “I’m Amazed.” On Circuital, the group have moved back to the sort of incandescent rock anthems that initially brought them praise and on songs like “Outta My System,” “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” and “Holdin’ On To Black Metal” the five-piece adds layers of acoustics, fuzz solos, and even female choruses to their alterna-rock sound.
Circuital is guitarist Carl Broemel’s third album—he debuted on 2005’s Z and appeared again on Evil Urges—and on it he displays a palette of six-string textures ranging from Ebow-laced pedal steel to dramatic cascades of powered rhythms. Unlike those earlier albums, Circuital was recorded live in a converted gymnasium situated inside a church. They showed up, set up gear, and turned on the tape—not digital—machines. Recording in such a huge space was not an easy thing: instruments bled into one another and the natural cavernous echoes were sometimes difficult to tame. But producer Tucker Martine, a veteran of sessions with R.E.M. and the Decemberists, was able to bottle the live ambience to create the Kentucky group’s most rockin’ album to date. Vocalist Jim James glides over the instrumental tracks while Broemel licks at the heels of the vocals with intricate guitar licks, little rhythmic flourishes and just a great sense of joy an abandon.
Ultimate-Guitar: When you joined My Morning Jacket in 2004 for the Z album, the band had already recorded three records. Did you listen to what Johnny Quaid, the previous guitarist, had done on The Tennessee Fire and It Still Moves? Did that inform your playing?
Carl Broemel: Yeah, I think it did. Before I auditioned, I hadn’t really heard much of the band’s music. But once I joined the band and even when I was just kind of preparing to go meet them and play with them the first time, I was listening to the records with a guitar in my hand. Trying to figure out who was doing what because I didn’t know what parts Jim was doing and what parts Johnny was doing ‘cause I’d never seen them play. So I kinda learned all the parts. It’s just in preparation I didn’t know what I was gonna need to do. So we went on tour and I spent a lot of time with Bo [Koster, keyboards, also joining in 2004] with headphones and trying to like learn all the music because we just got thrown into it. So, yeah, I spent a lot of time playing along with those first three albums and learning and then listening to some live recordings too just to see how it had been done before.
When you went into the studio to do the Z album, were you trying at all to play like Johnny Quaid?
When we went in and did Z, there was really no pressure for me to play like anyone. But certainly at that point we had been touring and I had been playing music from the first three albums so I was in kind of in that groove. It was just a fun time; I love learning songs. It’s real easy if like guitar is your life and you play guitar all the time, it’s so easy to forget what was so fun about just sitting in a room when you’re 13 and playing along with records. Any reason that life pushes you to do better is a good thing because there’s so much to learn.
“Wordless Chorus” from the Z record has become one of the band’s mainstays. Where did that muted riff come from?
On that particular song, the demo that Jim did, he played the keyboard part and he played the guitar part. On the chorus, I did come up with like a little weird wind chimey thing that’s an overdub but I can’t even remember how to play that. The other day I was like, “How did I do that?” But I just kind of worry about that main thing and that muted guitar part that was sort of Jim’s idea for the song.
What about a song like “Lay Low,” which has a fair amount of guitars on it?
That’s the big guitar song on Z and that solo at the end where it all kind of intertwines. Those two guitar solos were, I believe, Jim improvising into a four-track and then he and I sat down and kind of divided up what he had done and refined it a little bit and that became the end of that song.
John Leckie produced the Z album and he’d worked at Abbey Road Studios and done recordings with George Harrison, John Lennon, Pink Floyd and Radiohead. Was he helpful in pointing you in a direction?
Definitely, yeah. John was amazing as far as being a really good filter on arrangements. He felt like if something was lacking, he was really listening closely where he’d be like, “Your tremolo is a little too slow and you need to speed it up a little bit.” He was really integral and super helpful when he needed to be. He’s a great producer I would say because a great producer is someone who steps in when they need to and keep quiet when they don’t.
Because it sounds like Jim James has a very good idea of what he wants MMJ to sound like anyway.
The more we work together, the more we feel like we kinda have the idea of what it’s supposed to be like and we don’t really need it [producer input] all the time. But it’s crucial sometimes especially when we worked with Tucker Martine this time [producer on Circuital] and he was good at stepping in when he needed to be.
With the experience of working on Z, you now go onto the Evil Urges album. Did you feel more comfortable in the band by this point?
Umm, yes and no—it’s always sort of been an exploration. I think the benefit of Z is that me and Bo had a really solid, devil-may-care sorta attitude. We were like, “I don’t know what the fuck’s gonna happen and I don’t care. Let’s just do it.” We were a little more conscious of ourselves when we were doing Evil Urges and it was like [in exaggerated voice] “We’re gonna try, we’re gonna try really hard!” And so we tried to kinda de-evolutionize for this new record and be like, “You know what? We’re gonna just get in there and try and be in the moment and we’ll be able to tell if it’s good or not without trying so hard.” Not worrying about, “We really want it to be great.” It’s like it doesn’t really help.
Sometimes the harder you try, the more you miss it.
Exactly [laughs].
The title track from Evil Urges had one of those great MMJ grooves with all the guitars swimming in and out.
The song “Evil Urges” was one that Jim didn’t really make a demo for. We did a little retreat in Colorado Springs for the week—we rented a space and stayed in a house together and played everyday. And that was a song that we started on the first day and finished like three weeks later. We worked on it everyday and kind of massaged it and changed things and as it grew we put it together. A lot of other songs on the record were the total opposite where Jim had a really flushed-out demo and we all worked on it and tried to get it figured out like who was gonna do what and how that was all gonna come together. And then as we were kinda like in the last week of that session, he played us a demo of “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2,” which was just him and an Omnichord [early 1980s electronic instrument with basic sounds] and we were all like, “Whoa! Why has he been holdin’ onto that one?”
What has it been like working with Jim James?
It’s been fun workin’ with Jim. I mean I really feel like he’s influenced me deeply in guitar playing. Kind of as a lightning rod more than anything—just trying to find something with it and not be worried about if you’re playing technically right.
There really is no set way that you work out guitar parts with Jim James? The guitars really act in a more ensemble fashion than you out there blazing solo guitar stuff.
Yeah. On Circuital, a lot of time I was playing electric guitar and Jim was playing acoustic or just singing. So the solo on “Circuital” was me but it was more because Jim was playing acoustic and it wasn’t like, “I want to play all the solos on the record.”
What about the electric guitars on “Slow Slow Tune”?
“Slow Slow Tune” as well, I play electric on that song. I was kind of approaching that area that I ended up in and Jim was like, “One note!” I’m like, “OK” and he was like, “One note, man, just one note.” I kind of ran with that and came with it and it’s real fun and collaborative. If things are working nobody says anything but if someone has an idea, we all kind of bat it around and try to find it together.
You have no ego about wanting to come in with your own guitar parts?
I’m totally happy playing Johnny Quaid’s parts from the other records and I’m totally happy to play anything that Jim comes up with on his own that becomes a signature part of the song that he thinks is important.
The recording process for Circuital was live in a converted gym inside a church?
For Z and Evil Urges we did three or so weeks of the five of us workin’ on stuff. For this record we skipped all of that completely and we just went right in the studio with Tucker Martine and our friend, Kevin Ratterman who’s an engineer and producer in Louisville. So it was the seven of us and we just started working kind of from the demos and rough ideas and recording everything as we were sorting through the parts.
It’s not an easy thing to create keeper performances in the studio when you haven’t rehearsed the material beforehand.
It was definitely a challenge. The way the session was typically set up was kind of like a medicine ball where there was no computer there—even if we wanted to cut tape, we had to drive over to Kevin’s studio to cut tape so we just kept recording and recording and searching for parts. It was really kind of awesome because some of the early takes were the best ones where we might have lost it in our quest for perfection of the song arrangement and all that stuff. And we really, really pushed ourselves to try and get Jim singing with the band and trying to get takes where we were all playing well and he liked his performance too.
Have you ever tried for those live elements on the earlier records?
We always have tried to do that a lot with Z and some of the songs are that way on Evil Urges. But we got a lot more that way this time, which is a lot more satisfying because when you’re done recording and you walk in the control room it’s all done. There’s no like, “Oh, well, we’re gonna fix that next week and blah blah blah.” It’s either there or it’s not. So, it is harder to do it that way but it’s also kinda awesome ‘cause when you get it, you know it’s done.
You talked about cutting tape—you recorded analog. Can you hear the difference between your guitar sounds on the earlier albums that were recorded digitally versus your analog guitar tones on Circuital?
I would like to think I can in a blind taste test but it would be really hard—like the Pepsi challenge or something. But the thing for me on these guitar sounds that I can definitely tell is there has been a lot of leakage into all the other microphones. Like the drum overheads have guitars in ‘em and even the vocal mike. So from the purely engineering standpoint, it’s not well recorded according to this day and age where you’d be in a studio and be isolated and you’d be perfecting the guitar sound that specifically fits into this sonic space or whatever. This record is everything kind of spilling into everything else and I can hear that; I know I can hear that. I used things like a reverb tank and a tape delay and stuff like that but there’s more ambience to it than that. It’s like a drum overhead that’s compressed for drum overheads is picking up the guitar as well and vice versa. So that’s the thing that we caught and it’s that kind of spillover tone that is really fun to hear. Because they sound good but they don’t sound good in a professional studio sort of way.
When you listen to all the great records from back in the day, they all had drum mics picking up guitar sounds and there was bleeding all over the place. The Beatles records were notorious for that and they are some of the most amazing sounding recordings ever made.
Have you played those four-tracks from Sgt. Pepper’s you can get on the Internet? You see what they put on each track and it’s pretty awesome. You have to dump the tracks into Garage Band or whatever and you can solo out the track that has the French horn and the fuzzed-out electric guitar. It’s like a super-rough punch-in and all of a sudden it goes from French horn to guitar and then back and it’s like totally awesome.
Tape has an undeniable quality that’s hard to achieve—though not impossible—with digital.
Our ear likes to hear the high end sort of rolled off in an organic way and that’s obviously what tape does and the low end as well; it works with our ears a little bit better. So the big thing for me with tape is not so much the tones as much as it forces you not to look at the [computer] screen so you’re not staring at the screen and trying to get something right and watching it happen. It’s just like the medicine ball where you have to keep going back to the well. That’s the thing, you can do that with a computer if you have the ultimate self-control but it’s so hard ‘cause you’re in there for two weeks with a computer and it will eventually whittle away at your self-control over what is performance-based and what you can edit and create. That’s the dichotomy for me with the ProTools and the tape and trying to bridge the gap and meet each for whatever they were good for. And know yourself well enough to know if you have the computer there, are you gonna use it?
“Circuital” was a great example of how the band blends acoustics and electrics. The Beatles were masters are putting together acoustic and electric guitars and so were the Who and Zeppelin. Did you ever listen to those bands for any kind of input?
I love that record Who’s Next and I think that’s the most relevant in your analogy. It rocks but it has acoustic guitar in it and it’s fuckin’ awesome. But we didn’t sit around when we were working on “Circuital” and be like, “Oh, let’s make this like Who’s Next.” Nobody would ever say that but obviously we’ve all heard that record. We love guitars in all their shapes and sizes and features for sure.
On “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” there are a bunch of fingerpicked acoustics and you’re playing pedal steel as well?
Yep. On pedal steel I used an Ebow for part of it and also Bo has created some string sounds on that song as well. We had our friend, Ben Sollee, who’s a songwriter come play [strings] and a friend of Tucker’s named Jeremy Kittel played violin on the whole record as well. So it’s just all kid of mixed together with the steel, synths and live strings.
“Holdin’ On To Black Metal” has been getting a lot of notice in blending the horns, R&B-styled female backup vocals and fuzz guitar.
Jim made a demo of that song with a sample from a Thai pop compilation [Siamese Soul Thai Pop Spectacular Vol. 2 by Kwan Jai & Kwan Jit Sriprajan] so he kind of grabbed the riff. I don’t know if you were aware of that whole connection? Yeah, so he had that demo together and we actually working on that song when night Tucker and Kevin went to go make a master reel of the best takes of certain songs. So they had gone and we were still set up from a totally different song and we just kind of quickly plugged Jim’s guitar into a DI [direct input box] and skipped the amp. I had in my mind, “Ah, I think a 12-string would be cool for that riff” so I’m playing 12-string and we did a couple takes just for fun at the end of the night. Then we left and met up at Kevin’s studio the next day to kind of listen to the master reel of the other songs that we had done.
Did you play that version of “Holdin’ On To Black Metal” for Tucker Martine?
We brought the song and played it for Tucker and literally the first words out of his mouth were, “How are we gonna beat that?” We’re like, “We’re goin’ to—we’re gonna spend two more days workin’ on it!” And we did but we couldn’t beat it so that’s kinda funny. That take was just perfectly loose and kind of carefree and we couldn’t replicate it again though we were trying. We’d heard that take I was like, “OK, that’s my part and now I’m gonna go play that” but we couldn’t get it. Then Kevin and Jim got some girl singers and then we had some horn players from Nashville including my friend Oscar Herstrom who’s a trombone player; Chris Gregg and Leif Shires and came in and laid down the horns. But the best take was us, the five of us and me and Jim going, “OK, is this the next song we wanna work on?” and we got it.
You’ve talked about loving everything there is about guitar. What are some of the instruments and amps you used on Circuital?
I’ve been using Carr amps; they’re out of North Carolina and they’re made by Steve Carr. I have a couple of his amplifiers and I like ‘em a lot. I have his Rambler, which is a pretty Fender-y sounding amp but has its own thing, too. So I used that a lot for the main guitar and I used a [Fulltone] Tube Tape Echo, which is basically an Echoplex but it’s made now and it sounds really great and it’s really reliable and awesome. My friend Aaron who is a reallsmall amp and pedal builder, he built me a reverb tank. So I used the reverb and that Tube Tape Echo on everything basically. While we were recording, I found an old Princeton Reverb, the black-faced one, and it’s my new favorite amp for recording; I used that a lot.
Guitars?
My main guitar until recently was a mid-‘80s black Les Paul Standard that I’ve had for a really long time and I’ve played it forever and know it really well. I recently got a couple Duesenberg guitars, the German maker, and there was a Starmaker Special that I used a lot on the record. I might have used that on every song; I don’t remember. Then they also made a 12-string, which is really nice, that I used on “Holdin’ On To Black Metal.”
You also do a lot of the backup vocal harmonies on the songs.
I do a lot of it live. Jim did most of the singing on this record. On Evil Urges, Bo and I did some of the background vocals at the studio. For this record, Jim spent a couple weeks at home with the tracks so he just ended up doing his parts. Bo and I usually sing and we’ll try and do as many backups as we can cover once we get the songs on the road.
You released your second solo album, All Birds Say, in 2010, before you started recording Circuital. Were you ready to jump into the MMJ album after dong your record?
Oh, yeah. The thing with All Birds Say is I actually put that together really, really slowly over four years prior. Me and my friends Teddy Morgan and Richard Medek would get together and record one or two songs and not see each other for six months. So I was just sort of slowly assembling that album here and there. Recording that record was just super casual and we got to it when we got to it and it was done when it was done. So it wasn’t like I came off some real intense recording session right into recording with the band or anything like that.
Do you like doing solo albums as opposed to band records? Does it feed a different part of your guitar psyche?
I don’t know; I don’t really think of it too much in that perspective. It was more just like, “Yeah, let’s totally work on songs” and it’s what I do when I’m by myself. When we all get together, it’s something that I love more than even doing my own record. I just feel I’m better at being in the band.
Ron Sexsmith is someone you’ve listened to.
It’s like anything and getting a record that just resonates and you’re like, “Wow.” That record, Other Songs, when I heard that and that was a long time ago. It came out in ’98 [1997] but I just remember hearing that and liked the space that he was in and the way that sounds and the Mitchell Froom production on that. It kinda like all worked for me. There is other music and bands that I like that kind of put me in the same headspace like Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers album and a band like Yo La Tango who has a wild side and a mellow side. Even like Tom Waits has a super crazy side and also a real beautiful and sensitive side. Galaxy 500. That’s just the kind of music I listen for traveling or I’m on a plane or in a car. I just like to be in that spot. Maybe the first J.J. Cale record, Troubadour…or not Troubadour but Naturally. I just kinda like those records.
So those kinds of elements are on the All Birds Say album?
When I first met Teddy Morgan and played him “Carried Away” and a couple other songs he was like, “Man, we can take the vibe from the J.J. Cale record where it’s really quiet and intimate and we make the drums sound like drum machines. We can fool around with it.” So those are the records for me that are my ear candy in my iPod. That’s how All Birds Say sounds the way it does.
You’re touring with Neko Case and performing the Circuital album. Do you have any sense of how the new songs are being received?
It feels really good. Compared to the time between album release and feeling the crowd react to a record, this has been the fastest over the past records to my guesstimation. When we were playing songs from Z, I remember people sitting there and trying to figure it out and the same with Evil Urges. For this record, it seems like as soon as we got to the first festival that we played, people immediately knew the songs. I don’t know if it’s because they’re stealing it or it’s spreading but I don’t really know or care. We just thought it was really fun and we were kind of so excited it was feelin’ so good so fast.
STEVE CARR
Steve Carr, owner/founder of Carr Guitars, talks a bit about Carl Broemel.
“I met Carl thru MMJ front-of-house soundman, Ryan Pickett. Ryan used to be in a Chapel Hill band called Queen Sarah Saturday while I was in the Chapel Hill band, The Emperors of Ice Cream. This was in 1991 or so. Neither of us became stars though that is what the intent was! Anyway that is a bit of interest. I am glad he remembered me to introduce Carl to Carr Amps. Carl has three of our amps: a Slant 6V head and 2x12 cab; a Viceroy combo and a Rambler head. I think he is mainly using the Rambler and the Slant 6V together now. He was looking for a very dimensional thick clean sound, which is pretty much the definition of the Rambler! I have not met Carl that many times—about three—and he is a very cordial and humble guy. I like him and I like the band.”
Showing posts with label Carl Broemel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carl Broemel. Show all posts
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2011)
On August 9th 2011 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an interview with Carl Broemel, done by Scott Mervis. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
A lot of bands spend a career staying pretty close to the original template. Thirteen years into its run, My Morning Jacket comes in a number of attractive styles and sizes.
When the Louisville band first turned up in 1999 with "Tennessee Fire," sporting an alt-country sound akin to The Band and Neil Young, it was hard to predict the space-rock, reggae and funk that would emerge a half-decade later on "Z" and "Evil Urges."
That happened to be around the time guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster signed on with My Morning Jacket, fronted by the powerful, golden-voiced singer Jim James.
My Morning Jacket
"When I joined the band, I don't think I really understood the potential fully, but the more we all got to know each other, I think I started to realize what was going on," Mr. Broemel says. "Jim's ideas ... when I get them sometimes, I'm like, 'What is THAT? What is he DOING?' trying to figure it out myself. He definitely spearheads the explorations, and we're all just trying to help him, help each other figure it out. Making records with these guys is really cool because there isn't anything that isn't at least worth trying."
The latest addition to the MMJ catalog is "Circuital," another musically expansive outing, also marking the band's highest chart position at No. 5. The process was very different than 2008's "Evil Urges," because rather than going into a proper studio, the band created its own in a Louisville gymnasium with a new producer, Tucker Martine.
"And we sort of skipped a step," the guitarist says. "For 'Z' and 'Evil Urges,' we did a little retreat before going to the studio where we would work on all the ideas, so we had a good road map of where we were gonna go. This time we showed up at the gym and started working on songs and also recording right away. We managed to get versions of songs before we played them that much."
In fact, he says, the version of the title track was the first time the members ever played the song, because they couldn't play it better a second time. As for the recording space, gymnasiums aren't generally known for good acoustics.
"No," he says, "but sometimes it's fun to have a massive space. We did a lot of taming of the room. We put some carpet down and we actually got a camping tent and a bunch of sleeping bags and threw them all over the drum kit, so we contained the microphones that were really close to the drums and still managed to get the far-away reverbed-out sounds. We got things to sound hi-fidelity in a sort of lo-fidelity way. The sound of the gym is the sound of the record."
Two tracks at the center of the album -- the gentle-folk ballad "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)" and the heavy psych-rocker "Outta My System" -- were songs that Mr. James originally wrote to be played by the fictional Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem in an upcoming Muppets film. The original recordings, however, went unused when the executive who signed them on was fired.
"We should probably release our version from that [first] session, because it's really hilarious," Mr. Broemel says. "It's very Muppet-y. All the background vocals are affected and we were trying to pretend we were a Muppet choir. Jim said, 'Let's try it for our record,' and we completely started over with the arrangements and the approach, and the lyrics didn't have be sung by Dr. Teeth to go over and make sense. I think we all related to that song."
One of the songs getting the biggest response is the orchestral-sounding "Holdin' on to Black Metal," dealing with how a musical genre can become a lifestyle.
"We saw Slayer play not too long ago, and it's like they're amazing, there's something undeniable about Slayer. For me, black metal was not a huge part of my musical upbringing. I was more into even lamer stuff that was metal, but I think it applies to almost everything where, at some point, you have to give up listening to the Smiths all the time. So for me it could be any band or any era that you have to give up listening to, where your personality is so connected to it, it's almost holding you back from being an adult or whatever."
Having produced yet another acclaimed album, My Morning Jacket now hits the stage where the band makes its biggest impression with jammy marathon sets filled with unexpected twists and turns.
"It's exhausting," he says with a laugh, "but it's sort of like watching a baseball game versus playing a baseball game. If I watch a baseball game, I'm like 'Jesus, it's taking forever.' But if I'm playing shortstop, the game goes by so fast. I'm amazed people are able to hang with it. I'm just thankful."
Keywords:
A lot of bands spend a career staying pretty close to the original template. Thirteen years into its run, My Morning Jacket comes in a number of attractive styles and sizes.
When the Louisville band first turned up in 1999 with "Tennessee Fire," sporting an alt-country sound akin to The Band and Neil Young, it was hard to predict the space-rock, reggae and funk that would emerge a half-decade later on "Z" and "Evil Urges."
That happened to be around the time guitarist Carl Broemel and keyboardist Bo Koster signed on with My Morning Jacket, fronted by the powerful, golden-voiced singer Jim James.
My Morning Jacket
"When I joined the band, I don't think I really understood the potential fully, but the more we all got to know each other, I think I started to realize what was going on," Mr. Broemel says. "Jim's ideas ... when I get them sometimes, I'm like, 'What is THAT? What is he DOING?' trying to figure it out myself. He definitely spearheads the explorations, and we're all just trying to help him, help each other figure it out. Making records with these guys is really cool because there isn't anything that isn't at least worth trying."
The latest addition to the MMJ catalog is "Circuital," another musically expansive outing, also marking the band's highest chart position at No. 5. The process was very different than 2008's "Evil Urges," because rather than going into a proper studio, the band created its own in a Louisville gymnasium with a new producer, Tucker Martine.
"And we sort of skipped a step," the guitarist says. "For 'Z' and 'Evil Urges,' we did a little retreat before going to the studio where we would work on all the ideas, so we had a good road map of where we were gonna go. This time we showed up at the gym and started working on songs and also recording right away. We managed to get versions of songs before we played them that much."
In fact, he says, the version of the title track was the first time the members ever played the song, because they couldn't play it better a second time. As for the recording space, gymnasiums aren't generally known for good acoustics.
"No," he says, "but sometimes it's fun to have a massive space. We did a lot of taming of the room. We put some carpet down and we actually got a camping tent and a bunch of sleeping bags and threw them all over the drum kit, so we contained the microphones that were really close to the drums and still managed to get the far-away reverbed-out sounds. We got things to sound hi-fidelity in a sort of lo-fidelity way. The sound of the gym is the sound of the record."
Two tracks at the center of the album -- the gentle-folk ballad "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)" and the heavy psych-rocker "Outta My System" -- were songs that Mr. James originally wrote to be played by the fictional Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem in an upcoming Muppets film. The original recordings, however, went unused when the executive who signed them on was fired.
"We should probably release our version from that [first] session, because it's really hilarious," Mr. Broemel says. "It's very Muppet-y. All the background vocals are affected and we were trying to pretend we were a Muppet choir. Jim said, 'Let's try it for our record,' and we completely started over with the arrangements and the approach, and the lyrics didn't have be sung by Dr. Teeth to go over and make sense. I think we all related to that song."
One of the songs getting the biggest response is the orchestral-sounding "Holdin' on to Black Metal," dealing with how a musical genre can become a lifestyle.
"We saw Slayer play not too long ago, and it's like they're amazing, there's something undeniable about Slayer. For me, black metal was not a huge part of my musical upbringing. I was more into even lamer stuff that was metal, but I think it applies to almost everything where, at some point, you have to give up listening to the Smiths all the time. So for me it could be any band or any era that you have to give up listening to, where your personality is so connected to it, it's almost holding you back from being an adult or whatever."
Having produced yet another acclaimed album, My Morning Jacket now hits the stage where the band makes its biggest impression with jammy marathon sets filled with unexpected twists and turns.
"It's exhausting," he says with a laugh, "but it's sort of like watching a baseball game versus playing a baseball game. If I watch a baseball game, I'm like 'Jesus, it's taking forever.' But if I'm playing shortstop, the game goes by so fast. I'm amazed people are able to hang with it. I'm just thankful."
KDHX (2011)
Carl Broemel in St. Augustine 2010, photo by Courtney
On August 2nd 2011 KDHX published an interview with Carl Broemel, done by Matt Champion. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
Scheduled to appear at the Pageant tonight in St. Louis, My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel took a few minutes today to chat with me about music, books, charity and even "American Dad."
Matt Champion: Where did your interest in music begin?
Carl Broemel: Oh, wow. It was kind of always around me. My father is a retired classical musician. You know, the first musician I ever heard, I think, was him practicing the bassoon. It was just something that you did, like playing baseball or whatever. Play catch and play the piano or the violin. It all goes hand in hand. So, yeah, I got exposed to music through him and my older brother. I have a brother four and a half years older than me and as he started getting into rock 'n' roll it kind of trickled down into my world, so I can thank him for that. Yeah, I've always kind of dabbled in music and different instruments along the way and ended up mainly playing the guitar. I went to school, studied some music and was playing in bands along the way.
Was there any one musician, group or song in particular that really made you pick up the guitar and run with it?
Um, I don't know. I think it was just the idea, as soon as I got swept up in the magic and mystery of rock 'n' roll and bands and stuff like that. I was interested in the guitar from just listening to the radio, just listening to whatever was on. The one cool thing about the guitar that really clicked for me was that I could pretty quickly learn something that I thought was super magical, like, you know, something stupid like a Bryan Adams song or something. It was like "I could play that RIGHT NOW!" It was instantly fun versus learning some song in a piano lesson that you hadn't heard before. It was that connection from "I thought that was impossible, I don't think I could ever do that" to literally ten minutes later "I'm doin' it!" That's what was exciting about it. It was instantly fun and I could get enjoyment out of it right away and then put some time in later. It's very encouraging to feel that when you're in awe of music in general and the history of rock 'n' roll bands and all of a sudden you're holding it in your hands.
Do you have any non-musical influences such as authors, artists, or directors that you find influence your music?
Yeah, but I think that stuff kind of influences your life in general. I definitely read some. I've been trying to read more and more. I took a few years off from reading. It's been hard to find time with family and stuff going on, but recently I've been reading these Carlos Castaneda books, like the "Don Juan" trilogy if you're familiar with that. They're amazing books. The stories are really cool, aside from the sort of '60s mentality and the drug references. The stuff that's amazing about those books is the stuff that has nothing to do with taking drugs to expand your reality; it's about just being aware. Anything about that I'm kind of into right now, trying to just appreciate what you're doing when you're doing it versus dwelling on the past or worrying about what's going to happen next or taking yourself too seriously. I think that's one of the most destructive things you can do to yourself, taking yourself too seriously. So, yeah, recently those Castaneda books have been mind blowing. Maybe before I go on stage I'm thinking about that, it influences my music too.
Do you find that your songs take on a different personality live versus when they were recorded in the studio?
Yeah. I kind of look at studio recording as creating little embryos, trying to make a perfect little thing that has potential to change while still being based on the DNA of that moment, you know? When we put out a record like this most recent one, we recorded this one pretty quickly. We kind of went in the moment from song idea to finished recording within a day or two for each song. Those songs were very fresh in my mind and were made early on before we played them a ton. Usually we'll do a really long rehearsal session where we work on all the details of each song.
This time we skipped that and went straight in, so when I listen to it these songs sound like first takes or early, early takes of the songs. Now that we're on tour and have ingested what we've done in the studio and manipulated it so we can make it happen live, they will inevitably change. When you're playing with more intent and knowledge of what you're trying to play versus being more exploratory in the studio it's a completely different change in gears. Then once you know exactly what you want to do, you start exploring again a little bit, naturally.
Having an audience changes the way we play too. It's just a different experience. It's like all of a sudden you're having an out of body experience and there's all this consciousness pointing its energy at you at the same time that you're playing. It just changes the feel of what you're playing. I'll never forget when Bo [Koster] and I joined the band. Before the first tour, we're all just standing around in Louisville rehearsing and I didn't really know the guys all that well. We're all standing there, our hair in ponytails, just relaxing, going through the songs trying to figure out parts and teaching each other things. Then we got to the first show and everybody went berserk. You know, like these three dudes that I just met who were chilling before just turned into monsters. I was like "Shit, what have I got myself into?" you know? That was a big moment for me and Bo. We looked at each other like "Holy shit!" We knew that these guys were crazy but we had no idea when we were rehearsing that the shows were gonna be like this. It was a big emotional release that would quickly guide us into going crazy ourselves.
That leads into my next question. You draw from such a diverse array of musical styles and blend it all together so well. Does that come from everyone having a huge love of all music in general or do you each bring something new for everyone to grab onto and run with?
You know, we all live in such close quarters for part of the year and the other part we're off doing our own personal lives that when we tour it's fun to share music while we spend that time together. Tom [Blankenship] has gained this really deep knowledge of jazz music, which Bo already had since he went to school for jazz studies. We've all been really geeking out on that, stuff that we've overlooked over the years. Lately the guys have been educating me in hip-hop because I really have no idea. It's really cool how we all kind of fill in the gaps for each other as far as musical genres go. I've realized more and more as I get a little older and keep touring and playing music that the things I was writing off, I was writing off for no reason. At first I was like "I don't get that" but now I'm like "Hey, there's something to that! What was my problem?" I'm very open to listening to a lot of stuff. There's a lot of great bands happening right now. We're in a good era again, you know? Musicians feel empowered to be creative again in the present moment, and I think that's a good thing.
How would you compare the sound of Circuital to the sound of your previous albums?
To me, this record sounds less "hi-fi" than the last record, mainly because we were in a non-traditional recording space. We recorded this one in a church gymnasium and the last two records were done in recording studios. For me personally, that's a huge, huge difference sonically. It's just massively different. Where the other records have a little more perfection to the tones, this one is a little more raw and unforgiving. When I listen to the record, all I see is the church gymnasium. (Laughs) It just sounds like we're standing in that place. It definitely colored the sound and performance.
I live in Nashville but the rest of the guys live in Louisville and we recorded in Louisville so we were at home and things were in more of a relaxed pace when working on the record. With the last record we were in Manhattan in a pretty small studio, being caught up in the hectic nature of the city it got pretty frantic and exhausting. This time we had a totally different mindset when we rolled in there. We had as much time as we needed, we could stop and shoot baskets if we felt like it when taking a break. It sounds like the church and it sounds kind of relaxed to me.
Speaking of the previous albums, what was it like playing them all in order, back to back, at Terminal 5 in New York last October?
That was an adventure, for sure. We kind of booked that ahead. We were like, "In the future, we'll do all the records and that'll be fun." We started a session for "Circuital" and did ten days, got four or five songs done. Then we took a break, tore everything down and did a little bit of touring including the T5 and stuff. It was really fun to go back to all of those records. There's always been songs since I joined right before "Z," songs from the older records that never got played so that was an opportunity to force ourselves to do the work to try to get all the songs in a place where we could play them. It was fun. Sometimes we'd walk off saying "Man, why don't we ever play that one? That's pretty cool" or "Yeah, I know why we never played that one. That one's kind of weird."
It was fun for us, it was like cramming for a test, having all that music in the front part of your brain where you could access it (laughs). It was also cool to know that the audience knew what was going to happen. They knew that they were going to hear a record every night and after that there would be random stuff like B-sides and covers. It was freeing to know that they knew we were playing the whole record so we didn't have to make a setlist. We'd just play the record and just do something stupid at the end, something fun and crazy. We were exhausted by the time that was over. I'd have to wake up each morning and review the stuff that I wasn't 100% on and then go play. I'd get off stage, my friends would want to go out and party and I'd be like, "Look, I have to get back to the hotel room." We may do something like that again, I don't know. It was a lot of work though. It was nice to then roll back into the studio with those observations and all that history of the music and get back to work.
Out of all of those shows, was there a cover or B-side that the crowd really reacted to?
Yeah, there's this old song called "Little Billy" that never gets played that I think is kind of a cult classic that finally got played. We had Johnny Quaid, the original guitar player, play with us on a bunch of songs. That was a special thing for me personally. As far as covers we did some ridiculous stuff. On the third or fourth night we did "Come Closer" which was a B-side into "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones into a 27-minute version of "Cobra" [from the "Chocolate and Ice" EP]. That was something that we'd never done before. That one was pretty epically long (laughs).
As I was looking up your tour dates, I noticed that you donate to local charities in the cities where you play. Do you feel that giving to the communities that you play is an important factor in the tours and the band as a whole?
Yeah, absolutely. We've always wondered exactly how to get it together. You're rolling into a city, burning fossil fuels, taking people's money and then rolling out. After a while you feel like there needs to be a little bit more depth to it. It's great that we hooked up with this amazing non-profit called Air Traffic Control. Jim [James] did an artist's retreat in New Orleans after the hurricane and hooked up with all these great people who worked there. Air Traffic Control helps us pick non-profits in every city. They'll send us a list of choices in each city with notes like "We've worked with this one, these are great people and this is what they're doing" and we all go through them and pick one in every city to donate a dollar for every ticket to. It's been a no-brainer thing where we can add some depth to it and on the occasion that we get to talk to people after it they're so grateful and it's just so fun. It's like, "Why wouldn't we do that now since we can?" We could probably do a lot more, but this is a good start for us. They make it really easy for us to do, so it's a cool thing to do.
I have one last question for you. I mentioned online that I was interviewing you and asked what questions [people] had for you. The one that came up most often was this one: What was it like appearing on "American Dad" and what did you think of seeing yourself animated?
(Laughs.) That was really fun. We got to go into the vocal booth, do voiceovers and "act," which I'm horrible at. I did manage to get one line into the show, which was pretty funny. Mike Barker, the guy who co-created and writes that show, he's become a good friend of ours since working with him on the show. It was just kind of a thrill. I feel that my favorite thing that happened because of that is that not only did a lot of people who didn't know who we were see it, some people thought, "Hey, is this band made up or is it real?" You could tell that people were like, "Is that like Spinal Tap? Is that real?" I got a kick out of that when I watched it at home because it's not like we're a household name or anything. So Mike Barker went out on a limb for us to put us on his show.
The Pitch (2011)
On July 26th 2011 The Pitch published an interview with Carl Broemel, done by David Hudnall. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
My Morning Jacket returns to the Uptown, touring on its latest, Circuital. It's a fine enough record, drawing on the rock, funk, soul and country sounds that MMJ has explored on previous releases, but it doesn't — nothing could — capture the rapturous experience of its high-energy live sets. We checked in with guitarist Carl Broemel last week from his home in Nashville.
The Pitch: How's the summer going? Lots of festivals?
Broemel: We're taking a 10-day break right now, but it's been fantastic so far. We did Bonnaroo, some other festivals, a theater tour in the U.S. and Canada, shows in London.
What kind of upgrades do you get when you're as big of a touring act as you guys have become? Better food? Fancier hotels?
Yeah, like 3 inches of leg room on the flight? (Laughs.) Yeah, there's some extra little creature comforts these days. We're all adult men, so it's nice to have our own hotel room now and then, instead of having to bunk up like we used to. Our main goal on tour is to maintain a good energy level and not get burned out. So, you know, having clean clothing in our hotel room is a good way to do that.
Have you met anybody cool lately out on tour?
Erykah Badu sang with us at our record-release show in Louisville. We met her in Dallas a few years back when she came to one of our gigs. She's a kindred spirit — she really saves her energy for her performances. Plus, she's also really into funk music. And I like her spirituality. She's just a pretty awesome lady.
From your lyrics and other interviews I've read, spirituality seems like a more central theme in the band's work lately. Is that accurate?
Well, I think that a lot of artists become more aware of having a spiritual journey of some kind because they have the experience where their music or paintings or whatever come from a place that they can't quite explain. So you become open to the possibility of other energy sources that you maybe can't be fully aware of.
How are the crowds responding to the Circuital songs live?
Out of the last three records I've been a part of with the band, this one seems to be resonating quicker with the crowds. It's really satisfying to have people obviously into our fresher material, as opposed to the old classics. But we're also playing some of the older songs better or more powerfully now because we're more familiar with them. We can play them with more force.
Rolling Stone named you a Top 20 Guitar God or something a few years back. What kind of ax are you slinging these days?
I usually play Gibsons. I have a couple Les Pauls. My new favorite is a Duesenberg, which is a German guitar. It's the only thing I ever want to play other than a Gibson.
Do you remember anything from your last visit to Kansas City?
I remember we walked around and did some vintage-clothes shopping and some record shopping. I bought this big ridiculous gray jumpsuit. Like what Mr. Furley would wear in Three's Company
Keywords:
My Morning Jacket returns to the Uptown, touring on its latest, Circuital. It's a fine enough record, drawing on the rock, funk, soul and country sounds that MMJ has explored on previous releases, but it doesn't — nothing could — capture the rapturous experience of its high-energy live sets. We checked in with guitarist Carl Broemel last week from his home in Nashville.
The Pitch: How's the summer going? Lots of festivals?
Broemel: We're taking a 10-day break right now, but it's been fantastic so far. We did Bonnaroo, some other festivals, a theater tour in the U.S. and Canada, shows in London.
What kind of upgrades do you get when you're as big of a touring act as you guys have become? Better food? Fancier hotels?
Yeah, like 3 inches of leg room on the flight? (Laughs.) Yeah, there's some extra little creature comforts these days. We're all adult men, so it's nice to have our own hotel room now and then, instead of having to bunk up like we used to. Our main goal on tour is to maintain a good energy level and not get burned out. So, you know, having clean clothing in our hotel room is a good way to do that.
Have you met anybody cool lately out on tour?
Erykah Badu sang with us at our record-release show in Louisville. We met her in Dallas a few years back when she came to one of our gigs. She's a kindred spirit — she really saves her energy for her performances. Plus, she's also really into funk music. And I like her spirituality. She's just a pretty awesome lady.
From your lyrics and other interviews I've read, spirituality seems like a more central theme in the band's work lately. Is that accurate?
Well, I think that a lot of artists become more aware of having a spiritual journey of some kind because they have the experience where their music or paintings or whatever come from a place that they can't quite explain. So you become open to the possibility of other energy sources that you maybe can't be fully aware of.
How are the crowds responding to the Circuital songs live?
Out of the last three records I've been a part of with the band, this one seems to be resonating quicker with the crowds. It's really satisfying to have people obviously into our fresher material, as opposed to the old classics. But we're also playing some of the older songs better or more powerfully now because we're more familiar with them. We can play them with more force.
Rolling Stone named you a Top 20 Guitar God or something a few years back. What kind of ax are you slinging these days?
I usually play Gibsons. I have a couple Les Pauls. My new favorite is a Duesenberg, which is a German guitar. It's the only thing I ever want to play other than a Gibson.
Do you remember anything from your last visit to Kansas City?
I remember we walked around and did some vintage-clothes shopping and some record shopping. I bought this big ridiculous gray jumpsuit. Like what Mr. Furley would wear in Three's Company
Carl Broemel
Carl Broemel, Boing Boing video 2011
"I thought I'd be really neat to bring Carl along because he has such, y'know, beautiful wave of sound with the steel and his beautiful vocals, he's blushing over there, he's a beautiful man, he's a beauty."- Jim James
(Morning Becomes Eclectic, October 2006)
Carl Broemel typically plays lead guitar, steel pedal and occasionally saxophone My Morning Jacket songs. He also does vocals.
Nickname: Snowy Bramble (EU), Kyle Bramble (Z)
Instruments: guitar, pedal steel guitar, saxophone
Social media: CarlBroemel (twitter), CarlBroemel (Facebook), CarlBroemel (MySpace)
Just one more thing:
In a 2011 Santa Barbara Independent interview Broemel talks a little about his upbringing, explaining how he was raised in a musical house and that music was always part of his world.
"My dad, he’s now retired, but he’s a professional musician, so I was kind of raised in a musical house. He was a bassoon player, so I was exposed to classical music first off. I played the violin and piano since I was a little guy. Then I was exposed to classic rock radio — I had an older brother who was into rock ‘n’ roll — and I eventually migrated to the guitar in junior high school. Music was just always around, it was part of my world, so I didn’t really try to become a musician until going from high school to college. People started asking me, ‘what are you going to do?’ and I figured, well, I guess I’ll get a music degree."- Carl Broemel
(The Santa Barbara Independent interview, June 2011)Influences
Coming soonish
Solo work
All Birds Say
"I've always been a song writer of sorts in bands when I was growing up in Indiana, so I've always had songs that come into my brain and I'll record a demo."- Carl Broemel
(The Republican interview, August 2010)
On August 31st Carl Broemel released his first solo album, All Birds Say. In an interview with The Republican Broemel said that his move to the musically rich Nashville was central in his journey towards releasing his solo album.
"I started doing demos in Nashville in the beginning of 2005 and I've been assembling a batch of songs for four years here and there. After six or seven of them, I started giving them to people like Jim (James), our manager, all my friends."- Carl Broemel
(The Republican interview, August 2010)
Other musical projects
Other appearances
November 22, 2009 - Carl Broemel and the rest of My Morning Jacket played themselves in an episode of American Dad entitled My Morning Straitjacket.
Mentioned
CNN (2011)
On July 18th 2011 CNN published a video interview with My Morning Jacket.
Keywords: Band name, Circuital, Songwriting
Patrick Hallahan: We're My Morning Jacket
Jim James: We're My Morning Jacket and we have absolutely nothing to say.
Interviewer: Where did your band name come from?
[laughs]
JJ: It was Boot's Bar, fall of '83, there's a place in Lexington called Boot's Bar. It didn't burn down, but the inside of it burned. The outside was still there and we went in one night and they were carrying everything out. Down in the bottom of the bar, was like the strippers' area I guess. It used to be a strip club and there was like a pole and the stage was there and the whole bar was burned and everything was decimated, but the stage lights were still on and in the dressing room next to the strippers' stage was a closet and in that closet was a jacket with the initials MMJ stenciled on the jacket.
JJ: When we recorded Circuital, we wanted to record it live and all in the same room. We really wanted to to focus on us being a band in a circle and just playing and try to just disappear into that. Try not to overthink anything too much and just let... Just kind of let the songs grow naturally from seeds that we kind of just all started working with.
Carl Broemel: Out of the blue we'll get like a magical CD in the mail and it will have something scribbled on it, like the word 'please' or something on it, so I know it's from Jim. And he'll just send us a bunch of ideas. Once we all get together we have a general idea of what we're gonna do. But it's always interesting, you never know, like there's definitely been a few songs that now in my mind is classic us songs, that the first time I heard them I was like 'what is that? Is that Jim? What is that?'.
JJ: We always try to respect the fact that we are not in control fully. The spirits are in control, the land is in control, the ghosts are in control. They decide if it rains or shines, they decide if it's a good show or if your equipment's all gonna break or if you're gonna sing great or if you're not. At the end of the day it's not, we can only come into it with the best of intentions and hope that the spirits know that we respect them y'know? And that we want it all to work out.
Carl Broemel DJ on WFPK
On the 28th of October Carl Broemel visited WFPK to play some of his favorite songs and artists.
More and source here.
GRAMMYs @ Lollapalooza 2011 with My Morning Jacket
GRAMMYs @ Lollapalooza 2011 with My Morning Jacket, August 2011
On August 18th 2011 TheGRAMMYs published a video interview with My Morning Jacket at Lollapalooza, video above, rough transcript below.
Video runtime: 6:15 minutes
Show recorded at: Lollapalooza
Keywords:
Patrick Hallahan: I'm Patrick Hallahan
Carl Broemel: Carl Broemel
Jim James: I'm Jim James
Tom Blankenship: I'm Tom Blankenship
Bo Koster: Bo Koster
PH: It's just a huge honor to headline a festival, we're fans of the festival
JJ: Yup
PH: And y'know we're joining some pretty good company of people who've headlined in the past so, that's fantastic
JJ: Yeah, it's insane
PH: And we soundcheck a lot earlier, we soundchecked at 9:30 this morning
JJ: Lollapalooza was the first festival I ever went to as a kid, as a youth, sophomore in high school '94 Lollapalooza '94 in Cincinnati, so yeah I mean going to Lollapalooza in '94 and now getting to headline it is pretty... surreal.
JJ: I wouldn't say it's any different we try to look at every show the same really, I mean obviously there's some technical things you have to address that are different from stage to stage, but we, I don't know, we're all about trying to find that special place where time and space stop and you're not anywhere anymore. You're not at a festival or a club, you're just gone. So that's our goal always, to try to transcend wherever we are and hope that the audience comes with us, y'know and hope that it's transcendent for everybody. So we always just try to look at it all the same.
BK: Most days we get up at 6 am and run about like fifteen miles
PH: [laughs]
BK: And leading up like a couple weeks before a big festival, we pump it up to like 20, 21, 22 depending on how many beers we've had the night before, so...
PH: I think what makes Lollapalooza stand out from the rest is that this is one of the only ones that's actually like an urban setting, so having a city as a backdrop to the music festival is a whole different feeling from being secluded on a piece of land. It just has a great aesthetic to it. When the buildings are all lit up at night it just makes for such a cool atmosphere for a music festival.
JJ: I think for a lot of us too, Lollapalooza has some bigger sense of nostalgia
PH: Absolutely
JJ: Y'know I really love, all the festivals have their own special thing, but for Lollapalooza y'know for a lot of us that was the first festival we ever even heard of. You heard of Woodstock or whatever, but it wasn't relevant, I mean, to you as a festivalgoer. But for our generation, I feel like Lollapalooza, especially when it traveled was such a pivotal moment for everybody. I remember being in high school being like 'Oh my God, there's this thing called Lollapalooza where I can go see all my favorite bands at once, y'know such a mind blowing thing. Now I think it's, I don't want to say cooler, but I think it's cooler almost now that it's rooted in Chicago, 'cause Chicago is such an amazing place, so great to have a reason to come here, all the time. Not that there's not a million reasons to come here, but it's just great to have it anchored here.
PH: I would personally tell my 1998 self not to take no for an answer and to... not care about what other people think I guess. I would definitely try to instill some more confidence in that head of his.
JJ. In 1998 I was really worried about the Y2K distaster
PH: [laughs]
JJ: So I would really look back and tell myself that Y2K is, just don't worry about it. Y'know, it's going to be okay, even...
CB: The Mayan Calendar
JJ: Yeah it's more about 2012
PH: You brought up the Mayan Calendar now [laughs]
JJ: Don't worry about 2000, worry about 2012
[more laughs]
JJ: Because that's... Yup, you got plenty of time.
JJ: The world is very different now, I don't think that it has to change for us, as far as putting out our art form, because we still really care about the packaging and really care about releasing vinyl. So it's kind of like the world has grown, but it's almost become more of a buffet table y'know. Like every person can take what they want, 'cause I think we're all... I'm into everything. I really think there's a cool side to the digital music scene and getting things and I love physical things, I got a giant vinyl collection at home and as a traveling musician to be able to have so much music with me on a hard drive at all times is just, been unbelievable privilege. I think in today's day and age it's so important that people really respect the honor system. If you're doing well for yourself, please buy your digital downloads and please support the artist that you love, but if you're struggling and you can't afford health insurance, please steal our record. I love the idea of people who are struggling to get by to be able to get free music, to me is a really, I mean that's how it should be. I think that people have to look at it fairly, 'cause music is expensive, it costs a lot of money to make a record and put it out and if nobody pays for it, then music's going to suffer. I think if people are on the honor system and try to support the bands they love if they can, that's my personal view on it.
JJ: I think what Patrick said about, just don't take no for an answer and don't let anybody tell you that your ideas are crazy or that there's some reason you shouldn't do something. Voices pop in your head for a reason and I think it's a hard job to listen to the voices that pop into our head and try to respect what your head tells you to do in regards to your art.
PH: It's also, it's easy to be lazy when you get a good idea to just go on about your day. I think it's important to remember too, if you have like a really good idea or a moment of enlightenment, to write it down or record it or whatever, just so you can have it. So you can reflect back on it later, especially for songwriters, I think it's... y'know you walk around all day and sing songs to yourself, singing in the shower, if you have a good idea, try and capture it. Iphones are really good for that, but I just feel like a lot of the times... When I was younger I would have an idea and I would just go on and it would be gone forever, it could have been something amazing. I think it's important to capture those moments.
IndyStar (2011)
On August 4th IndyStar published an interview with Carl Broemel.
Keywords:
For MyMorningJacket guitarist Carl Broemel, Sunday's appearance at the Lawn at White River State Park will be a homecoming show.
While the band rose to fame in Louisville, Ky., and Broemel lives in Nashville, Tenn., the guitarist grew up in Indianapolis. Broemel's alma mater, Pike High School, inspired the band name Old Pike -- a quintet that signed to major-label Sony 550 in 1998, issued the little-heard album "10,000 Nights" in 1999 and disbanded in 2001.
Broemel joined My Morning Jacket in 2004, paving the way for an appearance on " SaturdayNightLive" and the cover of Spin magazine.
He's appeared on three of the band's six albums, including this year's "Circuital." Broemel made his solo debut, "All Birds Say," in 2010.
Question: Between the demise of Old Pike and joining My Morning Jacket, did you have doubts about how everything would turn out?
Answer: There were definitely moments when I was not sure what I was doing. I went out and was a guitar tech for a while. I played in (Indiana-based band) Transmatic and some other bands in L.A. when I was
on the short list of guitar players who would step in and do tours. But it was sort of hellish. Old Pike was, for all practical purposes, my brothers and my best friends . When we decided we were done, it was really heartbreaking. It was weird to then jump around and be in different situations. When I look back, there's really no other way I could have gotten to where I feel like I truly appreciate being in this band.
Q: Rolling Stone magazine named you and Jim James as "new guitar gods" in 2007, but "Circuital" isn't dominated by guitar. Before you make a record, is there a plan for the eventual sound?
A: We always try to make a majority of a record when we're all playing at the same time. This time, we tried to push it as far as we could. There are live vocal takes on most of the songs, so that dictates how it
comes across sonically. We're all playing something, so everybody has to take a job. The songs sound the way they sound because they weren't done once and then redone, with intent of choosing a specific
part. It was, "We got our take. That's what I played that time, so that's it."
Q: My Morning Jacket plays big shows, and you're on magazine covers, but it doesn't seem to be accompanied by invasive TMZ-style attention. Is that the best scenario?
A: I'm in a position now where a person might lose their mind if they meet me or a person might not know who I am. I recently went to a wedding and had a great time. But some people who didn't know me or
(My Morning Jacket) thought that I might possibly be somebody they should recognize. They treated me differently, and I didn't really like it that much. All and all, I do feel like this is the perfect situation. We're trying to focus on playing well and making cool records that we like
Keywords:
For MyMorningJacket guitarist Carl Broemel, Sunday's appearance at the Lawn at White River State Park will be a homecoming show.
While the band rose to fame in Louisville, Ky., and Broemel lives in Nashville, Tenn., the guitarist grew up in Indianapolis. Broemel's alma mater, Pike High School, inspired the band name Old Pike -- a quintet that signed to major-label Sony 550 in 1998, issued the little-heard album "10,000 Nights" in 1999 and disbanded in 2001.
Broemel joined My Morning Jacket in 2004, paving the way for an appearance on " SaturdayNightLive" and the cover of Spin magazine.
He's appeared on three of the band's six albums, including this year's "Circuital." Broemel made his solo debut, "All Birds Say," in 2010.
Question: Between the demise of Old Pike and joining My Morning Jacket, did you have doubts about how everything would turn out?
Answer: There were definitely moments when I was not sure what I was doing. I went out and was a guitar tech for a while. I played in (Indiana-based band) Transmatic and some other bands in L.A. when I was
on the short list of guitar players who would step in and do tours. But it was sort of hellish. Old Pike was, for all practical purposes, my brothers and my best friends . When we decided we were done, it was really heartbreaking. It was weird to then jump around and be in different situations. When I look back, there's really no other way I could have gotten to where I feel like I truly appreciate being in this band.
Q: Rolling Stone magazine named you and Jim James as "new guitar gods" in 2007, but "Circuital" isn't dominated by guitar. Before you make a record, is there a plan for the eventual sound?
A: We always try to make a majority of a record when we're all playing at the same time. This time, we tried to push it as far as we could. There are live vocal takes on most of the songs, so that dictates how it
comes across sonically. We're all playing something, so everybody has to take a job. The songs sound the way they sound because they weren't done once and then redone, with intent of choosing a specific
part. It was, "We got our take. That's what I played that time, so that's it."
Q: My Morning Jacket plays big shows, and you're on magazine covers, but it doesn't seem to be accompanied by invasive TMZ-style attention. Is that the best scenario?
A: I'm in a position now where a person might lose their mind if they meet me or a person might not know who I am. I recently went to a wedding and had a great time. But some people who didn't know me or
(My Morning Jacket) thought that I might possibly be somebody they should recognize. They treated me differently, and I didn't really like it that much. All and all, I do feel like this is the perfect situation. We're trying to focus on playing well and making cool records that we like
The Santa Barbara Independent (2011)
My Morning Jacket at Bonnaroo 2011, photo by Taylor Creery
On June 29th 2011 The Santa Barbara Independent published an interview with Carl Broemel, done by Aly Comingore. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords: Carl Broemel, Carl Broemel and Bo Koster join the band, Hiatus,
There’s a triumphant quality that runs throughout My Morning Jacket’s (MMJ) Circuital. And it’s no wonder why. Not since its 2005 success, Z, has the band crafted a record so spot on, so vibrant, and so quintessentially them. Since forming in 1998, MMJ has been hard to pin down, getting lumped in with everything from jam bands to classic rockers to folk artists before carving out a niche all its own. Today, the band (made up of frontman Jim James, bassist “Two-Tone” Tommy, drummer Patrick Hallahan, keyboardist Bo Koster, and guitarist Carl Broemel) is undeniably at the top of its game, headlining festivals and amphitheatres around the globe and, just recently, scoring a top-five charting record.
For its sixth full-length (released this May for ATO), the band chose to turn its back on the big studio setting. Instead, the group took to an abandoned church in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, and there, with James and producer Tucker Martine at the helm, the guys worked for two months: no technicians, no timelines, no sound booths. The result, Circuital, brims with the immediacy and energy fans have come to know from My Morning Jacket’s live sets. “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” finds James at his folkiest, high-register vocals and quietly plucked guitar firmly in place, while “First Light” climbs aggressively via fuzzy, washed-out keys and jangly tambourines. And midway through it all, “Holdin’ On to Black Metal” provides the necessary MMJ curveball: a bombastic, choir-backed, funk-tinged ode to that oft-misunderstood and hard-hitting musical subgenre.
This Saturday, July 2, My Morning Jacket makes a stop at the Santa Barbara Bowl in support of Circuital. I recently spoke with guitarist Carl Broemel about the album, the tour, and the joys of MMJ band camp.
I’m curious to know a little bit about your musical upbringing. My dad, he’s now retired, but he’s a professional musician, so I was kind of raised in a musical house. He was a bassoon player, so I was exposed to classical music first off. I played the violin and piano since I was a little guy. Then I was exposed to classic rock radio — I had an older brother who was into rock ‘n’ roll — and I eventually migrated to the guitar in junior high school. Music was just always around, it was part of my world, so I didn’t really try to become a musician until going from high school to college. People started asking me, ‘what are you going to do?’ and I figured, well, I guess I’ll get a music degree.
You joined My Morning Jacket in 2004 alongside keyboardist Bo Koster. How did you hook up with the band? I was living in Los Angeles — I moved from Indiana to Los Angeles a couple years after school was done — and I was playing in bands out here and touring around with whoever and doing a little bit of session work. I got integrated with people that were looking to fill spots in bands and they knew who I was, which was a good thing. So when John [Quaid] and Dan [Cash] decided to leave they came out here looking for new people and I caught wind of it through a mutual friend of ours. So I became familiar with the band and went in and played with them and did a little trial run just to meet everybody. I hadn’t really heard the band, but my good friend Cameron was always freaking out about My Morning Jacket, so he played me some music and I thought it was really interesting. But I had heard a song on KCRW maybe a month or two before the audition, and I didn’t know who the band was, and I was kind of frustrated with my present musical position at the time and I remember hearing that and being like, ‘man, I wish I could do something like that’ and kind of getting misty. So, when I was preparing to go in and learn the songs that song came up. I was already excited about the music, but when that happened I felt like the universe had heard me somehow. So I met everybody and they were all great people. I felt like I got pulled out of a bad situation into an unbelievable situation.
I imagine walking to an audition like that must have been kind of daunting. It was. Auditions and stuff like that are stressful. You want to be like ‘Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!’ but you don’t want to be annoying. I don’t think anybody in the band at that point had played with anybody they didn’t know, so it was an awkward situation for them and an awkward situation for us.
You guys tend to hit the road pretty hard. What was the collective headspace of the band after the tour for your last record, Evil Urges, ended? I think we were pretty tired and needed a little break. There wasn’t bad blood or anything; we were just all worn out. So we took a break, and everyone jumped off and did a little head clearing, worked on some other projects—Bo’s been producing, and Tom and Jim and Patrick and I all did some playing with other people, recording and stuff. The little breaks really give you a nice perspective to dig back in. You can just hammer and hammer and hammer, and it starts to get kind of numb if you’re not careful. I feel like we were all really fresh when we reconvened. We eased ourselves back into it. This was the first time we really took our time with it.
How would you compare the recording process for Circuital to the past few My Morning Jacket records? Well, we didn’t go to a proper recording studio. We kind of set up on location in this church. We made a studio ourselves and loaded all this gear into this big gymnasium. It was kind of like building a fort, trying to figure out how things were going to work and how to record music and utilize the assets and limitations of that space because it was not meant to be a recording studio. It was more of an exploratory journey, getting our hands dirty and moving things around and running cables everywhere and trying to troubleshoot problems. We didn’t have any technicians. There was nobody to just hand the mike off to. It was like a fun Boy Scout camping trip in a church.
We also skipped a step. For the last two records we did a separate full band demo session, prior to Z and prior to Evil Urges. This time we just went straight into the studio. Jim had songs and we tracked the demos very rough for the most part. He sent us all ideas, so we were all ready. We hammered out all the parts and the arranging in the studio this time, instead of doing it prior to getting in there. We also worked with a new producer — Jim and Tucker Martine produced the record together. Tucker was great. He was a subtle yet important force throughout the whole process and we all felt really close to him after making the record. He was very integral. We were all kind of in it together.
Do you feel like the setting made a big difference to the outcome? Yeah. It was nice to feel like we weren’t under the gun in New York at an expensive studio. I think that was refreshing for us. A lot of the guys were sleeping in their own beds and able to see their wives and girlfriends. It was comfortable; it was fun. It was hard work, of course, but we managed to create a situation that we all felt happy with.
In the middle of recording, you guys took a break to play the full-album shows at Terminal Five in New York. How did playing all the old records in their entirety fit into the making of Circuital? It was intense. We booked it and put in the future, like, ‘of yeah, we’ll play all the records,’ but when it came down to do it we were all like, ‘oh man, we should probably get together and figure this out.’ But the actual shows were so much fun. It was refreshing, especially for me and Butch, to be doing something totally new again. We were forced to go back through all those records. And we were allowed to. Sometime you feel like a show has to have a certain arch to it and variety, but for those shows it was nice to have no consequences. The crowd was prepared for that and it was really neat.
The My Morning Jacket live show has kind of become this other entity, and something that critics tend to compare your studio work to more often than a lot of other bands. How do you guys balance studio playing to playing shows? You really can’t agonize over one or the other. We played live in the studio — that’s us playing — and the majority of the sounds and the songs on this record are us standing in that gymnasium with each other. The live show is always going to be different. That’s something I enjoyed about the first two My Morning Jacket records that I wasn’t a part of. The live shows were a little amped up and the songs evolved over time into something slightly different, but still true to their origins. … But that’s what I loved about bands like Guided By Voices back in the day. Their records sounded like shit; but you’d get to the show, and it was like this hurdle you had to get over. But they’d just sound so massive, and all of a sudden, you’d get that satisfaction. I don’t know. Making records is such a different trip than being onstage, and it always will be.
EQ Magazine extra (2008)
In November 2008 EQ Magazine published some Evil Urges studio extras, original articles written by Shane Mehling can be found here and here.
Carl Broemel's signal paths, track by track
“Evil Urges”
“For ‘Evil Urges’ I borrowed Jim [James’] Ovation 12-string electric. It’s like the Preacher model, but with 12 strings. It’s a particularly loud, trebly and evil-sounding guitar. I liked the way the12-string sounded on the intro chords, so I used it through the whole song. This went through a Square Fish Electronics compressor, an Ibanez Tube Screamer, a SIB Mr. Echo (for the end section), a Z.Vex Super Hard-On pedal, into an Orange Rockerverb 50 2x12-inch combo amp and a ‘70s Peavey Vegas solid-state amp with a 15-inch speaker. Both of these amps were able to be loud and really clean, while not sounding too nice. Somehow this combination sounded both really good and really bad at the same time, which I liked.”
“Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 1”
“For ‘Touch Me Part 1’ I used a new Gibson 335, into the Square Fish Electronics compressor, into the Z.Vex Super Hard-On, out to a Carr Vincent 2x12-inch combo (now called the Viceroy), and also out, with a short delay, to a Vox AC-30. The 335 was the clearest sounding guitar through this set up, and the Viceroy has a really nice reverb tank. Its tone controls are really responsive, so it’s versatile in the studio. Using a short delay on the AC-30 created a little stereo effect. We did this a lot on this album.”
“Highly Suspicious”
“On ‘Highly Suspicious’ I used ‘Blacky’ – my trusted black ’88 Gibson Les Paul Standard – through three different amps: a Fender Pro Junior, a Top Hat Ambassador combo, and a Matchless DC-30. In front of the Fender and Top Hat amps I had a Fulltone 70 Fuzz pedal (specifically for the solo) and a Radial Tonebone Hot British Tube Distortion pedal was put in front of the Matchless. I remember Jim using a Z.Vex Wooly Mammoth on the solo as well – both fuzz pedals are great, but sound totally different. For the muted section I used a ‘70s Fender Telecaster into the SIB Mr. Echo direct to the desk. Later on, we did a little guitar overdub ‘thickening’ on the big chords using Jim’s Harmony Rocket guitar through an old Sovtek Head.”
“I’m Amazed”
“For ‘I’m Amazed I used ‘Blacky’ again, this time into a Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and a Z.Vex Super Hard-On, out to my Top Hat Ambassador and Matchless DC-30. It took me two takes and two tracks because the intro part and the main section of the song use a different tunings. Later I put on a few ‘swoopy’ sounds using the Slam function on the SIB Mr. Echo and a Savage Rohr amp.”
“Thank You Too”
“This was ‘Blacky’ into a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo into an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man (with a small delay) between two amps: the Carr Viceroy and the Top Hat Ambassador. On the intro I played with the repeats on the Fulltone to get it to feedback and get all ‘warbly.’ I don’t take the tape echo out on tour; in its place I’ve been using the Eventide Timefactor. It has a nice tape echo that I can control with my foot in real time.
“Sec Walkin’” and “Librarian”
“I played my Carter 12-string pedal steel through the Fulltone Tube Tape Echo into the Carr Viceroy and my Peavey Vegas. The Peavey is the classic steel guitar amp: solid state, loud, clean and honky. The Carr gives the steel some smoothness, and roundness.”
“Two Halves”
“I used ‘Blacky’ into a Boss RV-5 digital reverb, a modded Boss TR-2 tremolo, out to the Fender Pro Junior. Later, we did an overdub with the Ovation 12-string into an old tweed Fender Bassman. “
“Look at You”
“I played the Carter pedal steel again here, but this time through a Source Audio Hot Hand Wah. On the original demo for this song, Jim played the electric guitar parts with a wah pedal. Since all my feet are busy with the steel, I couldn’t use a standard wah, and didn’t want to use an auto wah. That’s why I got the Source Audio. Basically the Hot Hand uses a tiny device you wear on any finger, and the motions of your finger then controls the sweep of the wah or whatever sound you want.”
“Aluminum Park”
“This is ‘Blacky’ again, into the Ibanez Tube Screamer, a Durham Electronics Sex Drive, SIB Mr. Echo (for the solos) and out to the Fender Pro Junior, turned up all the way. Its crazy how smaller amps can sound huge in the studio. The Pro Junior has saved me so many times, and it is so simple too – just a few knobs. It either works perfectly for what you are doing, or not at all.”
“Remnants”
“I used my Gibson Les Paul Goldtop into a Z.Vex Box of Rock, out to the Matchless DC-30. I tend to use ‘Goldy’ when I want a little more clarity than I can get with ‘Blacky.’ The P-90 pickups are what do it. I went with the Matchless because it was the closest thing I had to a Marshall stack, and that was the idea as far as tone goes on this song.”
“Smokin’ From Shootin’”
“I played the Carter pedal steel again through a Fulltone Tape Echo and into the Viceroy and Vegas. Joe [Chicarelli-producer] sent the signal into an Ursa Major Space Station and the plate reverb at Avatar before hitting the tape.”
“Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 2”
“I used ‘Blacky’ here again into the SIB Mr. Echo and a Boss PN-2 tremolo/pan out to the Carr Viceroy and an AC-30. As an overdub I played the pedal steel into the Eventide Timefactor, out to the Viceroy.”
Tom Blankenships studio basses
2001 Fender Deluxe Precision Special: “This is what I call the ‘mexi-melt’ – it’s gnarly, naturally overdriven, and useful for the rockers. This is the sound of ‘Remnants’ and ‘Highly Suspicious.’
1979 Gibson Ripper: “It has nice, warm humbuckers and great sustain. You’ll find this on ‘Two Halves’, ‘Thank You Too’, and ‘I’m Amazed.’
1980 Rickenbacker 4001: “This has that classic ‘Ric-O-Sound.’ I used this bass on ‘Aluminum Park’ and Jim [James] used it for the fuzzed out lead-bass sound on ‘Two Halves.’
1976 Alembic Series I: This belongs to our drum tech. It was the only bass that could cut through such a busy song as ‘Evil Urges.’ It has a tone that doesn’t compete with Patrick [Hallahan’s] kick drum.
1970 Fender Precision Fretless: “Smooth as hell. This is all over ‘Librarian’ and ‘Smokin' from Shootin.'”
1978 Fender Jazz Bass: “I love the finger noise this guy picks up. This bass was also used on every previous record, so I had to sneak him in somehow. The perfect opportunity to do that was ‘Look at You.’”
2004 Epiphone Jack Casady Signature: “The flatwound beast! You can hear this on ‘Sec Walkin'’ and ‘Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Parts 1 and 2.”
Carl Broemel's signal paths, track by track
My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel explicitly details his gear choices for every song of the band's recent release Evil Urges.
“Evil Urges”
“For ‘Evil Urges’ I borrowed Jim [James’] Ovation 12-string electric. It’s like the Preacher model, but with 12 strings. It’s a particularly loud, trebly and evil-sounding guitar. I liked the way the12-string sounded on the intro chords, so I used it through the whole song. This went through a Square Fish Electronics compressor, an Ibanez Tube Screamer, a SIB Mr. Echo (for the end section), a Z.Vex Super Hard-On pedal, into an Orange Rockerverb 50 2x12-inch combo amp and a ‘70s Peavey Vegas solid-state amp with a 15-inch speaker. Both of these amps were able to be loud and really clean, while not sounding too nice. Somehow this combination sounded both really good and really bad at the same time, which I liked.”
“Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 1”
“For ‘Touch Me Part 1’ I used a new Gibson 335, into the Square Fish Electronics compressor, into the Z.Vex Super Hard-On, out to a Carr Vincent 2x12-inch combo (now called the Viceroy), and also out, with a short delay, to a Vox AC-30. The 335 was the clearest sounding guitar through this set up, and the Viceroy has a really nice reverb tank. Its tone controls are really responsive, so it’s versatile in the studio. Using a short delay on the AC-30 created a little stereo effect. We did this a lot on this album.”
“Highly Suspicious”
“On ‘Highly Suspicious’ I used ‘Blacky’ – my trusted black ’88 Gibson Les Paul Standard – through three different amps: a Fender Pro Junior, a Top Hat Ambassador combo, and a Matchless DC-30. In front of the Fender and Top Hat amps I had a Fulltone 70 Fuzz pedal (specifically for the solo) and a Radial Tonebone Hot British Tube Distortion pedal was put in front of the Matchless. I remember Jim using a Z.Vex Wooly Mammoth on the solo as well – both fuzz pedals are great, but sound totally different. For the muted section I used a ‘70s Fender Telecaster into the SIB Mr. Echo direct to the desk. Later on, we did a little guitar overdub ‘thickening’ on the big chords using Jim’s Harmony Rocket guitar through an old Sovtek Head.”
“I’m Amazed”
“For ‘I’m Amazed I used ‘Blacky’ again, this time into a Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and a Z.Vex Super Hard-On, out to my Top Hat Ambassador and Matchless DC-30. It took me two takes and two tracks because the intro part and the main section of the song use a different tunings. Later I put on a few ‘swoopy’ sounds using the Slam function on the SIB Mr. Echo and a Savage Rohr amp.”
“Thank You Too”
“This was ‘Blacky’ into a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo into an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man (with a small delay) between two amps: the Carr Viceroy and the Top Hat Ambassador. On the intro I played with the repeats on the Fulltone to get it to feedback and get all ‘warbly.’ I don’t take the tape echo out on tour; in its place I’ve been using the Eventide Timefactor. It has a nice tape echo that I can control with my foot in real time.
“Sec Walkin’” and “Librarian”
“I played my Carter 12-string pedal steel through the Fulltone Tube Tape Echo into the Carr Viceroy and my Peavey Vegas. The Peavey is the classic steel guitar amp: solid state, loud, clean and honky. The Carr gives the steel some smoothness, and roundness.”
“Two Halves”
“I used ‘Blacky’ into a Boss RV-5 digital reverb, a modded Boss TR-2 tremolo, out to the Fender Pro Junior. Later, we did an overdub with the Ovation 12-string into an old tweed Fender Bassman. “
“Look at You”
“I played the Carter pedal steel again here, but this time through a Source Audio Hot Hand Wah. On the original demo for this song, Jim played the electric guitar parts with a wah pedal. Since all my feet are busy with the steel, I couldn’t use a standard wah, and didn’t want to use an auto wah. That’s why I got the Source Audio. Basically the Hot Hand uses a tiny device you wear on any finger, and the motions of your finger then controls the sweep of the wah or whatever sound you want.”
“Aluminum Park”
“This is ‘Blacky’ again, into the Ibanez Tube Screamer, a Durham Electronics Sex Drive, SIB Mr. Echo (for the solos) and out to the Fender Pro Junior, turned up all the way. Its crazy how smaller amps can sound huge in the studio. The Pro Junior has saved me so many times, and it is so simple too – just a few knobs. It either works perfectly for what you are doing, or not at all.”
“Remnants”
“I used my Gibson Les Paul Goldtop into a Z.Vex Box of Rock, out to the Matchless DC-30. I tend to use ‘Goldy’ when I want a little more clarity than I can get with ‘Blacky.’ The P-90 pickups are what do it. I went with the Matchless because it was the closest thing I had to a Marshall stack, and that was the idea as far as tone goes on this song.”
“Smokin’ From Shootin’”
“I played the Carter pedal steel again through a Fulltone Tape Echo and into the Viceroy and Vegas. Joe [Chicarelli-producer] sent the signal into an Ursa Major Space Station and the plate reverb at Avatar before hitting the tape.”
“Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 2”
“I used ‘Blacky’ here again into the SIB Mr. Echo and a Boss PN-2 tremolo/pan out to the Carr Viceroy and an AC-30. As an overdub I played the pedal steel into the Eventide Timefactor, out to the Viceroy.”
Tom Blankenships studio basses
2001 Fender Deluxe Precision Special: “This is what I call the ‘mexi-melt’ – it’s gnarly, naturally overdriven, and useful for the rockers. This is the sound of ‘Remnants’ and ‘Highly Suspicious.’
1979 Gibson Ripper: “It has nice, warm humbuckers and great sustain. You’ll find this on ‘Two Halves’, ‘Thank You Too’, and ‘I’m Amazed.’
1980 Rickenbacker 4001: “This has that classic ‘Ric-O-Sound.’ I used this bass on ‘Aluminum Park’ and Jim [James] used it for the fuzzed out lead-bass sound on ‘Two Halves.’
1976 Alembic Series I: This belongs to our drum tech. It was the only bass that could cut through such a busy song as ‘Evil Urges.’ It has a tone that doesn’t compete with Patrick [Hallahan’s] kick drum.
1970 Fender Precision Fretless: “Smooth as hell. This is all over ‘Librarian’ and ‘Smokin' from Shootin.'”
1978 Fender Jazz Bass: “I love the finger noise this guy picks up. This bass was also used on every previous record, so I had to sneak him in somehow. The perfect opportunity to do that was ‘Look at You.’”
2004 Epiphone Jack Casady Signature: “The flatwound beast! You can hear this on ‘Sec Walkin'’ and ‘Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Parts 1 and 2.”
Under The Radar (2008)
In July 2008, coinciding with the U.S. presidential election, Under The Radar put together a special Protest Issue. In addition to politically themed articles, bands were photographed with self-made protest signs and the photos ran in the issue. The autographed protest signs were later auctioned off eBay with all the profits donated to the political action group the War Child organization. My Morning Jacket featured in this issue with a protest sign (as seen above).
Blurt Online (2008)
On June 9th 2008 Blurt Online published an interview with the band, done by Andy Tennille. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords: Librarian,
“I love Prince. I adore him. I think he’s the baddest motherfucker on the planet after James Brown died. But to me, I think the comparisons are silly.”
Jim James runs a hand through his dirty blonde locks and shakes his head dismissively. It’s mid-March and the 30-year-old frontman of My Morning Jacket is sitting on a couch in a midtown-Manhattan apartment talking about the supposed influence of His Purple Majesty on Evil Urges, the band’s fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2005’s universally lauded Z.
The week before, James and his bandmates – drummer Patrick Hallahan, bassist “Two Tone” Tommy Blankenship, multi-instrumentalist Carl Broemel and keysmith Bo Koster – torched the stage of the Austin Music Hall at SXSW, debuting eight songs off the new record. The next day, Blogger Nation was abuzz with reports that the dance grooves and falsetto wails on tunes like “Highly Suspicious” and “Evil Urges” were the direct result of James’ obsession with the Purple One. Almost every article that’s hit newsstands in the run up to the album’s release has referenced Paisley Park, so after nearly a week of press meetings, James is ready to set the record straight on why some of the tracks off his newest masterpiece have the sweaty feel of an intergalactic dance club.
“A lot of it comes from the energy and the tightness of this city,” James says. “You hear about so many bands coming to New York to make their ‘New York’ record and all that shit. I feel like we didn’t really come here to make a record about New York, or about meeting girls in bars, or about topical New York things, but it’s just so different here. I love so many other big cities: I love Chicago and I love L.A., but nowhere else but New York do you have this energy with so many different types of people crammed in together. If you’re going to work riding the subway every single day, you’re in contact with every other race, every other religion, every other everything. I just think more people need to experience that.”
As much as the incredible diversity and palpable energy of the City that Never Sleeps influenced the urban vibe on Evil Urges, however, the soul of the album was found 1,600 miles away in the mountains of Colorado.
“Those four weeks will definitely be something I look back on in 20 years as a really special moment, for sure,” says Bo Koster, of the month the band spent last June prepping the new material at Hideaway Studio, a rustic ranch and recording facility 35 miles northwest of Colorado Springs at the base of the Rocky Mountains. “It just reminded me of what I think is important in life and the things that I want to accomplish right now. You don’t often get to have your four best friends in the world that you share your life with in a place like that, all alone. Just us by ourselves, playing music.”
“It was just one of the coolest times for us, as a band,” says Carl Broemel, the Nashville-based guitarist and saxophonist who joined My Morning Jacket with Koster in 2004 following the departure of original members Johnny Quaid and Danny Cash. “We had a little compound, with a barn that we’d rehearse in and a little studio to record in. When the storms came through, we had to unplug everything, so right when we were getting down to work, we might have to stop and go look at the sky for a while. You couldn’t force things. We all lived in the same house and cooked dinner together every night. It was like another level of connection developed between the five of us.”
In a band that measures its inner-relationships in decades rather than years (James and Patrick Hallahan met more than 20 years ago in Sunday school), Koster and Broemel are still the new kids on the block. But a lot has happened since they came aboard almost four years ago: the group recorded and released Z, played countless concerts and toured the world over, opened for Pearl Jam and Bob Dylan and issued Okonokos, a live CD/DVD that documented their two sold-out performances at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore auditorium in November 2005. Shortly after the Fillmore shows, James was hospitalized with pneumonia, exhausted by the band’s relentless touring schedule. The group was forced to cancel its New Year’s Eve appearance at Madison Square Garden opening for the Black Crowes, and all future touring plans were put on hold as James was relegated to bed rest.
“We went through a lot of stuff after Z, just with me getting sick and being fragged by touring again,” James says. “It was a dark time. After it was over, I felt like I got a chance to live some life that really spoke to me, and the songs came out of it.”
Refreshed and re-energized, James fleshed out the songs for Evil Urges during the spring of 2006 while at a log cabin in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. He subsequently brought to Colorado what his bandmates say was the most concise set of demos he’d ever presented to them.
“They couldn’t be any more lean than they were,” says Tommy Blankenship. “It wasn’t half-formed ideas — not that other demos had been - but on earlier records, the demos seemed like they were Jim trying to feel his way through the songs. With this batch, it was like Jim was saying, ‘Here are the songs.’”
“When we got the demos, we all agreed that we shouldn’t hear our own instrument too much, because we didn’t want his ideas on the demos to infect what we would do for the album,” says Hallahan. “But when he played us ‘Touch Me, Part One’ for the first time, we were all like, ‘Where did this come from? Why didn’t you play this for us sooner?’ The rhythms he came up with on that were just too hard to ignore. They were awesome.”
While songs like “Aluminum Park,” ‘Sec Walkin’” and “I’m Amazed” were quintessential My Morning Jacket creations, the silk-sheet sensuality of the two-part suite “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream” and the robotic funk of “Highly Suspicious” were driven by beats James dreamed up after a friend encouraged him to experiment with drum programming tools.
“Normally, I just do four-track stuff, but for this record, I got a computer set up with some drum programs,” James explains. “I really wanted to tighten all the screws down and make these songs more rhythmically propulsive. Hip-hop and soul music are really one of the only things left that unify people right now, musically. I think most of it’s because of the movement and what it does when it gets into your body. So I really wanted to incorporate that into our music. I wanted this record to be this big weird, propulsive thing where you’re like, ‘Should I dance to it? Or should I not dance? Should I rock out to it?’”
As defined as most of James’ demos were, some of the songs on Evil Urges – such as the title track – were birthed the old-fashioned way: on the rehearsal room floor.
“It’s hard to even recall the exact process of writing that song,” Blankenship says, of “Evil Urges.” “Jim came in one day and he basically had these two parts: the intro part and the second verse. It was just one of those times where five people just play whatever comes into their minds and magic happens.”
“That song in particular is probably the best representation on this album of what we do as band when we come together,” Hallahan adds. “Jim came in with two parts and was like, ‘Let’s go play.’ And everybody just clicked.”
In the end, the month James and company spent in the mountains of Colorado was the kind of galvanizing experience that they needed following the trials and tribulations of the previous year. “It was definitely a defining moment for the band,” says Hallahan. “We play music together and share in that bond, but it was just amazing to break bread together and drinking wine looking at a sunset over Pike’s Peak after a hard day’s work. Colorado was a very spiritual, bonding process for us.”
“Jim and I talked for several months about where he wanted to make the record,” says Joe Chiccarelli, the Los Angeles-based producer (Frank Zappa, The Shins, The White Stripes) who manned the knobs on Evil Urges. “In the past, they’d done all these rural, off-the-beaten-track studios, because they liked the isolation of working out in the middle of nowhere. But when I heard the demos, I thought the material was so upbeat and alive and had this great sense of groove to it that I told Jim that it sounded like an urban record to me. I thought they needed to record in a city.”
Finding the right place to achieve the sounds James envisioned wasn’t an easy task. Band members were sent to studios across the country — from Louisiana to the Pacific Northwest — in search of the perfect home for the album. Even when he walked into the hallowed halls of Avatar Studios in midtown Manhattan, where the likes of Dylan, Bowie, Clapton and Springsteen had come before him, James was still unsure that he’d found the right place.
“I thought it was cool with all the history and everything,” he says, “but I was trying to look at the recording of the album from the perspective of a job that had to be done. It was almost like picking out a good workbench that had a good vise on it and all the right hammers and tools that we needed. When it came down to making this record, we wanted it to be precise and we wanted it to be really locked in, and that took a lot of work. That’s one of the reasons we came to New York, because we thought that the energy here and the constraints of working in a city would add to the sense of urgency on the album.”
“You can’t walk out your door in New York and not be kind of swept up into the current of the city,” Blankenship says. “And I think that seeped into things we were doing musically on the album. I think this album is more in your face, in a way. The vocals are real upfront and things generally sound tighter and more immediate.”
Not only did the immediacy and urgency of New York influence the making of Evil Urges, but the focus James paid to the rhythms in writing the songs for the album forced the band to explore new sonic territory in the studio.
“We spent a lot of time in the studio looking for different sounds, because the sounds of the record were just as important as the arrangements of the songs,” Koster says. “Every song was its own baby. Just think about all the different kind of beats Patrick played in a single song. He didn’t have eight rock songs and one or two ballads. Every song had a different feel that required a different approach from him. We all had to do that in our own way.”
The result is an album that’s sonically diverse and builds on the blueprint the band laid out with 2005’s Z. While much of the credit is due to James as the band’s songwriter, the frontman is quick to credit Koster and Broemel as the main reason why My Morning Jacket’s last two albums have been so ambitiously expansive.
“To me, it’s like the ultimate cake we’ve got going on with Carl and Bo,” James says with a laugh. “Tom, Patrick and I are all untrained musicians and they’re both trained in school. They’re both multi-instrumentalists and yet they’re creative and relaxed. During our shows, Bo’s back there doing so much shit, between playing keys and making samples. Carl’s out there playing electric guitar, steel and fucking saxophone. It’s just incredible. They are what make us able to execute the vision completely. I feel like the band was good before they got in, but once they got in, it was like the music came together with all the details filled in. All the colors were there.”
“Bo and Carl’s involvement with the vocals on this album was just incredible,” agrees Hallahan. “They had never done that before with us. When we made Z, they were still feeling out their roles, on and off stage, so this album is really about their hard work. We can throw anything at them now, and they’ll throw it right back at you and make it better than you ever could have expected.”
In addition to the album’s musical diversity, the songs on Evil Urges, James notes, represent some of his most personal lyrics to date. “This record’s been a weird one for me, because a lot of it is tied up in a massive positive relationship that I had that ended right when we started recording the record. So a lot of the songs come from a really positive place but I was really bummed out when I was actually recording them.” Indeed, songs like “Thank You Too,” “Look At You” and the two-part “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream” sound like open letters of love and lust, while the acoustic tenderness of “Librarian” — which James suggests additionally stems from his “bad habit” of falling in love but not doing anything about it — seems to get to the heart of the matter for the songwriter.
As much as the album deals with his tumultuous love life, James also turns the camera outward on Evil Urges, crafting commentaries on social unity (“Remnants”), moral confusion (“Evil Urges”) and the chaotic state of the world (“I’m Amazed”).
“I think the theme that runs through the album is that maybe there isn’t any good or bad,” James explains. “People always want it to be red or blue, good or bad, or black or white, but it’s not always that easy. It’s wild to me to think of people involved in certain religions believe in their minds that they’re doing good things, things that are supposedly going to get them to heaven or get them to the next phase or whatever, when in reality those things seem really horrible and harmful. It’s confusing to me, and it’s a confusing time in the world right now. It’s a weird time to be alive. I think everybody feels it, so my hope is that people can relate to this record. I hope it’s something that is part of the time in some way, but that’s something that time and space will decide.”
“I think this record is a lot more outward looking and less introspective than Z,” Koster says. “That record was more of an intimate record in a way, between the five of us as a band and Jim as the songwriter. The themes on it are pretty deeply personal, but this one has a more universal, almost populist feel. Instead of it being about his individual feelings or emotions or fantasies, I feel like Jim’s talking to people and he’s almost preaching on certain songs on this record.”
And it’s that evangelistic tone that reveals the deeper sources of influence and inspiration woven into the fabric of Evil Urges. The echoes of Prince’s falsetto may have provided a handy reference for the critics, but James is reaching back beyond Sign O’ The Times to the records and artists that informed Prince’s best work.
“It’s just cool how you can be both grooved and be moved spirituality and emotionally, just through listening to Curtis Mayfield. He’s like the ultimate to me. Talk about one of the most brilliant human beings that ever lived: he was trying to unify people through music,” James says. “His playing, singing, structures, arrangements…after I heard Curtis Mayfield, I was hooked. I mean, I listened to the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and people like that way before I ever heard Curtis Mayfield, and they’re all fine and good, but now that I’ve heard Curtis Mayfield, now that we have albums like [Marvin Gaye’s] What’s Going On in our vocabulary, now that I’ve heard Sam Cooke sing ‘A Change is Gonna Come,’ the rest of it starts to seem silly.”
It’s no coincidence that James’ appreciation and greater understanding of the emotional depth of soul music occurred in the same year that he faced his own mortality through illness, overcame his first real adult romantic relationship and celebrated his thirtieth birthday. In the end, Evil Urges almost feels like an awakening, a watershed album that reveals the growth of a man who’s emerging as a more confident artist, bandleader and lyricist concerned with the larger issues and questions that surround him.
“I think Jim has a very clear vision right now of what he wants his music to be and he’s very much in touch with the heart and soul of his songs,” producer Chiccarelli notes. “That’s one of his incredible strengths and what makes him one of the greatest songwriters out there, I believe. He’s willing to let go enough that as long as the whole intent, the feeling and the emotion of the song is right, all the colors and details seem to fall into place.”
“He’s more confident in his role as the frontman of this band and I think it’s reflected in how he approaches his singing on this album,” adds Hallahan. “When he steps up to that microphone, he owns that microphone. Instead of him standing back and hiding behind the reverb, the vocals are very upfront and very present on this album. And he’s more willing to try new things. I’m really proud of him.
“Jim jumped a hurdle in his life, and the proof is in this album. You just hear it — he grew up.”
Keywords: Librarian,
“I love Prince. I adore him. I think he’s the baddest motherfucker on the planet after James Brown died. But to me, I think the comparisons are silly.”
Jim James runs a hand through his dirty blonde locks and shakes his head dismissively. It’s mid-March and the 30-year-old frontman of My Morning Jacket is sitting on a couch in a midtown-Manhattan apartment talking about the supposed influence of His Purple Majesty on Evil Urges, the band’s fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2005’s universally lauded Z.
The week before, James and his bandmates – drummer Patrick Hallahan, bassist “Two Tone” Tommy Blankenship, multi-instrumentalist Carl Broemel and keysmith Bo Koster – torched the stage of the Austin Music Hall at SXSW, debuting eight songs off the new record. The next day, Blogger Nation was abuzz with reports that the dance grooves and falsetto wails on tunes like “Highly Suspicious” and “Evil Urges” were the direct result of James’ obsession with the Purple One. Almost every article that’s hit newsstands in the run up to the album’s release has referenced Paisley Park, so after nearly a week of press meetings, James is ready to set the record straight on why some of the tracks off his newest masterpiece have the sweaty feel of an intergalactic dance club.
“A lot of it comes from the energy and the tightness of this city,” James says. “You hear about so many bands coming to New York to make their ‘New York’ record and all that shit. I feel like we didn’t really come here to make a record about New York, or about meeting girls in bars, or about topical New York things, but it’s just so different here. I love so many other big cities: I love Chicago and I love L.A., but nowhere else but New York do you have this energy with so many different types of people crammed in together. If you’re going to work riding the subway every single day, you’re in contact with every other race, every other religion, every other everything. I just think more people need to experience that.”
As much as the incredible diversity and palpable energy of the City that Never Sleeps influenced the urban vibe on Evil Urges, however, the soul of the album was found 1,600 miles away in the mountains of Colorado.
“Those four weeks will definitely be something I look back on in 20 years as a really special moment, for sure,” says Bo Koster, of the month the band spent last June prepping the new material at Hideaway Studio, a rustic ranch and recording facility 35 miles northwest of Colorado Springs at the base of the Rocky Mountains. “It just reminded me of what I think is important in life and the things that I want to accomplish right now. You don’t often get to have your four best friends in the world that you share your life with in a place like that, all alone. Just us by ourselves, playing music.”
“It was just one of the coolest times for us, as a band,” says Carl Broemel, the Nashville-based guitarist and saxophonist who joined My Morning Jacket with Koster in 2004 following the departure of original members Johnny Quaid and Danny Cash. “We had a little compound, with a barn that we’d rehearse in and a little studio to record in. When the storms came through, we had to unplug everything, so right when we were getting down to work, we might have to stop and go look at the sky for a while. You couldn’t force things. We all lived in the same house and cooked dinner together every night. It was like another level of connection developed between the five of us.”
In a band that measures its inner-relationships in decades rather than years (James and Patrick Hallahan met more than 20 years ago in Sunday school), Koster and Broemel are still the new kids on the block. But a lot has happened since they came aboard almost four years ago: the group recorded and released Z, played countless concerts and toured the world over, opened for Pearl Jam and Bob Dylan and issued Okonokos, a live CD/DVD that documented their two sold-out performances at San Francisco’s historic Fillmore auditorium in November 2005. Shortly after the Fillmore shows, James was hospitalized with pneumonia, exhausted by the band’s relentless touring schedule. The group was forced to cancel its New Year’s Eve appearance at Madison Square Garden opening for the Black Crowes, and all future touring plans were put on hold as James was relegated to bed rest.
“We went through a lot of stuff after Z, just with me getting sick and being fragged by touring again,” James says. “It was a dark time. After it was over, I felt like I got a chance to live some life that really spoke to me, and the songs came out of it.”
Refreshed and re-energized, James fleshed out the songs for Evil Urges during the spring of 2006 while at a log cabin in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. He subsequently brought to Colorado what his bandmates say was the most concise set of demos he’d ever presented to them.
“They couldn’t be any more lean than they were,” says Tommy Blankenship. “It wasn’t half-formed ideas — not that other demos had been - but on earlier records, the demos seemed like they were Jim trying to feel his way through the songs. With this batch, it was like Jim was saying, ‘Here are the songs.’”
“When we got the demos, we all agreed that we shouldn’t hear our own instrument too much, because we didn’t want his ideas on the demos to infect what we would do for the album,” says Hallahan. “But when he played us ‘Touch Me, Part One’ for the first time, we were all like, ‘Where did this come from? Why didn’t you play this for us sooner?’ The rhythms he came up with on that were just too hard to ignore. They were awesome.”
While songs like “Aluminum Park,” ‘Sec Walkin’” and “I’m Amazed” were quintessential My Morning Jacket creations, the silk-sheet sensuality of the two-part suite “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream” and the robotic funk of “Highly Suspicious” were driven by beats James dreamed up after a friend encouraged him to experiment with drum programming tools.
“Normally, I just do four-track stuff, but for this record, I got a computer set up with some drum programs,” James explains. “I really wanted to tighten all the screws down and make these songs more rhythmically propulsive. Hip-hop and soul music are really one of the only things left that unify people right now, musically. I think most of it’s because of the movement and what it does when it gets into your body. So I really wanted to incorporate that into our music. I wanted this record to be this big weird, propulsive thing where you’re like, ‘Should I dance to it? Or should I not dance? Should I rock out to it?’”
As defined as most of James’ demos were, some of the songs on Evil Urges – such as the title track – were birthed the old-fashioned way: on the rehearsal room floor.
“It’s hard to even recall the exact process of writing that song,” Blankenship says, of “Evil Urges.” “Jim came in one day and he basically had these two parts: the intro part and the second verse. It was just one of those times where five people just play whatever comes into their minds and magic happens.”
“That song in particular is probably the best representation on this album of what we do as band when we come together,” Hallahan adds. “Jim came in with two parts and was like, ‘Let’s go play.’ And everybody just clicked.”
In the end, the month James and company spent in the mountains of Colorado was the kind of galvanizing experience that they needed following the trials and tribulations of the previous year. “It was definitely a defining moment for the band,” says Hallahan. “We play music together and share in that bond, but it was just amazing to break bread together and drinking wine looking at a sunset over Pike’s Peak after a hard day’s work. Colorado was a very spiritual, bonding process for us.”
“Jim and I talked for several months about where he wanted to make the record,” says Joe Chiccarelli, the Los Angeles-based producer (Frank Zappa, The Shins, The White Stripes) who manned the knobs on Evil Urges. “In the past, they’d done all these rural, off-the-beaten-track studios, because they liked the isolation of working out in the middle of nowhere. But when I heard the demos, I thought the material was so upbeat and alive and had this great sense of groove to it that I told Jim that it sounded like an urban record to me. I thought they needed to record in a city.”
Finding the right place to achieve the sounds James envisioned wasn’t an easy task. Band members were sent to studios across the country — from Louisiana to the Pacific Northwest — in search of the perfect home for the album. Even when he walked into the hallowed halls of Avatar Studios in midtown Manhattan, where the likes of Dylan, Bowie, Clapton and Springsteen had come before him, James was still unsure that he’d found the right place.
“I thought it was cool with all the history and everything,” he says, “but I was trying to look at the recording of the album from the perspective of a job that had to be done. It was almost like picking out a good workbench that had a good vise on it and all the right hammers and tools that we needed. When it came down to making this record, we wanted it to be precise and we wanted it to be really locked in, and that took a lot of work. That’s one of the reasons we came to New York, because we thought that the energy here and the constraints of working in a city would add to the sense of urgency on the album.”
“You can’t walk out your door in New York and not be kind of swept up into the current of the city,” Blankenship says. “And I think that seeped into things we were doing musically on the album. I think this album is more in your face, in a way. The vocals are real upfront and things generally sound tighter and more immediate.”
Not only did the immediacy and urgency of New York influence the making of Evil Urges, but the focus James paid to the rhythms in writing the songs for the album forced the band to explore new sonic territory in the studio.
“We spent a lot of time in the studio looking for different sounds, because the sounds of the record were just as important as the arrangements of the songs,” Koster says. “Every song was its own baby. Just think about all the different kind of beats Patrick played in a single song. He didn’t have eight rock songs and one or two ballads. Every song had a different feel that required a different approach from him. We all had to do that in our own way.”
The result is an album that’s sonically diverse and builds on the blueprint the band laid out with 2005’s Z. While much of the credit is due to James as the band’s songwriter, the frontman is quick to credit Koster and Broemel as the main reason why My Morning Jacket’s last two albums have been so ambitiously expansive.
“To me, it’s like the ultimate cake we’ve got going on with Carl and Bo,” James says with a laugh. “Tom, Patrick and I are all untrained musicians and they’re both trained in school. They’re both multi-instrumentalists and yet they’re creative and relaxed. During our shows, Bo’s back there doing so much shit, between playing keys and making samples. Carl’s out there playing electric guitar, steel and fucking saxophone. It’s just incredible. They are what make us able to execute the vision completely. I feel like the band was good before they got in, but once they got in, it was like the music came together with all the details filled in. All the colors were there.”
“Bo and Carl’s involvement with the vocals on this album was just incredible,” agrees Hallahan. “They had never done that before with us. When we made Z, they were still feeling out their roles, on and off stage, so this album is really about their hard work. We can throw anything at them now, and they’ll throw it right back at you and make it better than you ever could have expected.”
In addition to the album’s musical diversity, the songs on Evil Urges, James notes, represent some of his most personal lyrics to date. “This record’s been a weird one for me, because a lot of it is tied up in a massive positive relationship that I had that ended right when we started recording the record. So a lot of the songs come from a really positive place but I was really bummed out when I was actually recording them.” Indeed, songs like “Thank You Too,” “Look At You” and the two-part “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream” sound like open letters of love and lust, while the acoustic tenderness of “Librarian” — which James suggests additionally stems from his “bad habit” of falling in love but not doing anything about it — seems to get to the heart of the matter for the songwriter.
As much as the album deals with his tumultuous love life, James also turns the camera outward on Evil Urges, crafting commentaries on social unity (“Remnants”), moral confusion (“Evil Urges”) and the chaotic state of the world (“I’m Amazed”).
“I think the theme that runs through the album is that maybe there isn’t any good or bad,” James explains. “People always want it to be red or blue, good or bad, or black or white, but it’s not always that easy. It’s wild to me to think of people involved in certain religions believe in their minds that they’re doing good things, things that are supposedly going to get them to heaven or get them to the next phase or whatever, when in reality those things seem really horrible and harmful. It’s confusing to me, and it’s a confusing time in the world right now. It’s a weird time to be alive. I think everybody feels it, so my hope is that people can relate to this record. I hope it’s something that is part of the time in some way, but that’s something that time and space will decide.”
“I think this record is a lot more outward looking and less introspective than Z,” Koster says. “That record was more of an intimate record in a way, between the five of us as a band and Jim as the songwriter. The themes on it are pretty deeply personal, but this one has a more universal, almost populist feel. Instead of it being about his individual feelings or emotions or fantasies, I feel like Jim’s talking to people and he’s almost preaching on certain songs on this record.”
And it’s that evangelistic tone that reveals the deeper sources of influence and inspiration woven into the fabric of Evil Urges. The echoes of Prince’s falsetto may have provided a handy reference for the critics, but James is reaching back beyond Sign O’ The Times to the records and artists that informed Prince’s best work.
“It’s just cool how you can be both grooved and be moved spirituality and emotionally, just through listening to Curtis Mayfield. He’s like the ultimate to me. Talk about one of the most brilliant human beings that ever lived: he was trying to unify people through music,” James says. “His playing, singing, structures, arrangements…after I heard Curtis Mayfield, I was hooked. I mean, I listened to the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and people like that way before I ever heard Curtis Mayfield, and they’re all fine and good, but now that I’ve heard Curtis Mayfield, now that we have albums like [Marvin Gaye’s] What’s Going On in our vocabulary, now that I’ve heard Sam Cooke sing ‘A Change is Gonna Come,’ the rest of it starts to seem silly.”
It’s no coincidence that James’ appreciation and greater understanding of the emotional depth of soul music occurred in the same year that he faced his own mortality through illness, overcame his first real adult romantic relationship and celebrated his thirtieth birthday. In the end, Evil Urges almost feels like an awakening, a watershed album that reveals the growth of a man who’s emerging as a more confident artist, bandleader and lyricist concerned with the larger issues and questions that surround him.
“I think Jim has a very clear vision right now of what he wants his music to be and he’s very much in touch with the heart and soul of his songs,” producer Chiccarelli notes. “That’s one of his incredible strengths and what makes him one of the greatest songwriters out there, I believe. He’s willing to let go enough that as long as the whole intent, the feeling and the emotion of the song is right, all the colors and details seem to fall into place.”
“He’s more confident in his role as the frontman of this band and I think it’s reflected in how he approaches his singing on this album,” adds Hallahan. “When he steps up to that microphone, he owns that microphone. Instead of him standing back and hiding behind the reverb, the vocals are very upfront and very present on this album. And he’s more willing to try new things. I’m really proud of him.
“Jim jumped a hurdle in his life, and the proof is in this album. You just hear it — he grew up.”
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