Showing posts with label Jim James. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim James. Show all posts
Spin (2011)
On April 19th 2011 Spin published an interview with Jim James, done by Kevin O'Donnell. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords: Jim James - influences
My Morning Jacket have helped bring soul back to rock'n'roll, with five excellent albums that show singer-guitarist Jim James' love of Motown, Stax-Volt, and other old-school artists whose music has been criminally relegated to the 99-cent bin.
As the Kentucky-bred band ramps up for the release of Circuital (out May 31), James dug through his collection to pick some of his favorite records of the era, from Pastor T.L. Barnett's funked-out gospel rave-up "Like a Ship" to Syl Johnson's 1969 deep cut "Together Forever." He also told SPIN why '80s pop-rock group Mike + the Mechanics and a far-out late-'60s Thai psych-rock band are totally worth listening to today.
PASTOR T.L. BARRETT AND THE YOUTH FOR CHRIST CHOIR, "LIKE A SHIP...(WITHOUT A SAIL)"
James digs this 1971 gospel cut (reissued by Light in the Attic) from Chicago activist and preacher Barrett, whose work to bring social and economic development to the city's South Side was marred when he was discovered to be involved in a pyramid scheme in 1989. (He paid restitution to avoid jail time and continues to preach today.)
"The kids are singing so loud that your stereo is going to explode and the groove being laid down by Barrett, Richard Evans, and drummer Charles Pittman is arguably one of the greatest the good Lord ever beamed down to earth for us to hear," says James. "Barrett is also singing what so many people feel: 'I searched for pleasure / But I found pain / I looked for sunshine / But I found rain / Then I looked for my friends / They all walked away / But through all my sorrows / You can hear me say, Hey, I know we can make it.'"
SYL JOHNSON, "TOGETHER FOREVER"
James says this overlooked 1969 cut from the Mississippi-born R&B singer rivals the era's most well-known wake up calls for social and racial equality, such as Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and Sly and the Family Stone's "There's a Riot Goin' On."
"Normally you hear a lot of anger in Johnson's voice - the sheer sound of it slices through your speakers like an X-Acto Knife," says James. "And rightfully so: He was singing for equality and his place in the world, when at times it seemed like he wasn't finding either. But this song shows a positive and hopeful side to what his main message is: believing that the Brotherhood of Man can live forever together in peace and equality. I can't believe this song is not one of the staples of classic radio."
MIKE + THE MECHANICS, "SILENT RUNNING (ON DANGEROUS GROUND)"
This effervescent, synthed-out single from the British pop-rock group was a Top 40 radio hit in 1985 - but James doesn't see any reason why it couldn't be resurrected as a modern-day protest song.
"Some say there is a massive astrological shift taking place right now as dictatorships topple in Egypt and people rise up in mass numbers in places like Wisconsin and Ohio to fight for what they believe is right," says James. "We are seeing large sections of the population fundamentally questioning their experience and existence, perhaps spurred on by this new revolutionary spirit of longing for real freedom...or perhaps spurred on by this Mike + the Mechanics song, which somehow speaks to me about all that is going on in the world right now. Somehow. It spoke to me once as a child. And it found me again the other day in the freezer section at Whole Foods. 'Can you hear me running?' Yes, Mike. I can."
WILLIAM BELL, "EVERYBODY LOVES A WINNER"
James cites this overlooked R&B ballad from the Stax-Volt crooner as one of his favorite late-'60s songs - mostly due to the buttery smooth production and Bell's silky voice.
"Bell sums up one of life's truths: 'Everybody loves a winner, but when you lose, you lose alone,'" says James. "I don't think that statement is completely true - real friends and family are there for each other through thick and thin - but when I hear this song it reminds me of them... the people who really matter. It's also all gussied up in near perfect production, sounding as soft as our kitten's little head when we give her a kiss, and sung by an angel."
UBON PATTANA, "LAM SARAWAN"
Ubon Pattana were an obscure Thai group that emerged in the late-'60s, and their music mixed the far-out adventurousness of American psych with traditional Thai instruments like the khaen and lyrics sung in their native language. James jokes that he first heard them in 1970 - he was born in 1978 - so allow the man a little narrative freedom as he talks about this long-forgotten band:
"It's 1970. I am in Thailand on a business trip. The plane got in late and after I check into the hotel I find my way into a little corner bar for a drink. As I sip my cocktail and slink down into my booth, the music overtakes me and I know I am in the presence of greatness: This band, Ubon Pattana, three or four kids sunk behind their instruments with big coats and sunglasses on, are just laying down the thickest groove, like they are deeply stoned or half asleep, lost in a highly functional trance."
"And this girl, the sign says her name is Angkana Khunchai...I can't understand what she is singing, but she is in some kind of real pain and she is just fucking laying it down for everybody, hunched over, holding all her weight up with the mic just wailing. And her sounds that I cannot understand turn into words I'd been thinking about anyway, tossing and turning hopes and fears like we all do, things I've been trying to figure out but just haven't been able to. And now I'm trying to process it all here in Thailand, to find a way to make it all make sense before I have to return home again. And I look up from my reverie and tears are rolling down her cheeks, out from under her sunglasses, and mine are falling onto my pink umbrella, rolling off into some drink I know ill never be able to finish."
Jim James
"He's one of the most incredible people in existence on this planet. He never ceases to amaze me. He never stops making me laugh. I want to kiss and smack him all at the same time. He's been my best friend since fourth grade. He's a special person and a gift to this world."
James Olliges, Jr., professionally known as Jim James or Yim Yames, from Louisville, Kentucky is the lead singer and songwriter of the band. On My Morning Jacket songs James typically plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar and omnichord, in other projects he's also been known to play piano, bass and drums.
Nicknames: Jim James, Yim Yames, Cap'n Goodies (EU & Z), #?^ (April 1st 2012)
Instruments: Guitar, omnichord, piano, drums, bass
Social media: JimJames (Twitter), JimJames (Facebook), JimJames (MySpace), Removador (Instagram), Removador (Removador Recordings and Solutions website)
Just one more thing: Jim is a big fan of The Muppets
"I just wish there was a way for people to not know who I was, I don't want to be this persona. I don't want people to like me, I just want people to like my music."
- Jim James
(The Independent interview, February 2004)
(The Independent interview, February 2004)
When asked about having three names in a Metromix interview, James said that he considered the Yim Yames moniker the same as Jim James, but that he felt that it's a litte bit funnier, weirder and a little more unforgettable. He also points out that it can still be pronounced like Jim James, if desired.
"And then somebody saw that there's a guy who, like, plays acoustic covers in bars in North Carolina or somewhere and was going by the name Jim James. So I was, like… I'm just gonna change it to Yim Yames. (laughs) I hope to God nobody else out there has it. I Googled it, and didn't find anybody else named Yim Yames"- Jim James
(Metromix interview, August 2009)
Influences
When talking about influences and music he likes, James lists several artists and musicians, including a certain frog. Names mentioned in interviews made through the years include; Erykah Bady, Jimmy Rodgers, Outkast, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Richard Manuel from The Band, Roy Orbison, Etta James, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, James Brown and Kermit The Frog.
"I remember hearing Kermit sing and then finding out that that was actually a real person singing,” he said, “That kind of blew my mind. I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s actually a real dude.’"- Jim James
(The New York Times interview, June 2008)
A more detailed post with quotes from James can be found here.
Solo work
When asked in an Metromix interview why he waited 11 years before making something that could be called a real solo album, James stated that he previously hadn't felt the need to, because he'd always been able to express what he wanted to express with the band.
"I've always felt satisfied by that [expressing himself with the band], not that I'm not satisfied by it anymore. When we make a record, we try to get the bulk of it live, and I wanted to do something different, where I build it piece by piece. It gives you a completely different vibe if it's just one person building it out of Legos."- Jim James
(Metromix interview, August 2009)
Tribute To
On July 7, 2009, James released an EP covering George Harrison songs, entitled Tribute To. A portion of the proceeds from the album will go to benefit the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. The EP was available on yimyames.com as both a digital download and a physical CD/LP
Regions of Light and Sound of God
On February 5th 2013, James released his debut full length album Regions of Light and Sound of God. The album was available on jimjames.com as both a digital download and a physical CD/LP. A limited album package was also available, including a Jim James t-shirt, a fine art print, an "A.E.I.O.U" tote bag and a keychain with carabiner.
Other musical projects
Monsters of Folk
James is also part of Monsters of Folk. Other than James the band consists of Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos, Mystic Valley Band among others), Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Lullaby for the Working Class among others) and Matt Ward. (M. Ward, She & Him).
New Multitudes
James is also part of New Multitudes. New Multitudes is a Woody Guthrie tribute album performed by Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, and Yim Yames to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Guthrie's birth, released through Rounder Records on February 28, 2012.
Featured
I'm Wide Awake, It's MorningFeatured
On the track At the Bottom of Everything from album I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning Jim James can be heard during the chorus. The track was recorded by Oberst in Nebraska in February 2004, James later recorded his part in Louisville in the spring of the same year.
Writing
Now and then James has chosen to comment on things outside of the actual music, such as the importance of Twin Peaks, or general advice about which food to keep in the fridge for when you return from long travels.
Other appearances
November 22, 2009 - Jim James and the rest of My Morning Jacket played themselves in an episode of American Dad entitled My Morning Straitjacket.
Mentioned
Though he's not featured on the album, Jim James is mentioned in the thank you notes of Conor Oberst's 2008 album Conor Oberst.
The Guardian (2011)
On October 27th 2011 The Guardian published an interview with Jim James done by Stevie Chick. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
'Being a touring band, we see all these artists around us who are so talented, and they're just dying in the trenches, and nobody gives a shit," frowns Jim James. "Then we see the people who're selling millions of records and flying in private jets and everything, and they're just like marketing projects, scientific experiments created to look and sound like the real thing. It's such a fuckin' head-trip."
It's an uncommonly grouchy pronouncement from a man more typically given to bonhomie, but then the music industry's machinations are enough to sour anyone's mood. James's band, My Morning Jacket, are by no means "dying in the trenches" – their sixth album, Circuital, went top five when it was released in America this summer, their highest chart-placing yet, and a few hours after our interview they play a sold-out Somerset House in London. But the hirsute, softly spoken Kentuckian knows they're no marketing department's "science project", either.
My Morning Jacket formed in the most organic fashion imaginable: friends who'd known each other since childhood – guitarist Johnny Quaid is James's cousin – making music in a shack located on Quaid's grandparents' farm in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Their fame grew by word of mouth. Early albums such as The Tennessee Fire, At Dawn and It Still Moves – recorded on the farm, James's vocals bathed in the glorious natural reverb of the disused grain silo in which he recorded them – seduced critics and fans with their ethereal psychedelia and exultant rock crescendos.
These early albums arguably coined the cosmic Americana currently purveyed by Fleet Foxes and a generation of similarly starry-eyed indie rockers. "I don't feel slighted when I see bands doing what we were doing back then getting so much more attention than we did then," James says. "Fleet Foxes are a really talented band, they make beautiful music. But it's also fuckin' weird. Like, did we just not do it long enough? If we'd made one more record of harmonies and folk shit, would the press have been, like, 'These guys are fuckin' gods!'?"
As it is, My Morning Jacket's next album, 2005's Z, largely abandoned the "harmonies and folk shit", along with the studio on the farm and its magical grain silo. The year before had been one of upheaval for the group, as Quaid and keyboardist Danny Cash left, wanting more time with their families, and were replaced by guitarist Carl Broeml and keyboard player Bo Koster. A restless James put down the guitar, writing much of the new album on keyboards and a bizarre 80s synthesiser called the Omnichord. Recorded in "a crazy mansion" with Stone Roses producer John Leckie, Z dialled back the classic rock aura of the Jacket's earlier albums, drawing magic from soulful reveries, spectral fairground themes, and even that eternal critical bete noir, rock-reggae.
Though Z got good reviews and sold well, promoting the album almost left James dead in the trenches; shortly after a long American tour in 2005, he was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack. Suffering from undiagnosed "walking pneumonia" for much of the tour, James had developed pericarditis, the lining of his heart inflaming to protect it from the infection, almost killing him.
"It was hugely painful, horrifically scary," James says. "I'd just run myself ragged from touring. I almost died, and I was forced to rest up for several months." The trauma would inform the next My Morning Jacket album, which James wrote while recuperating. Redoubling the bold creative leaps of the previous album, 2008's Evil Urges would prove their most successful yet; the resulting tour peaked with a legendary headlining set at that summer's Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, where MMJ played four hours of their own songs and covers.
With its breathless switching from genre to genre, its overload of ideas, Evil Urges sounds like a memento mori: if the reaper's waiting for you, there's no reason not to take any creative risk you fancy. "For me, Evil Urges was like a video game," says James. "If you play Super Mario Brothers, there's a level where it's like a snowscape, and then there's a level where it's a desert, and a level that's like a jungle. I wanted to make all these different levels for the album, so you were like: 'Oh fuck, what's going on here?' You walk in the next room and it's kind of mellow, and then you walk into the next room and you're like, what the fuck's going on?"
The album's most outre moments wrong-footed some of the more conservative elements of the group's long-term fanbase, who wondered why the boy who'd earnestly penned all those haunting campfire ballads was now indulging in lurid Prince-gone-metal vamps. But James is unrepentant. "It confused some people," he admits. "Highly Suspicious [the group's funk-rock experiment] wasn't ironic, I wasn't making fun of it, but I thought it was fun and hilarious. I guess people have a hard time dealing with humour in music. But sometimes life is depressing, and sometimes life is fun, is about just laughing with your friends, and I wanted to express that, as well as the darker stuff."
The group's expert balance of poignancy and surreal playfulness won them a fan in film-maker Todd Haynes, who cast James in his impressionistic Dylan biopic I'm Not There, dressed in a Sgt Pepper jacket and whiteface and performing I'm Goin' to Acapulco with Calexico at a funeral in the old west, as Richard Gere and a giraffe watch. "There's always something mysterious and multiple about where My Morning Jacket is coming from," Haynes has said; earlier this year, he filmed a My Morning Jacket concert movie, Unstaged, complete with backstage vignettes involving robot imposters of the band, and a guest appearance from radical soulstress Erykah Badu. "Todd gets how weird our music is," says James, "and he's a fucking glorious weirdo himself."
James's ability to evoke the sadness and joy of life, innocence and pain, is much of his music's charm, and he says he was influenced from an early age by The Muppets, who could similarly flit from larks to poignancy with affecting grace. James is enough of a Jim Henson lover that when My Morning Jacket were asked to contribute to a forthcoming Muppets tribute album, they chose to cover obscure Muppet gem Our World rather than, say, Rainbow Connection, a more obvious choice for James' plaintive tones.
"It's from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which is a classic Christmas movie," he grins. "We were gonna make an album as the Electric Mayhem, the rock band from the original Muppet Show. And the plan was we'd go on tour and play behind a curtain, like the Gorillaz, and have puppets or holograms or whatever 'perform' on stage. But it was a Disney project, and Disney's a huge corporation; when one dude gets fired, the next dude who takes over doesn't give a shit about your Muppets project."
Two songs James wrote for the aborted Electric Mayhem project – Wonderful and Outta My System – made it on to Circuital. The chorus of the title song sings of finding oneself "right back in the same place where we started out", and so it was with My Morning Jacket, who returned to their home town of Louisville to record for the first time since leaving the farm. After the luxurious New York studio Avatar, where they recorded Evil Urges and where their every whim was catered for, the group once again found themselves building their own studio, this time transforming an abandoned gymnasium with the aid of Decemberists producer Tucker Martine and several rolls of carpeting they bought from a nearby Salvation Army store.
Being back in the trenches again after their time in Avatar has clearly agreed with the group, as Circuital makes better sense of the creative restlessness that fuelled Evil Urges, playing equally to the sublimely ridiculous – Holdin' on to Metal, a Bond theme-styled anthem rewritten from a riff James heard on the Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop Music – and the kind of luminous, swooning Americana they've long excelled at.
"It was like Boy Scout camp: just the seven of us in this massive room, no staff or nothin'," James says, of the Circuital sessions. A man who clearly wouldn't want a private jet even if he could afford one, he adds, grinning, "If the tape machine was fucked, we couldn't call in an engineer, we had to work out how to fix it ourselves. And I think that sort of approach gives us more of a sense of triumph about it all."
Keywords:
'Being a touring band, we see all these artists around us who are so talented, and they're just dying in the trenches, and nobody gives a shit," frowns Jim James. "Then we see the people who're selling millions of records and flying in private jets and everything, and they're just like marketing projects, scientific experiments created to look and sound like the real thing. It's such a fuckin' head-trip."
It's an uncommonly grouchy pronouncement from a man more typically given to bonhomie, but then the music industry's machinations are enough to sour anyone's mood. James's band, My Morning Jacket, are by no means "dying in the trenches" – their sixth album, Circuital, went top five when it was released in America this summer, their highest chart-placing yet, and a few hours after our interview they play a sold-out Somerset House in London. But the hirsute, softly spoken Kentuckian knows they're no marketing department's "science project", either.
My Morning Jacket formed in the most organic fashion imaginable: friends who'd known each other since childhood – guitarist Johnny Quaid is James's cousin – making music in a shack located on Quaid's grandparents' farm in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Their fame grew by word of mouth. Early albums such as The Tennessee Fire, At Dawn and It Still Moves – recorded on the farm, James's vocals bathed in the glorious natural reverb of the disused grain silo in which he recorded them – seduced critics and fans with their ethereal psychedelia and exultant rock crescendos.
These early albums arguably coined the cosmic Americana currently purveyed by Fleet Foxes and a generation of similarly starry-eyed indie rockers. "I don't feel slighted when I see bands doing what we were doing back then getting so much more attention than we did then," James says. "Fleet Foxes are a really talented band, they make beautiful music. But it's also fuckin' weird. Like, did we just not do it long enough? If we'd made one more record of harmonies and folk shit, would the press have been, like, 'These guys are fuckin' gods!'?"
As it is, My Morning Jacket's next album, 2005's Z, largely abandoned the "harmonies and folk shit", along with the studio on the farm and its magical grain silo. The year before had been one of upheaval for the group, as Quaid and keyboardist Danny Cash left, wanting more time with their families, and were replaced by guitarist Carl Broeml and keyboard player Bo Koster. A restless James put down the guitar, writing much of the new album on keyboards and a bizarre 80s synthesiser called the Omnichord. Recorded in "a crazy mansion" with Stone Roses producer John Leckie, Z dialled back the classic rock aura of the Jacket's earlier albums, drawing magic from soulful reveries, spectral fairground themes, and even that eternal critical bete noir, rock-reggae.
Though Z got good reviews and sold well, promoting the album almost left James dead in the trenches; shortly after a long American tour in 2005, he was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack. Suffering from undiagnosed "walking pneumonia" for much of the tour, James had developed pericarditis, the lining of his heart inflaming to protect it from the infection, almost killing him.
"It was hugely painful, horrifically scary," James says. "I'd just run myself ragged from touring. I almost died, and I was forced to rest up for several months." The trauma would inform the next My Morning Jacket album, which James wrote while recuperating. Redoubling the bold creative leaps of the previous album, 2008's Evil Urges would prove their most successful yet; the resulting tour peaked with a legendary headlining set at that summer's Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, where MMJ played four hours of their own songs and covers.
With its breathless switching from genre to genre, its overload of ideas, Evil Urges sounds like a memento mori: if the reaper's waiting for you, there's no reason not to take any creative risk you fancy. "For me, Evil Urges was like a video game," says James. "If you play Super Mario Brothers, there's a level where it's like a snowscape, and then there's a level where it's a desert, and a level that's like a jungle. I wanted to make all these different levels for the album, so you were like: 'Oh fuck, what's going on here?' You walk in the next room and it's kind of mellow, and then you walk into the next room and you're like, what the fuck's going on?"
The album's most outre moments wrong-footed some of the more conservative elements of the group's long-term fanbase, who wondered why the boy who'd earnestly penned all those haunting campfire ballads was now indulging in lurid Prince-gone-metal vamps. But James is unrepentant. "It confused some people," he admits. "Highly Suspicious [the group's funk-rock experiment] wasn't ironic, I wasn't making fun of it, but I thought it was fun and hilarious. I guess people have a hard time dealing with humour in music. But sometimes life is depressing, and sometimes life is fun, is about just laughing with your friends, and I wanted to express that, as well as the darker stuff."
The group's expert balance of poignancy and surreal playfulness won them a fan in film-maker Todd Haynes, who cast James in his impressionistic Dylan biopic I'm Not There, dressed in a Sgt Pepper jacket and whiteface and performing I'm Goin' to Acapulco with Calexico at a funeral in the old west, as Richard Gere and a giraffe watch. "There's always something mysterious and multiple about where My Morning Jacket is coming from," Haynes has said; earlier this year, he filmed a My Morning Jacket concert movie, Unstaged, complete with backstage vignettes involving robot imposters of the band, and a guest appearance from radical soulstress Erykah Badu. "Todd gets how weird our music is," says James, "and he's a fucking glorious weirdo himself."
James's ability to evoke the sadness and joy of life, innocence and pain, is much of his music's charm, and he says he was influenced from an early age by The Muppets, who could similarly flit from larks to poignancy with affecting grace. James is enough of a Jim Henson lover that when My Morning Jacket were asked to contribute to a forthcoming Muppets tribute album, they chose to cover obscure Muppet gem Our World rather than, say, Rainbow Connection, a more obvious choice for James' plaintive tones.
"It's from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which is a classic Christmas movie," he grins. "We were gonna make an album as the Electric Mayhem, the rock band from the original Muppet Show. And the plan was we'd go on tour and play behind a curtain, like the Gorillaz, and have puppets or holograms or whatever 'perform' on stage. But it was a Disney project, and Disney's a huge corporation; when one dude gets fired, the next dude who takes over doesn't give a shit about your Muppets project."
Two songs James wrote for the aborted Electric Mayhem project – Wonderful and Outta My System – made it on to Circuital. The chorus of the title song sings of finding oneself "right back in the same place where we started out", and so it was with My Morning Jacket, who returned to their home town of Louisville to record for the first time since leaving the farm. After the luxurious New York studio Avatar, where they recorded Evil Urges and where their every whim was catered for, the group once again found themselves building their own studio, this time transforming an abandoned gymnasium with the aid of Decemberists producer Tucker Martine and several rolls of carpeting they bought from a nearby Salvation Army store.
Being back in the trenches again after their time in Avatar has clearly agreed with the group, as Circuital makes better sense of the creative restlessness that fuelled Evil Urges, playing equally to the sublimely ridiculous – Holdin' on to Metal, a Bond theme-styled anthem rewritten from a riff James heard on the Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop Music – and the kind of luminous, swooning Americana they've long excelled at.
"It was like Boy Scout camp: just the seven of us in this massive room, no staff or nothin'," James says, of the Circuital sessions. A man who clearly wouldn't want a private jet even if he could afford one, he adds, grinning, "If the tape machine was fucked, we couldn't call in an engineer, we had to work out how to fix it ourselves. And I think that sort of approach gives us more of a sense of triumph about it all."
Influences - Jim James
Jim James Change Begins Within interview, 2009
The Muppets
In a 2005 interview with The Georgia Straight Jim James talks about his first musical experience.
"People ask me what my first musical experience was, and it's what I heard on The Muppet Show. I like the way that show appealed to both older people and younger kids. That's kind of where I wanna shoot with My Morning Jacket-to create something that people of all ages can really enjoy."- Jim James
(The Georgia Straight interview, November 2005)
In a 2008 interview with The New York Times, James also lists Kermit the Frog as a vocal influence
“I remember hearing Kermit sing and then finding out that that was actually a real person singing,” he said, “That kind of blew my mind. I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s actually a real dude.’ ”- Jim James
(The New York Times interview, June 2008)
Songs
Everybody Loves a Winner - William Bell (Spin interview)
Lam Sarawan - Ubon Pattana (Spin interview)
Like a Ship (Without a Sail) - Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir (Spin interview)
Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) - Mike + The Mechanics (Spin interview)
Together Forever -Syl Johnson (Spin interview)
Real persons
Erykah Bady, Jimmy Rodgers and Outkast
In a 2001 questionnaire with Exclaim! James cited Bag Lady by Erykah Badu, Jimmy Rodgers the Singing Cowboy and Outkast as his current fixations.
In a 2004 interview with JamBase it is revealed that James is a fan of Outkast, according to the interview he even compares their new album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below to the greatest Prince records.
"The last month or so I've been hitting Outkast really heavily. It's insane! In our modern world everything has gotten so stale. Everything's so cut and dried. There's no mystery, there's no wonder, there's no experimenting with sound anymore. There's no sense of people trying to do stuff that's (expressly) fucked up. I really admire those guys because that market (rap and R&B) has gotten to be all about money and all about your image and there's no substance. I feel like Andre and Big Boi have torn off the roof and thrown it away. They bring in the old school influences while still keeping their futuristic thing, too."- Jim James
(JamBase interview, January 2004)
Tribe, NWA, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Young MC, Wilco and The Genitorturers
In a 2002 interview with Pitchfork James lists a few more artists he enjoys.
"I really really enjoy some old school rap and hip-hop, the likes of Tribe, NWA, Chronic-1-era Dre, The Predator by Cube, and Young MC, to name a few. With rap I'm mainly a singles man. I'm never really a fan of just a group, but rather a bunch of songs from an era. (...) Yankee is a great album, indeed, though when I'm in the mood for Wilco I always return to Being There. That is a classic fucking album. Timeless. Foxtrot is a little too modern for me, but it is great. The Genitorturers can do no wrong in my book."- Jim James
(Pitchfork interview, August 2002)
James Brown
In the 2004 January-February issue of CMJ Jim James was asked when and where he was most knocked on his ass by a live rock band, and answered that it was a show with James Brown at the Louisville Waterfront in 1996.
"This was the most amazing concert I have ever witnessed with thine eyes. It hit me on so many levels. The music was great, we were all shaking our asses to "Sex Machine" and crying our eyes out to "Try Me" and "It's A Man's World". I had called in sick to work to go to the concert and I got filmed breakdancing on the news, my boss saw it and I was fired. The most amazing thing though, was the people: young, white people dancing with old African-American folks, Asians and Puerto Ricans. No age, race or creed was excluded from the funk. For that one moment in time, everything and everybody got along just fine."- Jim James
(CMJ January-February 2004)
Kurt Cobain and Nirvana
In a 2004 interview with The Independent James mentions Kurt Cobain and Nirvana as a influence, in the interview it's stated that if it weren't for Kurt Cobain James might never have picked up a guitar at all.
"Nirvana proved you could just be some guy in a T-shirt and your music could mean something to everybody. They didn't care who laughed at them or thought they were cool or uncool. They weren't doing anything because they wanted to be popular - what they were doing was honest, brutally honest."- Jim James
(The Independent interview, February 2004)
Richard Manuel, Roy Orbison, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan and Neil Young
In a 2008 interview with The New York Times James lists the following persons as influences; Richard Manuel from the Band, Roy Orbison, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Mr. Dylan and Mr. Young.
"When you hear Neil Young, or Roy Orbison, or Etta James, you can hear how they've been trampled on and ruined. You can't help but feel what they've been through. That's different from today. Most people making music today are actors. And you can always tell when somebody's acting."- Jim James
(Inquirer interview, September 2003)
Stevie Wonder, Beatles, Bill Withers and R&B
In an 2008 interview James explains how he was awed by the R&B records his parents would play when he was growing up.
"You listen to Stevie Wonder’s records and there’s Beatles production techniques and acoustic guitars, and you listen to Bill Withers, and it’s a folk record mixed with a soul record. Back then, rock and R&B were more mixed than they are now, and we’re really inspired by that."Jim James
(Dallas News, August 2008)
Reuters (2011)
On May 30th 2011 Reuters published an interview with Jim James, done by Mike Ayers. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
Southern rock act My Morning Jacket call their sixth album "Circuital".
But rather than coming full circle after 13 years, the five piece band drifting away from their rock roots for songs that blend R&B, funk and a handful of nostalgia laden tunes.
"It's been our most peaceful record to date," Jim James, guitarist/vocalist of the Louisville, Kentucky band, told Reuters ahead of the album's release on Tuesday. "It's been the most unified that we've ever felt."
Through slower tempos and adding different sonic elements, My Morning Jacket have achieved a record that sounds mature, and feels more consistent than 2008's "Evil Urges."
"I hate to say that I've gotten sick of the guitar, but the size of the guitar takes up so much space that can be used for other things," James said.
"Whether it's different vocal treatments or keyboards or even just air. My favorite instrument on the new record is the air in the church where we recorded. When you put a lot of guitars in it, it eats the air up."
Formed in 1998 by James, My Morning Jacket have become an enduring presence in the U.S. rock scene, headlining large festivals and playing big arenas. Part of their success is their cross-over appeal: they're consistent hits with critics, indie fans and jam band fans as well.
Inevitably, the band's longevity seeps into "Circuital" with a handful of songs about memory and letting go.
Most obvious is "Outta My System," a mid-tempo rock song that finds James, 33, singing about ditching the bad habits of youth and the ballad "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)," a dreamy, utopian outlook about finding peace.
Even the funky, horn lined song "Holdin' On To Black Metal" centers around grasping at pop culture fandom once enjoyed as a youth.
Despite the slightly new direction, My Morning Jacket fans won't stray far -- the title track "Circuital" is a seven-plus minute song that builds to a crescendo around James' voice and dueling guitar and piano lines.
SIDE PROJECTS
"Playing with these guys in the band is like your best, comfortable old car that you love to drive: It just feels right, it feels good but you only know that from stepping outside and looking back in," he said.
The band stays fresh these days by enjoying extra-curricular activities. Along with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis and She & Him's M.Ward, James formed the Monsters of Folk.
They released 2009's "Monsters of Folk" and toured extensively. In 2009, James also released a six-song EP of George Harrison covers called "Tribute To."
My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel has also released two solo albums and recently logged studio time with Wanda Jackson and Abigail Washburn.
The songs have for "Circuital" were written sporadically over the last several years, even as the group continued to tour and branch out. Still, it's these new opportunities that have come with their growing success that are shaping their own recorded output these days.
"There's no way you can't learn or grow from that," James said. "It's puts you in a self-analysis mode, where you're kind of like a kid again showing up to tee-ball practice for the first time."
Keywords:
Southern rock act My Morning Jacket call their sixth album "Circuital".
But rather than coming full circle after 13 years, the five piece band drifting away from their rock roots for songs that blend R&B, funk and a handful of nostalgia laden tunes.
"It's been our most peaceful record to date," Jim James, guitarist/vocalist of the Louisville, Kentucky band, told Reuters ahead of the album's release on Tuesday. "It's been the most unified that we've ever felt."
Through slower tempos and adding different sonic elements, My Morning Jacket have achieved a record that sounds mature, and feels more consistent than 2008's "Evil Urges."
"I hate to say that I've gotten sick of the guitar, but the size of the guitar takes up so much space that can be used for other things," James said.
"Whether it's different vocal treatments or keyboards or even just air. My favorite instrument on the new record is the air in the church where we recorded. When you put a lot of guitars in it, it eats the air up."
Formed in 1998 by James, My Morning Jacket have become an enduring presence in the U.S. rock scene, headlining large festivals and playing big arenas. Part of their success is their cross-over appeal: they're consistent hits with critics, indie fans and jam band fans as well.
Inevitably, the band's longevity seeps into "Circuital" with a handful of songs about memory and letting go.
Most obvious is "Outta My System," a mid-tempo rock song that finds James, 33, singing about ditching the bad habits of youth and the ballad "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)," a dreamy, utopian outlook about finding peace.
Even the funky, horn lined song "Holdin' On To Black Metal" centers around grasping at pop culture fandom once enjoyed as a youth.
Despite the slightly new direction, My Morning Jacket fans won't stray far -- the title track "Circuital" is a seven-plus minute song that builds to a crescendo around James' voice and dueling guitar and piano lines.
SIDE PROJECTS
"Playing with these guys in the band is like your best, comfortable old car that you love to drive: It just feels right, it feels good but you only know that from stepping outside and looking back in," he said.
The band stays fresh these days by enjoying extra-curricular activities. Along with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis and She & Him's M.Ward, James formed the Monsters of Folk.
They released 2009's "Monsters of Folk" and toured extensively. In 2009, James also released a six-song EP of George Harrison covers called "Tribute To."
My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Broemel has also released two solo albums and recently logged studio time with Wanda Jackson and Abigail Washburn.
The songs have for "Circuital" were written sporadically over the last several years, even as the group continued to tour and branch out. Still, it's these new opportunities that have come with their growing success that are shaping their own recorded output these days.
"There's no way you can't learn or grow from that," James said. "It's puts you in a self-analysis mode, where you're kind of like a kid again showing up to tee-ball practice for the first time."
The Age (2012)
On March 30th 2012 The Age published an interview with Jim James, done by Darren Levin. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords: Jim James solo
I have a lingering memory of My Morning Jacket's first tour of Australia that has nothing to do with them looking like Slayer, but sounding like Kermit the Frog fronting Crazy Horse.
At the end of their second Melbourne show at a half-full Corner Hotel in 2003, the band - who had just released their big-label debut, It Still Moves - turned down several parties because they wanted to work on new material at their hotel.
''I just like to jam in my room with my band,'' frontman Jim James said with a shrug to some rather bemused fans at the merch desk.
Nearly a decade on, and with three more acclaimed albums under their belts, does that ethos still apply?
''It just depends on the mood,'' James says from his home in Louisville, Kentucky, where he formed the band in 1998. ''Every day is different - some nights you feel like partying and some nights you don't. Sometimes you feel like being creative and some nights you feel like just unplugging completely.''
I'm speaking to James at a particularly Zen time in My Morning Jacket's existence. It's been almost a year since the release of sixth studio album Circuital and the 33-year-old singer couldn't be happier.
''I've been working on a lot of music on my own, trying to spend a lot of quality family time,'' he says in a laid-back southern drawl. ''I'm feeling good.'' But that's not to say he was pleased with the final product.
''I always have this constant nagging thing that nothing is good enough,'' he says.
''I can always do better and I can always push harder. But at the same time, I'm really grateful and really satisfied that we can pursue making art we love and are still able to pay the bills.''
James recently finished work on his debut solo album, some of which he hopes to unveil during a solo set at Boogie Festival in regional Victoria over the Easter long weekend.
''I just wanted to make a record completely by myself,'' he says.
''I've got string players on it and a friend plays drums on most of the record, but other than that I play everything myself - I've engineered it myself and I've done all the recording. I just wanted that experience.''
Keywords: Jim James solo
I have a lingering memory of My Morning Jacket's first tour of Australia that has nothing to do with them looking like Slayer, but sounding like Kermit the Frog fronting Crazy Horse.
At the end of their second Melbourne show at a half-full Corner Hotel in 2003, the band - who had just released their big-label debut, It Still Moves - turned down several parties because they wanted to work on new material at their hotel.
''I just like to jam in my room with my band,'' frontman Jim James said with a shrug to some rather bemused fans at the merch desk.
Nearly a decade on, and with three more acclaimed albums under their belts, does that ethos still apply?
''It just depends on the mood,'' James says from his home in Louisville, Kentucky, where he formed the band in 1998. ''Every day is different - some nights you feel like partying and some nights you don't. Sometimes you feel like being creative and some nights you feel like just unplugging completely.''
I'm speaking to James at a particularly Zen time in My Morning Jacket's existence. It's been almost a year since the release of sixth studio album Circuital and the 33-year-old singer couldn't be happier.
''I've been working on a lot of music on my own, trying to spend a lot of quality family time,'' he says in a laid-back southern drawl. ''I'm feeling good.'' But that's not to say he was pleased with the final product.
''I always have this constant nagging thing that nothing is good enough,'' he says.
''I can always do better and I can always push harder. But at the same time, I'm really grateful and really satisfied that we can pursue making art we love and are still able to pay the bills.''
James recently finished work on his debut solo album, some of which he hopes to unveil during a solo set at Boogie Festival in regional Victoria over the Easter long weekend.
''I just wanted to make a record completely by myself,'' he says.
''I've got string players on it and a friend plays drums on most of the record, but other than that I play everything myself - I've engineered it myself and I've done all the recording. I just wanted that experience.''
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.
LexGo interview (2011)
Photo from the official band Tumblr, 2011
On April 15th 2011 LexGo published an interview with Jim James and Patrick Hallahan, made by Walter Tunis. The original article can be found here.
Keywords: Circuital, Songwriting
By now, the Louisville lineage of My Morning Jacket is pretty much common knowledge.
The celebrated rock ensemble formed in Louisville, cut its initial recordings in nearby Shelbyville and honored the Derby City regularly as fame took the band from local bars and clubs to festivals and concert halls around the world.
With the release next month of its album Circuital, My Morning Jacket is celebrating those roots. Having cut 2008's wildly popular Evil Urges in New York, frontman Jim James and company returned to Louisville last year, set up a makeshift recording studio in a church gymnasium, and came up with a record that made the band feel, in all senses of the term, at home.
"It was very sweet," James said. "We had one session in the summer. It was so hot. But the heat really brought us together. I feel like you can hear the heat in the air in those songs. We just wanted it to be natural, where we were getting our main performances in one take. It just turned out that this beautiful old church gym where we set up to try some stuff out worked perfectly. And being in Kentucky, close to family and friends, gave us that full-circle feeling."
"For our last couple of albums, we intentionally put ourselves in situations that weren't in our comfort zones," My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan said. "We did that just to see what it would yield, because you don't want to get caught in a rut. But then we very much wanted to come back to Louisville this time. Everything started out as a demo session. We didn't even know at first that we would be making an album. It ended up working out very organically."
Much of the music on Circuital has been kept under wraps. But a limited-release single of the title tune was issued this week. It's a spacious-sounding song, mildly reminiscent of the more atmospheric psychedelia from the band's early albums. You hear it in the ominous guitar patterns, James' reverb-accented vocal wail and the eventual rockish detour that defies common categorization.
"The songs themselves always dictate the record," James said. "Then you kind of follow. Before I knew that, I would come in with all these grand ideas about a certain way I wanted things to be. But then at the end of the day, you only have the songs that the universe has given you at that point in time."
The road back to Lexington
Here is the curious thing: For all the roadwork it has clocked since its formation in 1998, My Morning Jacket has played Lexington exactly three times. The first was on a dirt-floor stage in the basement of the long-since-vacated Mecca studios on North Limestone in 2001. The others were opening gigs at the defunct Lynagh's Music Club (now Cosmic Charlie's) in early 2002. The band shared bills with the Ohio rock troupe Howlin' Maggie that January and with the veteran (and Louisville-born) roots, rock and R&B brigade NRBQ that May, during the club's final month of operation.
Hallahan remembers that last show well. It was his first performance as a member of My Morning Jacket. A lifelong Louisvillian, he was pals with James long before joining the band. But his presence has always been felt. He is generously credited as band photographer (under the moniker "Sir Patrick T. Hallahan") on the liner notes for My Morning Jacket's 1999 debut album, The Tennessee Fire.
"We've been so close over the years that we have kind of let each other be," Hallahan said. "I think it's important for the working environment of a band to not micromanage each other. It's easy to go down that path. But we have definitely gotten to a point in our friendship and in our band/business relationship that everything is pretty harmonious."
This weekend, nine years after its last shows here, My Morning Jacket finally returns to Lexington. And just as Circuital reconnects the band with its Louisville beginnings, Sunday's concert at Memorial Coliseum rekindles an underlying Lexington connection.
James was an art student briefly at the University of Kentucky during the mid-'90s. That's when some of the initial sparks of ideas and songs for the band began to take shape.
"I began the My Morning Jacket project in my dorm room at Holmes Hall at UK on my buddy Todd's 4-track," James said. "A few of the first shows I ever played were in places likes Common Grounds, Yat's (a '90s eatery at South Hill Station), open-mike nights and such.
"I worked many jobs in Lexington ... at Fazoli's and Subway, in landscaping. You name it. Walking the streets of Lexington, particularly downtown and up into the beautiful sections of Third Street, filled my mind with so many crazy ideas and ghosts. There are a lot of ghosts in Lexington, particularly where Boots' bar used to be and in the Reynolds Building. After many walks, I have come to find most of them are good."
New Morning
Circuital is set for release May 31, with a lengthy summer tour to follow, starting in June. The Memorial Coliseum date is, in essence, a warm-up for the more formal concert trek to come. But it's also an opportunity for one of Louisville's finest rock 'n' roll exports to reacquaint itself with a neighboring city that played a role in helping the band find its feet.
"I think it's fantastic," Hallahan said. "I just wish we would have planned something like this a little sooner. A lot of us have deep personal relationships with Lexington. It will be great to be back on those streets again."
"I cannot believe how long it has been," James said. "I have deep ties to Lexington and have come back many times over the years. I am always amazed at how much Lexington seems to be growing and how so much of it seems so positive.
"We went to see Sharon Jones at the new Buster's and were blown away by the venue. There is also the volume of local talent, like Ben Sollee (who will open Sunday's concert) and These United States.
"The spirits are deep in Lexington for me."
MySpace (2011)
Jim James Change Begins Within interview, 2009
On March 30th 2011 MySpace publish an interview with Jim James, done by Dan Hyman. Original article can be found here.
Keywords: Band members, Holdin' On To Black Metal, Circuital sound/themes, Circuital concept
In the three years since releasing 2008’s Evil Urges, the members of Kentucky’s My Morning Jacket explored their respective impulses: frontman Jim James put out a solo EP of George Harrison covers under the moniker Yim Yames before forming Monsters of Folk, an indie-folk supergroup with Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes and M. Ward, guitarist Carl Broemel released his second solo album, All Birds Say, drummer Patrick Hallahan periodically played drums for the Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach’s solo band, and keyboardist Bo Koster manned the boards as producer for rootsy-rock trio Middle Brother’s self-titled debut LP. While apart for these various projects, according to James, this musical exploration helped give My Morning Jacket — which also includes bassist Tommy “Two Tone” Blankenship — perspective when they finally regrouped to record their new album, Circuital. “We know we love each other,” James says of his 13-year-old band. “We all encourage each other to play as much music as possible and have as much fun out there learning, (but) it always feel great to come back to what we have.”
Whereas Evil Urges was recorded in a proper NYC studio, for Circuital — the band’s sixth full-length, set to be released on May 31st — the five-piece opted for far more casual digs: tracks were cut in a church gymnasium in the band’s hometown of Louisville, while others were birthed from intense jam sessions in James’ own basement. “We had never made a record in Louisville,” the shaggy-haired frontman explains of trekking back to familiar grounds. “The gym and church became home to the record and the spirits there. It just felt nice to be home.”
Several cuts, including the more-than-seven-minute title track, were the product of these casual basement sessions, which James says have become a regular occurrence. “We work on things a lot this way,” James says of this uninhibited, loose creative process. “There will be an idea and then we will play with it, knock it around and explore (it).”
This same brand of sporadic creativity came to James one afternoon during the recording of Circuital. The 32-year-old was driving around listening to a song from a Thai pop compilation that had inspired a yet-to-be-titled track on the album. James’ head was suddenly overtaken by the voices of screaming women: they were yelling ‘Black Metal’. Just like that, James decided to add backing female vocals to the song, which came to be known as ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’. It seems, for James, this process of musical excavation, is forever ongoing. “You are always hunting and searching,” he says. “You could listen to a new song every minute of every day of your life and still never hear it all.”
Despite Evil Urges being the best-selling MMJ record-to-date, James wanted to flip the script, eager to create a new listening experience. For James, one way to articulate his band’s musical metamorphosis is via culinary comparison. “Evil Urges,” James says, “is very bubbly or triangular — like Sprite or soda or beer. Circuital feels more smooth like milk or water.
“(It) deals with returning to the same place that you started as everyone has to do,” James concludes of Circuital, seeming to hint at the way in which the album, in many ways, mirrors the band’s zig-zagging path towards it. “Hopefully you do learn more and come back to that same place as a new being with fresh thought.”
21 Questions with My Morning Jacket's Jim James
On October 25th 2010 Louisville.com published an interview with Jim James, posted by Lou. The original interview can be found here.
My Morning Jacket returns to Louisville Oct. 29 for a hometown show at the new basketball arena. We going to hear some new material?
You betcha.
Weirdest place you’ve been recognized?
James Lipton from Inside the Actors Studio once recognized me in the bathroom at Late Night With Conan O’Brien. That was pretty surreal.
Coolest perk to being in My Morning Jacket?
I believe it’s best that I do not share that with you here!!!
Earliest childhood memory?
A giant orange Easter bunny standing above my crib with sunlight pouring in behind him. He is just staring at me with all the power of god and the universe in his gaze. But I’m just a wee babe; I can’t quite understand yet.
What song’s been stuck in your head lately?
“Danny Boy,” by Sil Austin.
Your drink?
Coconut water.
Best Louisville bar?
I only drink at home alone while listening to sad Eagles songs.
What film has had the greatest influence on your life?
2001: A Space Odyssey.
“ __________________________’s Louisville” should be the next banner on the side of a building.
Not to be mean, but honestly, I don’t like those banners. It makes it seem like the city is trying to prove something. Louisville is an awesome town, regardless of what famous icons are from here. Perhaps the banners should celebrate our parks, cool local businesses or attractions.
All-time favorite Louisville restaurant?
Zen Garden. It has the best-tasting (but still healthy) food.
Benedictine?
I hate cucumbers with all my body and soul and mind. They taste like dirty water.
All-time favorite Kentucky Derby winner?
I don’t eat horse.
Favorite bourbon drink?
Coconut water with bourbon in it.
Derby or Oaks?
The RiverBats. I love baseball.
Who’s somebody doing big things in Louisville and is flying under the radar?
I’m always preaching the virtues of Kevin Ratterman, the drummer for Wax Fang (opening for My Morning Jacket’s Louisville show) and also one of the greatest recording engineers around. He is the lifeblood of our city’s music scene, arguably our greatest musical asset. So much music would go unheard and unrecorded without him.
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I’ve always wanted to play music in some positive capacity for as long as I can remember. I enjoy playing live but have also been very intrigued by music and art therapy, especially watching my good friend Brian Schreck work with his music-therapy patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Public or private school?
I went to private school (including St. Xavier High School). But in hindsight I wish I’d gone public because I believe it gives one a more all-encompassing experience.
What tattoos do you have?
One is my guardian angel. The other is a face my li’l bro drew when he was three. He couldn’t have any more cake — but he really wanted cake — so he drew a crying face on a napkin. I saved it for years and finally had it tattooed on my arm.
If Actors Theatre did a production about your life, what would it be called?
He Played With Food.
What’s something nobody knows about you?
I love to play ice hockey on the original Nintendo.
Will you ever get sick of playing “One Big Holiday” live?
I hope not.
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.
Under The Radar (2010)
On August 1st 2010 Under The Radar published a piece about Twin Peaks, written by Jim James.
Keywords: Jim James
Making sure I had properly saved my game, I pushed the power button on my Nintendo Entertainment System to bring that day's Legend of Zelda adventures to a close. When Zelda disappeared, there was a man staring at me from the TV—a sharp-dressed man in a fine suit with his black hair slicked back, eyes searching for something beyond me at that time. Special Agent Dale Cooper—he spoke to something in me that was “good.” Something that wanted to know the truth about what all those grownups were doing.
Keywords: Jim James
Beyond Life and Death, Twin Peaks
Making sure I had properly saved my game, I pushed the power button on my Nintendo Entertainment System to bring that day's Legend of Zelda adventures to a close. When Zelda disappeared, there was a man staring at me from the TV—a sharp-dressed man in a fine suit with his black hair slicked back, eyes searching for something beyond me at that time. Special Agent Dale Cooper—he spoke to something in me that was “good.” Something that wanted to know the truth about what all those grownups were doing.
I watched the rest of that episode and saw a scary grey-haired man pop out at me from behind the couch. Bob. He spoke to something in me that was “bad,” something I wanted to deny but couldn’t quite do it somehow. Was I supposed to feel them both? The show ended and I was absolutely riveted by the music playing over the credits that night as the announcer from ABC informed me the show I had just seen was known as Twin Peaks.
I continued to look for Twin Peaks whenever I could. Whenever I was alone in the basement, I would pretend I was playing Nintendo now to watch this thing called Twin Peaks... because I knew if my mom sat and watched it with me—that’d be the end of that. I don’t know how else to describe it—and I didn’t fully realize it then—but this was my first realization of magic. Real magic. Beyond life and death. I mean, I had seen the Mona Lisa, and I owned a copy of Sgt. Pepper’s, and I knew I loved my family, and I knew it hurt when you lost something you loved, sure—but I had never really witnessed something that tied it all together somehow, beyond life and death. The thread of magic that holds it all together, it opened that door to understanding what magic really is: when you are having that deep understanding and two way back-and-forth with another soul that just sings. Or that point in life where two souls transcend every possible boundary when fortunate enough to really know each other in making love—real love that fully touches the heart and body and mind and soul in every way and you are just gone. You’re lost in the magic of the universe and God is alive in every kiss and touch and sweet word spoken. Or the feeling one is fortunate enough to feel when playing music or making art with true spirits of kindred soul, to really rip it wide open and tear a hole down the middle of the cosmos and feel God weep with joy that you are using what he and the spirits gave you the almighty gift of life for—you are really using it to its full potential, for all it is meant to be this life—feeling the magic and not taking it for granted.
“TV Too Good For TV.” Staying awake for the 30-plus hours or so that it takes to watch every episode plus the pilot and the movie Fire Walk With Me back-to-back—really feeling that statement to be so fucking true. The network needed to fit it into an easy box to market to the masses, but they just couldn’t do it. But it didn’t matter. David Lynch and Mark Frost and Angelo Badalamenti and the entire cast and crew behind the curtain—just digging their teeth in and drawing blood; making the good lord cry. And you pull back the curtain to chase Annie into the Black Lodge, but you’re really chasing you and there are your feet running over those black and white tiles. And you pull back another curtain and there is Laura and she’s laughing and her eyes are shining—but there she is again and now she is screaming with the kind of pain you thought no one else knew but you. The lights are flashing and God is sitting next to Bob and he is crying tears of blood and the midget and the giant are one and you know that gum you chew is going to come back in style. And there is Agent Cooper and God is smiling down on him and you realize your mission on earth: God’s love to deliver. But now Cooper is smashing his head against the mirror and you know that Satan is real and that shit! You’d better watch out for him too. And you realize that the middle, right between Cooper and Bob, that’s the place to be. That’s the place where most of us are. And you know the vein has been exposed and magic is real, you just needed a little help finding it. Didn’t fully doubt it before, but now you know it really exists. Something to talk about over the water cooler at work the next morning—“Beyond Life and Death.”
Hour Community (2011)
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| Jim James, Riverside Theater, Milwaukee, WI, June 2011, photo by CJ Foeckler |
Keywords:
Life is good for singer and guitarist Jim James. Moments before the soundcheck for the Oakland stop of My Morning Jacket’s current tour, James is outside the Fox Theatre, soaking in the sun while doing a series of phone interviews to talk about his band’s sixth CD.
"We just try to work with whatever songs have popped into our heads and whatever life brought us in the couple of years in between albums," he says, talking about the quintet’s creative process.
Although My Morning Jacket’s previous album, Evil Urges, was recorded in an expensive Manhattan studio, Circuital is a collection of songs captured live in the gymnasium of a church back home in Louisville – a way of doing things that was both a reaffirming action and an invigorating experience for the group. "We see ourselves as a live band and that’s a side of us that we really wanted to showcase once more on this CD," asserts James before revealing that the band also "really wanted to record together, all at the same time. Then, when we would go to the control room after a good take, we would hear each of us on it at the same time and we would already get some kind of complete picture of the song. It was an amazing and emotional experience."
An experience involving Muppets, too…
MUPPETS, FRIENDS AND COLLABORATORS
Reached by a Disney executive that wanted to produce a live show featuring Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, The Muppets’ rock band, Jim James and co. started working on a project that would eventually get scrapped.
"We had around three songs when we learned the [executive] got fired," recalls James. "So when we heard about the cancellation, we tried to save them." While the final version of Wonderful, the fourth track on Circuital, remains close to the Muppets demo, the following one, Outta My System, got a complete overhaul. "It’s so different that we’re considering releasing the Muppets version a bit later just so people can hear what we were trying to do with this project."
Even though Circuital saw My Morning Jacket bonding together in an intimate setting, the influence of the band’s friends and collaborators is still felt on tape. Among them, Tucker Martine, a renowned producer who also worked with The Decemberists, Mudhoney and R.E.M. "He’s just great!" exclaims the singer. "He has a great set of ears and he fit really well with us, just like a brother," he adds before elaborating, "It’s really tough to record an album with people with whom you don’t really share any kind of chemistry, but it was different with Tucker. Of course, I’ve met him a couple of times over the years – I recorded vocals for The Decemberists’ Hazards of Love a little while ago – so we hit it right off. But when recording our CD, I felt like – I don’t know if the term’s right but – I felt like I met a soulmate."
While James was working with The Decemberists (and with the Monsters of Folk, a supergroup he formed with Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and She & Him’s M. Ward, among others), his guitarist Carl Broemel played along Wanda Jackson’s band on The Party Ain’t Over, her latest opus. These collaborations are, in fact, part of My Morning Jacket’s modus operandi.
"We’re all so lucky to play with so many people," admits the singer. "It allows us to expand our worldview and to see how other people, often musicians we admire, work and to judge how different or similar their process is from ours. We even learn new techniques and new ways of living that way. It’s insane!" These musical distractions are, in fact, encouraged among the Louisville band. "We even get excited when one of our band members participates in a new project because he always comes back with something new for us too."
GENEROSITY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STAGE
For Circuital, My Morning Jacket went back to its roots, both geographically and musically. While this new album breathes new life into the quintet’s live shows, it won’t change the bond the band has with charities.
For their Montreal concert, for example, they will give a dollar from each ticket sold to local benefactors Équiterre. "We work with a San Francisco organization called Air Traffic Control. They connect musicians with non-profit organizations," explains James when asked about his involvement with Steven Guilbeault’s green action. "We try to help by donating, of course, and by allowing these local charities to have a space next to our merchandise table at each venue to introduce themselves to our public."
While this partnership is quite altruistic, My Morning Jacket tries to remain humble. "Oh, you know, we’re the lucky ones!" opines James. "We’re lucky enough to have people want to hear our music and want to see us play."
Clash Music (2011)
On the 13th of June 2011 Clash Music published an interview with Jim James, done by Simon Harper. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
From out of the pressure cooker and into the fire, My Morning Jacket have gone home to revamp...
In their thirteen year career, My Morning Jacket have continued to prove themselves a daring and ambitious group, whose musical adventures stretch from acoustic Americana through R&B to delicious disco - sometimes across the course of one album. An ever-changing beast, MMJ stand at the forefront of US rock; their creativity and intelligence develops with every release, and their fans faithfully follow.
However, as often with progressive attitudes, there will always be somebody slow to conform. 2008’s ‘Evil Urges’ caught some flak for the infiltration of quirky grooves to proceedings (Pitchfork called their Prince-ish ‘Highly Suspicious’ track “eye-poppingly annoying”), but mostly for not being ‘Z’, its expansive and breathtaking John Leckie-produced predecessor. Three years later, Jim James, their angel-voiced frontman, confesses that ‘Evil Urges’ was “the hardest record we’ve ever made”.
Retreating to their native Kentucky for the creation of new album ‘Circuital’ served as a reminder for the vitality of their genesis, and the music, as a result, is charged with passion, freedom and, unnervingly, black metal.
Clash spoke with a newly impervious Jim James ahead of their epic sixth release...
So, you decided to record back in Kentucky. Did you feel like the band needed grounding again, to remind you where you came from?
Yeah, in a way. It’s funny, for me, with music, how little control I have over what comes out of me. I kinda feel like every album we make, all those songs that kinda come out of me for one reason or another...that’s just kinda how the universe made it happen. It’s really not much of a conscious decision on my part. I just kinda work with what I have at the time, so I guess that’s what the universe wants to happen. I don’t ever set out to say, ‘This record’s gonna be a response to the last record’ or anything like that; it is what it is.
But when the band get a hold of your songs and they naturally evolve, they do eventually sound different to what’s gone before. Do you notice these differences? Are you happy to go along with what happens?
Yeah. I just like to enjoy music. I know that as I grow and change as a person I enjoy different music and that seeps into the music that I write. I’m always just happy to be into what I’m into at the time, and the guys are always really communicative and helpful about making it all our own once we get into the process of us all working on it and writing it and putting it all together.
Is there any thought given to how it might go down with the fans? Do you worry that some might not embrace the change?
Every record we put out, after a while you just kinda learn that you’re never gonna please everybody. You don’t really know what people are gonna think, and now that the Internet is here, everybody has a voice, so everybody’s comments all kinda get neutralised. Because one person will review your album and say that it’s the worst piece of shit they’ve ever heard, and then the next person will review it and say that they love it and they think it’s wonderful and intelligent and beautifully done. It just makes me even more sure that I should just have fun with this and do what I want to do and have a good time with it.
In a recent interview where you were asked to suggest some of your favourite music, you chose a record by Thai group Ubon Pattana, then it transpired that the track ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’ from this album grew from a loop taken from a Thai song. Where did your love of Thai music come from?
We all love all different kinds of music. I try to listen to and consume as much music as I can, from any genre or any place in the world. My love with it started when a buddy of mine, who has always turned me on to great music over the years, turned me on to this ‘Cambodian Cassette Archives’ record that was put out a few years ago. There’s a label called Sublime Frequencies, they release some really cool music like that. I heard that ‘Cambodian Cassette Archives’ record and was just really blown away with it and really inspired by it. I guess that was almost seven or eight years ago now that that record came out, but then over the last couple of years, Sublime Frequencies have put out other records like the Thai pop record that I found ‘Black Metal’ on. That was a weird experience for me, because I’ve experimented a little bit with sampling over the years, but not too much - I’ve always been a fan of hip-hop music and the sampling culture and the artform of it, but I’d never really done it too much until I did the Monsters Of Folk record [James’ supergroup with Conor Oberst, M.Ward and Mike Mogis] and I used a sample on that record. Then I heard this Thai pop record and for some reason fell into a trance with this ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’ riff, and I kinda rode around in the car and had the song on repeat, and all these lyrics started popping out of my head, and all these melodies started popping out of my head. Because the original song where the loop for ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’ came from, I obviously can’t understand what the guy is singing, so his voice almost became just another instrument, and it became a really cool pad for me to start singing my own words over and my own thoughts.
The choir that sings on ‘Black Metal’ was recorded in a funeral home - that’s taking things a bit literal, isn’t it?
Yeah! Our friend Kevin Ratterman, who helped us record the record, had his own studio above his family’s funeral home in downtown Louisville, and that’s where we tracked the girls. It’s actually a fun place - he jokes and called it ‘The Fun Home’ instead of ‘The Funeral Home’. It wasn’t as dark as it sounds.
You previously said that your last album ‘Evil Urges’ was the hardest record you ever made. How did it become so?
We intentionally set out to make it a challenge. We went to Manhattan and were in a studio that had time limits. We tried to get the energy of the city. We tried to build kind of a pressure cooker environment, because you hear stories of people working in those kind of environments, like The Clash working in some crazy studio environment with a producer that was a total asshole, and there’s all this pressure and all this crazy energy going on. So we were trying to experiment with that and create some of that, because that‘s normally not how we work at all - we work in a very calm and relaxed way on our own time clock. It was an experiment for us to see how differently we could do a record, and it was really tough.
Do you think it backfired at all?
I don’t know. People have different opinions on it. I’m glad we did it, because I’m glad for the experience and I feel like that record is what it is and holds a particular place in our catalogue, which I’m glad it does, because I feel like it gives our catalogue even more variety and even more different soundscapes and stuff. So I don’t have any regrets about it. When we released that record, people were like, ‘This is ridiculous that they’re trying to do anything different than the stuff they did before’, and other people are really glad we’re trying to do different stuff.
Did the pressure cooker environment assert itself on the band members at all, turning you against each other?
Luckily no. We didn’t really get angry with each other or anything like that. You just hear stories about bands working in these environments where they have a real almost violent relationship with the producer or the time they’re working in, and I feel like our recording sessions have always been so peaceful and they’ve always been out in the country and really kinda laidback affairs. So I think it was our attempt to see if that kind of environment did anything dramatically different to the music, and I think the music was already different anyway. It just kinda proved to us that it was more difficult, and we didn’t really enjoy doing that! (Laughs)
Do you think success has affected you at all, either positively or negatively?
The only thing that I really don’t enjoy is the analysis of what we do. Because I feel like after a while it does feel like you’re in some therapy session or something, because everybody’s constantly analysing your work. But that’s just a small price to pay though, because I feel really fortunate. I feel more fortunate than anything. I just feel fortunate that we’re able to make music that we love and that people want to come see us play it live. I feel so fortunate that that part of our dream has been able to come true. I feel like the only way we can be real to our fans is to make the music that we’re feeling at that point in time. If certain people don’t like it for a record, fine; maybe they’ll like it next record. Or maybe they’ll only like one of our records. You almost have no control over that. I feel like I used to worry about that a lot more, but now I know for sure that I don’t have any control over that.
Keywords:
From out of the pressure cooker and into the fire, My Morning Jacket have gone home to revamp...
In their thirteen year career, My Morning Jacket have continued to prove themselves a daring and ambitious group, whose musical adventures stretch from acoustic Americana through R&B to delicious disco - sometimes across the course of one album. An ever-changing beast, MMJ stand at the forefront of US rock; their creativity and intelligence develops with every release, and their fans faithfully follow.
However, as often with progressive attitudes, there will always be somebody slow to conform. 2008’s ‘Evil Urges’ caught some flak for the infiltration of quirky grooves to proceedings (Pitchfork called their Prince-ish ‘Highly Suspicious’ track “eye-poppingly annoying”), but mostly for not being ‘Z’, its expansive and breathtaking John Leckie-produced predecessor. Three years later, Jim James, their angel-voiced frontman, confesses that ‘Evil Urges’ was “the hardest record we’ve ever made”.
Retreating to their native Kentucky for the creation of new album ‘Circuital’ served as a reminder for the vitality of their genesis, and the music, as a result, is charged with passion, freedom and, unnervingly, black metal.
Clash spoke with a newly impervious Jim James ahead of their epic sixth release...
So, you decided to record back in Kentucky. Did you feel like the band needed grounding again, to remind you where you came from?
Yeah, in a way. It’s funny, for me, with music, how little control I have over what comes out of me. I kinda feel like every album we make, all those songs that kinda come out of me for one reason or another...that’s just kinda how the universe made it happen. It’s really not much of a conscious decision on my part. I just kinda work with what I have at the time, so I guess that’s what the universe wants to happen. I don’t ever set out to say, ‘This record’s gonna be a response to the last record’ or anything like that; it is what it is.
But when the band get a hold of your songs and they naturally evolve, they do eventually sound different to what’s gone before. Do you notice these differences? Are you happy to go along with what happens?
Yeah. I just like to enjoy music. I know that as I grow and change as a person I enjoy different music and that seeps into the music that I write. I’m always just happy to be into what I’m into at the time, and the guys are always really communicative and helpful about making it all our own once we get into the process of us all working on it and writing it and putting it all together.
Is there any thought given to how it might go down with the fans? Do you worry that some might not embrace the change?
Every record we put out, after a while you just kinda learn that you’re never gonna please everybody. You don’t really know what people are gonna think, and now that the Internet is here, everybody has a voice, so everybody’s comments all kinda get neutralised. Because one person will review your album and say that it’s the worst piece of shit they’ve ever heard, and then the next person will review it and say that they love it and they think it’s wonderful and intelligent and beautifully done. It just makes me even more sure that I should just have fun with this and do what I want to do and have a good time with it.
In a recent interview where you were asked to suggest some of your favourite music, you chose a record by Thai group Ubon Pattana, then it transpired that the track ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’ from this album grew from a loop taken from a Thai song. Where did your love of Thai music come from?
We all love all different kinds of music. I try to listen to and consume as much music as I can, from any genre or any place in the world. My love with it started when a buddy of mine, who has always turned me on to great music over the years, turned me on to this ‘Cambodian Cassette Archives’ record that was put out a few years ago. There’s a label called Sublime Frequencies, they release some really cool music like that. I heard that ‘Cambodian Cassette Archives’ record and was just really blown away with it and really inspired by it. I guess that was almost seven or eight years ago now that that record came out, but then over the last couple of years, Sublime Frequencies have put out other records like the Thai pop record that I found ‘Black Metal’ on. That was a weird experience for me, because I’ve experimented a little bit with sampling over the years, but not too much - I’ve always been a fan of hip-hop music and the sampling culture and the artform of it, but I’d never really done it too much until I did the Monsters Of Folk record [James’ supergroup with Conor Oberst, M.Ward and Mike Mogis] and I used a sample on that record. Then I heard this Thai pop record and for some reason fell into a trance with this ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’ riff, and I kinda rode around in the car and had the song on repeat, and all these lyrics started popping out of my head, and all these melodies started popping out of my head. Because the original song where the loop for ‘Holdin’ On To Black Metal’ came from, I obviously can’t understand what the guy is singing, so his voice almost became just another instrument, and it became a really cool pad for me to start singing my own words over and my own thoughts.
The choir that sings on ‘Black Metal’ was recorded in a funeral home - that’s taking things a bit literal, isn’t it?
Yeah! Our friend Kevin Ratterman, who helped us record the record, had his own studio above his family’s funeral home in downtown Louisville, and that’s where we tracked the girls. It’s actually a fun place - he jokes and called it ‘The Fun Home’ instead of ‘The Funeral Home’. It wasn’t as dark as it sounds.
You previously said that your last album ‘Evil Urges’ was the hardest record you ever made. How did it become so?
We intentionally set out to make it a challenge. We went to Manhattan and were in a studio that had time limits. We tried to get the energy of the city. We tried to build kind of a pressure cooker environment, because you hear stories of people working in those kind of environments, like The Clash working in some crazy studio environment with a producer that was a total asshole, and there’s all this pressure and all this crazy energy going on. So we were trying to experiment with that and create some of that, because that‘s normally not how we work at all - we work in a very calm and relaxed way on our own time clock. It was an experiment for us to see how differently we could do a record, and it was really tough.
Do you think it backfired at all?
I don’t know. People have different opinions on it. I’m glad we did it, because I’m glad for the experience and I feel like that record is what it is and holds a particular place in our catalogue, which I’m glad it does, because I feel like it gives our catalogue even more variety and even more different soundscapes and stuff. So I don’t have any regrets about it. When we released that record, people were like, ‘This is ridiculous that they’re trying to do anything different than the stuff they did before’, and other people are really glad we’re trying to do different stuff.
Did the pressure cooker environment assert itself on the band members at all, turning you against each other?
Luckily no. We didn’t really get angry with each other or anything like that. You just hear stories about bands working in these environments where they have a real almost violent relationship with the producer or the time they’re working in, and I feel like our recording sessions have always been so peaceful and they’ve always been out in the country and really kinda laidback affairs. So I think it was our attempt to see if that kind of environment did anything dramatically different to the music, and I think the music was already different anyway. It just kinda proved to us that it was more difficult, and we didn’t really enjoy doing that! (Laughs)
Do you think success has affected you at all, either positively or negatively?
The only thing that I really don’t enjoy is the analysis of what we do. Because I feel like after a while it does feel like you’re in some therapy session or something, because everybody’s constantly analysing your work. But that’s just a small price to pay though, because I feel really fortunate. I feel more fortunate than anything. I just feel fortunate that we’re able to make music that we love and that people want to come see us play it live. I feel so fortunate that that part of our dream has been able to come true. I feel like the only way we can be real to our fans is to make the music that we’re feeling at that point in time. If certain people don’t like it for a record, fine; maybe they’ll like it next record. Or maybe they’ll only like one of our records. You almost have no control over that. I feel like I used to worry about that a lot more, but now I know for sure that I don’t have any control over that.
Premier Guitar (2011)
Hangout Music Festival 2011, Gulf Shore Alabama, photo by Cara Bloch
Around June 10th Premier Guitar published an interview with Jim James and Carl Broemel, done by Brad Barrett. The original interview can be found here.
Keywords:
Over the last decade, My Morning Jacket has proven itself to be perhaps the contemporary band most adept at absorbing and mixing country, folk, rock ’n’ roll, gospel, funk, and soul. So adept, in fact, that they were invited to open for Neil Young. And their Coachella and Bonnaroo performances over the last few years have been genuinely epic (their 35-song 2008 Bonnaroo set lasted four hours and featured guest appearances by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis). Led by singer/guitarist Jim James’ falsetto hollers and smooth crooning, the Louisville, Kentucky, outfit has managed to consistently capture and distil the essence of American musical origins, as evidenced by everything from the raw, lo-fi raggedness of 1999’s The Tennessee Fire to 2008’s sultry, Grammy-nominated Evil Urges. The current lineup—founders James and bassist Tom Blankenship, along with guitarist Carl Broemel, drummer Patrick Hallahan, and keyboardist Bo Koster—has been together since 2005’s Z, which happened to be the album when their heavy Americana leanings really burst forth. Coinciding with that subtle shift was a greater affinity for keys, soaring guitar breaks, and eclectic surprises such as the single “Highly Suspicious”—which had a wah-fueled funk riff like something you’d hear from Prince.
But MMJ’s latest album, Circuital—with its gentle fingerpicked passages, spacious echoes, gorgeous vocal harmonies, and winsome pedal-steel lines—marks something of a return to the band’s roots, And it’s no doubt due at least partially to a three-year break, during which many members of the band explored other musical outlets. James formed the super group Monsters of Folk (with singer-songwriter M. Ward, and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes) and recorded an EP of George Harrison covers under the name Yim Yames. Meanwhile, Broemel played on various sessions, including rockabilly star Wanda Jackson’s latest album, and Hallahan toured with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach in support of his 2009 solo album Keep It Hid. Whatever the reason, Jacket’s latest outing is more lushly atmospheric and acoustic-driven than their last two efforts—although there are some notable exceptions: “Holdin’ on to Black Metal” has a Thai-soul sound, with funky horn stabs and electric piano grooves, while “You Wanna Freak Out” features a gloriously fuzzed-out, square-tooth-filtered guitar solo.
“I feel like solo acoustic material has always been a part of MMJ,” James says when asked if his stint in Monsters of Folk contributed to the sparser sound of Circuital. “Our records usually feature one or two tunes that are pretty simple. I’ve always liked taking a minute to boil it down and space out.” A prime example of the sort of sound James is referring to is “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)”—a hymn to simple pleasures that finds James indulging in twinkling acoustic arpeggios and intermittent string-section filigrees.
Live at the Gymnasium
One of the more interesting—and kudos-deserving—things about Circuital is that the vast majority of tracks were recorded live in a rather sonically unfriendly environment.
“This was such a fun record to make,” says James. “We just set up in a beautiful old gym from the early 1900s and kept the gear real simple—just our tape machine and some nice mics.”
“We discovered we’re innately happier there than in a proper recording studio,” agrees Broemel. “It’s fun to have no reason to look at a ticking clock or have to say ‘Oh, the drums always sound great over here’—to be in a space that doesn’t feel as if it’s been used for what you’re using it for. We got some overdubs done in Brick and Stone Studios in Nashville, and I love it. It’s an amazing studio—so much equipment— but they have pictures of the Beatles everywhere. When you’re trying to record your songs, you don’t want to look at pictures of the Beatles. C’mon, it’s a little intimidating! [Laughs.] In the gym, we were in our own universe, which is the best place for us.”
Pedal-Steel Preparations
Another reason Circuital feels like a return to form for MMJ is because the albums prior to Broemel’s arrival had a lot of pedal- steel playing. But apparently Broemel has spent the last four years training himself on the instrument, because it adds a familiarly soaring, classic-country vibe to “Outta My System,” “Holdin’ on to Black Metal,” “You Wanna Freak Out” and “Movin’ Away.”
“I had always been curious about it,” he admits. “I love country music and I love the sound of pedal steel, but I didn’t know how to play it, how it was set up, or even how many strings it had. I found a really great teacher and he gave me a couple of lessons and showed me how it relates to the guitar,” explains Broemel. “There’s been so much amazing stuff done with it in country and swing and jazz, and I try to be conscious of that—but I’m not trying to master it. I treat it more as an ambient thing. I’m just applying it to what we do and trying to make sounds that I feel like I haven’t heard yet. Now, sitting down and playing it is one of my favorite things about being in the band. I’m kind of a beginner, so I just use it for what I know I can pull off without falling on my face.”
In addition to constituting a return to classic MMJ form, pedal steel also boosts Broemel’s creativity on his main instrument. “I love the guitar, but sometimes you get burned out and go ‘I don’t even know what to do!’ When that happens, I’ll play pedal-steel guitar for a while, and having to think about the theory and how the instrument works and then going back to guitar helps me picture the fretboard differently. You get a different perspective.”
A Lot of Gear for a “Minimal” Rig
Whether crafting eerie shimmers or slashing at minor chords with a reverb-drenched overdrive, Broemel has a surprising amount of gear for a man who says he likes to keep his setup minimal. One of his favorite new pieces is a German-made Duesenberg. “Until this record, I used all Les Pauls, all the time. I bought a couple of Duesenberg guitars after the last record—my friend runs a studio in Indiana and he had a couple, including a 12-string that I used on a session there. So I bought the Double Cat 12-string, and then a guy from Duesenberg brought me a Starplayer TV, which is kind of their version of a Gibson ES-335 and has the Bigsby on it—and I love Bigsbys. I’ve always had Bigsbys on my favorite black Les Paul Standard, my main guitar. I used the Starplayer for the whole record, basically. The neck’s a little bit longer scale than a Les Paul, and it’s the only hollowbody I have. The older songs don’t feel right on the Duesenberg, but the newer songs do, so it’s cool that an instrument is dictating how I play and making me play a little bit differently. It’s like a hi-fi, fancy guitar—like a BMW guitar. It’s too nice for me!” he laughs.
As for amps, Broemel says, “I’ve always been partial to combos. I’ve always used pedals for overdrive, so I just look at what’s going to work live and be really flexible and play all the songs on it. But it’s such a slippery slope—you can go chasing those zenith guitar sounds, but what’s the point? Do you want to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan or just like Jimmy Page? Or Jimi Hendrix? I don’t really care about that. If it sounds like me—if that’s possible—then great. I’ve been using a Carr Rambler live, and I love that. I also have a couple of old Fenders. I have a Vibrasonic, as well, which I use for the pedal steel—it’s a silverface with a 15" speaker.”
James stuck to his tried-and-true guitars, including a 1999 Gibson Flying V and a Breedlove Revival Custom acoustic. Amps-wise, he waxes lyrical about a new discovery: “I have finally found an amp I love both on the road and in the studio— the 3 Monkeys Orangutan. It is unreal how versatile this amp sounds. It can truly do everything. I feel like I’m doing a product endorsement right now,” he admits. “But I’m really being serious. The amp sounds amazing and it looks beautiful, too—like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey or something. God bless that amp.”
Given MMJ’s Americana emphasis, one would correctly surmise that James and Broemel don’t use a lot of strange effects— though both have a wide selection of echo, reverb, and overdrive pedals. Indeed, Jacket seems to exist in a cloud of reverb, so the two guitarists’ attention in this area is no real surprise. But what might be surprising is the lack of full-on vintage love and the embrace of many new boutique stompboxes, including models from SIB, Z.Vex, EarthQuaker Devices, Malekko, Durham Electronics, and Boss. hat said, Broemel is pretty adamant about the necessity of one vintage-styled piece of signal-altering gear. “I’ve got one of those Tube Tape Echos,” he says of the treasured Fulltone unit he used on pretty much every Circuital song. “That thing is unbelievable. That and great amps are all you need in the studio. I try not to use too much, though—only what I need.”
Finding a Balance
Another reason why Circuital sounds a little more reigned-in than some of MMJ’s recent albums is the more supportive role that the guitars play. Whereas past MMJ tunes like “Gideon,” “It Beats 4 U,” and “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream, Pt. 1” had more central guitar refrains, this set is very much about delectable songs that create an irresistible mood.
“I feel the guitar is far more effective on record when it’s used sparingly,” James says, “but live it translates very well and provides a lot of excitement. So, I try to find balance between those two worlds.”
Here Broemel cuts in to add some context. “We approach all the instruments equally. As much as we try to experiment and try to use keyboards or saxophones or something to pull the weight of the midrange where the guitar would typically go, a lot of times we’d end up saying ‘Y’know, the guitar is the best thing there.’”
As an example of the type of egalitarian musicianship that’s more prevalent on Circuital, one need look no further than the build-up of the opening track, “Victory Dance”: A gong and a heraldic electric-piano refrain lead into spoken-word vocals that slowly build to a crescendo of strings and sparse, slapback-tinged electrics that snap here and there before tremolo-goaded chords warble and swell into out-of-control feedback and the whole song gets sucked into a frenetic vortex of sound. But Broemel feels the title track has the album’s finest guitar spot: Clean, palm-muted electric arpeggios and James’ lilting voice set a lovely, optimistic mood before the choruses lift you a little higher with John Mellencamp-like acoustic splashes and bristling power-chord stabs, and then, more than five minutes into the seven-plus-minute song, Broemel and Hallahan ratchet up the pulse with crashing snare and cymbals, a bunch of Bigsby wobbling, soaring melodies, and a series of joyous descending double-stops—all with impeccable tone that speaks volumes with a delectable minimalism.
“I consider that a flashy guitar solo— that’s the big guitar moment for me,” Broemel says. “Being flashy just isn’t that important to me. I remember thinking, ‘There’s plenty of space for me to play a solo in this song . . . I could do that and that and that.’ When we were done with the main tracks, everybody went, ‘I think we’re done,’ and I was like, ‘Wait a minute— I was just trying to get stuff together during that. That can’t be it!’ I was totally bummed. We finished that session, went home, reconvened, and tried to record the song again, but we just couldn’t redo it— I’d grown accustomed to the solo I played and I was like ‘Thank God it is what it is!’ Jim’s vocal vibe, the weird piano notes, all the things that happened in that moment— they can’t be replicated. I don’t think it’s the most unbelievable guitar solo ever played, but it’s something I’m glad we caught.
“And that’s been the huge lesson of this record,” Broemel continues. “It’s all about intent versus just letting it happen. If you try to play it well, it’s terrible! If you’re just playing for the sake of playing—if you can somehow get to that place where you get something neat that you didn’t intend to do—that’s better than something you would’ve come up with logically.”
Carl Broemel’s Gearbox
Guitars
Duesenberg Starplayer TV, Duesenberg Double Cat 6/12, 1988 Gibson Les Paul Standard with Bigsby, Gibson goldtop Les Paul with P-90s, reissue Gibson Les Paul Junior, GFI S-10 pedal-steel guitar
Amps
Carr Rambler, Carr Vincent, vintage Fender Vibrolux, vintage Fender Princeton Reverb, vintage Fender Vibrasonic (for pedal steel)
Effects
Keeley Compressor (two-knob), Electro-Harmonix Micro POG, Electro-Harmonix Freeze (“My new favorite pedal!”), Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Fulltone PlimSoul, Fulltone Tube Tape Echo, Durham Electronics Sex Drive, Eventide ModFactor, Eventide TimeFactor, SIB Mr Echo, Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb, Hilton Volume Pedal (for pedal steel), Fulltone Fat-Boost (pedal steel), SIB Mr Echo (pedal steel), Boss DD-6 Digital Delay (pedal steel), Eventide ModFactor (pedal steel)
Strings and Picks
D’Addario EXL 115s (electric), Jim Dunlop Tortex .73 mm
Jim James’ Gearbox
Guitars
Custom 2008 Breedlove Revival 000, ’50s Martin 000, Gibson J-185, Gretsch Super Axe, 1999 Gibson Flying V, 1975 Fender Strat, two Gibson ES-335s
Amps
3 Monkeys Orangutan head and 2x12 cabinet, Mesa/Boogie Tremoverb head
Effects
Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb/ Delay, Boss TU-2 Tuner, SIB Mr Echo, Z.Vex Box of Rock, Z.Vex Woolly Mammoth, EarthQuaker Devices Monarch overdrive, EarthQuaker Devices Ghost Echo, Malekko Spring Chicken reverb
Strings and Picks
D’Addario EXL115 sets (electric), and D’Addario EJ17 sets (acoustic), Jim Dunlop Tortex .88 mm
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