My Morning Jacket at Austin City Limits 2011, shot with a slow motion camera
My Morning Jacket has featured in several video interviews of different kinds. This is an attempt to collect as many as possible, view them by year below.
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.
On June 20th Bi fm published a video interview with Patrick Hallahan and Bo Koster.
Keywords:
Bo Koster: We haven't really seen much, we just pulled up and sound checked, but we played here 2006 and we always remember it fondly. We had a great time in 2006, so we're hoping that tonight will be even better.
Patrick Hallahan: Yeah, yeah, we have a couple of friends on the bill that we are excited to see, M. Ward and North Mississippi Allstars are here. So it's kind of a nice little re-union to see those guys
BK: Skynard. I've actually never seen Lynard Skynard. I had to come all the way to Spain...
PH: [laughs]
BK: ...to see
PH: I know, yeah, yeah
BK: So that's pretty cool
PH: This is kicking off, yeah this is kicking off the, it's the first European date. Where are we going? Oh we're heading north from here all the way, we'll go as far as Norway and Sweden.
BK: Yeah
PH: So, from Spain to Sweden.
BK: Tonight's the first night that we're doing our Spontaneous Curation Series, where we are asking fans to help us decide what songs to play in the set. Especially what song we open with. And so it's kind of forcing us to get out of our comfort zone and play different songs and put them in different orders. And taking the control, giving the control to the fans.
PH: I think internet can be a double edge sword, but we try to use it for good and you know really. I think internet has knocked down that wall between fan and band. So there's a, I do, I think we miss the mystery between fan and band, but at the same time it's a beautiful tool to do what you're saying, to create situations like this where they're picking songs on our setlist and winning autographed things from our repertoire on a day by day basis. We really like to use the internet as a positive tool.
BK: I think it's still bigger in the states. We're making headway over here though, it seems like every time we come over more people know about us in different countries and we... It seem to be a... I don't know.
PH: I think our popularity is relative to how much we tour and we had to cancel a couple of tours in Europe. So we don't really have any radio singles, our songs are too long usually, so we need to tour more over here and we're starting to feel the effects of it, it's really nice.
PH: I'll tell you what, there's a great differenced between why I like Bonnaroo and why I like the Azkena festival . This festival is really special because there's only two stages and that's one thing that... There's three this year? Well when we first came it, there were only two stages here and it was great because there was only one stage to play at once. So everybody at the festival would go to that stage and then the next band would play and they'd go to that band. Whereas Bonnaroo is, God how many stages are at Bonnaroo, like 15 stages, yeah. And it's just a huge widespread area, which is, it's awesome, it has its own magic to it. But we really like this feel of this festival, it's much more intimate.
BK: The thing about Bonnaroo that's so special is that you get 90,000 people to camp. They're all camping, like some people stay in hotels, but there's very limited hotel space right? So you really have to commit to the whole experience. So it's down and dirty, like you're not gonna get showers, you're not gonna like have your normal amenities. So I think it puts people on this frame of mind where they're all in to use a poker term. They're ready to do whatever it takes to make the weekend fun, so the spirit is high there. 'Cause people are like geared up to do it, 'cause they give y'know? Instead of going back to your bed, your home.
PH: [laughs] No, my wife just did actually, she was with to Bonnaroo, it was last week and she had a blast. So I would camp the way that they camp, I don't know, we're just being honest.
PH: We've been kind of buddies with those guys [Band of Horses] for a little while and they have always said that they wanted to play shows with us and then we were kind of looking for an opener for the Madison Square Garden show last December and we had them open up. And it was just like a perfect fit, our fans and their fans are kind of along the same lines and we got along with them really well. We feel that our music matches well together and I don't know, they're just great guys. We thought it would be a good fit.
BK: And honestly they're almost doing us a favor by opening up for us, 'cause they could easily headline their own tour of this similar size.
PH: Yeah, that's very true.
BK: So we feel lucky and grateful that they're gonna do it, 'cause they're good people and they make great music.
PH: This is something that has been in the works for a long time and actually [laughs] our career has delayed his solo albums. So y'know it's was just kind of an understood thing that at some point he would go off and do a solo album. He's pretty much gonna put that out, tour for a month and then we start recording another album. It gives us more time at home. [laughs]
BK: Yeah everything's healthy y'know, it's all healthy kind of creative environment that we're all in, like we're all open to doing things with other people. Him doing a solo record is just about feeding the creative desire, we're still gonna do our thing and it's great. It's good for everybody.
PH: When will that be out? Ah, I have no idea, you know what, I guess...
BK: Hopefully sooner than later.
PH: Yeah, yeah, I guess we'll probably start recording in spring of next year. I'd say probably April or May. Isn't that when we kind of slotted the time?
PH: [laughs] We would be honored to be on American Dad again, yeah. Do you like that show? Yeah, I love it yeah, we're actually friends with the guys Jim James: [walks past interview] That's not true! PH: You get out of here! You've had your time!
On October 11th 2011 Boing Boing published an video with My Morning Jacket, done by Scott Compton. The original post can be found here.
"On June 24, My Morning Jacket descended on Oakland's historic Fox Theater for an epic performance in support of their majestic album, Circuital. Remedy Editorial's Scott Compton and his merry band of video documentarians made the scene on behalf of Boing Boing. You'll remember Scott and crew as the artistes who brought The Swell Season and The Decemberists to the big little screen for Boing Boing Video. We are now honored to feature their loving cut of My Morning Jacket, interviewed and live in concert on June 24, 2011."
Time spend interviewing the band: 45 minutes Video runtime: 21 minutes Show recorded at: Fox Theater, June 24th 2011 Equipment: 6 cameras, including a RED Epic rolling 4480x1920pixels at 120FPS and Canon HDSLRs
Rough transcript Jim James: I'm Jim and I play guitar and I sing Patrick Hallahan: I'm Patrick and I play the drums JJ: And we've known each other since fourth grade, we have the same birthday. I'm four minutes older. Interviewer: Did you guys have beards back then? JJ: We did JJ and PH together: We came out with beards PH: I think that's what it was that drew us together, that we were the only fourth graders with beards JJ: Yeah
Tom Blankenship: I'm Tom Blankenship and I play bass guitar. Interviewer: Other than Jim you're the oldest, you've been in the band the longest. TB: I'm the oldest living human being in the world
[laughs] PH: How old are you now? TB: Hundred and thirty five. PH: You're a hundred and thirty five years old?
[nods] JJ: Wow. PH: Looking good baby. TB: Thanks.
Carl Broemel: My name is Carl Broemel, I play guitar, sing, sax, pedal steel, pour espresso shots in the morning. PH: Barista extraordinaire.
Bo Koster: I'm Bo Koster, I been like in love with the piano since I was five. Even if somebody sits down and tinkles the piano, I get excited.
JJ: Since Bo and Carl joined the band, this has been the longest line-up of the band ever since it's been around. They just totally opened up a whole new galaxy. A lot of my favorite musicians are schooled, but the school didn't destroy their creative brain. Bo and Carl have both had schooling. They brought a really great essence to us where we could look at problems we were having sometimes via their knowledge of actual notes and actual chord voicing and things you're talking about, that I'm like 'I want it to sound pink' or 'I want it to sound purple' PH: Bo and Carl brought less nicknames to different parts our songs.
[laughs] BK: We adopted the nicknames CB: Hell yeah BK: Now we talk in metaphors CB: Exactly
[laughs] JJ: You know I'm still grateful and appreciative to the other members who were in the band in the beginning, but to me, this is the band.
Interviewer: Could we talk about recording in a studio versus recording where you guys choose to record, which was inside a church. JJ: So our first three records are made at our studios and then we made Z at a place called Allaire studios which is in upstate New York, which was amazing, because it was a real proper studio, but it was also in this crazy mansion. So you were still dealing with unconventional spaces, it wasn't like your typical thing. Then during Evil Urges we kind of wanted to, we were like okay we've never been in a quote on quote real studio, let's go to a real studio and just see how that impacts us.
JJ: When you're in a real studio that's already been predetermined by all these scientific guidelines, you're kind of living under somebody else's roof PH: That's true JJ: For us it's so much more fun to live under your own roof. So for this record when we went to this crazy church gymnasium, we're like tearing apart tents and putting over the drum set and wrapping sleeping bags around them and all these stuff to change the sound, y'know and moving PH: Moving pianos from room to room, it's more fun that way JJ: It's kind of like your own guerrilla space and you're trying to fight for whatever sound you want in there, it therefor becomes your sound, 'cause of nobody else has that sound.
CB: We didn't have any kind of creature comforts at all in there, it's nice, a nice break. There was no wireless internet happening PH: Yeah CB: There was no air conditioning in the summer too, so those are the sort of things that sort of snap you out of your normal reality, like 'I'm used to being comfortable' at time and then you're like playing, you're like fuck I'm just covered in sweat . 'Send somebody out for some, y'know, ice coffee!', it's like you can't do that. We didn't have (...) for that. So that's a good place to be in, just like out of the ordinary.
Interviewer: Do you guys write songs while you're travelling? JJ: I always wanted to be more constructive with road time in terms of songwriting and recording, but I don't know why, it's just really tough. I get little snips that pop into my brain that I save on my cellphone voice recording, just to not forget the idea. But the days on tour, it's strange because they're pretty busy, but there's also a lot of down time, but somehow I guess. I don't know if it is the emoting you did the night before or whatever, like the last thing you really want to do is like sit around and play guitar all day, when you're going to play guitar all night. So it's kind of a strange vacuum. PH: I think you just got an idea for one right there and you didn't even know it. Your solo album should be called snips and it should just be like tiny little bitty snips JJ: Yeah, yeah
[laughs] PH: There you go, you just got it right there
Interviewer: I watched the piece you did in Louisville, do you guys ever talk about that, what that concert meant to you? JJ: Whenever we put out a new record it's like obviously a huge new chapter, a new page being turned. Starting out at home like that I feel like, it's just kind of, I don't know, it just makes sense, I mean that's where we started from. Plus the place we played The Palace is just epically beautiful, you know, similar thing as this.
JJ: The thing about these old theaters is just, it never fails to amaze as to how different they all are inside. Like they're all just unbelievable. Thank God they don't build them like this anymore.
[laughs] JJ: What a waste. PH: That'd be a travesty
Interviewer: Can we talk record collections? JJ: Yeah I think we're all really big vinyl fans PH: Mhm JJ: And we got huge vinyl collections at home and it's one of the great things about touring, going to so many record shops and just being inspired. Often times something will catch your eye, you'll take it to the counter and they're like 'Oh my God if you like that, then you got to have this and this and this'. BK: That never happens in the digital realm, you're never going through Amazon and stumbling upon something like that and that's the problem with Google and all the search engines nowadays, that they tailor make their searches for you and they try to basically homogenize your taste. PH: Track you. BK: Yeah and track you and homogenize, refine it and make it even more specific and that never happens. You never stumble upon something, you stumble upon something that you're supposed to stumble upon. JJ: For me, vinyl is home and digital is the road. I love being on the road and being able to have my hard drive filled with just all sorts of music that I can reference at any point, but when I'm at home and want to sit and listen to something in high quality with great speakers and y'know, I play vinyl.
Interviewer: The obligatory question to ask is about file sharing JJ: Yeah, I think it all comes down to responsibility and conscience. If you’re leading a good life and you’re putting food on the table and you’re keeping a roof over family’s head and everybody’s got health insurance, then please buy our record. But if our country is too messed up to know that it’s the right thing to provide people with health insurance, and make it an option, it’s not some crazy agenda, just call it public option, just make it happen. Yeah ‘cause if my friends can’t afford health insurance, then please steal music from the Internet all day long. But at the same time there’s a responsibility, because if you do have money and you can buy records, then you should buy records if you want to see your favorite bands keep making records.
Interviewer: Tonight I heard the Preservation Hall Jazz band is going to join you, could you give the audience a little intro or understanding of what that's all about?
JJ: I was lucky enough to be invited to come sing with them in the hall, so I flew down to New Orleans and met they guys, met (...). Being in that room is such an emotional place to be, you just feel like, I just tell people it's like their music is literally been blowing the paint off the walls in there forever. You walk into that place and it's like melting with music and ghosts and it's just crazy.
JJ: The music that they play is timeless and their carriers of this torch. It's not throwback music, it's not old music, it's like our music, it's the people's music, it's so full of life and so fun.
JJ: We try to let people that come see us and people who listen to us, know how grateful we are for them. Because we can play in our basement all day long, but without the fans, the live music, that comes to shows and stuff, the whole thing is pointless. For us touring and playing music is a all encompassing 360 experience that the fans are all just as much a part of, just as much as we are.
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.
