The Sound

My Morning Jacket at The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, December 2012

“I just realized a long time ago: anything that you do, somebody’s gonna like it and somebody’s gonna hate it. And it doesn’t matter who you are. If you’re Bob Dylan or you’re just starting out, somebody’s gonna like it and somebody’s gonna hate it. So knowing that kind of liberates you to just say, “Fuck it. I’m just gonna do this, it’s gonna be fun, and hopefully more people will like it than hate it.”

- Jim James
(Vanity Fair interview, May 2009)

2010

"The last few albums, we've really tried to carve out space by taking out sounds that don't need to be there all the time," Hallahan says. "So when those sounds do come in, they sound a lot bigger. It's an ongoing study in trying to master the creation of space between instruments. It comes from miking strategies we use. If we're trying to create a big spacious sound, we'll mike more of the room. If it's tighter or more microscopic, a tighter miking style is used for that."

- Patrick Hallahan
(News Observer interview, April 2010)

2009

“I’ve always wanted the music — the rhythms, the strings, the guitar solos, everything — to be just as important as the words. I’ve never wanted one thing to be the most important ingredient. I like to think of the band as something that’s not really about any one person or any one thing. It’s just this weird cloud that is all-encompassing in terms of what we all do to it.”

- Jim James
March 2009

2008

 "I think we're getting that comment a lot, because we're definitely practising a less-is-more mantra, and I think that that creates more space for individual instruments to shine, whereas having everybody play at once, that doesn't sound clean at all.... We're really trying to create musical space between tracks as opposed to cramming it with sound all the time."

 - Patrick Hallahan, when asked if the band wanted to make the sound more refined and cleaner
(The Star interview, June 2008)

2004

"We've got a good sound now, but it's always going to keep changing. And I want it to keep changing. I love making music; I love how it feels to sit there with a guitar. I'm lucky enough to be able to do this now and I'm going to try to do it for as long as I can. But in this weird life, you just never know what's going to happen and that's what makes life just so very exciting."

- Jim James
(The Independent interview, February 2004)

2001

"I love big, huge open sounds, such as vocals cut far away from the mic in a big room (i.e. Exile on Main Street ), and also huge drum sounds (i.e. Led Zeppelin). I just love atmosphere. I love hearing the rooms where the songs were recorded, chairs creaking, crickets and the like. (...) It feels like love and rhymes with childbirth. I think Darla’s music is all based loosely around the same beautiful feelings of pleasure and color. There is a black vibe that runs through it all, but it is also so very colorful."

- Jim James
(Philadelphia Citypaper interview, June 2001)

“Obviously, the reverb— especially on the vocals and drums. I think those sounds are kind of a signature. You always know it’s My Morning Jacket when you hear the drums start. Songwriting-wise we’ll always be all over the map but production wise there’s always little hints of what came before, a My Morning Jacket vein that runs through everything.”

- Tom Blankenship

Influences

My Morning Jacket, Cause Cast 2010

"People assume we’re a certain type of band based on how we look, but we all have pretty diverse music collections, and we’re always trying something different."

- Jim James
(Dallas News, August 2008)

Influences by album

Evil Urges

Influences by band member

Current

---Jim James-

Influences in general

Reverb

"We try to find the biggest, emptiest fish tank, really."

- Jim James, when asked how MMJ conjure their sound
(CMJ New Music Report interview, August 2003)

2001
In an 2001 interview with Philadelphia Citypaper Jim James mentions his love of reverb and how it makes him feel happy.

"I love to sing in a world I’m comfortable in. I love big open rooms and lots and lots of reverb…. Reverb makes me feel like Roy Orbison, and when I feel like Roy Orbison I feel happy, though I know I’ll never even come close to him."

- Jim James
(Philadelphia Citypaper interview, June 2001)

2003
In an 2003 interview with CMJ New Music Report Jim James is asked several questions about reverb. Among other things he talks about how lucky the band is to be able to record out on a farm in Louisville.

"I'm just a huge fan of reverb, so I like to make reverb a part of everything we do. We've got tons of different kinds of reverb - but huge old plate reverb from the '50s, we've got a silo that we use as a reverb chamber, we've got a garage that we use as a reverb chamber."

- Jim James
(CMJ New Music Report interview, August 2003)

James also comments on what draws him to reverb, saying that he finds it hard to explain, but that using reverb is kind of like almost becoming a superhero.

"To me, reverb is the difference between heaven and earth and the difference between feeling like I could sing like the Righteous Brothers or not sing at all. It's something that makes me feel amazing and makes me feel so confident in the way I sound. I don't even like to sing at home without reverb. I don't like to sit in a bedroom - I like to sit in a shower or stairwell or silo or parking garage - sit with a four-track with tons of reverb on it. It just makes me feel right."

- Jim James
(CMJ New Music Report interview, August 2003)

In a 2003 interview with Billboard James also talks about the importance of reverb.

"I'm a reverb maniac, I can't even sing at home in my closet without reverb. (...) They [venue sound engineers] tell us it's unprofessional and that it doesn't sound right. Luckily, we're now able to start bringing our own sound guy and have more control over it."

- Jim James
(Billboard interview, September 2003)

In 2003 interview Johnny Quaid revealed just how important reverb is to the band and to James personally.

"Jim actually has a chemical imbalance where he cannot survive without reverb, it’s like oxygen to him. He won’t even have a conversation with any of us unless he’s talking through a small amp. He walks around with a small amp on his belt and a mic, and talks to us all the time in reverb. It’s kind of disturbing."

- Johnny Quaid
(PopMatters interview, October 2003)


September, 2003

Interviewer: Your vocal effects are a very important part of My Morning Jacket's sound. Have you always been singing that way? What actually is being applied to your voice?
Jim James: It's reverb, echo, delay. We use tons of different kinds of reverb. I'm obsessed. We try to use a lot of variety, with different rooms, garages, silos. We've got a big plate reverb out at the farm that we use, and all kinds of digital reverb
Interviewer: Is this hard for you to reproduce live?
Jim James: Yeah. Most sound guys don't understand it all and try to fight you. [In hick voice] "You're not supposed to have that much reverb!" It's always a big bullshit battle
Interviewer: So somewhere, are there versions of these songs without the vocal effects?
Jim James: No. It's a part of it from the very beginning. I can't even write a song without reverb. I've always got to have reverb

2004

"Reverb is music to me. I don't ever play music without it. I don't sing without it, I don't like to play guitar without it. It is what makes music a joy for me personally. It's the difference between being a normal human being and some weird force that's unexplainable. If you think about it, reverb is all around you. If you have a big house with high ceilings it sounds a lot different than if you have small place with tightly packed rooms full of shit. I hate singing into a dry microphone. It sounds dead and lifeless to me."

- Jim James
(JamBase interview, January 2004)

However...

"Sound guys hate reverb. Sound guys fuckin' despise it. It was a huge battle until we finally got our own sound guy and now it's fine."

Jim James
(JamBase interview, January 2004)

"I just need a comfortable place with lots of reverb and I just zone out and let it happen, to me, reverb is dreadfully important, just as important to me as a guitar or a voice. It's definitely got its own life force."

- Jim James, talking about recording It Still Moves
(The Age interview, March 2004)

2005

 "I don’t sing without reverb. I think the sound of a dry microphone against the human voice is kinda gross. It works for some other people but I just don’t like it for my voice. I think we did a good job of messing around with it on the new record. It’s not just all big reverb. We tried different delays and different room sounds. There’s a lot of texture on the vocals on this record, but they’re not all buried in reverb, and they’re not dry either. Some sound like a robot. I’m just obsessed with making things sound weird."

- Jim James
(PopMatters interview, October 2005)

2006

"Obviously, the reverb— especially on the vocals and drums. I think those sounds are kind of a signature. You always know it’s My Morning Jacket when you hear the drums start. Songwriting-wise we’ll always be all over the map but production wise there’s always little hints of what came before, a My Morning Jacket vein that runs through everything."

-Tom Blankenship, when asked about the defining characteristics of the band’s sound
(Pitchfork interview, April 2006)


2008

“To Jim, reverb’s another instrument and another sound on the record and he plays off that texture. It’s really important he has it in his headphone mix and he hears exactly how it is going to sound on the album, whether it’s a plate or a chamber or an old ’80s AMS RMX16 non-linear program.”

- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)

“I just have a need for space in a recording. I feel that a lot of modern recordings are lacking space and depth in the stereo field. Many recordings sound flat, with all the sounds pushed right up in your face. I hate that. I like older recordings where you can feel the space around the performers. It’s not that I’m on some retro trip—that gets old—I just want there to be some difference in distance between the instruments.”

- Jim James
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)

Genre

Bo Koster, at KCRW 2005

 "I feel sorry for anyone who has to conjure up a way to label this band from now on. [smile]"
- Bo Koster
(Paste Magazine interview, June 2008)

Rock 'n' roll

"Rock 'n' roll that's all I can say. It's everything, rock 'n' roll encompasses all the emotions."

- Jim James
(CMJ interview, September 2003)

"If I'm forced I say rock 'n' roll because that can be anything. It can be the Stooges, it can be Roy Orbison, it can be Outkast. There's so many things that can be rock 'n' roll and if you say that you can't be limited."

- Jim James
(JamBase interview, January 2004) 

"We've always really tried to stay away from being an alternative-rock band. We're more interested in being a weird rock 'n' roll band. Alternative rock hasn't lasted, and I think it has something to do with the production. Take Weezer: their first album is a classic fucking record with great songs and great writing, but it sounds so early '90s with that sort of heavy-distortion approach. Same with the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream."

 - Jim James
(The Georgia Straight interview, November 2005)

"We basically just say we are a rock band, but I don’t really know what that means. I mean, if I am at the dentist’s office and the dental assistant is like ‘I like Kid Rock, would I like you?,’ I’m like, ‘well you may like us.’ And if she presses, I’m like, ‘but we are a weird rock band,’ so if she comes to see us, she isn’t disappointed."

- Carl Broemel

Southern rock hillbillies?

 "The only way that is possibly true is we live below the Mason-Dixon line and we’re a rock band. That’s it. We’re influenced by so much it’s hard to say that. I’m sure that because of where we live there’s a little country feel we might throw in there once in a while. We’ve gotten further and further away from it, and the new album is a testament to that. I think it’s just an easy assumption because we’re from Kentucky."

- Jim James, talking about how the band sometimes is tagged as a southern-rock band.

(PopMatters interview, October 2005)

"Look at a picture of us. We have long hair and dueling guitar solos and those are elements of it. But anybody who said that never took the time to listen. There’s nothing wrong with it, we just don’t agree with the comparison. We love southern rock, but we don’t play southern rock."

- Patrick Hallahan
(PopMatters interview, October 2005)

"Well, we don’t like being pigeonholed, period. I think we got tired of the southern rock hillbillies from Kentucky thing. All the Lynyrd Skynyrd references and types of things. We just got tired of lazy journalists that assume that we’re from Kentucky, so we’re not wearing shoes. Or we’re hippies…. But how would they know what we’re really like? That’s why we don’t complain about it any more."

- Patrick Hallahan, when asked what journalists always get wrong about My Morning Jacket
(The Star interview, June 2008)

"We try to never subscribe to any label or genre, we just don't like to be classified."

- Tom Blankenship
(Rolling Stone interview, October 2005)