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Saturday, April 7th, 2007

A Recent Interview

A music writer sent me a long list of questions the other day -- she's writing a story about the music and stuff... You never know how those wily press people are going to edit/change/misquote your words, so here are the Q's and the A's, for the record:

1. Are you a self taught or trained musician? Tell me about that. I’m mostly self-taught. But I think what taught me the most was just being a member of my family… whatever musicality I have comes mostly from them. My entire family is incredibly creative. I didn’t figure this out until I was an adult… I didn’t realize that my family is filled with really talented singers, musicians, storytellers, artists and writers. I grew up with a bunch of people who were constantly expressing what they were thinking or feeling in a variety of creative ways. It just seemed normal to me and not special or extraordinary because everyone had day jobs and other interests… In some ways, I’m one of the first people in my family to view music/writing/art as something that could absorb more than a hobbyist’s attention / intention. When I was a little kid I took piano lessons from a guy named Harold Higgins on Wednesday afternoons at the Methodist church. My Mother made me do this. I hated it at the time, but I was relatively good at it. There was something fishy about the whole “sticker-for-obedience” reward methodology. Harold was a sweet guy though. It wasn’t his fault that I didn’t grow up to become a concert pianist. Funny though, I’m playing piano a lot now – live and in the studio. And I’m writing with piano too. It makes you think of an idea differently than writing with a guitar. In grade school I found my brother’s acoustic guitar in his closet when he went and inexplicably joined the Navy. I took the guitar to the local music store and asked them how to put strings on it and tune it. I think on some level I was drawn to it because I missed him. I had grown up seeing him playing guitar and singing… I sat down with his Beatles and Neil Young fake books… and I learned how to play the songs I’d grown up listening to, by ear. Years later, I took 2 guitar lessons from a pathetically stunted, social misfit “guitar teacher” who lived with his Mom and taught students out of his converted garage. I got his phone number from the message board of the music store. He was so incredibly freaky that I couldn’t go back the third time. Even as a naïve 7th grader, I knew that something was deeply wrong with this picture… “If guitar and rock-n-roll is cool, then what am I doing HERE with this guy who lives with his Mom and talks non-stop about Pat Metheny and Yoko Ono?”

2. How has Denver influenced your music, Rainville to present? This is a really good question… that I’m not sure I know how to answer. I think that WHERE you are affects WHO you are to a larger degree than we know. I grew up in the South. So, to me, Denver (Colorado, really) represents “The West” or “un-South”. I guess being in Denver gives me a sense of perspective on who I am, where I’ve come from and what I’m doing. I still feel separate – like I did when I first moved here – on a really basic level. That’s a good thing for me to have and tap in to. As far as the music scene or whatever, I guess I’m a part of Denver’s music scene, but I don’t really feel a part of a group of similar-minded artists doing related things – “a school” or something. I think Denver DOES have those groups of people. I’m just not really inside any of those groups. I do have a network of Colorado friends that I’ve made over the last 10 or so years – people who I have bumped in to and made a connection with… they are constantly influencing me, mostly by being the creative individuals they are.

3. Which is your favorite song on Good to be Born? Why do you know that? I don’t know if I have a favorite… but I think ‘Call Me Right Now’ is probably the most representative song on the record. To me, it contains examples of everything that was in my head and in my heart when I wrote and recorded Good To Be Born.

4. Do you have another job, John by day? By day, I am a simple farmer. It gives me time to think.

5. When did you learn that it was good to be born, or have you learned that yet? I re-learn it several times a week. Which means, I’m constantly forgetting it.

6. What is juxtaposer to you? Someone who is largely unaware of the art they are making with their flagrant contradictions.

7. How did you meet your band? Everyone who I play with is a friend. We meet lots of different ways. But how I met Kevin is a good example… Walking through the forest one day, I stopped on a hilly rise to take a drink from my canteen. When I looked up, I saw a noble 12 point buck, he was cautious – wary even. I began following him from a great distance. He took me through swampy bogs, high meadows, through icy streams swollen with snow melt, and over craggy granite peaks. I hunted him for days. When he stopped, I stopped. When he moved, I moved. I left him nuts and small pieces of bread at the base of his favorite tree in the evenings. Eventually, he grew to trust me. It was then that I sprung the net.

8. Will you consider adding a musical saw to your music? If not, why? If yes, why? Consider it? I’m quivering in anticipation. Nothing says “next big thing” quite like the musical saw. Know any accomplished sawists?

9. Where are you going with this, all of this? Follow that road, over the hill Down through the trees by the old saw mill. Honestly. I’m just following my heart on this one. I have no idea where it’s headed, other than making music that I’m proud of, with people who I love and respect, and hopefully connecting with people who hear something good along the way.

10. What can you say about your band? I’m so lucky to get to play with the people who I play with. Period. I say this all the time, but I truly don’t mind repeating myself… I play with people who are artists in their own right. Every one of them are super talented. For some reason, they’re willing to learn my songs and we make this music together. We kind of stretch the definition of what a band is… I feel like it’s more like an evolving, expanding group of friends who make records and play shows together. Right now, the group includes: Jed Marrs (keys, vocals), Kevin Meyer (bass, vocals), Tom Germain (drums), Brian McRae (drums), Matt Gilliam (trumpet, fleugal), Scott Davies (drums, samples), Steve Millin (bass), John Horan (percussion, harmonica), Natacha Fortis (violin, vocals), Cheyenne Kowal (vocals), Tom Zingaro (lap steel, vocals). At any given show, you’ll see a combination of these people.

11. Can you tell me more about Spill? A release date? Is that what you are currently working on? I’m working on three records right now. ‘Why Birds Fly’ is nearly about to be released -- in May, I’m guessing. It’s a group of songs written and recorded roughly during the same time as the songs on Good To Be Born. In some ways, it’s like Good To Be Born’s dark brother. In another way, it’s like a B Sides record from the Good To Be Born sessions. We’re working on the album design right now. ‘Spill’ began as a response to people asking me if I had an acoustic record. I recorded 5 songs with Tom Germain (my drummer who is also a fantastic engineer) at his studio, Foresight Sound. He hung mics and I just went in and played songs live. I’m trying to decide whether to release Spill as literally a solo record, or to pull in some friends to flesh out the songs a little bit (still sparse arrangements) and make it a full-length record. We’ll see. Either way, it will be released later this year. The third record I’m working on is a batch of songs that will be another band / rock record. I’m finishing about 30 songs that will be narrowed down and then recorded sometime later this year. I’m guessing that record will be released in early 2008. I’m also helping a couple of friends make their records right now. Mostly as a producer or co-producer… I’m playing some too – as needed/wanted – on friends’ records.

12. I know this is cliché, but if you could really and truly play music with anyone, dead or alive, would it be Tom Waits? Or someone else, I suppose. I’d like to make a record with Booker T and the MG’s. I’d also like to sit around a kitchen table and drink whiskey out of fruit jars with Tom Waits, John Lennon, Wink Martindale, Chet Baker , Raymond Carver, Chuck Woolery, Ernest Hemingway, Miles Davis, Prince, Jack Chesire, Bob Dylan, Harold Higgins, Daniel Lanois and Woody Allen.

13. Is playing music better than sex? It depends on who’s playing the bass and who’s playing the drums.

14. Your favorite venue to play? I don’t have one. It has everything to do with the energy of the audience. If people showed up – with their bodies and their minds and their hearts – we could turn the produce section of King Soopers on 9th Avenue into an incredible venue. One of my favorite examples of this was this venue where they kept telling us to turn it down, turn it down because the venue was underneath some apartments… So I unplugged my guitar and walked out the front door of the venue with just my guitar and finished the set with my band on the sidewalk. The bar emptied out around us. We were all standing there together in a circle out on the street. It was one of the best moments I’ve ever had at a show.

15. Do you know what happened to Fabio’s face? Does that make you laugh? Does Fabio actually have a face? I thought he just had rock hard abs that extended all the way up to his forehead.

16. What is your guilty pleasure? I don’t do guilt. I just do pleasure.

17. What is he building in there? I’ll tell you one thing… he’s not building a playhouse for the children.

18. Do you do anything weird before performing, like weird voice things? No. I mostly just want to be alone before I perform. I knew a girl who would make bizarre bird sounds VERY LOUDLY before she got on stage to sing. I always wondered… in what other areas of her life did she make noises like that? It was always disturbing. That’s not something a person gets used to.

19. Who do you want to go to the library with? Are you a bibliophile? (The Library song reference) Her. And her. Yes… I love books and those who love books. Honestly, is there anything hotter than a bookish girl?

20. What’s behind “The Other Side of Town?” ‘Other Side Of Town’ is about a love triangle set place in a small town on the border between obsessive desire and Vermilion, South Dakota. It is raining and awfully dark on the warm summer night that the circus comes back to town. The ticket man at the train station gives you this advice, which you ignore: “Never fall in love with a girl from the circus. She will break your heart flawlessly and beg you to come back for more. During the long days, you will keep your head down and pretend that you’re not waiting for her to return. You will fill your nights with gin and cigarettes... Her husband will eventually kill you with his knife. You know this but you won’t listen, will you?”

21. What is your current state of mind? Dissociative Fugue State. This is a rare disorder. An individual with dissociative fugue suddenly and unexpectedly takes physical leave of his or her surroundings and sets off on a journey of some kind. These journeys can last hours, or even several days or months. Individuals experiencing a dissociative fugue have traveled over thousands of miles. An individual in a fugue state is unaware of or confused about his identity, and in some cases will assume a new identity (although this is the exception).

22. What would you say to being called a local legend? You’re kidding me, right?

23. What would you encourage aspiring musicians to do? Quit now. Stay in your home town and learn your father’s trade. Work your way up from the bottom. Find a nice girl. Settle down. Keep your head above water. Save for your retirement. Swallow your pride. Don’t make waves. Be nice. Measure twice, cut once. Chop wood, carry water. Live within your means. Lower your expectations. Look both ways. Delay gratification. Make a budget and stick to it. Music is for suckers with more vanity than common sense. If you’re still reading, my only advice is this: hack through the underbrush of your periphery and hone in on that thing that makes you who you really are. Then, have the courage to reveal it. Or put another way… Get authentic and then, be authentic.

24. Motto? Adepto Auctorizo. Exsisto Auctorizo.

25. Tell me more about the Tom Waits show, and also about the benefit. We’re doing the Tom Waits show again because the show we did in December was so much fun and the people who were there had a really great time. And because a bunch of people who couldn’t make that December show have asked us to do it again. It’s May 5th (Cinqo de Waitso!) at the Oriental Theater. A bunch of great singer/songwriters are opening the show by playing their favorite Tom Waits songs and then me and my band will play Tom Waits’ deeply weird and sublime record ‘Rain Dogs’ in its entirety. We're doing this show as a benefit for a no kill animal shelter that Kevin, our bass player, works with. It’s name is Angels With Paws. They need help and this seemed like a good way to help them.

26. At what other locations can people stalk you? I have a few favorite haunts around town. But I’m not giving them up. Let’s leave it to fate, shall we? If we find each other, we’ll know it’s right.

27. Do you plan on staying in Denver? I don’t know. I’ve been having these dreams lately…

28. Do you have a man-crush on Jed? Absolutely. Is it that obvious?

29. If you weren’t playing music, what would you do? Learning to paint. Making films. Sleeping.

30. Do you have an Ipod? What is the most played item on there? Sun Kil Moon. Sonic Youth. Bonobo. Serge Gainsbourg. Thom Yorke. Tom Waits. William Shatner. Tord Gustavsen Trio. Various found sounds I pick up along the way.

31. What’s the story behind the double logo images, like the birds? I love your website, it is really dreamy. I dunno… These images of birds, bears, snakes, elephants, animals and organisms… they just sort of call out to me. And then when they’re doubled, like a book-matched piece of maple on the back of an acoustic guitar, they start saying things about duality… opposites… juxtaposition.

Posted By John Common at: 12:04 am