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After fifteen years, The Jayhawks finally decided to do their first Spanish tour. They did nine terrific shows (eight of them with free entrance, sponsored by Mondo Sonoro magazine) where the band enjoyed themselves and showed all their virtues on stage. It seems like all the media attention they got, and the fervent welcome from the audience, cheered a band that wasn’t going through its best moral moment. We heard from some people who had been with them on this tour that the indifference the band’s brand new album got from their american audience had been really disappointing. It is actually true that “Smile” deceived a lot of fans because of the weird use of electronic rythms on some of the songs, but it is also true that the band is in excellent shape –as we could see on their Spanish tour- and that Gary Louris has been able to redirect The Jayhawks course efficiently. While some people tend to miss the times when Gary shared the leadership of the band with Mark Olson, with a an evident country-folk feeling, some others prefer to enjoy the pop oriented sound the band adopted after Mark’s desertion, who used to confer The Jayhawks their old roosty sound. A lot of people pointed Bob Ezrin’s production as the main responsible for the sound of “Smile”, something that Gary has always denied, explaining that the inclusion of electronic ryhtms was something that came from the band’s decision to experiment with new stuff. The fact that they include a lot of these tunes on their live shows contrasts with Gary’s intention to take a step back to the rootsy sound on their next Jayhawks album. We talked about all this and more with Gary, who kindly answered our call shortly before starting their Spanish tour… Seems like “Sound Of Lies” is much sadder than “Smile”, is that reflecting significant mood changes? Well, I think that’s the way you choose to see your life... from a different point of view every moment. That’s better than focusing everything too much on yourself. It’s not absolutely true that right now I am completely happy and I was permanently sad before. That’s not too realistic. There’s a little bit of everything in this life, and everyone has problems, and it’s interesting to remember that. “Smile” sounds like a more accesible album and one could even think it’s an attempt to approach the mainstream... That’s absolutely wrong. We wrote a lot of songs between the two records, more than fifty, and a lot of them were melancholic like the ones on “Sound Of Lies”, but this time we wanted to do something different, something happier. No artists find it entertaining to do the same thing two times. It’s better to do something different to keep it interesting. Now I would really like to do a roosty record again. How’s your relationship with Mark Olson today? It’s very good, better than a couple of years before. We didn’t talk much to each other before, but lately I’m in touch with him through internet and on the phone. We also send our respective records to each other. He’s very busy with Victoria, helping her and writing her songs as well. It is even possible that we do something together in the future, a small project or writing some tunes. You could say we’re friends again… But you never played with him again, did you? No, I haven’t played with him again since his last performance with The Jayhawks on October of 95. Would it be impossible to have both of you leading The Jayhawks again? That’s not going to happen because he has his own life now with his wife and moreover The Jayhawks have been doing quite different things, but we could always play music together some way or another. I think there is a chance to do a record or some songs together even if he’s not coming back to The Jayhawks.
The reason he gave at first to quit the band was that he wanted to be with his wife during her illness, but I read that the main reason was that the band wasn’t wide enough to hold both of your creative needs… Well, there’s some truth in what you’re saying, but I think we could have got over that in another way. There’s other talented people in the band who have their own ideas, so it’s not always easy to stick together for a long time. It’s hard to deal with the politics of a band when there’s creative and intelligent people on it. You can hire four musicians that will play anything you want them to play, and if you pay them by the end of the month it’s going to be definitely easy to keep them together. When Mark left we had been together for the same time than the Beatles, and in some way it’s incredible that we’re still together. But I think another reason was that Mark had a problem that I also have, with the music business, the dealing with the companies, giving up, getting some time… sometimes you feel like “ok, I’m going to do records alone and produce them on my own”. And the truth is that I could do six records in the time The Jayhawks need to release two. I think he was frustrated by the mechanics of the music business and the major labels. Did you ever think of breaking the band when he left? I don’t think none of us thought the band was going to keep on at that moment, actually I told him that everything was over. But you always tend to say some things and then sit down, relax, and realize that you haven’t made your final decision yet. I wanted to play and I had a great band in my hands that was willing to play, I thought we had to do another record and try again. The worst thing that could happen to us would be lack of success, but I wouldn’t want to quit because of the fear. Like Lennon/McCartney, you and Mark used to sign all the songs together since the third album, but it seems to me that actually -just like The Beatles- both of you wrote their own songs, am I right? Yes, the truth is that we wrote our own songs. But we were very helpful to each other as partners and confidents, to play our stuff and ask for advice. We helped each other to finish our songs. And after that we decided to do as Lennon and McCartney or Jagger and Richards, it was better to sign with our names together on everything, because that helped to reduce the fights when it came to putting your songs on the albums, and this way we felt that everything was part of us, so the best songs would always make it to the record. Since Mark Olson left it seems like Marc Pearlman has a stronger presence in The Jayhawks’ music, isn’t it? When Mark left I think the others saw a chance and went for it. Everyone has taken a step forward because up from that moment there was more room in the band so people could freely create. I think that “Bad Time” is the only cover version you have ever recorded on an album. Did you like Grand Funk or just that song? I love Grand Funk and I love that song. There are some other Grand Funk songs that I like as much or even more, but around that time we were doing “Bad Time” live. I grew up listening to that kind of stuff so I thought we could do that cover because I liked to play that song and it was great fun. Your songs usually transmit melancholy. Why? Weren’t you happy? I don’t know, I guess nobody is completely happy. But it may be my natural tendency when writing a song. It’s like a reflexive emotion to me. A happy song is something like “come on let’s have a good time” and don’t think about nothing. Melancholy usually means you’re sitting down and thinking about your life, having deep thoughts. This makes music much more beautiful. What can you say about the lyrics? Are they about real stories? Nearly always they start with a real story, some more concrete and others about more universal things, about life or about troubles one may have. But generally they are about real experiences or feelings you have deep inside in your head. I’m no real writer who can make up stories. What guitar players were an influence to you when you started playing? My career as a guitar player started out in an uncommon way. I played classic guitar when I was fourteen and didn’t get an electric guitar until I was twenty-one. I listened to the radio a lot and rockabilly was what got me into electric guitar. It was really exciting listening to people like Scotty Bornn- who played with Elvis- or Cliff Gallup who played with Gene Vincent. After that I got into Jimmy Page and Clarence White, who had a very creative way of playing. I also liked Neil Young. I think that what I like the most of a guitar player is not necessarily his technical skill, I’m more into being expressive, creative and having a sound of your own. Lately people is talking about country-pop and new bands with american roots and they point at bands like you, Wilco, Son Volt and some others. Do you feel close to these bands? We have some things in common. Something we have in common is that we’re playing music that is not very popular at the moment but that has soul and a long life. We try to mix down things that can create an attractive kind of music. I don’t think that Wilco’s records sound like ours or Son Volt’s, but I do think that there are some common elements and influences even when they’re coming from different ways.
We were looking for our own sound on the first record, but we were still leaning on our influences. We knew that we loved traditional music and back then in 85 nobody else was doing that. I don’t think that record shows what the band was like at that moment, it is a conservative record, too much, because our live acts actually had a rock side, even punk. When the album came out the reviews weren’t very good. They were expecting something much more interesting and we were too traditional and conservative, very close to the Burrito Brothers and that kind of stuff. But actually we were discovering the pattern of what later would become the Jayhawks’ sound. After some time your influences flow in a natural way. That’s why I think you can hear country, folk, pop and soul on our records, because that’s what I have always loved. Now I’m letting The Jayhawks be themselves. I would like to be a band that is able to record any kind of album, therefore you experiment and don’t get stuck in the same place. With “Two Angels” you started with the two-part vocal harmonies. Who had the idea that later became your own stamp? I think that was something that happened very naturally. When I originally joined The Jayhawks I had already gone touring with a band –I was actually the only one who had done that already- and I was kind of burned out, I only wanted to play guitar, just as simple as that. I thought I liked what Mark was doing and I only wanted to relax and play, I had a steady job and didn’t want to get too involved with anything. But Mark started suggesting that I should sing and write songs with him. That’s how it happened and I ended up getting more and more involved as time went by. Actually it was my own decision to start doing it. Why did you record it twice? Those are things companies want you to do and you finally do them no matter if you feel like doing them or not. It was on “Blue Earth” and we only sold five thousand copies of that album back then and, that’s why, the company suggested that we should record that again, because it was a pity that so few people had the chance to listen to it. But, to tell the truth, the take on “Hollywood Town Hall” wasn’t as good as the one on “Blue Earth”. I think it’s one of the best Jayhawks songs of all time. Mark wrote that song, and I wish it was mine because I would still play it. We only play the ones he and I wrote or the ones I wrote on my own. “Two Angels” was really big, I loved it, I miss playing it. It’s not the same with songs like “Wichita”, which I never dug too much. What’s the share George Drakoulias has had on your artistic development? George encouraged us to go towards the roosty sound, I think he would have liked us to be like The Byrds. We wouldn’t have done any of these last records without him, he believed in us when nobody was paying any attention to what we were doing. He’s responsible that we are where we are right now. The Black Crowes say that he did not even appear in the studio and after that put his name on the back cover as the producer of their first album when he saw they were starting to sell quite a lot. Did he really produce your records? Yes, he was there producing “Hollywood…” and “Tomorrow…” Was Alex Chilton one of your main pop influences? Yes, Big Star was a band I used to listen to back in the seventies. Alex and Chris Bell were an influence to us. How did you start with Golden Smog? We’re all friends down here in Minneapolis. People from Soul Asylum, Jayhawks and Run Westy Run, we all knew each other because we don’t live in a big city. We were good friends of Danny Murphy (Soul Asylum) and Craig Jonson and we realized that we liked to play and that we could attract a considerable amount of people at our shows. We started doing covers and it wasn’t a long time until we were offered the chance to record something. The result seemed pretty good to us and we started doing our own songs. I guess that you feel different when you work with Golden Smog… There’s very little stress because at every moment there’s a lot of different people that can adopt a leading role. This way it’s easy to change roles depending on every song. In some of them I can just be the guitarist, relax a little bit and become a secondary character. It’s a lot of fun having Danny or Jeff Tweety there. The relaxed atmosphere is also possible because we all know that Golden Smog is not the most important side of our careers and that’s why we feel less pressure than usual. Are you going to do another record? Not at the moment, but there’s nothing that makes us think we won’t do that in the future. We meet each other every once in a while to play or do a live show, but we’ve all been very busy promoting our respective records. Warning: Failed opening '/home/swmagazi/sonicwavemagazine-www/in/0105/sumario.inc.php' for inclusion (include_path='./:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/swmagazi/sonicwavemagazine-www/backstage/contenido/index.php on line 356 |
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