INTERVIEW : 2000-XX-XX Like.com Artist Interviews

New York-based singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur has released three albums, most recently 2000's "Come To Where I'm From" on Virgin. Arthur is also an accomplished artist, a skill that was recognized with the Grammy nomination his 1999 album "Vacancy" picked up in the category Best Packaging. In early 2000, he toured Europe as an opening act for Gomez and Ben Harper. Arthur's debut video "Chemical" featured a cameo appearance by actress Rosanna Arquette.

MUSIC

-Current albums you like?

Neil Young: Zuma

[On Zuma: "It's got a lot of vulnerability in it, and he lets himself be free and ugly and amazing. I could listen to it over and over again."]

Big Star: Third/Sister Lovers

-Current bands you like?

Daniel Johnson

-Classic albums you like?

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew

Nirvana: In Utero

Leonard Cohen: Songs from a Room

[On Songs from a Room: "It's just a case of amazing lyrics and melody - just perfect song craft."]

Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding

[On John Wesley Harding: "It's the funkiest white boy album I've ever heard. It's super funky."]

N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton

-Soundtracks you like?

Pink Floyd: The Wall

-Favorite record store?

Kim's Video & Music in New York

-Your biggest musical influences?

Neil Young

[On Neil Young: "He lets himself be himself."]

-First concert you ever saw?

Linda Ronstadt with my parents at Blossom Music Center in Akron, Ohio. People in front of us were doing whippets and smoking reefers. It was a wild experience. My dad almost got into a fight with the people in front of us. I was 5 or 6 years old.

-Performance that stands out for you?

Opening up for Ben Harper in Paris. There were 17,000 people there. It kind of took the wind out of me. I don't remember much of what I did, but that event was epic.

-Moment in studio that stands out for you?

Singing "Creation or a Stain" on this new record. We did it three times in a row, in one take. What's on the record is the first version. Afterwards I spit up blood and they took me to the emergency room.

-Musical equipment you like?

Sitar

-Band that pisses your parents off?

Kiss: Hotter Than Hell

BOOKS

-Books you like?

Frank O'Hara: Lunch Poems

Knut Hamsun: Hunger

[On Hunger: "I feel like I'm inside the main character's head when I read it because the quality of the writing is astounding."]

Denis Johnson: Jesus' Son

-Bookstore you like?

St Marks Bookshop in New York

-Magazines you like?

Black Book

FILM

-Movies you like?

One Trick Pony

[On One Trick Pony: "It's terrible but I liked it. I love self-indulgent rock star movies, where they write something and make a movie starring them and do the soundtrack."]

-Movie director you like?

Woody Allen

PEOPLE

-A person you were exited to meet ?

My girlfriend

-A person you would like to meet?

My girlfriend

-Artist you would most like to spend a night with?

Virginia Woolf

SEX

-Favorite music to make out to?

Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports