INTERVIEW : 2001-05-17 Joseph Arthur Still Working Hard (by ChartAttack.com)

Joseph's Still Poor

One year after releasing his soul-wrenching Come To Where I'm From, modern-day folkster Joseph Arthur still hasn't felt his brush with fame.

"My life hasn't changed at all. I have less money than ever before. I have had no material change at all," an exhausted-sounding Arthur says on the line from Los Angeles.

Arthur has lived in the same New York apartment for about five years, and says when he wanders the streets, no one recognizes the artist dubbed "the most promising North American songwriter since Dylan" by French magazine Mix. Thanks to practically zero airplay or video rotation in Canada, you can bet when he and his new back up band make their way to the Great White North for some summer dates, there'll still be some head-scratching and "Joseph who?" going on.

It's clear the rock n' roll whirlwind hasn't caught up to Arthur when he admits to having an "abundance" of time which to indulge in his other talents. Besides being able to pen a song that's guaranteed to make you cry, he's a sculptor, a writer and a painter. His tour diary can be read on his website (www.lanset.com). His probing, almost childlike paintings adorn the sleeves of his albums, including 1997's Big City Secrets and 1999's Vacancy EP, which received a Grammy Nomination for Best Recording Package.

Given his credentials, it's puzzling that Peter Gabriel, Arthur's mentor and the man who signed him to his Real World label, warned his new prodigy that he likely wouldn't be a commercial success. Arthur has his own theories about his music's inaccessibility to the masses. "It's not black and white. There's conflicting emotions. Maybe that's hard for people to stomach in a three-minute pop song. It seems like the most popular things seem to be emotionally easy. [sarcastically] 'I love you, come over.' 'I don't like you.' Don't give me 'I like you' and 'I don't like you' at the same time. That I can't deal with," he says with a chuckle.

Being a purveyor of "emotionally complicated" music hasn't been a complete curse. Come To Where I'm From has had scads of praise heaped on it from critics all across the map, painting him as an artist with "next big thing" written all over him. His emotion-rich music and brooding stage personality have earned him comparisons to everyone from Beck to Bowie. Hell, with his shaggy dark mane he's the spitting image of John Lennon circa the '60s. Practically the only name missing from the list of artists he's been likened to is Puff Daddy.

"Which is weird to me, because I can't believe nobody's heard the P. Diddy influence," he says, and you can almost hear the wide grin through the phone lines.

Well, at least we know being a semi-star hasn't killed his sense of humour.

—Amanda Factor