INTERVIEW : 2003-01-16 Here Comes The Son (by Dave Di Martino)
Even though he was discovered by none other than Peter Gabriel and his major-label debut, Come To Where I'm From, was declared by Entertainment Weekly to be the best album of 2000, singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur is still one of modern music's best-kept secrets. Which is a shame, for he is a true artiste. He also paints and sculpts (his artwork for his 1999 EP, Vacancy, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package), and he goes about making his music in much the same way: When playing his dazzling one-man shows, he spontaneously records loops of samples, layering them one of top of the other to create exquisite sound-sculptures on the spot.
Perhaps Arthur's profile will be elevated with his latest work of art, Redemption's Son, which showcases not only his stunning songwriting skills but also adds sweeping, cinematic touches that suggest an additional career in film scoring might be in his future. This modern-day renaissance man recently stopped by LAUNCH's studios to chat with executive editor Dave DiMartino about his music and his art, and it was a most interesting conversation that namechecked everyone from Hendrix and Zeppelin to Mariah Carey and Elton John to Nirvana to even Eddie Money.
Here's how it went:
LAUNCH: Tell me about your interests in visual arts.
JOSEPH: Music and art are just both things I really love to do. Art, or visual art, is something that has no pressure on it, because I'm not really trying to get into any kind of galleries or anything like that. So it's nice that right now it's just for fun, and also for album covers and stuff like that, which is also fun. Music has got more pressure on it, because I am putting it out to the public more. But I love both of them and they help each other--like, if I get sick of making music or if I run out of ideas or something, I can put all that same energy into some visual thing. Then I forget about music, and then when I go back to music, it's like, fresh again, rather than me just beating myself over the head and making something that I don't think is good.
LAUNCH: You've been called a "junk collector"--tell me about that.
JOSEPH: Well, when I'm walking around New York, there's a lot of things that people throw into the street that can be used for sculptures and stuff like that, and so that's one thing I love about living in New York. It's something that I'm trying to quit; it's almost like this weird addiction. My apartment got overwhelmed with things, and then I had to get a storage space, and then I filled my storage space up, and now my apartment is starting to get overwhelmed with things again.
LAUNCH: What sort of things?
JOSEPH: I make sculptures out of found objects and toys and paint. I make little cities--little crazy landscapes and stuff like that. I haven't made that many of them, but I would love to get a really large space in the city and be able to really go crazy with the visual side of things and really do large-scale paintings and large-scale, big crazy cities.
LAUNCH: Has any of your stuff been used in music videos or anywhere?
JOSEPH: There was that one Mariah Carey video that I did where she was in the movie theater. No, I'm just kidding.
LAUNCH: Do you think your music is very commercial?
JOSEPH: God, I don't know! It hasn't proven to be so far, but I think it could be--it depends. The music business now seems like it's gotten really, really, totally pop music. But I think [my music] could be [successful], if [the] music [business] completely changed. If we were in a different world, then it would be. But in this world, it's not.
LAUNCH: Do you think critics get what you try to do?
JOSEPH: I don't really feel that comfortable when I read about myself, because it's just so weird. So far I have seen flattering things and the people that they usually compare me to I like, so it doesn't bother me, but I'm sort of on this thing where I'm not looking at any publications, because it's just too much noise in your head. I think in some ways it's better to make things in a vacuum, because I just think that stuff can influence you. If they say something bad about you, it's painful, and if they say something good about you, you get a big head. It's seductive, though, when you walk by magazine shops and stuff, 'cause distractions are taking over the world--cell phones and computers and Internet magazines and stuff like that.
LAUNCH: You know, you are part of it now. You sold out!
JOSEPH: Yes, I'm part of the corporate monster!
LAUNCH: Explain how you do the one-man-band thing where you sample yourself.
JOSEPH: Well, I use this long delay kind of sampler, long delays through my guitar, and make loops by hitting my guitar--like make it sound like drums, or by using my voice, I'll sing--and it will be like a loop, and that will become the backdrop for a song. Then I'll perform over that, and I have volume pedals with which I bring things in and out. And it's all live, and when I stop it, they disappear. It's only for the time for that show. So it's done every time in a unique way.
LAUNCH: So it's very spontaneous?
JOSEPH: Yeah, they sound different--it's sort of like you're reacting to the moment. It's not like you are pressing a tape or something. There's a danger element in it, which is what I think makes it compelling, 'cause people like to see that there's a possibility of it going horribly wrong.
LAUNCH: Have you had any kind of stylistic turns since you have been writing songs and making records?
JOSEPH: I think a lot. I think I've learned how to sing a lot more since I made my first record; being on the road and touring and singing night after night really has taught me how to sing more. I think that might be the biggest change. And also, it's still growing now, but I feel like I'm becoming more and more free with making records and more and more confident. I still feel like I have a lot more music to make; I still feel like I have a lot of songs left.
LAUNCH: Have you ever done anything artistic that when you were done with it, you were surprised you had it in you to do that?
JOSEPH: It might sound really egotistical--or maybe it's opposite of egotistical--but I definitely have been surprised by things before. It doesn't seem...I mean, like I think, "Wow, I could never come up with things like that." Usually the best things are sort of unconscious and come from a deeper place. So I don't know, but that answer is sort of like, "Ooh, I'm a channel. I'm a channel for higher things!" And it's not that. I think it's just a natural thing. I think it's just like dreaming. I'm sure everybody has the experience of having a dream that just seems insane or crazy, like they could never have come up with that or thought of that from an analytical standpoint. And I think creativity at its best is like that--it just comes from the same place that your dreams come from.
LAUNCH: Who did you listen to in your formative years?
JOSEPH: I listened to a lot of Jimi Hendrix. That was like a huge influence on me. That was like the first music that was real that I totally fell in love with. My sister was a big Bob Dylan nut and she forced that on me, and I was like, "I don't get it," but then I started getting into the lyrics and stuff like that and then I really fell in love with him. Led Zeppelin...I was in this band I was in the 8th grade and I played bass and I was in a band with these seniors, like older kids with long hippy hair who smoked pot and were totally cool and listened to Led Zeppelin and stuff like that, so Led Zeppelin was huge. That was the first time I smoked pot and listened to Led Zeppelin, and I was like, "My God!" I felt the power of music. I was just like, "Holy sh-t!" And then they put on Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" and stuff, and I was like, "Yeah, now I really understand what they are saying in this song."
LAUNCH: Tell me about the period in your life right before you met Peter Gabriel and got signed.
JOSEPH: I was working at a guitar shop called Clark's Music in Atlanta, Georgia, selling Fenders and Gibsons and strings and picks. And basically just not enjoying myself enough because I was sort of losing my mind. Working in a music shop is hard, because people come in and play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" over and over again.
LAUNCH: So what triggered what you're doing today?
JOSEPH: I saw a Hendrix video, which is really strange. It was at that friend's house who was a senior with long hippy hair--he had Jimmy Page hair and his face was like an old man's face. But just all that stuff...I don't know, that's just what I wanted to do, and it never really stopped--it evolved. Then I just wanted to be a bass player, and then since then it evolved: I started playing guitar, and then songwriting became more of my focus. I tried to get really good at bass but I just didn't...you know, I love jazz music, but it's just not the music that I always listen to.
LAUNCH: So where do you see yourself 20 years from now?
JOSEPH: Well, I hope my career evolves sort of like Elton John's has. I want to do things for The Lion King and stuff.
LAUNCH: Seriously, now...
JOSEPH: Let's see...I kind of look to Eddie Money, like I want a lot of success and then I want to fall off the face of the earth. No, I'm just kidding. Let's see...20 years from now...hold on, I've got to think. I'd like to I hope I'm still making music. I'd like to be involved more in painting too, and get a space where I can really explore that in a free way, because right now my apartment is so small, I can't really paint. I need a lot of space where you could put big canvases up and go all Jackson Pollack on somebody. That would be really fun.
