INTERVIEW : 2004-12-09 Joseph Arthur Q&A (by Steve Ciabattoni)

"It's a nervous habit," Joseph Arthur says, concentrating intently on his sketchbook as he makes another red eyelid on one of his intricate line drawings. With his head-down doodling, you'd think he wouldn't reveal very much in an interview, but the opposite is true.With his girlfriend at the table, he sketches and enjoys a refill at his favorite bagel shop on New York's Lower East Side. This is what makes the singer/songwriter/artist happy.When he's comfortable, he's honest about his work, even funnier and more self-deprecating than expected.

His previous albums on Peter Gabriel's Real World imprint won him critical acclaim, highlighted by 2002's Redemption's Son (which went to No. 1 on the CMJ charts). The songs on his fourth record, Our Shadows Will Remain, on his new home of Vector Records, paint an even denser emotional and musical portrait.Arthur makes pop and rock songs, but moody and broody, with beats and textures that recall new wave and lyrics that come from a more personal place. Before he headed out to do a few dates with R.E.M. Arthur talked about art, music and Halloween costumes. Name another magazine that gives you that kind of range!

First dumb question. Are you excited about opening for R.E.M.?

I was terrified about it, but I'm really looking forward to it. I've played in rooms that size one time with Ben Harper, but other than that I have no experience. I'm sure a lot of people will be walking in when I'm on. That's cool, that takes the pressure off. It's like, "I'm just here to chill you guys out while you find your seats."

R.E.M. were part of the Rock For Change tour and you played a John Kerry benefit. There's also an unreleased anti-war song and video, "All Of Our Hands," on your website. Have you always been political?

I was never that political, but I just felt that the stakes were different. We're involved in an unnecessary war. Human lives are at stake. You gotta stand up.

Why did you record in New Orleans as opposed to New York?

I left my Real World deal and I had been living here for the last six years and was no closer to buying a place. I didn't know if I'd have any money, so I was ready to split. I packed up my apartment and went down there. I realized it was really easy to live out of a suitcase and wander around. That was a lot of fun because wherever you are, you're home. By the time I got out of my Real World deal, I was fine without having a record deal. New Orleans is a cool town; you can live there for cheap. I just thought I could sell my own records over the Internet, live in a cool town, go tour in a van, head back to France when I can. Just sing for my supper that way. But then Vector got excited about the record, so I said, "OK, let's try this."

Did some of your original sketches of the songs wind up in the final versions?

I start a lot of songs with beats and that's how we picked a lot of the songs to record. If it had a cool groove, we would pick that. It was more of a visceral decision than the one with the best lyric or something. "Wasted" came about because the beat was cool and then we developed it a bit more in New Orleans.

There are a lot of really great choruses in these new songs, but they are very dark at the same time.

I think they're pop songs, but you're right, they don't seem to sell themselves very easily [laughs].

A lot of your fans talk about your work on more of an emotional level than a musical level. What emotion do you feel when you listen to your own music?

I listen to it a lot when I'm making it, but then after that I don't really listen to it. When I'm writing it I really feel it though.

If you don't listen to them, then who do write your songs for?

Hmmm, I don't have pat answers for that [laughs].Maybe I should concentrate and stop drawing for a second. Who do I write these for? I guess, my spirit in a way. God. Love. People I've upset. It's usually a personal expression towards one entity. And sometimes it's me, yeah. Oftentimes I think it's the higher part of my consciousness trying to give the lower part of my consciousness a message, because they come out pretty easily. It's hard to talk about it without sounding like a total egomaniac [laughs]. I hate it when people say the songs come from somewhere else, but they really do.

Well, it's just like you can't say that what you're drawing now is coming from something specific.

To me it's just doodling, but there's all sorts of crazy stuff going on. Symbolism. But I don't really understand consciously what the symbolism is, I'm just doodling. I'm doing exactly what I was doing as a kid. It's just that now it's freakier.

The majority of your drawings are just of heads. A psychiatrist would say that symbolizes that you value the cerebral over the physical.

Yeah, I'm trying to get into hands [laughs, pointing at the page]. See, I'm trying to expand my horizons… What did you do for Halloween?

Nothing… You?

We were supposed to be Sonny And Cher, but it didn't work out.

Maybe you should have swapped costumes.

Yeah, of course! That's what everyone said after. Because I'm taller.


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