INTERVIEW : 2011-08-29 JA's Graduation Ceremony (by Dan MacIntosh)
Joseph Arthur is both a singer and a songwriter, but if you know what’s good for you, you won’t ever call him a combination thereof. He uses various electronic guitar effects to turn his solo outings into one-man-band performances, which permanently separate him from the “tears on the acoustic guitar” crowd. He has also experienced the collaboration of a band, having recently recorded and toured with the group Fistful Of Mercy, which also featured Dhani Harrison and Ben Harper.
His latest release, The Graduation Ceremony, is about as sad and serious as an artist can get. With a session guest list that ranges from Jim Keltner to Liz Phair it was – believe it or not – a fun record for Arthur to make. Stereo Subversion recently had the honor to talk this talented artist about his ever-sincere music.
SSv: ‘Sadness’ is a word the comes to mind a lot when I listen to The Graduation Ceremony, so I wonder what was going on when you created it.
Joseph Arthur: Well, I came out of a long-term relationship, I guess a year or so before I recorded it. I think it kind of carries over the experience of kind of dealing with that. It was also recorded the year after that situation, so I feel like there’s a hopeful aspect to it, or just sort of a positive energy, you know?
SSv: But you’re not in that place now, right? You’re in a better place?
That’s not my favorite kind of music at all. I think that’s why I’m a good singer/songwriter because I don’t like singer/songwriters.
Joseph: Yeah, I don’t even consider that a bad place necessarily. It’s just a place, you know? I’m not in that now.
SSv: There’s some really interesting people you work with on this album, and one of these is drummer Jim Keltner, and he’s been around for a long, long time. How did you connect with him?
Joseph: I connected with Jim during the recording of my second record, which was Come To Where I’m From, and which was recorded in 1999. He played on that. And that was when T Bone Burnett was producing my records. So I met him through T Bone Burnett. Then I reconnected with him when I was recording Fistful Of Mercy with Dhani Harrison and Ben Harper and we wanted to get a drummer to record with us on that record and so Dhani called up Jim because he knew Jim and kind of grew up with Jim and lot of people. He’s a legend.
SSv: You mentioned the Fistful Of Mercy project, which was really an interesting combination of people. How did that project work for you? Did that really sort of energize you as an artist, instead of it just being your solo thing; you could collaborate with others and kind of create an energy that’s a little bit different than you normally do?
Joseph: I like to be a member of a group and just, like, go do shows just to be in the element of a band sound is quite a different way of going about it because even when I put together bands for my own stuff I’m still sort of a front person for it. It was nice to be not that. Part of that, but not fully that. That really felt almost like sort of a pressure-free performance. You’re part of a collective, in a way.
SSv: Whose idea was it to create the band?
Joseph: It was collaborative on that level too because I called up Ben to see if he would sing with me at The Troubadour and we had talked about recording for a long time doing something. So I was, like, ‘I’m in town for a little bit. Maybe we should do something.’ Then he asked me if I knew Dhani. So Ben was the center of it, in terms that he knew me and he knew Dhani. He brought all three of us together in that way. And then I met Dhani the first day we started recording in the studio. We became friends while working on the record.
SSv: Did it click immediately when you started recording together and performing?
Joseph: Yeah, it did. I mean, we recorded that record in three days…just the basics we recorded and pretty much wrote in three days. It went like gangbusters. The first three songs on that record are the first three songs we did, and they came out sounding pretty much just like that, other than now they’re a little a bit more produced on the rhythm section. But if you heard the initial roughs, they sound pretty complete.
SSv: Do you think you’ll do another project together?
Joseph: I don’t know. I mean, I hope so. There’s definitely an open…it feels like an open door. There’s not concrete plans, either. It could end up being a one-off, or it could happen again. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
SSv: One of the things I came away impressed with when I saw you perform live is that you’re pretty well self-contained. You could very easily play without a band and create a full sound. Is that out of necessity that you learned how to do that or are you comfortable having complete control when it comes to performing live?
Joseph: Oh no, I learned that out of necessity I think. I’m not really a huge fan of singer-songwriters, per se. The whole acoustic guitar person singing songs… I mean, unless the songs are really strong that sort of is not my favorite style of music. I think I’m aware that I fit in that category at times, but I’ve sort seen myself differently than that. So I think it was a way to kind of create a sonic landscape that was more suited to what I actually like in music and also keep a door open towards more improvisational qualities in the musical realm. I can solo over chord progressions and things like that. I think it’s kind of important to me.
SSv: That’s interesting. I never really thought of it that way, but you do separate yourself from the typical singer-songwriter. And you’re right. Unless you’re somebody like Bob Dylan, where every song is great, it’s kind of tough to keep an audience’s attention if you’re just strumming a guitar and singing, right?
Joseph: That’s not my favorite kind of music at all. I think that’s why I’m a good singer/songwriter because I don’t like singer/songwriters.
SSv: One of the other people that’s listed on the new album is Liz Phair. When I read that, it seemed like kind of an unlikely collaboration. How far back does your friendship with Liz go?
Joseph: Back as far as the day she came in to collaborate on the record. Why does it seem like an unlikely collaboration?
SSv: I don’t know. She doesn’t seem like somebody that would contribute to someone else’s project. She seems kind of independent and kind of doing her thing, and if you want to help her, that’s great. Because I don’t really know her, maybe it’s her public persona that gives me that impression. Obviously, you know her better than I do. Tell me about the experience of working with her in the studio. What was that like?
Joseph: It was on the song “Midwest” and I was putting on some sort of rock & roll guitar, so it was a clean electric sound and I said to John AlagÃa, who was helping me produce it that, ‘This reminds me of something on Exile in Guyville, these guitars we’re putting on.’ And he was, like, ‘Oh, should we get Liz to come in and sing on it?’ And I was, like, ‘Can you?’ And he was, like, ‘Yeah.’ So the next day, she was in the studio.
SSv: Had he worked with her?
Joseph: He has worked with her, yeah. I never had. But she was super sweet and nice. Very fun to work with and had lots of cool ideas. She ended coming around the studio every once in a while. We would just hang out. There was a few different characters. Like, Madi Diaz was around. It was just kind of a fun atmosphere. It was the experience of making a record. You build these crews together and people come by and start hanging out and partying and it’s fun.
