INTERVIEW : 2013-12-12 Jingle Punks Interview (by Bianca Ker)
You get ready to go to a show, get on the streetcar, you’re running a little late, so you hurry downstairs to the venue, open the door and…
It’s empty. Chairs are stacked on top of the tables, and the whole damn place is cleared out.
Shit. You got the wrong day.
Alright. So I missed Joseph Arthur’s show at The Drake Underground, that was a major fail on my part, because I’m sure it would have been a great show. I also might have offered to buy him a beer after his set…I’m the worst. However I was lucky enough to speak with Joseph over the phone beforehand. He had just gotten back from his European tour and walked around Brooklyn while we spoke.
You may have heard of Joseph Arthur, you might not have, but you’ve more than likely heard his music without knowing it, either on “The O.C.,” “The L Word,” “The Bourne Identity,” or one of the many other television and films his music has been placed in. While he’s never had that “big break” moment that transitioned him over to the mainstream, that’s what drew me to him and his story. Joseph spoke about what it’s like to be an independent artist, how the industry has changed just while he’s been part of it, and ultimately what it means to be a working musician.
On touring
I used to go tour before there was the Internet. When you toured Europe then, it was really like a foreign land. You had three TV channels in some foreign language. You just got lonely and wandered around the city. Now you never really go away. I’m so glad I had that experience of being a stranger in a strange land. That’s just a concept for people nowadays. There’s a real poetry in that.
On his new album, The Ballad of Boogie Christ.
It’s a concept album that I’ve been working on for 5 years, on and off. It leads itself to be a character in a theatrical. It felt like a great jumping off point, to build a story around. I just began doing that. But as I started doing that, it had a real ambition to it. I started making other albums around it, because it overwhelmed me. It felt monstrous, which is a great tool to use as an artist because you can sort of rebel against projects, and that’s a really good energy to get into, to sort of react off of projects. This one was good for that. I got a couple good albums out of it.
On Music Licensing for TV and Film
The music business is in a constant state of flux, I don’t think anybody’s got it figured. I remember when that “O.C.” thing happened, and at that time it was still kind of considered selling out if you gave one of your songs to a show like that. Like there was an uncool factor to that. I remember talking to my manager thinking, “Should we do this?” We were seriously considering not even doing that. Which nowadays seems absurd.
It’s almost got to the point that it’s like having a radio hit. It would be like saying, “Oh, if you have a radio hit you’re selling out.” I’ve watched the whole spectrum change. When I got discovered, or put out my first record, we had cassettes, and you were lucky as hell to get a magical thing called a “record deal” that got your stuff out there to more than 10 people. Nowadays with the Internet, everybody has the exact same distribution network to go through.
On being an independent artist
For me it’s always been kind of a struggle, but not in necessarily a bad way, because it’s fueled my output. There’s this sort of inner connection between the struggle and the work. I don’t think I would fight as hard as I do if it were just easy for me.
If you’re a cult act, or don’t have a big fan base, you kind of have to get your exposure where you can. Integrity is something you can afford. I always keep that in mind. If you’re an artist that’s really, really successful, and there are different rules for different people.
‘The Ballad of Boogie Christ’ is out now on Real World/Lonely Astronauts
