INTERVIEW : 2011-04-xx Pomp And Circumstance (by Phil Gallo)

After two weeks in China this spring, singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur, 39, was in Los Angeles reviewing an upcoming travel schedule-Australia, Europe, New York-and wondering whether he'll be able to maintain his new Tumblr, Bag Is Hot (josepharthur.tumblr.com).

"I feel privileged to be able to do what I do," Arthur says after sound check at Hollywood club Bardot. "But there's a certain psychology that goes with being an artist of any kind. My mechanism of survival is at the point where it's spinning out of control."

In addition to running his own label, Lonely Astronaut, and making music, Arthur is an accomplished visual artist -his 1999 EP "Vacancy," which prominently featured his artwork, received a Grammy Award nomination for best recording package. His sixth solo album, "The Graduation Ceremony," is due May 24. It'll arrive on Lonely Astronaut and is Arthur's first full-length solo set since 2006's "Nuclear Daydream." French label Fargo will handle European distribution.

"You almost have to be a renaissance man," Arthur says about staying afloat as an independent artist, but for him the description isn't much of a stretch. For nearly two decades, the Akron, Ohio, native has balanced music, painting and poetry, attracting an audience that Arthur calls "culty." He was "discovered" by Peter Gabriel in the mid-'90s and became the first American to sign with Gabriel's Real

 World Records. More recently, Arthur worked alongside Ben Harper and Dhani Harrison in Fistful of Mercy-they hope to record a second album next year.

"Graduation" originated as a side project to clear Arthur's mind after completing "The Ballad of Boogie Christ," which he describes as an elaborate project that's finished, yet unreleased. "[It has] long lyrical songs with big productions," Arthur says. "I got overwhelmed with it so I wrote [the song] 'Out on the Limb' and took it to a friend's studio and recorded it. The next day I called him up and asked if I could 

record more songs. I went in and cut the whole record except for two songs, just playing guitar and singing. I had no idea what I would do with it."

Then session drummer Jim Keltner came into the picture. Keltner had worked on Fistful of Mercy's debut, "As I Call You Down," and had been booked to work on "Boogie Christ." "All of a sudden," Arthur says, "I had this acoustic record with Jim Keltner on drums. We did a little light production and I thought I was through."

Arthur then went to his own New York studio and recorded "Over the Sun" and "Almost Blue" before handing the music to John Alagia-whom he'd worked with on the song "You're So True" from the "Shrek 2" soundtrack-to mix.

"[Alagia] listened and said he wanted something more out of it, that it wasn't adding up to as good as it could be," Arthur recalls. He and Alagia spent a month at Los Angeles' Village Recorders adding strings, backing vocals, bass and keyboards. The end result is an album that ranks as one of Arthur's best.

"There were times during the process where, if I could press a button and have the whole thing be set to a click track, I would have done that," Arthur says.

"[But] no way could I have brought myself to change any of it."