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THE LYRICS
THE ODD TUNINGS
THE SNAPPY BAND
Interview by Lauren Ng, 11/09/2008
Photography by Pat Chen
LN: I am really excited to meet you, and can’t wait to hear you play tonight.
JB: Why thank you!
LN: How do you decide on the stories/narrative themes you’ve woven through your music? For instance, you have the theme of family (Blood From a Stone, So Much Mine, Amelia).
JB: Well family, that’s just life, and I think we’re all dealing with whatever it is that we carry and we’ve had to learn, fix, and grow from. So there are songs that definitely deal with my relationship with my mom, which is always complicated for girls, the mother/daughter thing is fraught at best. So Blood From a Stone is definitely that.
LN: Where did the theme of the circus originate? (Damn Everything But the Circus, Back in the Circus)
JB: The circus came from my dance career, it came from a piece that I danced in when I was living in Boston right when I was starting my music career. This piece I danced in, I was a carny circus girl, it was a really visceral character. I was pissed off and was wearing this tattered costume with fishnet stockings and a whip and having an affair with the lion tamer. And I got obsessed with that character so when I made Back to the Circus I decided to revisit that character and write about what she might have been like 10 or 15 years down the road.
LN: Any new themes emerging from your writing?
JB: I guess it would be abandoning to not censor anything and writing whatever, and that’s something that happened to me by reading through the Woody Guthrie archives. The man wrote about everything and he just kept creating and made me so much less precious about my own process and now I find myself writing everything down.
LN: Do you ever have any fear of exposing too much?
JB: Well it’s too late now! (Laughs)…On a record like Ten Cent Wings you’re in a process and you aren’t thinking about how will this be taken, how will this be seen, am I saying too much? I knew that this record was about the end of my first marriage but I just kept writing the songs anyway. And I remember vividly playing this for my friends and when it was finished there would be this very stunning silence and them not knowing what to say because the record is about the end of my relationship. It’s all in there.
LN: And also themes of religion: The Gilded Cage and Prodigal Daughter.
JB: Prodigal Daughter deals with kind of the whole family and I was brought up in a very religious family so the religious theme gets thrown in there with Gilded Cage. I was just in France with this amazing cathedral where there was that light streaming through those high windows.
LN: And that image speaks to a lot of people as well.
JB: There are things about faith that are really powerful and really moving, but I’ve always struggled with that because when I go home I’ll hear hymns or go to service to make my mom happy, and I’ll get very emotional because its just tied to something that you can’t explain. It is emotion, it’s faith and you either have it or you don’t.
LN: Are you going to play Prodigal Daughter tonight?
JB: I hadn’t planned on it, the songs are so at the mercy of the tunings…but it goes with So Much Mine.
LN: Two of my favorites!
JB: (whispers) Let’s do it, let’s add it in…
LN: You mentioned a lot of your songs use alternate guitar tunings. But before you answer that question, what about your use of unconventional instrumentation?
JB: You know I’ve been dying to get my brother to play the Scottish bagpipes on a record someday. We’ll probably have to mike him from across a field because it’s so loud! You know there’s also one time where I screamed into a piano with the sustain pedal down and we recorded the overtones that came from it to get this really creepy sound.
LN: And the alternate guitar tunings? How did you come up with that trademark sound?
JB: I was messing around in college and trying to figure out a Roche Sisters tune - Hammond Song - and so I figured out the open tuning that I used on Gilded Cage, When Two and Two are Five, Eye in the Sky, and Angel in the House. So that became one of my all time favorite tunings. With open tunings, it’s become a fun tool for me. Then I found half capos, which opens up a whole other world.
LN: You know you drive your fans crazy trying to figure out these chords.
JB: Well the funniest thing is that once in a while someone will tell me they’ve figured out the tuning and it will be so much easier the way they figured it out and I’ll think wow, I just made it that much harder for myself.
LN: I’m not sure if you get asked this a lot, but your vocal range is incredible. I love it when you exhibit a full range in the course of a single song (Nothing Sacred, West Point being my favorites). Where’s your comfort level tend to be?
JB: That’s a good question. I’m comfortable everywhere but right in the middle. You know I always say I am a product of my own limitations. I’ve never studied voice or guitar and only took piano lessons for 3 years. So when you first start out you imitate. I was singing along to Chaka Khan, Suzanne Vega, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor. But little by little you start to find your own voice in the middle of there. So when I first started writing I wrote so beyond my ability that I had to grow into my own voice. Now I write so much more streamlined and honed in on the songs.
LN: You seem just as comfortable performing in the studio as you do live. What do you love (and dislike) about each?
JB: Well the only thing I dislike about doing live solo gigs as that it gets a little lonely. And my band, I love them, they are such amazing people. Aside from being great musicians, I love being with them. They know me. We have a blast. Studio drawbacks are that I totally miss the audience.
LN: On your album Careful What You Wish For, you collaborated with J.C. Chasez (N’Sync).
JB: J.C. is so talented and he’s got so many ideas and was amazing to work with. He sang background vocals on Careful What You Wish For.
LN: What would be your dream project/collaboration?
JB: Well working on my latest record was definitely not intended to be a collaboration.
LN: And your latest album The Works, is lyrics by Woody Guthrie, music by you.
JB: Woody’s daughter, Nora, gave me free reign on his archives and we hit it off. She saw that I was drawn to certain writings in the archive. Nora was in the studio when I was recording My Sweet and Bitter Bowl and when she heard it she just burst into tears. And so this experience has definitely inspired me.
LN: And you did a duet with Keb’ Mo’ on this recording.
JB: All I Gotta Do Is Touch Me, and yes I just knew it needed Keb’ Mo’. Luckily he was totally into it, and he is such a sweetheart. I would love to do an album of duets, and not just singing one or two songs. Another dream of mine would be to work with a chamber orchestra with really beautiful arrangements of strings and woodwind parts.
LN: What’s your advice to aspiring musicians who are looking to tap into their own voice?
JB: Get out now! (Laughs) But seriously, you have to be honest with your heart.
Editor’s note, 11/20/2008:
We also have a MONOLOG post covering that night’s show with Glen Phillips.
Check it out.
Links:
www.jonathabrooke.com
www.myspace.com/jonathabrooke
THE ODD TUNINGS
THE SNAPPY BAND
Interview by Lauren Ng, 11/09/2008
Photography by Pat Chen
LN: I am really excited to meet you, and can’t wait to hear you play tonight.
JB: Why thank you!
LN: How do you decide on the stories/narrative themes you’ve woven through your music? For instance, you have the theme of family (Blood From a Stone, So Much Mine, Amelia).
JB: Well family, that’s just life, and I think we’re all dealing with whatever it is that we carry and we’ve had to learn, fix, and grow from. So there are songs that definitely deal with my relationship with my mom, which is always complicated for girls, the mother/daughter thing is fraught at best. So Blood From a Stone is definitely that.
LN: Where did the theme of the circus originate? (Damn Everything But the Circus, Back in the Circus)
JB: The circus came from my dance career, it came from a piece that I danced in when I was living in Boston right when I was starting my music career. This piece I danced in, I was a carny circus girl, it was a really visceral character. I was pissed off and was wearing this tattered costume with fishnet stockings and a whip and having an affair with the lion tamer. And I got obsessed with that character so when I made Back to the Circus I decided to revisit that character and write about what she might have been like 10 or 15 years down the road.
LN: Any new themes emerging from your writing?
JB: I guess it would be abandoning to not censor anything and writing whatever, and that’s something that happened to me by reading through the Woody Guthrie archives. The man wrote about everything and he just kept creating and made me so much less precious about my own process and now I find myself writing everything down.
LN: Do you ever have any fear of exposing too much?
JB: Well it’s too late now! (Laughs)…On a record like Ten Cent Wings you’re in a process and you aren’t thinking about how will this be taken, how will this be seen, am I saying too much? I knew that this record was about the end of my first marriage but I just kept writing the songs anyway. And I remember vividly playing this for my friends and when it was finished there would be this very stunning silence and them not knowing what to say because the record is about the end of my relationship. It’s all in there.
LN: And also themes of religion: The Gilded Cage and Prodigal Daughter.
JB: Prodigal Daughter deals with kind of the whole family and I was brought up in a very religious family so the religious theme gets thrown in there with Gilded Cage. I was just in France with this amazing cathedral where there was that light streaming through those high windows.
LN: And that image speaks to a lot of people as well.
JB: There are things about faith that are really powerful and really moving, but I’ve always struggled with that because when I go home I’ll hear hymns or go to service to make my mom happy, and I’ll get very emotional because its just tied to something that you can’t explain. It is emotion, it’s faith and you either have it or you don’t.
LN: Are you going to play Prodigal Daughter tonight?
JB: I hadn’t planned on it, the songs are so at the mercy of the tunings…but it goes with So Much Mine.
LN: Two of my favorites!
JB: (whispers) Let’s do it, let’s add it in…
LN: You mentioned a lot of your songs use alternate guitar tunings. But before you answer that question, what about your use of unconventional instrumentation?
JB: You know I’ve been dying to get my brother to play the Scottish bagpipes on a record someday. We’ll probably have to mike him from across a field because it’s so loud! You know there’s also one time where I screamed into a piano with the sustain pedal down and we recorded the overtones that came from it to get this really creepy sound.
LN: And the alternate guitar tunings? How did you come up with that trademark sound?
JB: I was messing around in college and trying to figure out a Roche Sisters tune - Hammond Song - and so I figured out the open tuning that I used on Gilded Cage, When Two and Two are Five, Eye in the Sky, and Angel in the House. So that became one of my all time favorite tunings. With open tunings, it’s become a fun tool for me. Then I found half capos, which opens up a whole other world.
LN: You know you drive your fans crazy trying to figure out these chords.
JB: Well the funniest thing is that once in a while someone will tell me they’ve figured out the tuning and it will be so much easier the way they figured it out and I’ll think wow, I just made it that much harder for myself.
LN: I’m not sure if you get asked this a lot, but your vocal range is incredible. I love it when you exhibit a full range in the course of a single song (Nothing Sacred, West Point being my favorites). Where’s your comfort level tend to be?
JB: That’s a good question. I’m comfortable everywhere but right in the middle. You know I always say I am a product of my own limitations. I’ve never studied voice or guitar and only took piano lessons for 3 years. So when you first start out you imitate. I was singing along to Chaka Khan, Suzanne Vega, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor. But little by little you start to find your own voice in the middle of there. So when I first started writing I wrote so beyond my ability that I had to grow into my own voice. Now I write so much more streamlined and honed in on the songs.
LN: You seem just as comfortable performing in the studio as you do live. What do you love (and dislike) about each?
JB: Well the only thing I dislike about doing live solo gigs as that it gets a little lonely. And my band, I love them, they are such amazing people. Aside from being great musicians, I love being with them. They know me. We have a blast. Studio drawbacks are that I totally miss the audience.
LN: On your album Careful What You Wish For, you collaborated with J.C. Chasez (N’Sync).
JB: J.C. is so talented and he’s got so many ideas and was amazing to work with. He sang background vocals on Careful What You Wish For.
LN: What would be your dream project/collaboration?
JB: Well working on my latest record was definitely not intended to be a collaboration.
LN: And your latest album The Works, is lyrics by Woody Guthrie, music by you.
JB: Woody’s daughter, Nora, gave me free reign on his archives and we hit it off. She saw that I was drawn to certain writings in the archive. Nora was in the studio when I was recording My Sweet and Bitter Bowl and when she heard it she just burst into tears. And so this experience has definitely inspired me.
LN: And you did a duet with Keb’ Mo’ on this recording.
JB: All I Gotta Do Is Touch Me, and yes I just knew it needed Keb’ Mo’. Luckily he was totally into it, and he is such a sweetheart. I would love to do an album of duets, and not just singing one or two songs. Another dream of mine would be to work with a chamber orchestra with really beautiful arrangements of strings and woodwind parts.
LN: What’s your advice to aspiring musicians who are looking to tap into their own voice?
JB: Get out now! (Laughs) But seriously, you have to be honest with your heart.
Editor’s note, 11/20/2008:
We also have a MONOLOG post covering that night’s show with Glen Phillips.
Check it out.
Links:
www.jonathabrooke.com
www.myspace.com/jonathabrooke
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