Friday, April 6, 2012
Q&A / Weekend Delta Spirit ditches country-fried ways for synthy fixins
Posted by Johnnie Sanchez @EvilsEverywhere on Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 1:20 PM
The members of Delta Spirit may have lost their "delta" with the release of their self-titled third album, on which they forgo their go-to helping of folk and reach across the table for some pop and rock with all the synthy fixins, courtesy of it-producer Chris Coady. Truth is, they've changed their plan a little late in the game, and just may have shot themselves in the foot on their race to bigger and better venues. Their "spirit," however, is alive and well thank-you-very-much, according to Jon Jameson, the group's bassist and go-to soul searcher, who phoned in from Philly as Delta Spirit treks across North America.
Jameson gave us the low-down on why he avoids listening to their first-born album, Ode to Sunshine, how it feels being the “weird guy” in the band who’s always running off to Sunday mass, and why the band members’ wives harbor no jealousy over their so-called rock-star lives. P.S. If you're a hot young thing reading this article, Mr. Jameson has a very important message for you at the end of this interview. Go on and scroll down, if you must. But come back up, you hear?
Delta Spirit. With Waters. Saturday, April 7th. $13. 8p.m. Masquerade. 404-577-8178. www.masq.com. Delta Spirit dropped on March 13th.
In 2008 before the release of your first album you were quoted as saying "I want to get cut down. I want people to tell us we're super overrated." So of all times to get cut down, this is possibly one of the key times in the band's career that that will happen because this new album is definitely a new beginning, maybe even a whole new book, for you all, as it’s taken flight from folk and erred more to the side of pop rock. Most critics are finding it to be a mixed bag but are ultimately going to bat for this album, and a lot of fans are cutting you down, just as you wanted. How do those mixed reactions sit with you?
Jon Jameson: I guess if I felt conflicted about the album I would maybe put more stock in hoping that people like it, but all of us are thrilled and invested with the album. Obviously we're happy when people get it, and disappointed when they don't but at the same time I'm completely confidant and I think that anyone who's interested in our band will get it. It's a risk in some ways. We definitely maybe could've played it safe and tried to make the songs cater more to the people who liked our first album but I don't think that was even a possibility with us. We're a band who’s interested in growth. I love the first album we made, but if we put that out again, I wouldn't listen to it. It's no longer interesting to me the way it was in its' time. Being a musician, you have to find out what interests you about music. At the same point, there are a few people who aren’t interested anymore but I think that's really a very small number of our fans.
When you say "get it," what do you mean?
It's been a natural progression getting here. I think we're more open with trying things that in the past we didn't feel comfortable with.
With you guys growing to be more comfortable and confidant with experimenting, what did you guys do differently?
For one we spent a lot of time really working on the songs until all five of us loved them. We just spent months playing song idea after song idea until we had eleven songs that we loved. Since all five of us are so different, it was about finding the common ground where we all loved what we were doing. But this summer we brought our producer Chris Coady in and gave him more control than we've ever given anyone else. What we had him do mostly was sonics and he's also the synth hero, which is all new to us.
How are all five of you so different? Is it both musically and personality wise?
I'd say both. We all have pretty strong personalities, pretty strong characters. You know, like, Brandon is listening to new DJ's, I'm listening to Cocteau Twins and New Order, and Matt's listening to Nirvana [laughs]. Everyone's all over the place. What makes our band special is that we all find a way to respect each other.
Why did you guys decide to self title this album?
The second album felt a little bit rushed in production. We didn't spend as much time putting it together because we had been touring for the first one. We wanted to really kind of re-sort out how we felt about things. It felt like a re-birth, a starting again. So all that mixed in with not having a themed album, it kind of just came from the fact that we were making the album that we're most proud of.
So in that same interview in 2008 you talked about how there was no money, no tour manager, no label. You talked about driving throughout Canada and having to find a place to sleep every night, not knowing anybody, having no connections. Now we're in 2012 and around 45,000 people have clicked "like" on your facebook page. Some people are saying you're heading for the stadiums. How do you feel about getting bigger?
We've never had any other intention than being the biggest band that we could be as long as our integrity was intact. I definitely get those people who want to have their secret band that only they can love, and no one else can love, and then when everyone finds out about it they're no longer interested. I've done that with certain bands, but then there's bands like U2- they're the biggest band in the universe and I still love them and I love them because of that, because they've been able to do it with integrity and in an interesting way in bringing something new to the table. That's the kind of band that we want to be.
Okay so hold on to your seat because we're going to start talking about God! You were quoted as saying "We are haunted by Him though, and He appears in places we don't expect him to be. He haunts you and you can't get away from him." Do you still feel like God is haunting you?
[Laughs] Yeah, I still feel haunted by God. You can't quite get away from Him.
When does He pop up for you?
In weird ways, everyday. I took the train down to Penn Station this morning, and I was just looking at nature and doing morning prayer- and He's there rather I'm feeling it or not. There's always this battle between what's real and what's not, and I'm always trying to sort that out. I believe in God but I doubt all the time, and I think that's what I'm working out in my own world. That's something that we're all working out. I'm the weird guy that's running off to do mass on a Sunday morning where some of the other guys are probably finding God in other ways through nature and music or something. I envy that. I know the places where I've found peace in this world, and I'm so thankful for those avenues, especially on the road where you're trying to keep some semblance of peace in your life.
In the song "Time Bomb" there's a lyric that goes "fighting like an orphan/bitter like an old man/taking from your family/happiness, it comes at the strangest times." When does happiness come on for you? What is happiness in your own life?
It's always a battle in my mind because I don't really think that real contentment comes from just feeling positive all the time. Pure happiness isn't just being happy all the time. It's something deeper than just that. I've been married two years now, and that has been- it's been the deepest experience I've had in life so far. And it's been the best experience, but at the same time, being married is hard! When it gets rough- it's intense. So happiness. It's a place of being.
Usually by the time I get to a last song on a record I'm like "I'm done with you". But Yamaha for me is probably the standout track on this record. Matt sings, "there's a thousand things I will not understand/there's certain things in life you cannot change/there's certain things I cannot take/when I'm away I hope you know I care." For you what do those lines mean?
Matt actually wrote that. We had gone thrift shopping with Chris in some little town and we found this old 80's Yamaha keyboard that Beach House uses for all their stuff and it's the secret weapon apparently. So Chris bought it and Matt stole it from him. He got married about a month before we went to go make our album, so it was the first time that they were separated and it was just him trying to work out those feelings. So I can completely relate to him and those things.
You know, I’m a woman, but women getting in the mix could potentially be complicated because, you know, they want you around, they’re really needy, all that jazz, but do they kind of get that this is something that you guys just have to do in order to live your lives?
[Laughs] Yeah, they believe in what we’re doing and if they didn’t they’d be like “Time to get over the dream. The fun’s over. Get to work!” When our wives come out for a few days with us it's so funny. They'll come out and they'll be like "Oh my gosh. Is this what you guys really do? When I'm at home I'm freaking out thinking that you guys are having so much fun with hot girls all over the place!", when really we're sitting in an empty club waiting for sound checks for six hours. We're actually all taken now besides for Kelly. So Kelly's the only one that gets girls now, for all the babes reading this article.
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