| Browse |
| Nostalgia Interview |
 |
|
 |
| 1. Q: When did you start recording the songs for Nostlagia? Were they all recorded in one go or on separate occasions? A: We recorded all the songs intermittently over a period of two and a half months from august 2nd to november 15th, at six different locations. we started recording in a small basement studio in middletown, ohio. as the project grew in quality and scope, we moved to a larger studio in dayton ohio, to track the last two songs, float away and like that. we did most of the overdubs at home--vocals at my apartment, harmonies at T's apartment, and guitars at Eric's apartment. everything was really on a shoe string budget. everything was mixed in dayton ohio, with the exception of blue eyes and invincible, both mixed sort of as a favor by our friend blumpy (who worked on the last album swim) out in los angeles. _______________________________________________________________________ 2. Q: I think it refers to a line in The Distance, but why exactly have you gone for the title Nostalgia? A: i spent some time putting together phrases and words, mostly pieces of lyrics from songs that were included. nothing was really working so i started trying to identify themes that ran through the disc. one of the most prominent was the idea of looking backward or remembering. all the songs kind of include the idea of time passing. at least that's what the title represents to me, but everyone in the band has their own take. i guess i am an exceptionally nostalgic person. it is easy for me to idealize past events to the point where the present can really feel empty. _______________________________________________________________________ 3. Q: The record is your first release since parting ways with MCA. Obviously, the physical make-up of the band has changed since the release of SWIM, but how do you think the last couple of years has changed you and the rest of the band? A: reassembling the band was definitely a long unfortunate ordeal. i regret that member changes slowed us down so much, but i really think we are a better group because of it. the first conversation i had with drew was all about being a "real band". that is, we are in it for the right reasons, for the long haul. fortunately we all share an idea of what it means to be a rock group, and who are willing to put in the time and work to make it happen. if anything, the downtime only made us hungrier to make music and get out there and play. _______________________________________________________________________ 4. Q: You are used to recording and issuing albums independently, but do you feel like you have more creative control over a release such as this as opposed to SWIM? A: in a sense. but i think most people would be surprised to know how much creative control we had over SWIM. everyone talks about major labels like the enemy of artist creativity, but it wasn't really that way for us. if everything is working how it's designed to, being surrounded by people who make records every day only provides you with extra means to carry out your creative vision. our A&R guy joel mark was always very open to my arrangment and production ideas. in fact, we've maintained a healthy relationship with some people who worked on SWIM. we made it a point to get some feedback from some of those same people on the songs this time around. _______________________________________________________________________ 5. Q: You produced the album with Eric Stewart. Was it a difficult process being behind the desk? A: it was a little more of an undertaking than i thought it was going to be, but mostly the logistical stuff. acting in a more official production capacity this time, i was responsible for everything from creating the schedule, keeping track of mixes and recalls and files, to attending mastering. it ended up being a ton of stress toward the end of the project. we had decided long ago that we wanted to release something december 26th. toward the end we were sort of scrambling to meet a mixng deadline so that mastering and manufacturing would be finished in time for the release date. but the creative side was pretty painless. i think for the most part, the arrangements and parts fell together naturally, mostly at rehearsal and at live shows. everyone in the band brings something special to the songs, and in some cases production was as simple as rubber stamping the stuff that everyone had came up with. also, i had been making rough acoustic demos of these songs. we used those demos as reference for tempo and mood, and just built on the original structures of the songs. i think doing that was really important to the overall feel. with the full band versions for nostalgia we just tried to do what was best for each song. we didn't want to over-do anything and i don't think we did. _______________________________________________________________________ 6. Q: SWIM was a very intense album, but I think that Nostalia is slightly mellower and more organic - songs like The Distance are quite different to anything on SWIM. Would you say JFK's sound has changed a little on Nostalgia? A: i do think the sound has changed. i like to think we are growing and maturing as players, and i am learning to write better songs. i think these songs have more of a cohesiveness and clarity compared to some of the stuff on SWIM. i've been trying to use words that are more direct and honest. looking back on SWIM, it's almost like we were just doing whatever came to mind. with nostalgia, things are more thought out and straightforward, the lyrics and the music. _______________________________________________________________________ 7. Q: Of course, it would have been very easy for the band not to have survived the turbulence of the last couple of years. How pleased are you that you have come threough the other side, are still making music and still playing to a loyal fanbase? A: we are fired up. we are relieved and excited that we're finally going to be releasing some new music. i don't want to overdramatize anything, but to be honest things felt pretty bleak for a while. the worst thing for a band is inactivity. now we're just totally going for it and trying to do whatever we can on our own. we are extremely fortunate that we have the fans we do and that they've stuck by us even through some slow times. it would have been much easier to walk away or to totally start over if we didn't have the fans we have. _______________________________________________________________________ 8. Q: As for the songs, I must admit to assuming tunes like Six Hour Drive and Perfect World would be on Nostalgia. How many tunes did you have to choose from and how did you whittle them down to the seven on the cd? A: I think we chose from about thirty songs, but not in a single day. our song selection process is kind of long. and boring. almost as boring as the way a bill becomes a law. i am always writing. the really bad songs i never play for anyone. the better ones i make acoustic demos of and bring to the guys. we work something up at practice, and if everyone is digging it we start playing it live. if at rehearsal it isn't clicking or we're not into it, we throw it out. if it makes it to the stage and we're still into it after a few months, it is a given that it will eventually be recorded. the only exception is float away, which we really hadn't played out but once or twice when we went in to record it. when we started planning to record nostalgia, we already had decent demos of perfect world and six hour drive up on the website for a while. we feelt like it would be better to release some things that some of our listeners weren't already familiar with. also it's hard to play the same song for a year or two years or more and then try to get excited about recording it in the studio. we have a lot of material right now, so we took some liberties. we just wanted to do the songs we were most excited about, and i figured that the energy of the newer songs would be easier to capture in the studio. in addition to the seven songs that made it, two songs, "roses" and "modern girl" were recorded but remain unfinished. _______________________________________________________________________ 9. Q: In the last interview I did with you, you said memorably, "Songwriting's not like making cheeseburgers. Without some kind of struggle, I wouldn't have as much to write about". Was the writing process for Nostalgia hard or easy for you? A: i've had a lot to write about and think about. also i find the idea of getting into the studio very inspiring, and i was writing a whole lot once we started finalizing plans. in a lot of ways i do feel ike the writing process for this was easier. maybe just more in control. i am more comfortable with myself and my life now than i used to be, and i think that makes it easier to write reality. with the new songs i let my emotions guide the writing process, but not dictate it. i'm giving myself a little more freedom. i feel like i'm finally at a place as a songwriter where i can say "i want to write a song like this" and just do it. i love that. i can write a song about anything or anyone. it's not like making cheeseburgers at all! no matter what you're doing as a songwriter, you're only scratching the surface of an infinite combination of words and melodies. that's a good feeling. there are always a million more songs to write. it's like being on some kind of unending treasure hunt. i am wandering through my brain. _______________________________________________________________________ 10. Q: Can you give me the songswriter's viewpoint on the 7 tunes on the record? A: invincible i wrote this song just as we parted ways with our old rythm section. the song is about longing for the old feeling of being certain and strong, and the sense of uncertainty about the future i had at that time. it kind of feels like a love lost song. in a lot of ways, being in a band is like having an intimate relationship with a few other people. you go through the same ups and downs and break-ups and all of that. blue eyes the idea of a girl's blue eyes is a really old cliche. unfortunately i think that makes it easy for the meaning of this one to get lost. it is mostly about knowing someone so completely and imtimately you are almost on the brink of boredom. the longer you know someone, the further you have to dig to see that aspect of them that's new. to get to that burried memory or that weird habbit you never noticed. this song is a reminder to me that there are always some things about a person you can never totally know. they say eyes are windows to the soul. and i think sometimes it's the only place you can catch a glimpse of that intangible, unobtainable part of someone. float away they say that women need understanding and men need support and reassurance. don't they say that? maybe not. but i definitely need reassurance. i am overly needy. i guess that's what the song is all about. i just want people closest to me to believe in me the most. it's a funny thing though, because as an artist, i also need those closest to me to help keep me grounded. the idea of floating away came from those old looney toons cartoons. i hope that doesn't ruin the song for you. i just kept thinking "believe in me, gravity, loony toons." in the cartoons, supposedly if you didn't obey the law of gravity you could float. what if you didn't believe in gravity. REALLY didn't believe in it. would you float away? gravity is of course a belief that people take for granted, but i expanded the song to all these other fantastic and not so fantastic things that people believe in. or don't. one by one one by one is a song about urban sprawl. i first got the idea for the song while trying to look at mars. i think that was last winter, mars was closer to the earth than it had been in centuries. i was home in my little town for the weekend, standing in the front yard trying to see the planet. there is now this white haze that makes it almost impossible to see the stars. it's light pollution, and it's always been there, it just seems like it's gotten a lot worse since i was a kid. now it's hard to see any stars at all. maybe it's just that i notice the lack of stars more, now that i'm grown and cynical. either way, it got me thinking. if we keep building cities and putting in subdivisions where our fields used to be, eventually there could be no stars at all. i'm sure right now you almost never see them in some places, especially big metropolitian areas. that's sad! i love stars. the sky is something you would think we all have a right to. something that nothing can touch or screw up. but it isn't so. for one by one i just took this idea and went with it. i guess it's as much about my own cyncism and reluctance to accept change as the sky. one by one is the first song i wrote almost totally in my head. most of the melodies and lyrics. then went to the guitar and they just all fit together. i've been working this way more and more. like that like that is a real departure for me lyrically. i wanted to write something that was sexy. mostly just to see if i could do it. one day i realized there was this whole part of me that i never really represented with a song. i wanted to keep it within the realm of a relationship, but i think it ended up vauge enough so that it's easily relatable to some random nightclub courtship. that wasn't really what i intended, but at a certain point it just started writing itself that way. i've always been interested in how the lines of sex and love blur, and i played a little with that idea in the song. that's an easy liberty to take if you truly love the person you are intimate with. the distance i think this is the oldest song on nostalgia. i wrote this just before our album was released on MCA. i tacked on the second half of the verse verse more recently after an arrangement change. it's mostly about the fall. i was just sitting looking out at the leaves and thinking. i get depressed and overly sentimental for no good reason in the fall. just the colors and smells. every year when those first few cold nights of the year move in it puts me in the strangest mood. at any given time there are a million things to be upset about, but in this song it's almost like the reason is having no reason. the feeling of being far away, but not knowing from what. just right a love song about writing a love song. not a new idea i know, but it was definitely a cool way to work. i remember being exausted when i wrote this. i was just strumming this super-lazy 6/8 chord progression, and started singing "i'm playing guitar, you're asleep upstairs". maybe i was too tired to be creative. when i sit down to write, every once in a while i feel like i need to say something but sometimes i don't know what it is that i want to say. so i'll just start with where i am and what's happening around me. just right is very real in that respect. that's what's cool about it for me. it starts with the moment it was written, then flashes back and forward in time. in some ways it is the most intimate song i've ever written. i thought for a moment about keeping it between myself and my girlfriend, but as always i talked myself out of it. i think songs are meant to be shared. even the really mushy ones. _______________________________________________________________________ 11. Q: What's the details for the CD release show? Have you got a name for the label you are self-releasing Nostalgia on? Will you be selling the CD online/instores? A: the release show will be a big all ages event in our home town of Middltown, Ohio on December 26th, 2004. there will be two openers, including my younger sister Amy Hedges. we don't have a label name for Nostalgia. it will have a release number starting with JFK, but really i didn't feel like we needed a label name, since we are the label. we will be selling the CD online and in stores in our area. _______________________________________________________________________ 11. Q: Is the plan with Nostalgia to just get it out there and cause a stir and see what happens with regards to label interest? A: definitely. the good thing about doing an album yourself is that you win no matter what happens. people will buy it, people will come out to the shows, and from our perspective things will be great. if a label catches wind of it and wants to be a part of it, great. but if not, we'll be doing our thing and connecting with as many people as we can. to really be a band you just have to make music and play it live. and that's what we're doing. if there's one big thing we learned from our experience at MCA, it's that being signed isn't all it's cracked up to be. in some ways we can be more successful and more in control doing things on our own. of course the real irony, is that the more successful you are on your own, the more appealing you are to labels. but this time around we will really be careful about what kind of deal we enter into and with who. none of us want to spend another few years waiting on a label just to have it fall apart. that energy would be better spent building our career on our own terms. we'll just see what happens, and like i said--either way we win. _______________________________________________________________________ 12. Q: I take it you will be hitting the road in support of the new album? Are ther any concrete plans? A: we are really going to be filling up the next few months with shows. we will at least be traveling every few weeks, getting back to new york often, and doing as many regional shows as possible. we want to try and really get nostalgia working for us through shows, the internet, and word of mouth. it's been a while since we've been out promoting new music, so it's going to be fun to have everyone know the words to these new songs and to make that kind of connection on stage. it's a body of work that we're really proud of, and we're looking forward to sharing it through the live show. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
by Andrew Ellis N O S T A L G I A Q & A with Joe Hedges |
|
 |
 |
 |