A Conversation with The Civil Wars – HuffPost 3.10.11
Mike Ragogna: Joy and John Paul, The Civil Wars was formed in Tennessee?
Joy Williams: We are based in East Nashville in Tennessee, and John comes from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. I’m a transplant from the Bay Area in California, I’ve been in Nashville for eleven years now.
MR: How did you start up The Civil Wars?
John Paul White: It was here in Nashville, about twenty writers thrown into a building to write for a specific production. Joy and I did not know each other in the least, and we drew straws and ended up in a room together. Once we started playing together and started writing this song, it was really eerie, like I’d been singing with her all of my life. I knew where she was heading and she knew where I was going. It was really strange, and neither of us almost said a word. It took four months to get back together and write another song. Eventually, it kept clicking and it got to the point where we couldn’t ignore it.
MR: So, you had your first gig in “The French Quarter,” sort of?
JW: It was The French Quarter Café.
JPW: It’s deceiving it’s actually a cafe in Nashville called The French Quarter Café.
MR: Aw, it sounded more exotic the other way. (laughs) So, Charlie Peacock saw you play there.
JPW: Yeah, Charlie was there, he’s an old friend of Joy’s. I had never met him before, so he came by and didn’t go running away from the thing.
MR: And he eventually started producing you. However, your second gig ever was recorded live and it was so good, you released it as your debut album.
JW: You got it man, you’ve done your homework. That was really our second show ever. We had no intentions of putting it out when we got the disc handed to us. We listened to it on the way back and thought it was actually a pretty good recording. It really depicted how we are live. You get the cutting jokes in-between and the banter we have back and forth. We thought it would be a great taste test online, it will be free and people can send it to anywhere they want, let’s just upload it on the Internet and see what happens. It was downloaded 130,000 times now. It was a great way to start the band and introduce ourselves to a larger audience.
MR: What’s your reaction to the recent success and recognition you’ve been getting?
JPW: That if we pinch ourselves, it’s all going to end. It makes no sense to us, we are definitely surprised and it’s not sinking in. We had no idea how many of those downloads and Twitter followers and comments online would translate into sales; then, on top of that, people coming to our shows and buying tickets. Not only did we underestimate the demand for the record, but also, when we did this tour, we sold out every show and left a lot of people out in the cold, literally. It’s a good problem, but we are growing as fast as we can and it’s been a wonderful experience.
MR: Can you explain the title of your album, Barton Hollow?
JPW: When we were writing this song, which was the last song we wrote for the record, we had this story line in our head but we needed a name for this spot, a picturesque location. It was the first thing that popped into my head, it’s actually a small part of a little town I went to school and grew up in called Loretto, Tennessee which is about twenty minutes North of Muscle Shoals which was where I was born and currently live. It was a place where you didn’t really go to do anything legal. (Laughs) It was one of those spots that every town has and everyone in Loretto knows what I’m talking about. It seemed to fit and I was thrilled to use that and pay a little bit of a homage to where I’m from, then it ended up being the title track.
MR: Can you give us the story behind the track “Girl With The Red Balloon”?
JW: John Paul and I write a lot off of conversations we have, a lot of that also revolves around how geeky John Paul and I both are. We love art and love to read, so a lot of what we write tends to have a literary feel and is inspired by things we’ve seen. One of the things is artwork by a famous graffiti artist named Banksy. He’s got some artwork called “Girl With A Red Balloon.” John Paul and I were talking about my coffee table artwork of Banksy. He told me that he just read an article about someone searching for Banksy since he’s been largely anonymous because he’s behind a lot of the artwork that pops up around the world. He was talking about reading the article and there was the story and it came out of that.
JPW: In his search for Banksy, people were sending him on wild goose chases. So, he ends up towards the end of his trip at a specific pub where Jack The Ripper was supposed to have hung out. He’s there and has pretty much given up hope, so the bartender asks him what he’s doing there and he tells him. He then points to a woman and says she knows Banksy. He looks down at the end of the bar and there is a lady who is a little hammered, hanging out with two guys. So, the bartender goes down and whispers something in her ear. She straightens up, composes herself, walks over and says to the guy, “You looking for Banksy?” He says, “Yes,” and she says, “I know Banksy, I’m the girl with the red balloon,” then turned, walked out of the bar, and he never sees her again, which intrigued me every bit as much as the artwork. It’s popped up in multiple locations, it’s a small child with her hand out and balloon in the shape of a red heart. You can’t tell whether she is trying to get it back or letting it go, it’s open to interpretation. Our song is really about the girl in that bar than it is about the actual art.
MR: Did the music being made in Muscle Shoals influence you?
JPW: Yeah, it incredibly influenced me. The music did later, the work ethic and seeing the people that played on those tracks in the bars I was playing in was incredibly intimidating. It was very eye-opening that you could leave the town and be something big. Not even leaving the town, you could still make your mark. That was really inspiring for me, hanging out with these musicians and knowing you really had to bring it every single night to stay above par. Those musicians influenced me a lot in that area but also those songwriters influenced me a lot in that area. They showed me the ropes and the recording studios there were really supportive. Joy and I wrote “My Fathers Father” in Studio A where Aretha Franklin and Little Richard stood and sang at the mic. It’s a big part of what we do.
MR: What does the future bring for you guys?
JW: Touring.
JPW: It’s going to see us in a van or a bus for the next couple of years. It’s the new model, that musicians have to get out there and do it like our predecessors did. It’s one thing that can never be pirated, the live performance, at least until we are cloned.
MR: Do you have any advice for new artists?
JW: I don’t know if we can necessarily qualify as new artists because we are both also solo artists in a former era in our lives. I’ve been doing this for eleven years and John Paul has been doing it for a little longer. It’s always a little daunting giving advice to cover a broad number of undoubtedly talented musicians. We are learning every single day. One thing we feel really passionate about is putting the blinders on in a certain respect, and making music that you are insanely proud of and you love. You also have to be, for lack of a better term, be selfish with what you create. If you don’t love it, how do you expect an audience to love it. It’s a rule we live by and have tested over the years.
Transcribed by Theo Shier