A Conversation with Mason Jennings – HuffPost 12.7.11

Mike Ragogna: Hello, Mason. How are you?

Mason Jennings: Hey, I’m good. Thanks for having me.

MR: Your new album, Minnesota, is like your seventh album or something, right?

MJ: Yeah, it’s my eighth.

MR: (laughs) Exactly, this is like your eighth album, right?

MJ: (laughs) Yeah, it was a record that I made in Minnesota in my studio and it turned out to be mostly a piano based record. It’s my first record that is mostly piano.

MR: On “Raindrops On The Kitchen Floor,” you have a very unique way of dealing with your subject matter. Could you go into the inspiration for that song?

MJ: Yeah, it was just a beautiful Spring day, and that song just kind of wrote itself. It just kind of flowed out, and I was kind of surprised because the last record I made had a lot darker content with a lot more electric guitars. After coming off the road from that tour, I think I just naturally gravitated towards more of a solace instrument, like the piano. I wrote that song, I recorded it, and then I just felt like it needed a little something in the chorus–a little magic. So, I asked my friend Jason Schwartzman to sing some backup vocals and add some magical player piano and stuff like that in there. So, he added some nice stuff to that as well.

MR: “I asked my friend Jason Schwartzman…” Is that the Jason Schwartzman?

MJ: Yeah, he’s got that cool band, Coconut Records.

MR: Yeah, that’s cool. So, this is your eighth album, or so you say. Did you think that you would get to this point in your life, where you’re still making music and making records many years later?

MJ: Yeah, I was hoping that I would get here. I hope that will be the case for the rest of my life. I really never thought about there being an endpoint to it.

MR: Well, with the amount of material that you have created, sometimes it’s hard to reflect on where you were before getting here.

MJ: Yeah.

MR: Speaking of getting here, can you remember the early, salad days of Mason Jennings?

MJ: (laughs) Yeah, I made my first record on my own. I went and saw an artist counselor in Minnesota and said, “What can I do to get this going and have people hear my music.” He said, “You’ve got to make a CD. You’ve got to get something together.” So, I just saved up all my money from waiting tables and got an old reel-to-reel four-track to set up in the living room of the apartment that I was living in. There, I recorded all the instruments for what would be my first CD. From there, it just started to take off. People in the press were starting to write about it in Minneapolis, I started selling out shows, and I slowly started touring the country a little at a time. It just has kept growing and growing, and it’s really cool.

MR: Wait, you mentioned an “artist counselor?” That’s an unusual phrase.

MJ: Yeah. There’s a resources and counseling for the arts center in St. Paul, Minnesota. There’s a guy, Chris Osgood, who was in a punk band called Suicide Commandos, which is one of the big punk bands from Minneapolis. He helps a lot of musicians get in touch with writers or get an outline for how they can get their music to the right people that might be able to help them start their careers. He was really helpful to me when I started out.

MR: We know Minneapolis, of course, through Prince and all of his acts of the ’80s and ’90s. But what is the Minneapolis music scene like these days?

MJ: It’s pretty great. It’s eclectic–you have Atmosphere, who is a big hip-hop band, and you’ve got Tapes ‘n Tapes, which is an indie rock band. There are a lot of great singer/songwriters–Haley Bonar and Jeremy Messersmith–and then one of my favorite groups, The Bad Plus, is out of there, and they’re a jazz group. So, it’s all over the place stylistically, but the bands all get along, and it’s a really supportive scene.

MR: Nice. The Bad Plus, by the way, is one of my favorite left of center jazz groups ever. I love that group.

MJ: Me too. I think they probably influenced a lot of my new record too. It’s one of the those groups for me that I listen to pretty non-stop.

MR: Nice. Let’s get into a couple of more songs from Minnesota. The song “Bitter Heart” that starts off the album is almost like you’re doing a Randy Newman meets Andy Pratt thing–wait, do you know who Andy Pratt is?

MJ: No, I’ve never heard his name before.

MR: He’s somewhat of an obscure artist, “Avenging Annie” was his classic, and he did a couple of albums with Arif Mardin but I digress! I guess where I was going is that this album seems to be more of a “mature” album, though I’m not sure that’s the right word. Is that the right word?

MJ: Maybe. For sure, for me, it’s in the spirit of play still, so it still feels kid-like to me in that way. I guess the piano and some of the scenes lent some maturity to it though.

MR: A lot of it seems to be about adulthood, being a husband and father.

MJ: Yeah, for sure.

MR: What is your take on the landscape of the music scene right now?

MJ: Oh, I think it’s kind of interesting how it’s separating. You have these big blockbuster, major label singers like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry who have a record that lasts for years, the singles keep getting released and there is a lot of money behind them. It’s kind of exciting because the way those records sound and they way they’re promoted is like an exciting Summer blockbuster movie. Then, you have this awesome other group with people like Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, and all these interesting groups that sound original, and are able to top the charts too. They don’t sell as many records, but they have a great fan base, they play a lot of nice theaters across the country, and it’s just really inspiring to me how a lot of groups that probably wouldn’t have been heard ten years ago are getting the attention that I think is due them.

MR: Very well said. It seems like our music landscape is opening up for indie acts these days because the major labels are funneling so much money into big blockbuster acts, which frees up a lot of space for the indie movement.

MJ: Yeah, and it’s great. It’s an interesting climate.

MR: Mason, you’re in that boat–the indie boat–as well.

MJ: Yeah.

MR: How are you finding it out there? What’s your day like?

MJ: My day is good. The thing about it that I really like is that the people that are coming to the shows now are just really tuned in to it, you know? I’m able to get people who have really found the music on the internet or wherever they find it, and really have interacted with it in a personal way. So, when they come to my shows, it’s really intense for me because the crowd is so respectful. I make sure I go out and talk to the fans after the shows and I meet tons of people, and it’s really inspiring because all kinds of people hear about the music that probably wouldn’t have if it was a scene-based promotion. People find out about it all kinds of different ways now, and because of that, I get a whole different range–people in their seventies, teenagers, and a lot of couples that come in and say that my music is the soundtrack to their relationship. It’s just really inspiring and it fills me with gratitude when I get to talk to people about that.

MR: By they way, you mentioned the word “soundtrack” and I just wanted to mention that you had a couple of songs in the very popular indie movie I’m Not There.

MJ: Yeah, it was a little nerve racking. Todd Haynes, the director, called me and said that they had been listening to my record Boneclouds on the set, and he wanted me to do the earlier Troubadour stuff and sing Christian Bale’s parts. At first, I was like, “I don’t want to do it if I have to imitate Dylan. That’s the last thing I want to do.” He was like, “No, don’t imitate him. Just sing it how you would sing the songs. Just look at the song on paper and sing it how you’d sing it.” So, I didn’t really think too hard about it, and I just went into the studio and did it really fast. It was really cool to be part of that project. I liked the idea of making a movie that expands someone’s character rather than trying to pin it down. I love that idea.

MR: Yeah. It really was the whole of all those parts that made up the character.

MJ: Yeah, it was really cool.

MR: Let’s talk about your touring life for a little bit. Who are some of the acts that you’ve toured with over the years?

MJ: I toured with Modest Mouse for a while. In the last few years, Jack Johnson and I have done a few tours together, which are really fun. Alexi Murdoch and I did stuff together…just a bunch of different groups. There’s a guy from Calgary that I like named Chad VanGaalen who a lot of people don’t know about, but he really blew me away. He’s on Sub-Pop, and check out Chad VanGaalen if you want to check out some really interesting music. Right now, I’m out with a great band called The Pines. They’re from Iowa and they’re really good. They’re sort of country-tinged, quiet, mystical sounding folk songs. They’re actually backing me up for about five or six songs at the end of the show. So, it’s fun to be on the road with them.

MR: Let’s get back to Minnesota. I would love to hear what is behind the song “Bitter Heart,” great track.

MJ: Thanks. It was definitely a song that was a return to believing in some sort of higher power for me. It was coming to terms with not being in control and just letting myself open up and love. I was just trying to relinquish some of the fake idea that I had control over things that I didn’t. So, that’s where that kind of came from.

MR: Moving on through the album, we get to “Hearts Stop Beating.” When I heard that, I thought, “There’s the single,” whatever that is these days.

MJ: (laughs)

MR: It hits the chorus and you do your Mason Jennings thing on it.

MJ: (laughs) Cool. I don’t know what you mean, but… (laughs)

MR: What I mean is you drop in that extra couple of vocal “Jennings-isms,” giving it a real signature.

MJ: Oh, cool. Thanks.

MR: And what is the story behind “Hearts Stop Beating”?

MJ: Well, the idea of it came from a memory of when I was in high school and I stole my mom’s car one time with my friends. I remember that I came to his house, I threw rocks at his window and he was like, “What’s going on.” I said, “We’re going to the beach, man.” He was like, “I’ll get my money,” and I remember him throwing like eighty dollars in twenties out the window. There were just bills floating down from the sky, and I remember thinking as a teenager, “This is so sweet! We’re leaving for the ocean tonight.” That image kind of started me off on the song, and it just sort of went from there.

MR: Now let’s talk about “Clutch,” it being my favorite song on the album.

MJ: Yeah, it’s probably mine too. There’s a little bit of everything in that song that kind of encapsulates the whole record. I’m not even sure where it came from except that the form of it was just interesting to me–the shape of the song. I used the same shape on “No Relief,” the album closer, too. It sort of starts with the piano, goes into something, and then goes back out. I’m really interested in the idea of time moving back and forth, kind of like gypsy music or Led Zeppelin, so I worked with some of that on this.

MR: You mention Led Zeppelin. Who influences you musically?

MJ: The Bad Plus is a big one. The idea with Led Zeppelin was that on every record, all the songs stand alone in their own musical style, but they sort of make up a record that has a definite feel to it. That’s something that has really influenced me over the years. On all my records, the song is king. I try to give each song what it deserves rather than trying to get the whole album to sound the same. As far as songwriters, I really like a lot of the older stuff like Cole Porter songs, and I definitely like John Lennon a lot. As far as new people, I like Regina Spektor, and I like Joanna Newsom. Those are some of my favorites.

MR: Nice. What is your creative process like? How do you get inspired and then how do you get that down as a song?

MJ: I don’t write anything down, usually. I have a studio that’s kind of out in the middle of the woods in Minnesota, and there are a lot of instruments there. I just make sure that I keep it in the spirit of play. I look around and say, “What sounds fun to me today?” I’ll sit down and play drums or I’ll sit down at piano or guitar and usually, I’ll just be playing around and realize that I’ve almost finished a song. If it’s not feeling good that day, I’ll work on something else. I’ll work on practicing something or…I don’t force it. I just try to make sure that I’m open to that spirit of fun. It’s sort of like when you’re a little kid and you make up a game. I try to keep that spirit in the songs.

MR: I love that idea of letting go, coming at it as a kid and being innocent about it.

MJ: Yeah.

MR: “Rudy” and “Wake Up”–I’m don’t even know which one to ask you about first.

MJ: (laughs) They’re the same in different ways.

MR: Just dive in, buddy.

MJ: I’ll dive into both of them together. They’re both kind of songs about the underdog overcoming things that are bigger than them in their life–good fighting evil and all that kind of jazz. “Rudy” is an interesting one because I’m sort of known for my acoustic guitar work and this is the only acoustic guitar song on the record. I thought it was fun because the topic of it is a myth, so it’s kind of fun that it’s the most familiar sound, but the most mythical lyrics I’ve done in a while. Then, that song just walks right into “Wake Up,” which is a song about addiction and overcoming internal battles. That song is probably the most folky song that I can remember doing with almost talking vocals. So, they kind of go together. They’re kind of like bookends of overcoming struggles.

MR: Mason, you are categorized on iTunes as a folk artist. Do you see yourself as a folk artist?

MJ: No, I kind of just see myself as an artist. I think the spirit that I go into music with is pretty expansive. I’m very comfortable doing something like “Witches Dream” right next to something like “Bitter Heart,” and it’s always been that way for me. My first album has a song called “Godless” on it, which is totally like a punk rock song. To me, it’s more like an artist songwriter, but it’s not even just a songwriter because I like to sing my own songs. I think “artist” is the best word. In my head, that’s the one that resonates with me–or singer/songwriter since I definitely write my songs and sing them. But I don’t see it as folky, and whenever I get put into folk festivals, I don’t fit in with that school because to me, it feels too defined or something.

MR: I do love folk music, and I do love a lot of those singer-songwriter festivals that end up happening in the summer.

MJ: Yep, they’re fun.

MR: But sometimes, I just want more of that punky element in there. I don’t necessarily want “polite” with my folk, you know?

MJ: Exactly. I guess one way to look at it is that I like stuff with contrast. In the old school sense of folk, being “of the people,” I think that is for sure what I make–it’s homemade sounding. To me, it’s a lot like folk art, where people just take what they have to make something that they need to make–something that is really eating at them that they have to make. That’s how I look at my music. I definitely have to make it, so in that sense, it’s folky, but I definitely like the idea of contrast. I like something scary being next to something funny, and something kind next to something edgy. I like contrast in my art.

MR: How has Mason Jennings grown from the first album to now?

MJ: As a person, my perspective has opened up so much, being a father–I have two little boys–and being married and just feeling that love for someone else. I’d die for those guys, so I think that shifted my perspective as a songwriter to a wider field of love. A song like “The Field” from my last record…I don’t know if I would have been able to write that when I first started without being a parent. It kind of reminds me as I get older of a lot of authors who write their masterpieces in their forties or sixties even. I was always wondering why it took longer for authors to really understand the full range of human emotion and get all the characters right. Now, as I get older, I feel like I might just be touching the beginning of that experience. It’s kind of exciting for me and I wonder how I’ll be able to write when I’m sixty or even engage in any kind of art when I’m in my sixties.

MR: What kind of advice would you have for new artists?

MJ: Not that I really have any advice, but I think one thing I’ve learned is that there really is no pot of gold out there other than that you get to play music. I think at the beginning, I thought, “If I could just have this person hear my music, everything would be cool then.” What I’ve learned is that you still have to wake up in the morning and do your stuff. The thing that I still enjoy most in my life is being with friends and family and making music. So, if you’re in the music business to make music, you’re going to have a good time because you get to make music. But if you’re in it for other reasons, it’s a pretty tough walk, actually. If you love making music and you love what you do, I think it’s going to be a great walk for you, and I wish you luck.

MR: That’s really sweet advice. Now, would you have taken that advice if you heard if from you these days?

MJ: I’m trying to, man. It’s definitely tough touring so much, and things like that, but I love music so much that I can’t imagine ever stopping making music. The touring part is a challenge as I get older, but the making music part is always a joy. Being around other people that are interested in music and sharing that with them is just such a fun life.

MR: Thanks Mason, it was nice getting to know you. I really appreciate the time that you’ve spent with us today.

MJ: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney