The Jayhawks’ Mark Olson and Gary Louris – HuffPost 9.23.11
Mike Ragogna: What kind of advice would you have for new artists?
Gary Louris: Good luck! (laughs) I don’t know. Mark?
Mark Olson: My advice would be to accept that things have changed. They have to come up with a new way of reaching people. Get a job that they enjoy and try to record themselves. Try different types of music, whether it’s mixing classical and ethnic or whatever you want to do. I think that now…it’s sad to say, but we’ve reached the end of the album as an art-form that Dylan and The Beatles laid out. We’re at the end of it now. You can’t really think of it any other way when everyone’s got iTunes and they only listen to one song at a time — they don’t put on a record and listen to both sides. We’re still old adherents to that code of honor. I’m sorry to say, the ones coming up after us probably aren’t thinking that way, but it’s going to be something new!
GL: Yeah, they don’t think of it in terms of this song goes up against this other song. My little piece of advice would be that if you really love it, and it feels like it comes naturally to you, then do it, but don’t look for the quick hit. It’s about longevity. The quicker you rise, the quicker you go down. A lot of people are disappointed if something doesn’t happen quickly. But we’re an example of a band that stuck it out for a long time, and our fans are really loyal because we built it from the ground up instead of doing the short cut.
MR: So, essentially, what you’re saying is that it’s all about the art and craft.
GL: And it’s hard work. It’s a job too.
MO: Yeah it’s about the art, you have to work hard, but you need to get someone to believe and invest in you. It’s hard to do it on your own. It’s actually getting your music in other people’s hands.
MR: That’s a great point, and speaking of music, one last thing I wanted to ask you about is the song “Stand Out in the Rain.” I love the line, “Take me down to the river tonight and stand out in the rain.” Again, pure feeling, right?
GL: Well, that one was a Buffalo Springfield/Neil Young kind of image about coming from Minnesota, the sense of America–nature, having a spiritual importance. So, that was, “Take me down to the river tonight and stand out in the rain.” The idea of standing out naked in the rain is sort of a spiritual idea, I guess. We were pushing the envelope on those two (acts). I think they were big influences on us and maybe we were trying to carry that “forward, soldier on” and all that stuff.
MO: They’re short songs, but there’s a number of grip-ish songs that definitely don’t have a clear chorus. They’re just a lot of different parts that just go into scene changes, imagery, a journey through different parts. But somehow, if we take one part out, it all falls down. Things just flow. Its become a different way than we didn’t use to write. Mark and I find that way of writing interesting.