 |
| |
|
The idea of music being primarily mankind's greatest consolation was central to the whole idea of what we were hoping to do [on Sky Blue Sky], which was just to sit down and console ourselves, at the very least, about how disheartening this world is. -Jeff Tweedy |
|
|
| |
|
As I've been listening to this album more and more, reading the lyrics and reading a bunch of articles on this album, there definitely seems to be this notion of acceptance and compliance. Can you elaborate on what you or the listener is accepting?
Jeff Tweedy by Charles Harris |
Well, I think that's a pretty healthy outlook on life [to be accepting of the world], and I don't think it's one that is somehow un-rock & roll to try to convey to people. Part of rock & roll is liberation and to be disillusioned – meaning that in the best possible way. To be freed of your illusions of the world is not necessarily a band thing.
Certainly not. That's sort of where I was heading with this. I know your mother died this past year, and in listening to this album as a whole and not just "On And On And On" [which Tweedy has referenced in relation to his mother's death] there seems to be a real sense of comfort, and as I said before acceptance. How much of that experience influenced this record?
It's pretty hard to say. I have to be honest with you, I don't know. The record was almost exactly half way finished when my mother died. So, I guess the choices that went into how the record was sequenced - which songs ended up being picked and what record felt the most honest and most appropriate to our world and our environment after my mom died - a lot of those decisions were made after my mom died, so I don't know. I do think that when we sat down to do the initial recording there was enough going on in the world that was disturbing that a lot of the same concepts stayed consistent after my mom died. The idea of music being primarily mankind's greatest consolation was central to the whole idea of what we were hoping to do, which was just to sit down and console ourselves, at the very least, about how disheartening this world is. At the very least, we can sit down and we can play some guitars. I feel very privileged and grateful that I have musician friends in my life that I get to do that with. It's an incredibly joyous and gratifying thing to get to do. I don't think music needs to step very far away from that. I have no problem with people making protest music and writing contemporary lyrics that ruminate on what's going on in our world, but I don't think that it's always necessary. I think music is primarily there to be above all of that and to console us and to be shared in a way that is outside any of those kinds of concerns.
This sort of ties into the idea of spirituality and playing live. When you're on stage do you get something spiritual out of that?
Jeff Tweedy by Damon Green |
I identify a spiritual experience as anything that takes me out of my head and puts me somewhere in a greater context, as a part of something bigger than myself or actually as a part of nothing, freeing myself from some kind of overseeing ego that is inhibiting. So, those two things combined - a sense of some greater belonging and an unburdening of ego - those things definitely happen on stage. If you're thinking you're not really playing, you're not really making music. At the same time, if you think that you are only up there by yourself and that the audience doesn't exist and isn't contributing to it you're not really making any kind of musical connection either. That's the beauty of it. It's only something that happens through spiritual experiences and music.
There's obviously been ample discussion about your sobriety and I don't really want to dig too far into that, but as a writer myself, I know if I'm drinking or taking something, whatever it is, it affects both how I write and what I write about. I'm wondering if being sober has affected your craft and your creativity at all?
Yeah, but I think that the problem is I always think it's really hard to discuss those kinds of things without over-simplifying the creative process. I don't think that the creative process has ever been something that people have been very good at simplifying and explaining, myself included. I could say a lot of things have changed, and at the same time, I think it's also really hard for people to get it into their heads sometimes that most of the stuff I created in my life - even though I'm sober now and have achieved some greater sense of clarity for myself - I think most of the music and everything I've contributed, I would have to argue that the majority of it was created with that same type of clarity. It wasn't all done in some kind of pursuit of oblivion. In fact, I think that very little ever got done when I was really deep inside my head and my addiction. I think the opposite is very true. That was very disabling to have to try to write out of that and write through it. It was much much more troubling.
Continue reading for more of JamBase's conversation with Jeff Tweedy...
|
