MOKB Interviews Gary Louris

Preparing for this interview I was reminded of something I heard attributed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It's easy to become a sentimental favorite, all you need to do is stick around long enough. Of course, this is paraphrased and it could just have easily been Wilt Chamberlain, Tree Rollins or any other NBA center who continued punching the clock long after his body was able to handle the nightly pounding. My apologies to the rightful originator, though I suspect he was paid handsomely for his efforts. Several years ago I caught a Grant Hart solo performance. The room was packed and Hart, years removed from even Nova Mob, wrestled with an out-of-tune electric 12-string for 50 minutes of barely recognizable songs. The majority of the audience hung on his every forgotten verse and wrong chord, and at the conclusion of each song, reacted as though Hart, clearly a sentimental favorite, had unveiled yet another of mankind's greatest achievements. Thanks, that was Euclidean geometry. Now I'd like to eradicate smallpox.

Nothing would be easier for Gary Louris than to slide into the role of sentimental favorite. As co-founder of The Jayhawks, he was responsible for 1993's Hollywood Town Hall, a record that still sounds fresh, even while providing countless bands with a failsafe Americana boilerplate. Following the release of 1995's Tomorrow The Green Grass, co-founder Mark Olson departed and Louris became the de facto leader and face (and let's be honest, eyewear) of the band. Over the course of several well-received records, Louris explored new facets of the Jayhawk sound, while also finding time for an occasional Golden Smog rave up. Finally in 2003, after six records and a seemingly endless parade of members, The Jayhawks released Rainy Day Music and called it a day.

On February 23, an audience huddled in Minneapolis's Electric Fetus to hear Louris espouse the virtues of Project Runway, bemoan the unnecessarily complicated tools of the folk trade, and with the help of sideman-to-the stars, Jim Boquist, perform a set of songs culled largely from Vagabonds, his solo debut. Beginning with a tight shot of bent piece of rusted wire, Louris slowly pulled back and over the course of the next 50 minutes, welcomed us to a world of drifters, schemers and wide-eyed pilgrims. The intimate venue proved conducive to these new songs and even casual fans quickly found themselves drawn in by Louris's nuanced storytelling. His voice, always distinctive, was pristine; even more impressive considering the simple, and effect-free PA system.

Gary Louris - Omaha Nights

Gary Louris On Tour:

3/16 Seattle
3/17 Vancouver
3/18 Portland
3/20 San Francisco
3/21 Los Angeles
3/23 Denver
3/25 Minneapolis
3/27 Madison
3/28 Chicago
3/29 Pittsburgh
3/30 Toronto
4/1 Boston
4/2 New York
4/4 Chapel Hill
4/5 Atlanta

A couple days later, Gary was good enough to chat with MOKB about Vagabonds and life after The Jayhawks.

MOKB : Looking back, what do you think of the fit of The Jayhawks on Def American Records? Did you feel compelled to play up the rock aspect of your music?

Gary Louris : I don't know if Def American affected us musically. Maybe business-wise or something like that. It wasn't like we were fish out of water necessarily. The Black Crowes were there. Of course, so was Slayer, but it wasn't like anyone coerced us to do anything differently because it was Def American. George Drakoulias, I think, understood who we were. And Rick Rubin. It wasn't like we would have become a soft folk band if we would have gone to a different label.

MOKB : You mention George Drakoulias and Rick Rubin. I'm a person, who if I see anything with their names attached, I will listen, because I think they both have great ears.

GL: I agree.

MOKB : And The Jayhawks always seem to have a bigger guitar sound and more solos than other bands in the genre. Did they encourage you to stretch out?

GL: Well, the one thing I remember is that George believed if it was going to be a solo, you should hear it. And I've taken that to heart ever since. If you play a solo, turn it up; none of this kinda halfway stuff. I don't ever remember them saying, "You're a great guitar player, you should stretch this, really take advantage of this." I don't remember that. I just remember blowing a lot of speakers out of studio monitors because some of the solos, I would just be standing in the control room and George would turn it all the way up on the speakers to get some kind of feedbacky kind of vibe. We'd be blowing a lot of speakers.

MOKB : Hollywood Town Hall is considered by many to be one of the definitive Americana records. How do you feel about that? Is it your favorite Jayhawks record?

GL: I really don't consider that at all because I don't really sit and listen to it. I just remember it as being an important record for us and certainly it's one of my favorite records to have been involved with. I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's an important period. Without it...well, I wouldn't be talking to you right now probably because it's one of those things...kinda changed our career...changed some bit of music...and I think it's something that we couldn't repeat. It's one of these things, people say, "Hey, why don't you do that again?" Well, we weren't trying to do it to begin with, it just happened.

MOKB : How did Chris Robinson end up producing Vagabonds?

GL: It all goes back to when I was going to make a record with [Mark] Olson, which we did in January of last year. Mark and I had gone into separate worlds where Mark was really kinda anti-big label and big music machine and big producers and had made a lot more homegrown, do-it-yourself records. I had kinda stayed in the game and we needed to find a compromise that we felt would make us both comfortable in this situation and not feel like we were going out to compete in the big game. Chris was just one of those guys who made both of us comfortable. We had a history. We knew he would handle the music with utmost care and respect and with impeccable taste. We didn't need to be taught how to make a record, because we'd done it before. So he was like the perfect liaison, and cheerleader and tastemaker.

MOKB : At what point did you make a conscious break and decide to pursue a solo career?

GL: It was coming to a head after The Sound Of Lies, in which we were able to stretch and, I think, do some really interesting things. Smile, I think was really a conscious effort to make a commercial record. I felt like Rainy Day Music was like a retreat in "let's make a small record."

MOKB : It's a nice coda to The Jayhawks story.

GL: Yeah, it's a nice period. I think when we were making that record, we all kinda knew it was most likely going to be our last record. We all still really liked each other, still really played well together, but...I think we were a little tired I think, tired of each other. Tired of the world we had built up seemed not changing enough to keep us interested. I think we could have gone on. Just listening to the Let It Be sessions, with Paul, John and George, I mean, not that we were nearly as big as The Beatles, but you can hear...I was just listening to it with my son, the Fly On The Wall CD that comes with Naked. And you can hear them talking and my son was saying, "They're still talking to each other. They don't sound like they're breaking up or fighting," and I said, "Well you know what, they're still friends. They're old friends and they make great music together. Just because they're breaking up doesn't mean they stop making great music or aren't great friends." That's how I feel about The Jayhawks. We're still friends, made great music, had a big career, but it seemed like it was passing us by a bit, you know.

MOKB : How did you consciously prepare differently for a solo album?

GL: Well, the reason it wasn't that different is that once Mark Olson left The Jayhawks, it became common for me to write my songs pretty much in isolation. And so it wasn't that much different for me, but it just seems the songs became quieter. I decided I wanted to make a really quiet record. An introspective, acoustic record that really allowed my voice to come through in the songs. If there's any criticism of this record so far, it's that it's too quiet and "Where's the rock?" But this record ended up more rock, more up tempo than I intended, it just kinda grew. People complain, "I can't hear his voice," so that was kinda the mindset on this one. That's the other piece of the puzzle for me. I mean, on the next record, I'd like to do something maybe different, but I love the way this one turned out and I'm anxious to tour with it.

MOKB : How many songs did you write for this record?

GL: You know, fifty or sixty songs probably. Whittle it down to forty, then twenty. We just kept whittling it down. I can write a lot of songs-doesn't mean they're any good. But I come up with a lot of ideas.

MOKB : At the Fetus you played Three Too Many, a song that didn't make the record. Are there any songs you now wish would have make the final cut.

GL: You know, it would have made the record if I felt we would have done a better version of it. For some reason it came out poppier than heavy folk for me on the recording. I like the recording, but I thought we didn't nail it. But I think we'll do it again. Again, Henry, my son, and I were listening to The Beatles playing some songs for Let It Be, and some are songs that ended up on Abbey Road. And I said, "You see, Henry, you know, sometimes you record these songs a number of times and they find their way on an album later." Because he was saying, "I like Three Too Many more than I like To Die A Happy Man, Dad. How come you didn't put that on the record?" Well, because it didn't fit as well and I didn't like the version as much. There were other songs like Baby, Let Me Take Care Of You, which is a bonus track, but was going to be the heart and soul of the record. I thought the record was going to be built around that song because it was that important to me at the time, and it ended up being a B-side. It's a good recording. It's a really good song. But it just didn't end up fitting.

MOKB : Why Vagabonds?

GL: Why? Why did it come out of my mouth when I wrote it, I don't know. Why? These things are subconscious. That's what I like about songwriting. It's a very mysterious process. I don't remember writing down the word any time. I'm sure I just started singing it and it sounded good and I built the words around that. It's kinda like one of those titles like Infidels, the Dylan record. I like how it sounds. It looks cool in print. Of course it's got a lot of really great meanings, whether a traveling musician or just a spiritual seeker. Restlessness and traveling; I love all of the doors it opens for imagery.

MOKB : With all of the great musicians you've played with through the years, how did you arrive at using Vetiver as your backing band?

GL: Well, I for one think I think they're a great band, and for me it's logistics and chemistry, a number of things. I don't like people who just pick a bunch of session players and just throw them up there. It's boring, I think. You know, the best steel player you can find, the best drummer...and they're on someone else's record a month later and you see them on tour with so-and-so the next month. They're just jobbers. Along with that, I like to have a group of musicians that have a vibe going. Again, not equating myself with Dylan and The Band, but what he did was got a group of guys who knew each other and played with each other, and I like that. That's how I put my band together for the studio. They know each other. Plus, they're my warm-up band, so it's logistics. Except they really didn't have a keyboard player or a steel player, so we had to hire two guys on top of Vetiver, so it's going to be a large group of people. But I'm going to pick and choose songs, some guys will play, some guys won't play. Kinda leaning toward more is more, rather than less is more on this first tour. Subsequent tours, you might see me in a smaller setting, maybe 4 or 5 people, or maybe I'll do a duo, or by myself. The beauty of this record, I think, is that I can go play it on my own. Take a guitar case and go on a train in Italy and play. Or go with Jim Boquist and play some shows. Or I can play a 4 or 5 piece, or a 7 piece.

MOKB : I was happy to see Josh Grange on your record. Dwight Plays Buck was one of my favorites of last year.

GL: Josh is one of those guys like Jim Boquist, almost a Jayhawk. Unfortunately, he is not able to tour because he was hired away by k.d. lang, who offered him a year. I couldn't do that.

MOKB : Can we expect any stripped down or solo numbers on the tour?

GL: Yeah, my plan is, even though it's a lot of people, it's still going to be kinda quiet because if I'm not playing electric, it's somewhat quiet. When I plug in the electric, I tend to go a little loud. I'm already trying to figure out the set, but I'd like part of the set to me just me, or just me and a couple people. I think I have a lot of cool possibilities here. That's good way for me to help out the band, too, because they don't have to learn 20 or 30 songs. You know, I'll do Broken Harpoon by myself or I'll do some other song.

MOKB : Gary Louris cleaning the house on a Monday morning. What do you listen to?

GL: Beethoven. Mozart. I listen to a lot of classical music. I listen to kinda your art music, Steve Reich and John Adams I like quiet a bit. What else? Find some of my old vinyl and put on The Kinks. Or I'll put some compilation CD that Otto Hauser (Vetiver) gave me, some weird Turkish folk rock.

MOKB : Because you can't get enough of that.

GL: Yeah, can't get enough of the Turkish folk rock, I'm telling you.

MOKB : Any new bands you like?

GL: Um....that's a tough one. I try. I try and I'm usually disappointed. I don't find anything sticking. I kinda like Devendra's stuff. I've heard a little bit on the radio of this band called Grizzly Bear that, I kind of like a couple of their songs. Wilco, but that's not new.

MOKB : How has technology changed your approach to music?

GL: Well, it's changing me more now than it was maybe a few years ago. I think I've embraced it a bit more than I have in the past, especially working on this new website, garylourismusic.com.

MOKB : It's a nice site, by the way.

GL: Yeah, it looks good, doesn't it? We just have to get the message board and the shop up, and discography, them we're through. And then I have to learn to update it myself. I have a lot of tracks, I think, that will be interesting to a small group of people, like demos I did and what I'm doing now. And more video.

MOKB : Where was the video of you and Jim shot?

GL: That was at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis. The Southern Theater, for the last couple years, they've been asking me to do kind of what they do in New York with David Byrne and the Lincoln Center. Where he's kind of like the host or the tastemaker, he brings in bands that he likes and he'll introduce them to people who have not heard them. So, The Southern's been after me to do that, to bring some people in, but I just haven't found the time to do it. They were nice enough to say you can use our theater for a video. But as far as technology, I think The Jayhawks always leaned more to the less information side, never really engaged our audience enough. I don't think you need to have a constant dialog with your audience, but I think people like to know you're out there. And that's different now. I didn't necessarily feel I needed to have blogs from all my heroes when I was growing up, but people nowadays people want more information. As long it doesn't take over. Like anything, technology is like alcohol, in moderation, it's great.

MOKB : So what comes next?

GL: Well, the Mark Olson/Gary Louris record will come out in summer or fall and we'll tour that a bit. I'm excited about that, and I think that will be an ongoing situation with Mark and I. I'm supposed to produce some more Sadies tracks because they got some kind of grant or something from the Canadian government, I believe, so I'm going to do that. I'm hoping to produce Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion's next record, which makes me realize I still have to listen to Johnny's songs that he sent me. There's that. Do more co-writing...dabble in some film music...continue working on my piano playing and beyond that, just continue doing what I've been doing. Maybe play more solo shows...work on that side of the craft, on being able to hold an audience's attention; just me and a guitar or me and a piano.

MOKB : So, is Gary Louris successful?

GL: Gary Louris is moderately successful. I'm a person who looks at what I don't have more than what I have, which is not a good trait, but it's just the way I am. I'm competitive and I certainly can envision myself to be slightly more successful than I am, but I also look at what I have. I have an audience. I get to do what I want to do. I'm proud of that. Would I like to be up another rung on the ladder? Sure. I'd like to be able to pay my sidepeople more money. I'd like to stay in nicer hotels. I'd like to reward the people who want to play with me, but you know, it's all relative. It really depends on who you want to compare yourself to.

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