Grooveshark

I first encountered Mason Jennings’ music on a vacation in Asheville, North Carolina with some friends. We were staying on the side of a mountain and the closest part of civilization was a dilapidated ice cream store six miles away. Every morning we would wake up to the smell of fresh bacon cooking and the soft sounds of Mason Jennings’ album Century Spring. The combination of isolation and calming sound of Mason Jennings’ acoustic guitar provided the best possible setting for what became the best trip I ever undertook.

Mason Jennings’ new album In the Ever is a product of that same sense of calming isolation. Written in a heavily wooded area, In The Ever finds Jennings writing some of his most simple, evocative songs yet. The whimsical, freewheeling vibe stands in stark contrast to the glossy production of 2006’s Bonecloudsand should cement Jennings as one of the preeminent singer songwriters creating music today.

We caught up with Mason to talk about In The Ever, his transition to Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records, and how we both mutually nerd out when the topic of Robert Plant is broached.

Grooveshark: To start things off, I wanted to talk about Minneapolis. I’ve heard a lot about the music scene up there, and want to know what it’s like and how they typically respond to your music there as opposed to other places like New York or maybe Austin?

Jennings: They’ve been really cool to me. Minneapolis has been such a great place for me to have my home base and they’ve definitely supported me from the beginning and it’s just sort of grown out from there. Up here I’ve been able to play all the big theaters so that’s been really rad.

Grooveshark: That’s awesome. In The Ever deals a lot more with spirituality than, say, Boneclouds and I’m wondering whether that was something you went into it with the intention of doing or if it just happened?

Jennings: It just kind of happened, you know, I was working out in the woods and I definitely want to work for a more child-like way, and I think those topics just kind of came up out there without edging myself.

Grooveshark: The album is a lot rootsier and there are several obvious influences like Leadbelly and Johnny Cash. Was that intentional or was it an extension of being in such a stripped down setting also?

Jennings: Well, I think it’s partly that and partly due to being on my own. I just played the music more to the way I love. So rather than being influenced by any studio or producer or anything like that, I was just making music sound the way I like records to sound. Those guys are the ones I mostly listen to, Johnny Cash and Leadbelly and stuff like that.

Grooveshark: And Zeppelin right?

Jennings: Yeah, for sure. Especially that stuff on Led Zeppelin III while I was out in the woods.

Grooveshark: Are you going to go see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at Bonnaroo when you play?

Jennings: Yeah, I can’t wait. I have the day off on Sunday so I can’t wait to see them. How good is that record? Amazing.

Grooveshark: It’s gorgeous, Raising Sand is the perfect morning driving record. Anyway, “Going Back to New Orleans” really stuck out to me as being one of the more overtly political songs on the album, yet the lyrics are kind of hidden behind distortion and a locomotive sound. Why?

Jennings: I’m trying to create the feeling of something imminent. You can barely hear the vocals and everything is just getting too loud, like there’s too much information coming at us. Just that feeling of being pushed hard against the wall. I just used three harmonicas and two drum kits, you know, that’s kind of how the sound is on that recording. I wrote it really quick but I wanted that feeling of things building and a crescendo that nobody’s sure whether or not it can be stopped.

Grooveshark: Another song that stuck out is “How Deep Is That River?” I know your family is incredibly important to you and I’m wondering how much they influence the way you write songs.

Jennings: My sons have definitely influenced me in a way that’s like, they just have fun with things. They’ll draw something and they’ll just do it and then leave it. They give it to me and don’t think about it anymore and I wanted to do that a bunch on this record. Just write it, record it and leave it instead of editing it down. So often on a record you’ll only keep certain types of songs and maybe you won’t keep the funny or eccentric ones. I really wanted to make sure this record had a little bit of that on it.

Grooveshark: With tracks like “Your New Man” which is hysterical.

Jennings: Yeah, that one and “You Never Knew Your Name” which is a lot of free piano. That stuff is usually the first stuff you’ll cut if you’re working too hard in the studio.

Grooveshark: This is your first record on Brushfire and I know you’re a D.I.Y. kind of person. Were you able to maintain that creative control with your new record label?

Jennings: As far as Brushfire goes, I feel like they are just fans of my music and would buy my record even if I weren’t on the label. I feel like I have more power in the situation and I can do what I like and they will probably like it too. Whereas Epic, they didn’t really know me.

Grooveshark: That was for Isaac Brock’s label (Glacial Pace), right?

Jennings: Yeah. Isaac was totally open to me doing more creative stuff but then he was working with Epic so Epic was a little more involved with that one. Brushfire can pretty much do what they want.

Grooveshark: I know you were on a panel at SXSW. How was the experience of being able to talk to people about the D.I.Y. method of making records?

Jennings: Oh, it was cool man. I was feeling nervous and it’s hard to talk because it feels like everybody’s situation is different these days. Some people are still on labels, some make it their own way. It’s hard for me, you know, I just do whatever I feel at the time but I don’t really have a plan for it other than just making small little steps in being able to have a career for my entire life.

Grooveshark: I read an interview in which you said Boneclouds was the record you’d been wanting to make for years. Do you still feel that way?

Jennings: Yeah, that one for sure needed to come out. I had a feeling that I just kept wanting to do a record like that and get those topics talked about, doing that more studio-sounding type of record. This one was definitely more spontaneous and there was a lot more joy involved in this one.

Grooveshark: You’re big about updating your blog and Myspace frequently and being very in touch with your fans. Why do you think that’s so important?

Jennings: I don’t look at the Myspace page very often but it’s fun for me to have a change from time to time. If I ever look at somebody’s website, and I like a lot of author’s including Cormac McCarthy, I’ll check for any interviews with them or anything like that and it’s just nice to be able to go on the internet and find out what the people you like are thinking about. I just put some stuff up every once in a while and if anybody is interested in what I’m reading or thinking about they can check in with the blog.

Grooveshark: How do you feel about a lot of people coming across your music via illegal downloading or file-sharing? Do you think it has helped or hurt?

Jennings: I guess it’s good in the way that I can go on tour and people that don’t make it can still hear what’s going on. With radio being so different these days, that’s the biggest positive coming out of it, since people don’t hear music a lot of other ways.

Grooveshark: Lastly, what are your future plans?

Jennings: I’m going on tours of the U.S. and Europe with Jack Johnson this summer and then in the fall I’m going to do a U.S., and hopefully Europe, headlining tour.

Best of grooveshark lite: Here Without You by 3 Doors Down

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• Posted in Interviews