[3]
By
Published: 2007
Category: Rock [4]
Josh Ritter brings out the English major in his listeners. We pore over his lyric sheets, snuffling for truffles --- and we're smart to do that because, as CD after CD teaches us, a Josh Ritter song “means” something. Yeah, Josh is a gifted composer, compelling singer, exciting performer. But also --- and how few can we say this about? --- great writer.
So “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter” was quite the shock. This CD rocks much, much harder than any Josh Ritter music to date. And the lyrics are so different --- shot through with inside jokes, doubletalk and lines that slither and curl and eat their tails --- that it seemed to me a bit of explanation was in order.
It occurred to me that others could also use a little help here. And who better to give it than the guy responsible? So I sat down with Josh at a terminally hip French cafe in New York a few weeks ago and --- without being too much of a grad student about it --- prodded him to share the roughest kind of field guide.
JK: A lot of the fun of listening to your music is trying to figure out what you're thinking. But this time I've fallen and I can't get up. I mean, right from the title. What's the “conquest” here?
JR: I chose the title the way I chose Animal Years [5] or Golden Age of Radio [6]--- it came to me. The way I work is, I wake up and feel smart. Everything's awesome for me until 10 AM.
JK: Ok, then: the cover art. Does that “say” anything?
JR: Lots of things. First, so much gets overblown and puffed up that I wanted something super-egotistical, something clearly absurd. I had this image: driving around in a rimmed Escalade and kicking ass. And I was thinking of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: “bestride the narrow world.” But it's also a real hat that I saw in a Halloween shop. And I thought: There's something about an empty helmet....
JK: For the first time ever, I don't feel your lyrics matter. The music is out front, the words are mixed down --- all you really hear clearly are the choruses. It's like you're saying: “Don't pay too much attention to the words here. This isn't 'Animal Years'."
JR: Poetry is super-important to me, but these songs have another character. They're more about being confident that I can do this.
JK: There's no “Girl in the War” here, no “Thin Blue Flame.” Could that “other character” be....simple rock and roll fun?
JR: “Animal Years” is dense lyrical matter. It had to come first. “Conquests” is serious too --- but in its own way. A lot of it is funny because I needed to get out from under this cloud of seriousness.
JK: I can picture you writing these songs --- and cracking yourself up.
JR: Totally. Every one was fun for a reason.
JK: Let's pick one at random. Oh, let's see...the first song, “To the Dogs or Whoever.” What, if anything, should we make of lines like...oh, let's consider the first verse:
Deep in the belly of a whale I found her
Down with the deep blue jail around her
Running her hands through the ribs of the dark
Florence and Calamity and Joan of Arc
JR: I had all these serious lyrics. None worked. So I started writing just for the image --- every verse became its own joke. Florence Nightingale, Calamity Jane and Joan of Arc: three women with heroic urges. Later, I have Casey Jones and Casey at the Bat in one line. I always wondered why no one put them together: two guys with tons of pride and it comes back to bite them.
JK: Sweet. But I come back to the music. These songs are so exuberant they feel like they happened in a Red Bull rush.
JR: Some came fast. Eight or nine came immediately: “Right Moves” and “Mind's Eye” and “Open Doors.” Which was fortunate, because when I went to Maine on January 7th to record, I only had two songs: “Mind's Eye” and “Wait for Love.”
JK: Was that liberating?
JRL That was scary. Intellectually, you say: This is fun, this is a nice change. Then you start spending money --- and it's your own money, because you don't have a label. You find yourself in odd places --- like adding horns to a song that has no lyrics yet. And you're far from home. No TV. Nothing to do but hang out --- and meanwhile, of course, everyone's waiting for you to write and finish.
JK: How do you respond to pressure?
JR: It was strange the first week. Then I got into a zone. I just wrote whatever came to me. And on January 26th, when we left Maine, I had more songs than I could use.
JK: Have you listened to it since you finished?
JR: It's the only CD of mine I've listened to.
JK: At first, I thought: These are terrific songs, but they don't hang together --- they don't form a CD.
JR: What holds a CD together? The vibe. This one, I think, catches a mood: guys in a room going for broke. Everyone brought his game to this one.
JK: The band does sound absolutely fearless.
JR: Well, when we started, I thought we were making an EP. Four or five songs. Luckily the record company folded and nobody was watching.
JK: How did you choose Sony?
JR: We talked to a bunch of labels. I was looking for one that didn't talk about “feelings.” I just wanted one that was accountable. And after all the independent labels I've been on, I wanted a big label. I thought: why not? This could be the last gasp of the big labels. I was thinking big all the way.
JK: Josh Ritter in an...arena?
JR: No way! I mean big as in: I wrote it big --- big characters, big sound. It didn't have the subtlety of “Animal Years.” It feels like a leg-breaker.
JR: A what?
JR: A guy you send out to collect debts.
JK: Nice talk. But for all the “big” ideas, I'm here to attest: You're the same Josh --- no front, no pretense.
JR: I write songs and I love writing them. I go out and tour and meet people. That combination sustains me. And I hope a record company can support that. But the record company is a component; it's not the whole thing.
JK: For the close readers, there's an intriguing line in the notes: “The avalanche cascades...”
JR: In a nuclear reaction, one neutron displaces another displaces another. Like snow building as it goes down a hill. Like the feeling just as you're about to cry.
JK: Ah, there's a less than fun emotion. Are we, as you sing, “coming to the chorus now”?
JR: If I had an aim, what I might want people to come away with is: Please don't get comfortable with any one idea of me. On occasion I want to blow it up. I know a lot of groups repeat --- and many people like them to. But it's fun for me to do something different.
To buy "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter" from Amazon.com, click here. [7]
To buy "Animal Years" from Amazon.com, click here. [8]