John Doe
(June 2005)
Interview by Adam McKibbin
Deep into his career as a solo artist, John Doe has long since smoothed away the jagged edges from his years with X, the paramount punk rockers of late-70s, early 80s Los Angeles. But it isn’t such a far journey from there to here. His latest, Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet, may be made with Muddy Waters and Bob Dylan in mind, but it also is built on that same combination of the visceral and the poetic that made X the thinking punk’s band of choice.
Mr. Doe has always kept good company, and he’s joined on the new album by the likes of Kristin Hersh, Grant-Lee Phillips, longtime collaborator Dave Alvin, and first-time collaborator Veronica Jane, Doe’s daughter.
When you started writing this record, is it right that you weren’t going for any specific feel—like the blues, per se—but aiming for a more stripped-down sound in general?
I don’t know about stripped-down, but just basic – elemental. The most basic feelings, the most basic images. It’s the first record that I really kind of drew on the landscape around where I live.
Which is where?
Up on Highway 5, the grapevine.
Out of the city!
Oh, most definitely.
You feel like your last solo albums didn’t capture that same vibe?
Well, the last one [Dim Stars, Bright Sky] was more folk and blues and less electric. It was definitely more of an acoustic-oriented record. You know, I don’t think things change that much. I think it just depends on how you arrange it, how many instruments you include… I think this one has a little more of a consistent sound to it.
You say in your press kit that the record is free of “self-conscious modernisms,” which I think is readily apparent, but also free of “purist traps.” What are those purist traps?
Oh, you have to do everything as though you don’t have the technology of the modern day. You say you’re not going to do any overdubs, you’re not going to fix anything. A purist trap is to say, “You can’t use that chord because it wasn’t around when the Carter Family first started.” Or if it’s going to be a blues song, it’s gotta be like this – it can’t have certain words. Just replace “purist” with “Nazi” (laughs).
A lot of the reviews of the new record bring up The White Stripes. Some allude that they inspired you, others allude that you made the record as a reaction against how they’ve channeled the blues. What’s the real story?
I would definitely not say that it was inspired by The White Stripes. I think that blues music now is okay. You can have a blues song and you’re not cast aside or seen to be trying to do something you can’t accomplish. Maybe they made it safer to do it without it seeming wrong. It’s really hard to write a song like that. I think they do good stuff. I haven’t heard their newest record, but I like ‘em.
So as you’re writing, when do you start thinking about collaborators?
That happens much later. As the song is being recorded, we’ll start thinking about who might be a good addition to it, judging both by the lyrics and by what the song needs.
On “Hwy 5,” was there ever the thought that Exene would do the vocal as well, since she co-wrote the track?
You know, she was really busy when I was recording, so not really. I kind of talked to her about it and she said—she’s friends with Neko—she said, “Have her do it – it’ll be great.” Neko was a little worried that she was sounding a little too much like Exene. I said, “Don’t worry, you’re you. It sounds fine.”
Your daughter is on the record, too, which must be pretty cool for you.
It was a very proud moment.
Was she nervous at all about taking her place in line alongside Neko Case and Grant-Lee Phillips?
No. Not at all. (laughs) A sixteen-year-old doesn’t really think about that. She just got in there and sang. She was so quick and just sang perfectly. We were astounded.
Is she thinking about following in Dad’s musical footsteps?
I hope not.
That was the next question.
I wouldn’t discourage her, but I’m also not encouraging her. If she decides that’s what she wants to try, then I will—like any good parent—help her in any way I can.
Moving on to the song “Ready” – do you think there’s something in the wiring with musicians and artists that makes them more susceptible to addiction and addiction-related deaths, or is that something that’s exaggerated because those cases tend to receive more attention?
I think it’s part of the personality that draws you to create, unfortunately. You might use a certain substance and at one point it’s inspiring, but a few years later you’re just hooked. It’s not really serving you; you’re serving it. People also mistake the bohemian lifestyle with it being okay to live your life in a certain way just because other people have before you. I definitely think that there are some people who try one drug or another and something just clicks, and they find themselves within that drug. That’s the biggest danger. You never know who is going to get addicted and who is not.
One of my other favorites on the record is “Twin Brother,” which is very precise in its narrative. Does that come from observation or invention?
Mostly observation, but I think you have to invest something of yourself, too. The chorus of that song was actually not inspired by the same events and people as the verses. It was just something I felt about a friend that I wish I could give a little more support to. It’s crucial to have both elements – the story and some personal involvement.
Do you still keep tabs on the punk scene?
Yeah. Not as much as I’d like to. I think punk rock has taken on a life of its own, sort of two lives. There’s the more mainstream and then the more underground. I think Billy Joe Armstrong is a great writer as far as writing catchy songs, pop songs, that kind of stuff. Then there’s this whole other element of punk rock that’s kind of like a rite of passage. Get into an open space and go crazy and live to tell your battle stories. That’s a great thing.
There’s also an element of the punk scene that really stepped up this past election year, I thought. There were a lot of great bands doing great work as far as trying to empower and education.
Yeah, there was that, and there were also the kind of indie bands and the work that was done in Ohio. Somebody flew me out there and I played a few shows as well. I wasn’t part of the big deal. (laughs) But, yeah, they definitely did—even bands like MXPX and the way they talk about the president. That’s going to be very dated music, just like it was with the Dead Kennedys or our Reagan-era people.
But if you don’t go into specifics, songs like that can feel just as of-the-moment decades later – Dylan’s “Masters of War,” for example.
And Exene had and has a great talent for doing that. Pearl Jam continues to play [“Masters of War”]. I sat in with them about a month ago up in Seattle.
Ah, they’re my all-time favorite.
Well, they talk the talk and walk the walk. They put their money where their politics are. You have to do that. You have to do it on a personal level. I can only draw and play to a certain number of people. You have to do it as a citizen as well.
The political landscape, at least from the perspective of the left, is pretty bleak. What do you see as the good news? Is there any?
Yeah. Barbara Boxer. I helped her get elected years and years ago, and she’s still there and she’s still fighting the good fight. Waxman and Feinstein, too. I think the media is scared, and therefore they don’t champion certain people and their causes as much as they should because they’re afraid they’re going to be labeled as “liberal.” Oh my God, what a horrible thing to be labeled! If anything, there’s a leaning to the right in the media. It’s more and more difficult to get real news, but still it’s labeled as an arm of the liberal causes. That’s just bullshit. It’s totally wrong. So, yes, I think there are rays of hope, but we’re in an era where saying it makes it so. If you say it loud enough, then it becomes so. Someone sent me an e-mail called “Catapulting the Propaganda.”
We did a thing on that last week, too.
Bush goes, “You have to repeat the truth over and over until it sticks, it’s sort of like catapulting the propaganda.” (laughs) Yeah, exactly.
Going back to Barbara Boxer, it doesn’t seem like she gets much attention even here in California, let alone nationally. Yet we follow Arnold’s every step.
Yeah, well, at least he’s not anti-gay. At least he’s not pro-firearms. Even though I don’t like a lot of the things he does, he’s not as bad as I thought he would be. (laughs) That’s so ass-backwards.
(laughs) I guess that’s what it's come to. Well, thank you for your time today.
Yeah, you know, I champion your cause to not be afraid of discussion and conversation. Living in the country teaches you that you have to respect conservative opinion—you have to respect everyone’s opinion. You may not change anyone’s mind, but it’s not like living in a liberal or conservative vacuum. That can change people just as easily because if you live with everyone who believes the same thing, then you start resenting that.
I saw a few cases of that out here. You’d get these young reactionaries - “I might vote for Bush because, well, fuck you.”
Right. (laughs) That’s good. You’ll be glad you did that when the draft is held. I don’t think that’s actually going to happen, but…
Who knows?
You never know. |
