We met at Amoeba Records, one of the last vestiges of musical purity on the planet according to Jeff. Needing to fulfill my R.L. Burnside fix, I didn't mind a bit. Jeff, hurrying from a singing telegram performance at the behest of a friend, was posting flyers for his upcoming shows at Silverlake Lounge and the Hotel Café. Guitar in hand, he greets me with a warm hello and a reference that seemed to escape my Nintendo 64 filled childhood.
Jeff Taylor: You ever notice that LA, it's very much a rat race, kind of like New York. You ever play Rad Racer on Nintendo back in the day? But it's just like, it's a pretty old one, I may have a couple of years on you, but we may as well say it was in the standard packaging in the NES.
John Villanueva: When do you plan on dropping the album?
JT: The album, Frustration In Time Travel, will be out sometime this year, probably really soon, there really is no answer yet, it's going to be real soon, sometime within 2012. It'll be pressed to vinyl. I recently got to see the process of how records are cut, and it was incredible. I'm very excited to have a vinyl copy of my own record. The album cover was done by mrilightpainting.com, which is Michelle McSwain and Ryan Warnberg. It was done with long exposure photography with LEDs, and ended up looking really cool.
JV: Are you distributing it by yourself, or are you on a label?
JT: I work with the Rockwood Music Hall in New York and Ken Rockwood is basically the proprietor and original soundman/artistic controller, along with the bookers there (Tommy Merrill and Matt Currie). So its really by Ken's good graces that there is a record. And Rockwood Music Hall Records is a real thing.
JV: So who is playing on the album? You have some very well-known musicians, Elizabeth Ziman from Elizabeth and the Catapult, drummer extraordinaire Mark Guiliana, Tim Lefebvre. You seem to be in contact with some very talented artists within the musical realm. Are any of those guys on the album?
JT: Yeah, I do know some really talented artists. Some of those you mentioned are on the record. Elizabeth is on the record, she's on one track, the duet "Howl You," which is a song in which I'm really proud of because it's really a much fuller soundscape than the other songs, which can be more minimal. Mark Guiliana certainly is on every track on the record.
JV: What kind of musical influences do you try to display on the record?
JT: Remain In Light by the Talking Heads, Kid A by Radiohead, all of us are big Dave Matthews Band fans from high school and college, and I stand by those records. I'm a huge Dave Matthews Band fan. I'm a huge Tom Waits fan, love Tom Waits, especially his later albums. I also have to say, and this is important, there are some local artists that I'm really into, Jesca Hoop, her Silverscreen Demos and Hunting My Dress records were amazing. Blake Mills, and his album Break Mirrors. There's my friend Chris Morrissey from Taurus who just released an album, which is one of the few things that I actually have on my iPod. Then there's Luke Temple, whose maybe as great an influence as anyone on me. His new band, Hear We Go Magic are really picking up steam. They were on the road with Grizzly Bear for a while. I love Grizzly Bear, The Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, I love all of those things. You know, David Byrne, Tom Waits, I think I identify with them physically, I don't know why. Sometimes I see myself in their image a little bit, I would like to believe I am channeling what they do, but I don't think that it comes out that way. It's actually kind of ridiculous to go after that, but it is inevitable that we have these sort of musical "crushes." By crush I mean influences that make you want to do something. I've had a lot of weird things that I've wanted to be. This will sound like something, but I remember really wanting to be a figure skater. It sounds funny now, but when I saw the Winter Olympics, I thought those skaters were so awesome. Look, they're flying, and they're wearing all this crazy crap, and they're wearing these crazy suits. And when you look at it, they're wearing the same things that David Bowie and Mick Jagger and Robert Plant were wearing, all this crazy, tight clothing and such. And I don't really aspire to wear particularly tight clothing, but they were rock stars in some way and I wanted to be that. I wanted to be Michael Jordan, Thom Yorke, and Dave Matthews.
JV: There is definitely a variety of sounds and stylistic influences on the record. You have songs like "Heart Hard" and "Repeat We Are" which are a bit out there, but fantastic nonetheless. You have straight rocker like "Frustration in Time Travel." Overall it's a very interesting record and there are a lot of great moments on it.
JT: I think it's been a long process, to be dead honest. We started recording this record in late 2007, in Jake Goldman's mom's attic in Connecticut. Soon thereafter I was recording in Steve Wall's grandma's attic in New Jersey. Then shortly after, an EP was finished and mastered, that EP really begat the relationship with me and Rockwood as a Record Company. Tommy Merrill answered my phone call and when he heard we released an EP, he said he was excited and had an opportunity, and before I knew it I was showcasing my work for Atlantic Records. Because Atlantic and Rockwood had struck a deal to start an imprint label on Atlantic, called Rockwood Music Hall Records, I ended up being the first signing to Atlantic's new imprint, and that was really exciting, and it's still exciting to think about having been actually signed to a major label. It didn't work out with Atlantic, but Rockwood Music Hall Records has continued their support and I'm grateful for that.
(We continue traversing the rat race of Los Angeles nightlife, discussing the album and other musical entities as we head towards Cahuenga Boulevard.)
JT: Steve Wall is one of the biggest beings in the Universe, same thing with Mark (Guiliana). The three of us have been playing so consistently now, that even though this is my solo record, and Mark has Beat Music and Heernt and we've all had our own projects and Steve is the proprietor of Gardentone Studios, at this point it's starting to feel like a band.
(We stop over at Kitchen 24, a nice little food joint on Cahuenga. Settling at the bar, the conversation, becoming a bit more casual, begets an entirely new realm of topics, ranging from the Justin Bieber to stamp collections to Hunter S. Thompson.)
JV: I'm glad that I'm able to give press to people who I feel are putting out quality music, because there are some quality artists who really deserve attention.
JT: Well, thanks for including me in that set, you know the Grammy's are happening this weekend. We may be nominated for something in the near future, maybe a stint in a mental institution.
JV: Can I get your opinion on the Grammy's? It seems in a lot of people's opinions that popular music has kind of been in a rut these days. People like Esperanza Spalding have been nominated alongside Justin Bieber for best new artist, and when she won there was an uproar.
JT: Well, let's celebrate it. Bieber was nominated, Florence and the Machine were nominated, I don't want to put Florence and the Machine in the same category as Bieber, no offense to Bieber, but Florence and the Machine deserve to be categorized in a whole different universe than Bieber. Well, point is, Esperanza Spalding is amazing, she won for a reason, and it's because she's a genius, and it's because she's got a beautiful musical soul, and it's because she wears a true face when she goes on stage, and I mean that metaphorically. And then those guys Arcade Fire, who won for The Suburbs, I held the master for that album at Sterling Sound in New York. I picked up a CD at some guy's desk to look at it and it was a studio copy of the album. So that was a really cool experience, mastering my own record, you go in there listening to your album sound the best that it will ever sound and you really are proud of what you've done.
JV: Did they have an electronic category in the Grammy's last year? Electronic music has been getting a lot of attention this year. Stuff like Dubstep...
JT: You mean like Skrillex. I mean, I like Skrillex, his stuff is amazing. It's good, and it's scary and it's wild and fresh and new, well at least in this country, and it's cool to bring something that powerful and influential to an entire country.
JT: So, here's something else, I'm good buddies with Ryan Warnberg from mrilightpainting.com, and we just started a podcast called The Speculator, and that is basically a show about how people basically go to Google on their phone the second they don't know something, instead of just speculating, so that can be followed at twitter @SpeculatorRadio. We want to follow along with that idea, people like things easier, no one writes hand written letters anymore. I write tons of hand written letters. You know how many I've received back from like 40 or so sent? None, literally none.
JV: It's a personable thing. Taking the time to convey your time thoughts and emotions through a handwritten message, instead of typing out something quickly and having the person receive it immediately.
JT: Well to their credit, the people who don't write back, it really is just the same thing, to get word by e-mail, in the sense that you are communicating information. But the things you are communicating when you hold a pen in your hand, or sitting at a typewriter, are a little bit different, it's a different process. Sometimes I draw little cartoons in my letters, I always splurge on the really cool stamps. I have Pixar stamps, US Merchant Marine stamps, I have Civil War Battle Stamps, you know all the historical ones. I go in there and I write about the stamps in my letter. I'm also a really big history buff, I read a lot about the Revolution and the Civil War, the War of 1812, and everything you're reading from then was handwritten, in order for it to be preserved, and it made it to now, so... I take pictures of my letter with my "high tech" phone and I catalogue them. For myself, I don't know why. I don't expect anyone else to necessarily want to read them, but, it's a good mind exercise, it's like reading. Like what you learn in school, reading, writing and arithmetic. Math is still really important.
JV: Will math ever not be important?
JT: Maybe, math might end up not being important in school, it used to be, oh, you can't use your calculator on the test. The reason why they would say that was because there was a time when you wouldn't have a calculator in your pocket when you needed to figure something out. Now, you don't even have to use the calculator on you phone, you just ask jeeves, or ask.com, or google.ask.hot, whatever it is.
JV: This letter tangent is going in the article I hope you know.
JT: Yeah. I was reading Fear and Loathing In America: The Brutal Odyssey of a Gonzo Journalist, it's, I believe, the second, it's one of numerous compendiums of Hunter S. Thompson's outgoing and some incoming letters, and it's awesome. And you know, I think he typewrote most of them, probably not handwrote, I think he was a really big typewrite guy.
JV: I honestly wish I could read more.
JT: Where do you usually spend your time?
JV: Doing homework, looking up memes.
JT: Memes? Like something that's trending?
JV: Something that's a waste of time.
JT: I'm sorry. I was born in 1981. So, I know these words, and I'm only so good at paying attention to certain parts of social networking and hot topics on the web and stuff, because I usually find myself taken away from social networking and such. I'm just now becoming more active on things like Twitter. Who knows, maybe after the article, I may get like 50 new Twitter followers in a week, that would be a windfall for me. Really this is the first piece of journalism done about me. I've been in the very long, very genius shadow of other acts for the last couple of years. Like Elizabeth Ziman, who is by far and away, the most, the most incredible songwriter and singer I've ever heard of and met. It was an incredible apprenticeship that I underwent with her. I have a similar one with Mark Guiliana, who really, I've been a best friend and apprentice to him at the same time. I also had another one with Avishai Cohen, who is a great bass player.
(On the television by the bar, A basketball game of the Lakers vs. the Knicks is on. Jeff takes the opportunity to address his hometown team woes.)
JT: Hey, there's my hometown team, playing your hometown team. Of course, it's still early. I can guarantee you the Knicks will lose this game. Any New York sports team that's ahead going into the latter part of the game, will, inevitably, give up that lead. As long as I'm paying attention and caring about that team to win, they will lose the lead.
(We depart, thanking the waitress for the chicken wings that we partook in, and head off towards the Hotel Café, where Jeff's friend, Javier Dunn, is performing.)
JV: Anybody you want to thank?
JT: I'm really grateful toward Ken Rockwood, the most important character of the story, who without him, there would have been no record. As well, Tommy, and Matt. Those guys who helped my career, gave me good slots on weekends. Whatever I need to do to get my music out there, without them I would not be here. Without people like Ken, Tommy, Matt, Elizabeth, and Mark, I wouldn't have any of these opportunities. As well as others like Trixie Whitley, who took me on tour, and Gabriel Rios, as well as Javier Dunn, who I'm playing with tonight.
(We walk through the alley towards the back entrance. Jeff, a gracious host and awesome individual, gets ready to enter the venue, but not without some final words.)
JT: To me, my relationship with music isn't a love relationship, which some people put music up on a pedestal, and make it everything, and, fuck that, I enjoy it and love it, but it doesn't control me. I wanna use music as a tool. There are a lot of things I wanna do, not just music. I wanna be a teacher, I wanna do maybe some farming at some point in my life, I love doing Jiujitsu, a lot of things really. I love sports, I love music, I love food, so who knows what will happen in the future, I might coach a kid's basketball team at some point. Maybe I'll be a history teacher, I think these are all the means for finding more of myself. I just think music just happens to be my finest tool right now.
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