A Conversation With My Morning Jacket

There’s just something about country music.

For the longest time, I was one of those people who, when asked what I listen to, would reply, “anything but country.” I’d say this for the same reason I’d tell people, “I hate beer” – because I’d never had the good stuff. Radio country is the musical equivalent to Budweiser Select. If all you’ve ever had to drink in your life is Natural Light and Milwaukee’s Best, you’re going to hate beer. And if the only country music you’ve ever been exposed to is Toby Keith and Big and Rich, you’re going to hate country just the same.

Lucky for me, Country sought me out and set me free. I was a lost and weary traveler and Country brought me home. I didn’t choose Country. Country chose me. There’s just something about it that reaches deep inside you and pulls up things that you weren’t even aware of. It’s simultaneously down-to-earth and mystical. It confirms your very existence.

One band that has become a favorite of mine since Country opened my eyes to its irresistible grace is My Morning Jacket. I’m a pretty new fan, so when I got the word that I’d be interviewing the keyboard player, Bo Koster, I might have panicked a little. I scrambled into research mode. I needed to be Informed Journalist Guy rather than Unprepared Idiot Fan Guy. I’ll let you decide which one this interview was done by.

Circle Six Magazine: So you’re one of the new guys in the band, eh?

Bo Koster: Yeah.

C6M: How’d you get the gig? Were you in a My Morning Jacket tribute band and they called you up to the majors?

Bo: Yeah, I had a wig. I used to impersonate Jim.

C6M: Nice.

Bo: Nobody came. We used to just play to two people.

C6M: Did you know the guys? Were you a fan in the right place at the right time?

Bo: A friend of mine who worked with them kind of recommended me. Then I had to do an audition, stuff like that and meet the guys. So, I was really lucky. He was a really close friend of the band and he’s a really good guy, so that was a good recommendation.

C6M: Did you know Carl before?

Bo: No, I didn’t, but we both were living in L.A. at the time.

C6M: How do you think you guys have changed the sound, if any?

Bo: Um…I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to say. I mean, I wasn’t there with the other guys, so all I have is the music. I don’t really know for sure, because maybe it would have sounded different either way, maybe because of a change in Jim’s song-writing or his approach to the band.

C6M: Were any of the songs on Z written before y’all came along, or was it a collaborative thing?

Bo: It was all collaborative.

(Now, it may look ok in print, but this was the first point in the interview that I thought, “Holy crap! I’m gonna go down in smoke.”)

C6M: You’ve been playing live together for a while right? Like you played Bonnaroo with ‘em?

Bo: Yeah, I’ve been to the last two years of Bonnaroo with the band.

C6M: Oh, ok…so it was pretty soon after It Still Moves that you guys joined up.

Bo: Yeah, I think It Still Moves came out in like October or something, and Carl and I joined like the first week in January.
C6M: I knew it was pretty soon after the album that the other guys left, but I didn’t realize it was so soon after that you joined up. (I guess if I actually knew what the hell I was talking about, I wouldn’t be depending on crap like this.)

Bo: I think it was like one European tour and then they left.

C6M: How have audiences received you guys? You haven’t had any rejection issues to deal with have you?

Bo: It seems like they’ve been really accepting since day one really.

(Awkward silence. I guess the witty, “I can talk to anybody” Jacob decided to take the day off. Well at least I’ve got notes…*looks down at notes*…damn. I’m toast.)

C6M: Do you think your interpretation of the songs has changed anything?

Bo: Maybe a little bit, but nothing drastic. Maybe the way we play a part may sound a little different, but it’s basically the same. You know, the brilliance is still in Jim’s voice.

C6M: Right on. (Here I shuffle through my notes and try desperately to avoid the invisible elephant of awkwardness making his presence known now in our conversation) You guys are doing Conan tomorrow night, eh?

Bo: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that.

C6M: Is this your first time playing on TV?

Bo: It will be for me, but those guys have done it before.

C6M: It’s been my experience that TV sound sucks.

Bo: It always does. You know why? It’s because they have union sound guys.

C6M: Oh and they just don’t give a shit? (nervous cursing…trying to come off as more relaxed than I actually am)

Bo: Well yeah, and you can’t use your own people.

C6M: Nice.

Bo: So we’re gonna have a sound guy there, but he’s not gonna be able to do sound for us. How stupid is that?

C6M: Yeah, that’s retarded. (Right about now I think, “great choice of words, moron. My luck he’s got a mentally challenged brother.”)

Ok, let’s talk about reverb for a second.

Bo: Alright.

C6M: This is how I was introduced to MMJ. I’m a big Wilco and Uncle Tupelo fan. I was having a conversation with a friend and he said, “If you like those guys, you should check out My Morning Jacket.” So I’m like, “Ok, cool.” And I’m expecting just like generic alt.country stuff. (Bo laughs. This boosts my confidence a bit. Maybe this thing is salvageable after all.) And then I’m hit with all this reverb, and I’m like, “Oh wow, they use a lot of reverb.” And then I accept it and move on. But everything I read about the band like an interview or a review of an album, everybody’s having fits over the reverb. First question is, what’s the band’s fascination with it? I mean, it’s mentioned in the bio as the 6th member of the band. And second, what’s the media’s fascination about? It’s like they can’t get over the fact that you’re using reverb.

Bo: Yeah, I find it kind of weird too. It’s almost like it’s the first time anybody’s ever used reverb. But I mean, you listen to those old Roy Orboson records and other records like that – tons of reverb.

C6M: I think it adds to the vintage sound that you guys have. I hate to use the word “vintage” cuz it’s such a buzz word. (The truth is, I’d hate to ruin the new-found rhythm in our interview by offending the rock star with an un-cool cliché.)

Bo: I don’t think it’s vintage. It’s no different than like adding a chorus pedal or a flange to your guitar. People do it all the time you know?

C6M: When I first started singing, a friend told me to try some ‘verb out on my vocals, and it was amazing. It’s such a wonderful effect because it covers all the impurities.

Bo: Yeah, that’s true. I think it’s a taste issue like with engineers and stuff like that. Some people just don’t like it because they feel like they can’t really hear the guy singing, like they can’t hear all the qualities of the voice maybe. Like it’s buried in a cloud somewhere.

C6M: Well that’s part of the music. It’s got this cloud-like, almost drug-induced vibe to it.

Bo: I like the way the vocals were done on this record. Depending on the song, you could hear it in the verse and then not in the chorus or in the chorus and not in the verse. I think that’s kind of cool.

C6M: Ok, let’s see. (Wow. I really am the king of segues.) I have written down here, “waltz, reggae, R & B, soul and blues.”

Bo: Is that all stuff you hear in the record?

C6M: Well, was there a conscious effort to develop certain influences on this album? I mean, as a musician, you listen to a lot of stuff, but then some of it doesn’t translate into your music. Was there a decision to cultivate certain things, or was it a bit more organic than that?

Bo: A lot of it was just Jim’s song writing and then us just trying to make it come to life. Anything was possible. There were no restrictions on what we could try. So I think maybe that’s why it sounds like there are so many influences.

C6M: You mean you didn’t have a meeting before the recording sessions and say, “Hey, we’re gonna do this and make it sound like this blah blah blah…”

Bo: Yeah, exactly. We just kind of like played the music the way we heard it and the way we thought it should be played. I think there was a little bit of an effort on Jim’s part to write in a more rhythmic vein for sure. We were definitely concerned with the rhythm more than I think maybe they had been in the past. So that’s fun for me cuz I love that stuff.

C6M: When I found out I was doing the interview with you, I listened to the album and really tried to key in on the keys. (Key in on the keys? Did I just say that? …basically I babble on for a minute here and end up asking a question in a totally different direction than the start of this bit. Keep in mind that I still want this guy to like me, and, in an effort to save face and my interview, I tell him how great his keyboard playing is in a couple songs on Z. Then I ask him something about the album sounding live.). Was that a conscious – again, I’m asking the same question as earlier – but was that a conscious effort or was it brought out on the production side, or…?

Bo: Yeah, it was definitely a conscious effort when we recorded the album to play it live as much as possible. And to make it sound like people were in the room with us and listening to it, but at the same time make it sound huge. I definitely think we accomplished that. It actually exceeded my expectations on the production side in terms of like – I think the album sounds huge and every instrument has definition, but at the same time it feels live. You know, it doesn’t feel like the drums are all compressed and the vocals are compressed to where nothing’s bleeding.

C6M: Right right.

Bo: Things did bleed you know. And that’s okay cuz that’s music.

C6M: It definitely has a live feel to it.

Bo: So many records just don’t have any imperfections in the recording. That’s not reality and that’s not music. You know, it’s ok if the drums bleed into the vocals, because when you’re playing music…

C6M: The drums bleed into the vocals.

Bo: Right, that’s what happens. They all bleed together.

C6M: (Here we go with another genius segue) So y’all were in Elizabethtown. I haven’t seen it. What’s your role in it?

Bo: It’s just a fictional band playing in the movie.

C6M: Capt’n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters?

Bo: What’s that from?

C6M: That’s the band in That Thing You Do.

Bo: Oh, okay. Um…no. (…he said with a dismissive chuckle) I’m the only guy who’s not actually in it. Patrick’s playing the keyboard, and Paul Schneider, the actor, is actually playing the drums and singing “Freebird.” So it’s not really us. Jim’s not singing “Freebird” or anything like that.

(Note to self: When interviewing someone who’s in a movie, see the movie before the interview.)

C6M: Okay, so based off of the movie line of questions – (here comes my hack radio question of the day) – who would win if Michael Corleone and Jack Torrance were to get in a fight?

Bo: Unfortunately, Corleone.

C6M: Ahh, you think? Jack’s got the axe and everything. He’s freakin’ psycho.

Bo: Yeah, but he was kind of a wimp. I mean, he got knocked pretty hard with that bat by a pretty frail little lady who was barely even holding the thing.

C6M: You got a point.

Bo: I gotta go with Corleone on that one, even though I’m a huge Shining fan and a huge Nicholson fan.

C6M: What’s your favorite one-liner from The Shining other than “Here’s Johnny.”?

Bo: Um…(slips into his best Nicholson) “Wendy, darling. Light of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m gonna bash your fuckin’ brains in.” That’s definitely the best line.

C6M: That’s awesome. I’m partial to the Grady scene in the bathroom. “Did you know, Mr. Torrance, that your son is attempting to bring an outside party into this situation?” Alright, last question and then I’ll wrap up. Whiskey or beer?

Bo: Whiskey. No doubt about it.

C6M: You got a brand of choice?

Bo: Oh, any of the good ones. Makers, Knob, Blanton’s I like a lot.

C6M: Anything that’s available.

Bo: Yeah, just not Jack Daniels.

C6M: Interesting.

Bo: No, not a fan of Jack.

And then the 15 minutes of awkwardness and fumbling over pre-written questions was over. I’ll avoid the obligatory paragraph of trying to explain my lack of coolness and just tell you to go get their new album Z. For those of you who are fans, it’s at least as good as It Still Moves and possibly better. If you’re not a fan, or have never heard of them, this is a good introduction. Of course, if it’s not your time, or if Country hasn’t pre-chosen you for salvation, you may never get it.

www.mymorningjacket.com

by Jacob Taylor

[Send your favorite drink recipes to jacob@circlesixmagazine.com]