Interview with Mason Jennings
How has the tour been going?
It’s been so much fun being on the road. It’s kinda just more about the triple bill - the major touring for the record will be in the Fall.
Your songs commonly have a storytelling feel, are you much of a writer outside of music?
Not so much, for some reason songwriting is the one thing that really works for me, I tried some stories and poems but it doesn’t have the same joy in it for me. I’m a huge fan of reading, I love novels. Cormac McCarthy is my favorite. I like Tim O’Brien, and “The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss. It’d be fun to collaborate [with one of them], I don’t know what it’d be if something ever came about it’d be rad. It influences my songwriting, the themes and stuff, using only a few words to evoke a clearer picture.
How come the change to Jack Johnson’s label?
The label I was on [Epic] was pretty big and it felt a little too big for what I do. I talked to Epic after the last record came out and they agreed. Jack has been a friend of mine for years. We hook up in about two weeks [for some shows], do a few US dates and some European dates.
What do you credit the huge surge of Minnesotan musicians to?
It’s a really cool place, people don’t think when they go there it’s gonna be so hip – it’s like Austin, Texas or Portland, Oregon, and the radio is good and a lot of intelligent people are spending winters inside writing stuff. It is pretty extreme with weather and the art just blossoms.
What sort of influence does your wife (who is also a musician) have on your music? Your children?
She was on the last three records, the new one she’s not on. She’s so fun to record with. This record was more of a solitary process out in the woods, it would be cool to collaborate with my kids, I want them to decide they want to though.
So what was recording this album like?
I got a modern house/cabin in the woods in Minnesota, went there every day for three, four months, I’d try to write really fast, try to record it and be mixed or finished by 6 or 7 at night. I wasn’t over thinking anything. It was really fun. I would do it and sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t work, I wouldn’t have a finished thing every day. When it would work it would just be done. The first three songs [on the new album] were done that way, written and recorded in the same day. Very little editing was done at the end. Other than that we didn’t mess with it. In my music I’d tend to cut out a lot of joyful stuff when I edited it. If it was a fun song on my last record I would have said it was too lighthearted. The thing about it is when you first record it there is an innocence to it. For sure the last one was really painful for me - it was good to do it, it was therapeutic, I was really struggling with some issues, this one is more about a higher power, more lighthearted.
Other than helping with album titles (the new album’s title is courtesy of his son), how do your children factor into your musical career?
I think they are really inspiring for one, there is so much love. When you are a parent you get so much more love, there is also this sense of loss and fear, you are afraid for their well being. It’s also being so much fun being around them, they approach the world with so much joy and curiosity. It informed the way I wrote the new record.
What are you most proud of musically?
I’m not sure; I think the thing I’m most proud of is staying true to what inspires me. I haven’t made music that didn’t feel personal and totally current when I wrote it. There were situations where I felt I should do this or that for other people, but to me, the fact that I’ve been able to make records - while learning and changing, that’s the thing I’m happiest about.