#jerry abramovitz | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sinceileftyoublog · 5 years

Text

Eilen Jewell Interview: New Eyes and Her Eyes

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“My daughter’s gonna come home soon and demand all of my attention,” Americana singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell told me over the phone from her home in Boise last month. Becoming a mother has done for her what it does for any new parent: It has made her busy, and more fearful for her and her child’s safety. But at the same time, it’s made Jewell more emotionally and musically adaptive and arguably less averse to risk. Gypsy, her first album of original material since 2015, (out August 16 via Signature Sounds), touches on these themes. For one, it sees her more willing to write directly about her life and interactions with the world. She exposes her own vulnerability on “Witness” and “Fear”. In the face of some awful “stick to politics” criticism, she decries the gender pay gap on “79 Cents (The Meow Song)” and inspires us to act about injustice on “Beat the Drum”. And for a slice of home cooking, she even covers Idaho musician Pinto Bennett, on “You Cared Enough to Lie”.

Instrumentally, too, Gypsy was “a learning experience” for Jewell, marking the first time she’s ever recorded with electric guitar. Live, this means more equipment and more musicians. She’s still got the core band: her husband Jason Beek on drums and guitarist Jerry Miller. This time around, she’s adding upright bass player Matt Murphy for the first time and percussionist/roadie Michael Rundle. (With Beek recovering from open heart surgery, Rundle has to do a lot of heavy lifting.) Add her daughter Mavis and a nanny, and you’ve got what Jewell called the “happy seven, rollin’ down the road.”

That Gypsy and its subsequent tour is somewhat of a family affair is appropriate: Jewell dedicates the record to a different family, one from her childhood that made possible the spirit of the album. Growing up with the cultural limitations of Boise, the Abramovitz family, parents and four kids, one of which was Jewell’s best friend, exposed her to new music and art. The father, from New York City, “was the most exotic person I could have ever imagined,” Jewell told me. “It was like he was from a different planet.” He turned her on to Greenwich Village beat poetry and Billie Holliday. It was “exactly what I needed at the time and still really cherish,” Jewell said. With Gypsy, she pays it forward, showing new territory by venturing out of her comfort zone.

Catch Jewell tomorrow night at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights and Friday at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. Read the interview below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What is unique about Gypsy as compared to your past releases?

Eilen Jewell: Well, it’s my favorite album so far of all the albums I’ve written. I feel like the writing is more honest than it’s ever been, and there’s a depth to it that I think is something I’ve been trying to achieve for a long time.

SILY: What kind of depth do you think it achieves?

EJ: The songs are really personal to me. I think I’m writing truer stories than I used to. My songs used to be kind of a blend of fiction and fact. These songs are less fiction. Not that there’s anything wrong with fiction--I love that, too--but I’ve just been wanting to write more autobiographical songs and have always found that to be more challenging. I’ve shied away from it up until now because it was so challenging. This album, I really embraced the idea of looking at something personal and writing it in a way that makes me feel good about sharing it with the world.

SILY: Is there a song that best encapsulates that feeling?

EJ: They all do, but I think “Fear” is one of the better examples of that because I’ve been grappling with fear a lot ever since my little girl came along. I’m a much more frightened person than I used to be. “Who Else But You”, as well. And “Crawl”, too. “Crawl” doesn’t sound like a very confessional song, but it’s something that comes directly from something I’ve been feeling for a longtime and have finally found out a way to put into words. A lot of songs on the album are that way: Things I’ve been struggling to communicate for a long time. I’ve finally figured out how to do it somehow.

SILY: “Fear” and “Crawl” specifically have a couple of my favorite lines on the record. On the former: “Don’t take fear for your guide / Just look him in the eye and thank him kindly for his time.” Is that a mantra to yourself?

EJ: Sort of. I’ve been trying to figure out how to live peacefully with my fears and anxieties. I feel like they’ve taught me a lot. Ever since Mavis came along, I’ve been much more of a fearful person. There are days when I want to shove all the fear away and hide it under a rug. Those days are less productive. What’s really helped me over the years is to accept fear and live next to him and accept that’s part of life. But don’t let it guide everything that you do. Don’t let it become the motivating factor for doing or not doing whatever it is you want to do in your life. It’s become something to live by, for sure.

SILY: Why do you refer to fear as “him?”

EJ: [laughs] I feel like fear is the dark stranger you meet on the road at night. For me, it’s a very masculine feeling. It’s the creeper who lives in the shadows...that tends to be a male presence. The criminal, the thief, the person who wants to take everything away from you that you love and cherish. Sorry to say.

SILY: It fits thematically with other songs where you more explicitly lament the patriarchy, like “79 Cents (The Meow Song)” and “Beat the Drum”.

EJ: Even though “Fear” is an extremely personal song for me about grappling with the newfound anxiety of becoming a mother, politically, there’s a lot of fear on both sides. Both the right and the left are very fear-driven at the moment. It does have political ramifications, as well. As I was writing it, I was thinking about all of the fear-mongering going on that’s more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. If people want to take it as a political message, I think that’s fair game.

SILY: Like “Fear”, “Witness” is also about how having a kid has changed you, right?

EJ: Yeah, I mean when I was writing it, I wasn’t directly feeling like it was a song about new motherhood. But [Mavis] has changed the way I see the world. You could say that, more or less, it’s about learning how to see life through new eyes and how it can change your perspective so deeply.

SILY: Has it made you a more empathetic songwriter and person?

EJ: Yeah, definitely. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things that motherhood as taught me: how to empathize, at least a little, with everyone. I feel much more tenderhearted with the world than I thought possible.

SILY: On “Crawl”, you sing, “I want solitude / I don’t want to be alone.” What’s the difference to you?

EJ: The song really examines this feeling in me of being pulled in two different directions at the same time. It’s something I’ve felt off and on throughout my entire life, as far as I can remember. I want the ruby-sanctified life and the unholy life. I want to be a pure and clean person, and I want to live life cowgirl style. I’ve constantly been pulled in these different directions. I’m very introverted, yet I fear being abandoned. There are these very conflicting forces at work in me, and there always have been. It’s another thing I’ve just recently come to terms with. “Yep--this is how I work!” I’m being fought over by opposite forces.

SILY: This album is the first time you’ve recorded using electric guitar. Do you have a favorite guitar track?

EJ: I really like how the guitar came across on “Crawl”. It’s so unlike everything I’ve ever done before, on stage and in the studio. I’ve never done anything quite that musically aggressive before. I know it’s not cutting-edge guitar work, but for me, it’s different, and I’m happy about this process of coming out of my shell, covering ground that’s new for me.

SILY: How did you come up with the title and title track? Was there one that came first?

EJ: The song came first. When we were thinking about what to name the album, that was the only thing I kept returning to as a good name for the album. It’s a little bit hard to explain what the word “gypsy” means to me, but from a really long age, I’ve always been infatuated with the idea of gypsies. My friend, whose family I dedicated the album to, she and I used to have this infatuation with gypsies. We secretly wanted to be them. We both ended up growing up and choosing path in our lives that allowed us to be gypsies without obviously being technically gypsies. It’s a word that’s always been chock full of imagery for me. I wanted to give a nod to her and her family as being really important to me in terms of life in general and creativity. They exposed me to so much music, poetry, ideas, and thoughts growing up. I just couldn’t imagine growing up in Boise, Idaho, that there were people who thought outside the box to the extent they did. They took me in at a young age and opened my mind. Somehow, the word gypsy involves all those elements of my life: them, poetry, creativity, and not staying tied down to one belief or system or way of being. Having a sense of freedom.

SILY: Was that an accurate interpretation of Boise at the time? How much has it changed from an artistic standpoint?

EJ: It’s much more interesting now than it was growing up. In the 80′s and 90′s, there was very little outside influence, almost no diversity. It’s very isolated and still is. It’s the most isolated metropolitan area in the U.S. You have to drive 5 hours to get to the next big city. It still feels isolated but feels a lot bigger. It has big city issues, but it feels more diverse now. As a kid, it felt like growing up in a desert. [laughs] If it weren’t for the Abramovitz family I dedicated the album to, I don’t think I would have heard a lot of the music that’s really important to me today and certainly feel like I wouldn’t have had any companionship in my weird musical tastes.

SILY: How are you adapting the new songs to the stage?

EJ: We’re working through that. We’ve started bringing an amp for me on the road, and two electric guitars. The van is even fuller than it used to be, but mostly in a good way.

Album score: 8.0/10

youtube

#eilen jewell #live picks #hey nonny #fitzgerald's #jason beek #michael rundle #gypsy #new eyes and her eyes #live preview #signature sounds #jerry miller #matt murphy #greenwich village #album review #interviews #billie holliday

0 notes