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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Martyn
Joseph - The Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Interview
Wednesday February 4, 2004 By Steve Stockman Stocki interviews Martyn Joseph about his latest album Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home. Stocki: It's been a while--so many projects, live albums and compilations--was it hard to refocus on a cohesive album? Joseph: To some extent is was. I seem to spend so much time on the road and that has never been the place where I write. I collate ideas there but rarely process them. Also, I have been involved in a number of political and social projects which are a natural extension of the music. Added to that have been live albums and a Best Of so it took a bit of mind bending to get in the zone of a new album. Stocki: Knowing you, you are rarely short of songs so is the fact there are only nine tracks a sign of your focus on the cohesive? Joseph: When you put together an album, I think you are looking for some story, a theme, a vibe or whatever. The songs were chosen carefully in that regard and yeah, it's not that long a piece. But I think sometimes albums are too long, even if all the songs are good. It seems to take too long to get to the end. I wanted folk to want to go straight back and listen again. Stocki: Stewart Henderson has written half of the original songs. Is he an important figure in your writing? Joseph: Stewart and I are now an established team. We are great friends and like all good poets, he is able to articulate the world for me. We vibe off each other in life and work and it's a relationship I treasure. We have a written a lot of material together now and have plans to do a lot more. Stocki: How does that partnership work in terms of content? You are someone who knows what he wants to say about the news headlines and issues of the day. Does Stewart think like you as well as write clever lines and rhymes? Joseph: I guess we share a similar world view, but he has a different style to me; more poetic. He brings a rich vocabulary to the songs. I hopefully bring the same in melody. Often I will edit his words and add the odd phrase. I just get an idea but can’t quite articulate it so I turn that idea over to him and say 'you write it!' Sometimes he just sends me his ideas and they are usually in sync with my thinking. Stocki: Do you reject any of his stuff because you disagree with his perspective? Joseph: Not his perspective, but sometimes it might not work for me, though I would say I use 80% of what he come ups with. Stocki: So, this album. What is the cohesive message? Joseph: Oh gee, I'm not sure I can pin it down neatly. I think it's a bit more personal than recent work. There's a lot of soul searching there, songs about the journey at this time...you know, just beyond the halfway stage! There are stories too, but ultimately it's an album of underlying the point that it's all mystery. That even now I'm not sure of much other than an embracing of questions and doubt that are bridled by that which I can feel. And I feel love, anger, frustration, longing. I hope that when someone plays it they won't feel alone, some of it my just say, 'hey its ok.' Stocki: Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here coincidentally turns up on an Over The Rhine album around the same time. Where did you come up with the line? Joseph: Stewart brought it to my attention. Apparently its an old Arab prayer. We were just talking a year or so ago about 'the big picture, how we felt about life' and he mentioned this phrase he had heard of. I think we both knew it was going to become a song straight away. Stocki: Has touring more in north Americadoes that effect your writing at all? Joseph: Canada has certainly enriched my life in recent years. I have done a lot of work there and its beauty has touched me in a deep way. The vastness of the place too; it makes you feel small and insignificant which can be very useful for the soul. I haven't toured too much in the States in recent years, just a few bits and pieces. However, I have just signed with a new agent there (Jim Flemming) and will be touring there through out April and more in the coming years. I'm sure that's going to bring about a whole new strand of creativity. Stocki: The North Americans seem to be less up for the speaking out against their leaders than the British. How do you feel the American audiences take your critique of politics? Joseph: One of the problems is a cultural one. Many Americans feel that if you criticize their government you are having a go at 'them' personally. This is of course nonsense. If someone has a go at the British government I don't feel there having a go at me, but in the U. S. there is a different form of nationalism which I don't think is healthy. However, I think there is plenty of dissent there too, it's just not reported so much. Stocki: I guess the Canadians love it! Joseph: Indeed! Stocki: “Just Like the Man Said” is a catalogue of influences. Anyone particularly influential at the moment? Joseph: I don't stray far from my mentors but there is some good stuff out there right now. Cockburn’s new album is wonderful, Steve Earle is on form and I love the Damien Rice album. Stocki: Tell us about “This Being Woman.” Joseph: Stewart read out a new poem one night called “Testimony.” He wrote it in response to a comedian’s routine he had heard which took the piss out of a certain type of women. Those that were over a certain age and didn't look like he felt they should. Stewart's words were tender and edifying and I could see the effect it had on women as he read out the words. I said to him after, we have to turn that into a song. It's a celebration of the wisdom and strength of their journey. It could be presumptuous on my part; I have a number of songs that try to say how it might be for the fairer sex, but it seems to sit well with those who have heard it so far. Stocki: When you send the songs out there, many people say it is like sending your children out into the world. You lose control of what they will say and do. What have you brought these children up hoping they might say? Joseph: My hope is that they say something important. That they articulate for someone thoughts and feelings that they can’t quite communicate or feel alone with. So the song comes along and they think 'that's how I feel' or 'I'm not alone in feeling that way.' I hope they get beyond the 'cool crap' that dominates the messages we hear so much and just nuzzle in and find a home.
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