For the Sake of Truth and Beauty (interview part I)
[this is the first installment in a two-part interview conducted recently by Houston-based freelance writer Jenni Simmons]
For the Sake of Truth and Beauty
An Interview with Jeremy Casella (PART 1)
by Jenni Simmons
I’ve followed Jeremy Casella’s music for a long time, but when I heard Recovery, it was like nothing I’d heard before that I could recall. And this excited me. I love to hear deeply admired musicians create a sound out of left field… truly defining creativity as opposed to a stale vibe trailing from album to album. Jeremy’s latest CD seems to be newborn and alive. It is vibrant, symphonic, and cinematic - telling a confessional story that you can see. Embedded into his natural folk abilities are a shimmering orchestra and shades of electronica - the trifold combination striking an electric spark from head to toe. Jeremy’s lyrics are deep, rich, raw and poetic - a heart magnet. No buffer to mask reality, but intimate sketches from his life…
Jenni: When did you realize that without a doubt, you were meant to be a singer-songwriter?
Jeremy: There was a time when I wanted to pursue some other things, but I realized coming into my early 30’s that there’s really nothing more I could do as well. I’ve always loved music and it’s always felt natural to interact with the world around me using music. You want to spend your life and your time doing something that you feel is the best use of your abilities. As I’ve gotten older, music has become more and more of a passion.
Jenni: I think your calling becomes pretty clear, and something about your 30’s makes it especially clear.
Jeremy: Actually, a couple years ago I was freaking out a little bit about some of my label troubles and I met a guy in Dallas and shared my disappointments with him. He asked me how old I was and I said, ‘about 27.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry because your real work in life begins in your 30’s, and your 20’s are just a primer.’ When I turned 30 about a year ago I really found that to be true. It has given me hope that my 30’s will be productive, a new chapter. I’m glad to leave my 20’s behind - it was a very difficult time, for me anyway. Half the time you’re wondering what you’re doing with yourself. Even though I’m in my early 30’s, I feel like I’m settling into my life’s work in some way.
Jenni: My husband says the same thing about his 20’s.
Jeremy: It’s like the adolescence of adulthood. You’re out of college, maybe you’re married, maybe you’re not; maybe you’re dating, maybe you’re not. It’s a weird time, and especially so with music which always feels like it’s in transition or flux; or always feels like the rug can be pulled out from under you at any minute. It’s nice to get to your 30’s, take a breath, look around, and feel familiar with the landscape.
Jenni: So far, what’s been the best part of your job, and the worst?
Jeremy: The best thing: I love communicating with people. I feel like an artist first and a businessman second. There is obviously a business side to what I do that I need to maintain. But my favorite part of my job is getting a chance to talk to people and share with them what I’ve found to be true in my own life. It’s a privilege, really. It’s cool to go to the different areas of the country with people from seemingly different cultures within the United States. The worst thing about my job is being away from my wife and son.
Jenni: How has marriage and fatherhood affected your creativity?
Jeremy: Being married and now a father has forced me to be more efficient in the way that I work - actually keeping hours instead of leaving the doors open to work all day long, any day. I’ve got a family, and I want to take care of my wife and my son and spend time with them. So I try not to work around the clock, although when I work on a record, I work pretty much non-stop for months on end. The flip-side with being married is that it forced me to really buckle down and make some tough decisions as to what I’m doing with my music. Since I’m independent there’s no one forcing me to make the next record. It’s pretty much all self-motivated. It forces you to work harder and be more focused and I think that shows in my music. Plus, I have a really supportive wife. She’s an artist; she does graphic art, painting, writing, and photography so she totally gets what I do from a creative standpoint, and it really pushes me. I’m better for it because I didn’t have that when I was single and lived with a bunch of guys who smelled. As a result, I think what I do is more of a family effort which is better for my music. So, I’ve benefited greatly!
Jenni: How does your geographical location in East Nashville give you inspiration?
Jeremy: I love living here in Tennessee. It’s warm; I grew up in Pennsylvania where it’s so cold. Tennessee looks like Pennsylvania to me a lot of times, but it feels comfortable here. And we have a great old house that we love, a pretty vibey, low-key place to live. We’re surrounded by a lot of other creative types. What’s happened in the community that I’m fortunate to be part of is that since we’ve known each other for close to ten years, we are sharpening one another in our work - from record to record - whether we’re realizing it or not. I think everybody gets better and better. That’s a big part of it for me - being plugged into my friends who are also artists and learning from them. I’ve learned that the truth about a healthy community is it welcomes you to come out into the open –to be known and be changed. That’s been a big part of my story and now my family’s story since we’ve been part of the community as married folks. We’ve always talked about moving to New Orleans or Savannah or one of those places, but I don’t see us leaving here for a long time.
Jenni: I know what you mean. A lot of places draw you, but I think you know where home is at the time.
Jeremy: Oh yeah, and besides, now that we have a son, I want my boy to know Cason’s kids when he has kids, or Matthew Smith’s son and Andy Osenga’s girls. You want your kids to grow up with your friends’ kids. We have roots here; that’s what I’d say about Nashville - we have really deep roots and I love it.
Jenni: Which arrives first for you during songwriting - the melodies, the lyrics, or does it vary?
Jeremy: It does vary, but most of the time it’s music first. I usually hear it all in my head before I hear lyrics. It’s hard for me to answer that because it’s different every time I write a song. It is a mysterious process even though I’ve been through it a lot. Sometimes I’ll be inspired by something I read, something I hear from one of my friends, or some of the books and authors I love to read. That will set me off, but even those words give me a mood, and then usually music comes out of that mood and I fit words on top.
Jenni: That’s interesting. I’ve always heard that it’s so mysterious - any creative endeavor - but especially songwriting. Like it comes out of nowhere.
Jeremy: It does seem to come out of nowhere. This is going to sound bizarre, but I think that the songs are there. Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, said that his songs were in the air - he just had to pull them down. It sounds like hocus-pocus or whatever, but it’s true in a sense that there are some songs in you when you’re quiet enough or not thinking too hard, and they just show up because they are there. But I don’t know – it’s a giant mystery.
Jenni: Do you write songs on the piano, guitar, or does it depend on the song?
Jeremy: It depends. I love writing on piano although guitar is my primary instrument. I wrote most of this new project on piano and it really changed the way I wrote. It got me out of a creative headspace into a completely different terrain. I think the songs were better for it, but I love both instruments differently.
Jenni: The Psalms seem to be a thread through your past projects. Did the Psalms influence Recovery at all?
Jeremy: I’m a fan of the Psalms and the Scriptures, so it works itself into what I do because it’s marked me pretty deeply, undeniably. They are a central part of my life. What was really important to me on this record was communicating truth and beauty. And doing so in a way that wasn’t speaking some kind of “code Christian language.” I’m just trying to speak like a human being instead of a sub-cultural robot.
Jenni: Since you mentioned language, I vaguely remember a great quote about language on your blog, but now I’m drawing a blank. Who said that again?
Jeremy: Oh - that was Lauren Winner. She’s a great writer, author, and speaker. That quote was off of her blog, actually, talking about “Christianese,” as she called it. I definitely feel strongly about the whole idea of speaking like a human being, meaning, I’m not going to do my listeners any kind of service if I’m speaking some kind of sub-cultural language that doesn’t even reach 95% of the population. I think you can interact with culture as a believer and not exclude such a large group in the world by speaking some random language they’re not going to understand. This makes me even more passionate about speaking truth because truth is not sub-cultural.
Jenni: I love the blend of orchestral, folk, and electronica elements on Recovery. How do each of those genres inspire you musically?
Jeremy: The folk aspect will probably always be part of what I do. The acoustic guitar and piano are the heart of my singer-songwriter base. What I wanted to do was figure out a way to take what I’ve done in the past and inject it with two things: a whole lot of energy (up-tempo, faster textures) and melodies that I thought were absolutely gorgeous. The two things that resonated with me stylistically were classical music, which I’ve always loved, and electronica, which I also love. There are a few records that inspired me in the electronica end of things. The Chemical Brothers are one, but mainly it was Imogen Heap’s Speak For Yourself. I love that record for so many reasons and it might not be obvious by listening to my album that she was an influence, but her music is gorgeous and I love it because it’s keyboard and programming-oriented and she is a total songsmith. A lot of electronica isn’t song-oriented, it’s just trance-oriented, and hers is actually songcraft. That made me think, ‘I could do something here with electronica, songwriting, stick to a form, and dress everything up in really nice clothes with strings, winds, and horns.’ I had a blast working with a blend of these sounds and instruments that got me so inspired.
I was like a kid in a candy store working with such great players and I learned how to write string parts, horn parts, and woodwind parts. I got to score and arrange all of that for these orchestral sections we put together. Some folks have told me that they don’t know how to describe the record to people because it’s not super familiar; when you listen to it, it’s pretty fresh. I think that’s awesome because if you peel it all back, it’s still a singer-songwriter playing and singing a song, but it’s coming at you from all these different angles. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I think it did. Thankfully, people have received it well because it could have been a giant disaster.
Jenni: It definitely worked. I think that’s a compliment, too. I like a lot of music, but some of it sounds the same to me all the time. You were able to create something unique and fresh, as you said, so it’s a compliment for people to have that reaction.
Jeremy: Well, thanks a lot. Being independent, you want to stand out as best as you can. It’s easier for a singer-songwriter to make the same record over and over again. I can only speak for myself, but I got to a point where I could have ended up just repeating myself. I decided to chuck it all, start over, and go into some unexplored territory. You need to have a sense of adventure. The best thing about this record is that I love it! It makes me excited and wanting to make another record whereas before, I was exhausted and uninspired at the end because I pulled all of the possible tricks out of my hat. When I ended this record, I was tired, but I was more inspired and ready to keep creating than ever. That’s a really good feeling.
Jenni: The song “Study in F” is beautiful. When you initially conjured that song, was it instrumental, or did it change later?
Jeremy: I didn’t set out to write instrumental. I thought it would be good to have a song that bridged the gap on the record between the crazy, loud, electronica songs and the acoustic, organic, quieter kind of songs. I thought that this instrumental piece - “Study in F” - could serve as a breather or something to cleanse the palate. I wanted to make an album that could be listened to from top to bottom. “Study in F” was meant to be a respite, but I love the piece. It’s kind of inspired by Phil Keaggy and Paul McCartney, but it’s just fun for me as a guitarist to push myself a little bit. I heard that song in sections– as I was writing it, and I remember it was in the morning around 9:00 AM and I was meeting friends for lunch that day. I had it stuck in my head the whole time I was eating with them because I was so excited about the song. It feels classical to me, but sort of modern.
Jenni: What gave you courage to write such personal lyrics in songs such as “Born Again”, “Freight Train”, and “Darkest Night”?
Jeremy: I’m a big Frederick Buechner fan and I read one of his books called Speak What We Feel: Not What We Ought to Say. The title is a Shakespeare reference, but the book talks about how it’s easy to be a writer, you just have to open up a vein. I think that’s really true. What I tried to do as a lyricist on this record was cut to the chase, get to the good stuff. It had to make me a little uncomfortable to know I was headed down the right path. If I’m too comfortable while creating, I tend to think I am doing something wrong. Maybe it’s just me learning to be a writer instead of a less-honest individual.
Kierstin [my wife] interviewed [photographer] Ben Pearson a few years ago and she asked him, ‘What kind of pictures do you hate?’ He said, ‘Pictures that lie.’ I don’t want to tell any lies in my music. I don’t want to lie to myself; I don’t want to lie to my listeners. There’s enough BS and spin out there for people to consume on a daily basis - they don’t need any more of it. And again, for me it goes back to having a wife and son. I feel like what I do with my time - whether I’m home writing a song or I’m away playing concerts - needs to be time well spent. I was more casual with lyrics in my 20’s. But with this album, I’m not kidding.