For the Sake of Truth and Beauty (interview part ll)
[This is the second 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 2)
by Jenni Simmons
Jenni: You touched on this earlier in our conversation, but do you want to add anything about “mining for truth and beauty” in your songs? I find that phrase intriguing.
Jeremy: It comes from a speech that Daniel Lanois gave at SXSW in Austin a few years ago. He described his production technique as “soul mining.” It’s an amazing speech in which he waxes poetically in a Jack Kerouac-beat poet way about his production. He’s worked with U2, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and many great artists. He’s also an amazing artist in his own right. He’s been an inspiration to me for years. When it came to “mining for truth and beauty,” I sort of took his whole “soul mining” idea and realized that what I’m trying to do on a record is “get to the top of the mountain that I see.” That was one of his lines…
Lanois had a bunch of great quotes like that in his speech. He says stuff like, “Low baggage, high mileage…intelligence before waste…passion before commerce…. master your simple tools”. Really great nuggets of craftsmanship and workmanship for the creative process. I want to communicate truth and beauty. I think that any art that is quality art - that is great art - communicates truth and beauty.
I’ll tell you, while adding the string parts in the studio I’d ask myself, ‘I like this, but is this beautiful?’ If I felt like it could be more beautiful, I’d push harder. That is something I learned: swing for the fences and shoot for the moon, because you might just get there. And if you don’t get there this time, you’ll get close.
Jenni: Other than excellent songs, what do you hope people will hear in Recovery?
Jeremy: I just hope they like it; I hope they enjoy it. It’s a great feeling to have it completed because I got to the point where I was kind of obsessing. I wouldn’t say I was possessed by it, but I was close. I was glad to set it free.
Jenni: How did you know when Recovery was finished? It seems like you are a perfectionist which might be good in art, but was there a moment where it just seemed right?
Jeremy: I think Bono said, “Taste is the enemy of art” - perfectionism can consume you. The reason this record is cool to me is because it’s not perfect. There’s a lot of loose stuff that’s not perfectly produced; it’s organic. I could just tell when it was finished. The last song that I finished is the first song on the album - “Distress Signal.” That song wasn’t even finished until we were mixing, and as we were mixing it, I was changing things, adding things, and moving things around in ProTools. I have a whole alternate ending for that song that I did not use; I wrote it at three in the morning the night before we were going to finalize the mix. I knew that I wanted it to go straight into the next song, “The Space Between Living & Dying”. “Distress Signal” is a really weird song to me because it was like the never-ending song - it just would not be done. I don’t know why, but the other songs were pretty obvious.
Jenni: From what I hear, sales for Recovery are going extremely well, so I’m wondering if you see any need to sign with a label in the future, or if you plan to remain independent?
Jeremy: I do plan to remain independent. If the right label situation came along, I would definitely take a serious look, mainly for distribution. But I’m kind of at the place now where what I do has grown up the past few years and I’m pretty comfortable here. I don’t mean that in a complacent way, but in a business way. It’s a lot of hard work and the last eight years have been a wild ride. My wife and I take it one season at a time and right now we are committed as a family to touring and promoting this album. I’m not sure what’s around the corner so who knows. But in the near term, I don’t see myself needing a label. I wouldn’t be against it, but I don’t think it would benefit a guy like me right now. And that’s fine because a few years go being independent used to be like settling for second best, but these days it is the best option.
Jenni: OK, non-music related, you have fabulous links on your blog. Whenever I find a fellow Flannery O’Connor fan, I have to ask - how do you see the Gospel in her seemingly dark writing?
Jeremy: She’s a kooky writer - I love Flannery O’Connor. I find her writing to be pretty grotesque and dark; not in a repulsive way, but definitely in an uncomfortable, shocking way. We live in a very comfortable culture here in our country where we’ve got all sorts of amenities to remove us from reality. I think she cut through all of that with a knife. That is saying something because she wrote in the 1950’s and 1960’s. She tells it like it is in a very Catholic way and in doing so, she brings me to my knees as a reader, in the sense of being reminded of my need for the Gospel. The way she does that is showing that you need to be delivered as opposed to delivering you. Plus, I love the fact that she lived on a farm with peacocks - I think that’s really cool. I’m shallow like that.
Jenni: I’d love to take a tour of her farm, Andalusia, one day.
Jeremy: I’m trying to get Kierstin to move outside of Nashville on some land with me, get some dogs and peacocks and stuff.
Jenni: How does she feel about that?
Jeremy: I’m working on it - she’s close. We live right downtown and we love where we live, but I’m looking out my front window to see tons of cars driving by, and it’s just traffic and exhaust. It would be nice to live out where you just hear trees.
Jenni: I always love asking people this: Pick one or two albums, books, movies, and visual artists that have been very influential on your music.
Jeremy: Albums are easy for me. Daniel Lanois has an album called Acadie that deeply moved me, I think because it’s about his story, his family, and his roots in Quebec (French-Canada). It’s autobiographical, a deep record, and sonically it’s like a buffet at Thanksgiving. Any of the U2 records; I find their music to be very moving. I love The Beatles and Bob Dylan, too - I’m marked by all those guys. Literature: Buechner, Chesterton (especially Orthodoxy), C.S. Lewis - probably my favorite book of his is The Great Divorce. Visual art: I’m a big fan of Vincent Van Gogh. Kierstin got me into Caravaggio; we were in Rome last year and got to look at a bunch of original Caravaggios. In fact, since I’ve been married, my wife has shown me a lot more of the art world. I’m not a genetically-predisposed artist; I sort of ended up this way. My wife, on the other hand, came out of the womb painting. She’s shown me a lot of beauty that I didn’t even know existed in the art world. Movies: I love Wes Anderson. Rushmore is probably my all-time favorite movie. It’s funny and everything and I do laugh really hard, but I think there are a lot of profound statements being made about sons and their interactions with fathers (in The Royal Tennenbaums, too).
Jenni: Are you currently working on anything new?
Jeremy: I’ve been doing a good bit of production lately on some other independent artists’ records. I’ve been working with a songwriter from Mississippi named Wesley, and another guy named Jay who lives in Chicago. I’m also writing a song or two on a couple of records for other people.
As far as my own music goes, I’m getting ready to tour the new material. I think my music is changing and stretching. Songs are living things so I want to let the new material breathe a little bit in front of audiences. I’m looking forward to getting on the road.