Questa l'intervista uscita sulla rivista "Go"
http://joshgrobanfrance.com/2010/11/02/nov...ine-of-airtran/La leggerò con più calma stasera.
YOU WENT IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION WITH THE NEW ALBUM BY HAVING RICK RUBIN PRODUCE IT.
“Yeah, we were a bit of an odd couple when we started. We wound up meeting and having a long talk and it happened very naturally. It got to the point where I was writing a lot, and we started clicking so much on what we wanted to do as a project that he said, ‘Let’s do the whole record together.’”
WAS IT SCARY LEAVING THE RECORD IN THE HANDS OF SOMEONE OTHER THAN YOUR MENTOR, DAVID FOSTER?
“It was terrifying. I was leaving my comfort zone. But at the same time, I trusted him so completely that, even with the frustrations of the album taking a long time, I knew that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. It was about two and a half years in the making. Rick is very picky — as he should be — about making sure that songs are A-list all the way. His way of saying it is, ‘This either sounds special or it sounds ordinary.’ Nothing ordinary was allowed.”
WHAT WAS THE CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE?
“Rick gives you the greatest gift that he can as a producer, which is actual responsibility. A lot of time is spent by yourself mulling over what you want to say, what you want to write, what you want to do. I think it’s important in the artist/producer relationship to have that separation time — to really feel like you’re on your own. You don’t want somebody holding your hand all the way because then it’s not entirely yours. One of the frustrating things, but one of the greatest gifts he gave me, was the chance to really feel a bit stranded in the best possible way.”
HOW DID THIS APPROACH DIFFER FROM FOSTER’S?
“David Foster is — and he would readily admit this — someone who likes to have a huge amount of say and control. He’s like a modern-day Mozart. The problem is when you have that much control as a producer, you can’t help but put your stamp on something, whether it’s the artist’s vision or not. I think that David and I have such a great working relationship, almost a father-son musical relationship, that it’s easy to get too comfy and rest on your laurels a little bit. It was nice to be scared again.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS ABOUT THE ALBUM?
“I’ve had a huge fear of failure in whatever capacity it is. Going in to make this record, people were saying, ‘Are you kidding me? This is not your world, get out of it.’ The worst moments for me in the last couple of years were sitting back and hearing something that we’d done together and going ‘maybe this isn’t right after all.’ That frustration winds up turning into ‘no, make it right.’ There’s something good about the fear.”
YOU CO-WROTE 11 SONGS, WHICH WAS QUITE A DEPARTURE FOR YOU.
“Part of the responsibility Rick gave me was to write and write and write. We cut 15 covers, one after another, and some of them sounded really nice. He said, ‘I’d be perfectly happy to record an album with some of these great covers… but if you want to beat that, go write.’ It was my challenge to make songs that were more personal. But I’ve got a couple of covers.”
ONE OF THE MORE PERSONAL SONGS IS “BELLS OF NEW YORK CITY.” WHY IS NEW YORK SUCH AN INSPIRATION?
“I definitely feel more like myself when I’m there. There’s a spontaneity, where you walk home at night and you’re enriched in some way. You met a person, or you had a conversation with someone, or you found an art gallery. I don’t know as many people in New York, but it doesn’t matter. I feel alive when I’m there. And I had just been talking to [songwriter] Dan Wilson about New York and what’s great about it. He said, ‘That’s neat; let’s riff on that and make a love song to New York.’ We wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t cheesy, but we wanted to make it melancholic and have the visceral reaction of how I actually feel when I’m in the city during the fall/winter.”
SHIFTING GEARS TO THE COVERS, WHAT MADE YOU INCLUDE “STRAIGHT TO YOU” BY NICK CAVE?
“That was an oddball choice — Rick’s choice. I love Nick Cave. It took a long time to figure out the right balance with a song like that — not to get too bombastic. We found this happy medium, where now it’s this really interesting orchestral piece and the lyrics are so powerful, poignant, and esoteric in a great way. We cut it live with a 60-piece orchestra.”
SINCE YOUR CAREER BEGAN, IT’S NO SECRET YOU’VE BEEN BELOVED BY MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT?
“It’s been an easy stereotype, a tongue-in-cheek joke. Anybody who’s been to any of my shows knows it’s really across the board. The biggest middle-aged lady craze started with my earlier music, when I was 17, 18, 19 years old. I started very commercial. I started as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid with a big voice who was kind of thrown into a very organized and old-school system that then drew a very old-school kind of audience. And I was so naïve at that point. I was such a sheltered kid that I didn’t view it as a romantic thing. I was like, ‘Look at these lovely people; they really like my music; I’m so grateful to have these fans.’ And that’s primarily how I still view it.”
WHAT MAKES YOU CONFIDENT THAT YOUR OLD FANS WILL LIKE THE NEW ALBUM?
“I’m a different person now… but I’m not going to cut off my nose to spite my face. I’m not going to make the mistake that I’ve seen other artists make, which is the whole ‘this is me now.’ And they actually go away from who they are. They’re just making a statement. I’ve never been out to make a statement. Rick and I said in the beginning that we’re not trying to prove anything. I know people think this is gimmicky, but all we want to do is make the most beautiful and honest music we can.”
DO YOU EVER FEEL FRUSTRATED WITH THE WAY THE PUBLIC PERCEIVES YOU?
“Of course. You feel frustrated mainly because you say to yourself, ‘I’ll slip some day.’ Somebody’s going to hear me say the f-word in public. Somebody’s going to catch me drunk at some bar, and unlike the guy with the bad-boy image, they’re going to knock you off your pedestal and say ‘how could you?’ when in fact we’re all human beings. And I think fans would be surprised to hear that I have a love life or that I go out and party with my friends. Fans tend to view you as above human. I’m out here to make music. I’m not out here for fans to know whether I pick my nose or whether I date this person or that person. I don’t feel it’s any of their concern and none of their business. We’ve become such a TMZ nation now that it’s almost like an entitlement. People feel like, ‘How dare you not tell us who you’re dating or that you picked your nose on Sunday.’”
YET YOU’RE A BIG FAN OF TWITTER. HOW COME?
“I love Twitter [because] you can control it. Twitter is actually a fun way to be provocative in 140 characters or less. There’s a lot to be said for brevity. There’s a vibe to Twitter that allows you to be different than you would be on a blog or on a song. For me, when I’m feeling a certain way and I’ve got a chance to say it in a small space, I find myself to be much more poignant. It also gives me a chance to be fun and more casual.”
DO YOU THINK IT’S A WAY FOR PEOPLE TO GET TO KNOW THE “REAL” YOU?
“People view me as a really formal guy. I’m formal about my music, but I’m not formal as a human being. It gives me a chance to be silly and show the other side a little. When you’re on a talk show, you get three and a half minutes to sing. You don’t go do the interview and then show a clip of your movie. You’re performing, and that’s it. As somebody who doesn’t really do that many interviews, sometimes it’s hard for people to understand who you are. They develop this image of you based solely on the songs. That’s only half of an artist.”
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