Fun Fun Fun Fest Interview: James Husband

Oopsy.

I’m going to do the interview outside, on the porch.

For people who don’t know you, you’ve actually been a songwriter for a long time. You wrote that song “Virgil” for the Great Lakes record back in the day…

I can’t believe that you remember that. That song would have fit perfectly on this record, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. That song I recorded when I was like 20 or 21, and the songs I just made a few months ago…I don’t know if there was no growth there or what, but they sound like they were recorded simultaneously. (laughs) To me, that’s what this record is supposed to be - my attempt at continuing the Great Lakes. That song in particular is like all of my contributions to the band - the more psychedelic stuff with harmonies and flutes and shit like that. Basically this whole project has been me refusing to let go of that sound after the Great Lakes went country.

So in between then and now, have you been steadily working on this vision for a solo record?

Absolutely. I mean, I attempted something close to this record in like 2001, and now it’s 2009, and some of the songs on Parralax I were written at least eight years ago, if not more. These eleven songs are supposed to make a good impression or something. It’s almost like my resume. But the truth is, I have thirty-six tracks.

Wow.

I considered putting them out all at once, like “Should I make this a double album?” And eventually, people I trust from the band and the label, you know, we decided it was better to have a short little flip book than a three volume novel. So it’s not like I’ve been slaving over these eleven songs for eight years. There’s a whole lot where that came from, and this is just the first batch. I’ve always intended to release songs and intended to tour, and it’s just one of those things where you look at your watch, and seven years have gone by. Eventually Kevin [Barnes] pushed me out of the nest - he almost got pissed off with me because I was playing him a new song and he was like, “Well, what the fuck are you doing with those old songs?” And it was perfect timing, because of Montreal was taking a break for several months for the first time in years, and I would’ve had nothing but time on my hands.

Just to make a parallel, that Circulatory System album also took forever…and, from what I can tell, for no particular reason.

The funny thing is, years ago I was playing Will [Cullen Hart] some of these songs at a party, and I was all excited because I told him I was going to put it out that year, and he was playing me stuff that would end up on the second Circulatory System album. Neither one of us would’ve released that we would sit on these records for six more years and then release them within a month of each other. There are a lot of parallels between our projects, but Will had twelve people helping him, and I have a slight bit of an excuse because I had to do it all on my own. It truly is a solo album in that I played 99% of the instruments. It was me doing one thing at a time, setting up microphones.

Regarding your multi-instrumental…ness. You’ve always been a songwriter, but have you always been so adept at so many instruments? It seems like when of Montreal became more electronic, you were suddenly doing a million different things and playing drums only half of the time.

It’s funny because when I originally joined of Montreal the deal was I was going to play bass and some drums, and then, like in every band, I end up being the default drummer just because I can play the drums. Like in the Great Lakes, I always thought of myself as a songwriter and piano player and shit like that, but because no one else can shake a tambourine in time, I ended up being the drummer. I would always resent that when people would write “the drummer, Jamey Huggins.” I don’t know why - maybe it’s some sort of drummer complex I have. Same thing in of Montreal - I’m always referred to as “the drummer” even though I spend more time playing the bass guitar and keyboards than on the drum kit.

But that must have had some good repercussions in terms of your abilities.

I think that’s the case for all of us. When we play Kevin’s songs - which he can’t even play - it’s like being in music school for the last few years. After 2002 he started writing everything on the computer, writing six or seven keyboard tracks and just as many bass lines, and we have to figure it out. It’s like being in Frank Zappa’s band or something. He dishes it out and we take it, and it makes us all stronger players. It’s not like learning a song in real time and then you play it - it’s like this computer concoction that is almost inhuman, and then you have to humanize it. But anyway, I’m talking too much about of Montreal. What I’m doing is kind of the opposite of that. It’s like old school, sit down with the guitar, write down the whole song with the lyrics, and then record it. Which is how my brain works. I don’t know how to use Pro Tools or any of that stuff, and I like to record on tape machines. Which makes me sound like a fogey, but I just like the old way of doing things - it’s a process to me. I like cleaning tape heads, I like watching the thing go ‘round.

Where did these songs come from? Is this a personal, introspective record? Would you call the songs joyful?

I think of it as a photo booklet. If you want to show someone your pictures, you’ll usually pull out a book and say, “Oh, this is us at the beach in 1987. Oh, that’s me with my mom on my fifth birthday.” It’s little moments of time that aren’t at all related to each other. Some of the songs are about girls who broke my heart when I was twenty-two, and then, like, shit happens when I’m thirty-two. It’s kind of all over the place. It wasn’t conceived as an album. It’s like picking my favorite moments out of the last decade and saying, “Oh, check this one out.”

Speaking of things that you like, you also came out with this covers EP. Tell us about the choices you made - are these all songs that have meant a lot to you?

No, not at all, really.

Oh!

Part of my way of releasing it this way is like putting together a puzzle or a ship in a bottle. I figured, you know, this record will come out and hopefully people will listen to it and then certainly lots of people will judge it, and I wanted to have this balls out approach for the Pitchfork-minded people of the world that are going to say, “Well, this is a side project, and Kevin Barnes, and blah blah blah. And what are the influences?” I’m like, “Well, here are my fucking influences! The Beatles, and Guided By Voices!" I’ll go ahead and give you the list. I’m wearing it on my sleeve.

Will the Fun Fun Fun Fest show be your first performance as a band?

No, it’s going to be our eighth or so.

Oh, you’ll be grizzled veterans by then.

And we’re having this secret show in Athens, just playing in a small club and asking our friends to come and not charging anything. Then we have this Japanese showcase. It’s a strange mix of several people from Cornelius and Cibo Matto and Yoko Ono’s band, and for some reason they asked me and Ladybug Transistor to play. It’s funny because Ladybug Transistor is the first band I ever went on tour with. We’ll get a few shows under our belt, and the festival is the biggest thing we’re doing. And of Montreal is going to be there as well. It’s going to be like living in two worlds for awhile, and I think Dottie [Alexander] and I are both kind of excited about that. I don’t want to say we’re spoiled, but it’s going to be a lesson in humility to play to a hundred people in a bar after getting off a tour playing to ten thousand people. It’s a completely different kind of sound and different kind of show. I don’t think any of us are trying to deny the glamor and buffoonery that we do in of Montreal, but there’s going to be no glitter…well, we’ll be wearing denim, but wearing glitter on the inside, if you know what I mean.

James Husband: [website] [myspace]