The LATEST NOISE INTERVIEW SERIES

My Morning Jacket’s Tom Blankenship

Eyes on the Prize. Always.

Interviewed by Mike Kuzan

In Part 3 with our interview series with My Morning Jacket’s Tom Blankenship we talk about playing live in a whole new world, recording My Morning Jacket’s 9th studio album and dive into navigating life in 2021. Read our Part 1 and Part 2 interviews from 2019.

Enjoy! ~Kuz 12/10/21

PLAYING LIVE IN A NEW WORLD

Kuz: On August 27, My Morning Jacket returned to the stage after 2+ years and a world wide pandemic.  Can you describe the feeling of returning to the stage that night?

Tom: What a strange mix of emotions, so will do my best. Elation and relief that, for us as a band, for myself personally and for the audience, we are all lucky enough to make it to this point and be experiencing music in this live communal setting. And then just waves of anxiety and panic. Like “Why isn’t everybody masked?? Oh, this is outside.. maybe folks are okay? Ah shit, ARE we okay?? Am I gonna make it through this set? Woah, was lost in thought but somehow still played through it”. Grateful that my body wouldn’t let my mind win any fight on stage. Its eyes on the prize. Always.

There have been adjustments and regulations put in place to ensure that you can tour safely, how has that affected how you and the band approach touring and ensuring you are ready to perform each night? 

Local crew and the whole touring party were masked in the venue at all times. Even amphitheaters and other outdoor venues. We had a positive case in our party right after those first two shows and it set the tone for the remainder of the tour. We weren’t taking chances. That meant no guests, aftershow hangs, dinners with friends, no family visits. We created a true tour bubble. Seeing folks at coffee shops or stores or whatever with no masks on just exacerbated the sense of loneliness and alienation. But on the flip side, without outside obligations or distraction, it was easier to focus on the shows and resting in between shows. I spent one whole day off in Chicago watching Ted Lasso and happily sobbing. Special tour moment #256.

David Byrne recently talked about the importance of the group social experience, that the role of artist or performer is to act as a catalyst that allows the audience to transcend themselves for a moment, to become part of a larger group bigger than the “I".  Anyone who has been to a MMJ show will know that feeling.  From the perspective including Jacket but also on a bigger scale, why do you think that human connection and the exchange between performer and the audience is so important to us humans?

I grew up an only child. And a latch key kid. I love solitude. But I still wonder: if I’m just sitting here alone reading all day am I really alive? The human experience is one worth sharing. Creating moments together & telling tales of memories past. We’re all born adventurers and story tellers. We’re here to encourage one another and give each other a reason to smile and wake up in the morning. To get out of our heads and participate in life. David Byrne is right (and I highly recommend his book How Music Works to everyone btw): music is the ultimate venue for transcending the self, leaving the cyclical nature of the mind and experiencing the pure joy of love. Love pouring from each of us in the form of pure energy, rays of beautiful light tethering us all together, freeing us from doubtful thoughts and anxiety and worry and discouraging words and voices. Reminding us that salvation from those negative thoughts is as simple as this: take a deep breath, close your eyes, open your ears and revel in the sound of music that YOU are helping to create by being present in this moment. 

This tour introduced not 1 but 2 albums worth of new material and over 6 years since you last had an album to tour off of.  First off, that has to be exciting to have so much new material to draw from!  The Waterfall 2 songs have been around for a while, whereas the self-titled material was recorded/released since the pandemic.  When debuting these 2 groups of songs live do you find that you take a similar approach to the collection or is it different because of the different amount of time the songs have been around?

So exciting! And it provides the great problem of having even more songs to chose from every night and fit in a setlist! The self titled tunes were actually finished in early March of 2020, a couple weeks before lockdown started. And yeah, the Waterfall 2 songs were recorded in 2013/14, so several years between the two albums despite their release dates. In both cases it took some work to remember what/how I played them. That’s always the challenge! Once they’re locked in the muscle memory banks they’re easy to recall. The human brain is an unbelievable machine.

When you are playing the new songs live do you find that each time you play you are still figuring out ways to develop the song? 

Oh yeah for sure. Some of them stick close to the album version and some naturally stretch out. But either way there’s a period where I’m still figuring out how to play it as best I can, like finger positioning or utilizing the right pedal or slipping in a little fill here and there. The album version of songs is just a snapshot in time of where that song was. There’s always room and time for it to further develop and evolve.

How does that contrast with performing a song like Dondante, the 21+ minute version during the Chicago run included a segment that was groovy and dancey AF, a couple of years ago that probably wouldn’t have been the case with a song with such a heavy meaning . Do you think you are more free to explore this with songs that have been around longer? 

That’s a great example. We had stumbled into that groovy section earlier in the fall, at a different show. That night in Chicago Patrick gave us a heads up that he wanted to go there again, to specifically bring some positivity and light to a song that is inherently very dark. It was a great call! So glad you caught that! It can be easier to do that with tunes we’ve been playing live for years. Sometimes it’s to change things up so they're more fun for us to play, or to give the audience a different experience or sometimes it’s just something that happens in the moment.

Speaking specifically around the Chicago run, The Auditorium is pretty special venue built in 1889 and the first thing you notice is the 3,500 carbon filament light bulbs that rainbow above the audience. That must have been cool to see from the stage! In our previous interview, you mentioned that at 20 years old it was your dream to play Chicago, is there something special about that city that you have connected with? Having played so many venues over the years, how does the place you are playing have an effect on what songs you select and the vibe of your set?

Yep, that’s such a beautiful venue. Have you been to the very top, like the nose bleed seats? It’s crazy. So high up the view will give you vertigo. Chicago and Louisville felt like sister cities growing up, in this musical sense. Part of that was that Steve Albini tracked the first records by Slint and Crain. His Shellac bandmate Bob Weston did Rodan’s “Rusty” LP and most of the Rachel’s records too. Chicago always felt like a big city to work towards, like an achievable goal. And I think the aforementioned records had a lot to do with that, for me personally. Anywho, the venue does kinda determine the vibe we go for when making setlists. Some smaller theaters were not designed for loud rock shows, so we might temper the mood across the board, song wise, to suit it.

My Morning Jacket (self-titled)

Kuz: The band has talked about taking a different approach to creating this album, it seems like you all were more free in creating what the album could and should be.  Can you talk about the process of the album and if that would be an approach going forward or something that was more circumstantial? 

Tom: It was really the first album since At Dawn where we completely engineered it ourselves. There were people on call if we needed help with gear or if something went wrong but otherwise it was just the five of us. We had to lean on each other a bit more, not having a producer or friend to bounce ideas off of or tell us if we had THE take. There was a lot of freedom in just trusting one another, being out on our own with only each other as a parachute. And with this being a new beginning of sorts for the band, after the break we had taken from the road, it was also a homecoming and rediscovery of how special the dynamic is between us. Which was just magnified working totally alone the way we did.

Themes of the album include the role of technology, consumption, addiction, appreciation and where we are spending our invaluable time. For example, in the music video for ‘Regularly Scheduled Programming’ we see the band confronting some of their addictions.  Do you think creating this album was a conscious effort to face those individually and collectively? 

Yeah I think Jim was really attempting to shine a light on our collective dependence on technology through his lyrics and in turn it certainly helped me to reexamine my relationship with social media and all devices with screens. Most of us are carrying these tiny computers in our pockets and while they’re great for keeping in touch and connected to others they’re also a source of constant anxiety. I don’t think we were meant to be as readily (seemingly) available and in the know as we are now. It felt strange at first and I really experienced some FOMO when I abandoned all social media and turned off notifications on my phone and now I can’t imagine ever going back. Instead I’m just grateful to have a nice camera in my pocket that also allows me to text and call my friends and family and has all my music on it. That’s more than enough already!



Talking a bit more technically about the recording process. Did you try any different/new recording techniques for this album?

 Jim had this vision of us bringing into the studio only what was absolutely necessary, so I stuck to my usual gear: an old P-bass through an Ampeg. And we only used one pedal on the bass, which was sitting around the studio already, a Boss ODB-3. There’s a bit more palm muting on this record, in particular Regularly Scheduled Programming, Love Love Love, Lucky To Be Alive & I Never Could Get Enough. It was something I had done in the past, like Touch Me Pt 2 and Spinning My Wheels. In the mornings I would walk down the hill from our rental house to grab a coffee and go to the skate park and would listen to this song “Numb” by Men I Trust, on repeat, obsessing over the bass sound. And that super compressed palm muted sound definitely made it onto the record as a result.

Jim has talked about when bringing songs to the band he tries to keep the demos as simple as voice memos instead of completely developed, can you describe the process of listening to the demos to developing your own parts and then how does that come together to create the full song? 

Sure. Sometimes Jim’s demos are fully formed, with everyone’s parts there. But mostly they’re super stripped back, kinda skeleton like, just guitar and his voice. Years ago I would play along with the demos and write bass parts. But I found that didn’t usually work out once everyone is adding their parts: the rhythm of my fingers doesn’t line up with what Patrick is playing or what I’ve written was done so without hearing any other instruments and as a result my part is stepping on everyone’s toes. In fact Touch Me Pt 1 is the only song I can think of where what I wrote at home made it on the record. But that demo had drums and keys so it was written with them in mind. So the past few records I’ve approached the demo process as learning only: making charts of all the chords and changes in my binder. Maybe make a note or two of a bassline I hear in my head. But otherwise I keep it simple and open to wherever the song may go when the five of us get together.

Did you find that once the recording sessions started, it was 5 dudes making music like you have for the past 2 decades or was this different cause of the times we are in?

It was definitely a homecoming after the break we had taken. Just the five of us having fun playing music again with this new chapter in our story we were writing together.

SIGNAL FROM THE NOISE

Kuz: Individually and collectively we have been through a lot in the past 2 years.  Our awareness of the world along with the problems and challenges we face are daunting.  Do you have any advice on how to stay focused and motivated?

Tom: Put your phone down and live in the moment. If something is causing you anxiety, sadness or any other unwanted feeling and you can live without it, get it out of your life. And always be kind to yourself. You’re just doing your best and your mind usually wants you to believe that you’re not doing enough. But you are. You’re alive and sometimes that’s really hard and that’s always enough!

Have you experienced live music as a fan since the pandemic? Is there a renewed appreciation of music from that perspective? 

Yes, just a few weeks ago my wife and I went to see Real Estate, our first show since 2019! After our tour I was surprised by how nervous I felt, like just weary of Covid stuff still, for good reason! But it was so much fun to be in the crowd surrounded by that energy and see folks really letting go, dancing and having fun. So different then being onstage and we loved it.

Music you are currently listening to? Top picks for 2021? 

My fave records of 2021, in no particular order: GLOW ON by Turnstile, Wilds by Andy Shauf, Talk Memory by BADBADNOTGOOD (the first song has the longest fuzz bass solo I’ve ever heard and is so fucking amazing), Pilgrimage of the Soul by MONO and In Heaven by Strand of Oaks (I 💜 Tim).

Any new acts you are excited to see or share with us? 

couple bands to see live - Liz Cooper and Illiterate Light

Thank you Tom :)

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