August, 1994
By Bert Van der Kamp
Translated by Moira de Kok
A new, great singing talent has risen and his name is Jeff Buckley. Who? Once the music world knew a gifted singer-songwriter, who passed away too soon. Yes, Jeff is Tim’s son, but he doesn’t like being compared to him. And he’s right, because even without the extraordinary blood ties his debut album, Grace, is one of the better CDs of the year.
After John Lennon’s and Bob Dylan’s sons the son of a third favorite pop star is my conversaton partner. What to do in such a situaton? At frst, you try–rather forcedly-not to talk about his old man, but at one point or another it has to happen. Jeff’s situaton is slightly diferent from the other sons of famous fathers, because when he was barely six months old, his parents decided to split up. When he was eight, he spent a week during Easter break with his father, who died from a fatal combinaton of alcohol and drugs two months later. Jeff has always had a closer relatonship with his stepfather, who also had a huge infuence on the development of his musical tastes. Though, his genes don’t let up and even if Jeff sounds diferent than his dad, they have a lot in common, especially in the compositon of their songs and the intense, passionate performance of them. Grace isn’t easy listening at all. Just like on the previously recorded mini-CD Live at Sin-é he can’t seem to limit his songs to three minutes, but that is far from troubling. Jeff produced the record alongside Andy Wallace and plays with his own, new band: Michael Tighe (guitar), Mick Grondahl (bass) and Matt Johnson (who shares a name with The The, drums).
“We came together five weeks before recording started. We did a couple performances as a trio before Michael joined us. Then we went into the studio and recorded the 10 songs in a short time."
Buckley works in several diverse styles from almost whisperingly sung, sweet ballads to tight rock songs, where he seems to emulate Robert Plant, a childhood hero.
“I was already a fan of Led Zeppelin at age five. My stepdad had all their records. My mother and my stepfather shaped me musically when I was a child. They loved the Beatles and I did too, but Zeppelin sounded much more anarchist to my ears. The range of that music was so impressive and it broke me open. Later I started loving other music, but those early infuences seem undeniable."
His impassioned way of singing doesn’t just remind us of his famous father, but sometmes it resembles someone like Morrissey, who was shameless in his emotonal performance. When I menton his name, he springs up.
“His work with The Smiths is still unbeaten. The compositon of the songs, the lyrics, their performance. What Johnny Marr and he did is something great. Nobody can top that. If I ever start a rock band, I want to try and reach that level."
When I ask him if he’s looking for a musical partner like Johnny Marr, he says: “I prefer working alone. Even though my songs come into being in the most diverse ways, I am the constant factor. Morrissey needs a partner because he can’t play the guitar himself, but I can sing and play guitar."
Grace has ten songs, seven of his own and three remarkable covers: Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Nina Simone’s Lilac Wine and classical composer Benjamin Briten’s Corpus Christi Carol. Although two of these conjure up religious associatons, Jeff is quick to deny an evangelical intent.
“If you listen to the lyrics of Hallelujah closely, you notce it’s a song about sex, about love, about life on Earth. The hallelujah isn’t a tribute to a worshipped person, an idol or a god, but it’s the hallelujah of orgasm. It’s an ode to life and to love. The carol is really a fairy tale about a falcon who takes the beloved of the singer to an orchard. The singer goes looking for her and ends up in a room where his beloved lies next to a bleeding knight and a tomb with the body of Christ. My friend Roy played it to me when I was still in school and now I sing it for him."
Exactly how important are song lyrics?
“You can listen to my songs purely for their sound or you can really get into them. Both are okay. For myself, what I say is important. If the lyrics don’t speak to me, I can’t sing them. Music, lyrics, voice and rhythm are equally important."
The record has a notable amount of love songs. “I’m quite the romantc type," Jeff explains. Especially on the long Lover, You Should’ve Come Over he reaches great heights as a troubadour of love. It’s also a song about growing older, I tend to think. Jeff reafrms this: “Not necessarily growing older as a chronological thing, but more in the way of gaining experience. Sometmes you experience a lot of things in a very short time and because of that, you grow up very fast. Sometmes I feel very old. I had that in school, too. I felt like an outsider. Too old for my age. Leaving things behind and acceptng you’re somewhere else, that is what growing older means to me. The benefts of that are huge, because you can let go of things that are no longer of any use to you.
“Someone’s age is a shield to their youth. That way, someone can grow older and still stay young. Picasso always tried to stay in touch with the child within him. If you don’t, at one point or another you lose yourself and you die slowly. Or you go completely insane and kill yourself. It is very important to understand this (deep sigh)."
This seems like a good point to talk about his biological father. When I menton his name, he interrupts me: “He was one of the people who didn’t make it." Right. “He
was a marvellous guy," I contnue, “I met him twice and talked to him for a moment." Jeff listens to my story in silence and when I say that I think he took the torch from his father, even if it was only because of the great intensity in his performances, he responds coolly: “You say so, not me." “The lyrics to Dream Brother intrigue me," I contnue, unperturbed, “That could be a song about him."
“That is a song about my friend, who has lived quite an excessive life, which lost him the callous on his soul. He’s in trouble. The song is for him. I know what self-destructon can lead to and I try to warn him for it. But I’m a hypocrite, because when I called him and told him about the song I had writen, I was in Holland and the same night I OD’d on hash in my hotel room and woke up sick as a dog the next morning. It’s very diffcult to not give in to your negatve feelings. Life is a complete chaos."
Buckley isn’t afraid of tackling serious themes, which doesn’t make his music accessible at all. Further explanaton wouldn’t hurt. I only have to menton a title like Eternal Life and he can hardly be stopped.
“What I want to say with a song like Eternal Life is: if you are someone who thinks you should put your energy into talking other people down and discriminatng, or instlling your racist beliefs in your children or playing sick games with everyone, only to cover up your own lack of self-worth, then–in my mind-you are lost forever. There are so many things in life to focus on. There is so much to learn about existence itself. Why waste your time with all that bullshit? You should try to see people as people and stop fixatng on skin color, status or sexual preference. I get kind of worked up about it, because I see it as the greatest threat of our time. There is a widespread disintegraton, but it offers us unexplored opportunites for growth. From the ashes of chaos, you can rise greater and stronger.
“All the hassle around the independent music scene and the so-called Generaton X is a symptom of this confusion. Everything is labelled, but nobody knows what those labels mean. There is a fear of the unknown and that’s why everything is put into boxes with labels on them. I don’t know what Generaton X means, either, but I think it could mean: get the hell out of here or you’ll be X’ed out."
Hearing Jeff talk like this, it seems to be hard being young in the chaotic ninetes. What does he think to change with his songs? How does he see his own role as an artst?
“I can’t do anything more than write songs and whether people want to hear them is not my business. I realise that as a listener, you have to invest in my songs to make the most of what’s in them, and I don’t know how many people are willing to do that. I don’t feel like I can save the world. I look at the world and I come to the conclusion that it doesn’t want to be saved. People want to be bossed around. At my gigs, you can go wherever you like. You don’t have to listen, you can have a beer if you’ve had enough of it. I don’t mean to be crucifed."
By Bert Van der Kamp
Translated by Moira de Kok
A new, great singing talent has risen and his name is Jeff Buckley. Who? Once the music world knew a gifted singer-songwriter, who passed away too soon. Yes, Jeff is Tim’s son, but he doesn’t like being compared to him. And he’s right, because even without the extraordinary blood ties his debut album, Grace, is one of the better CDs of the year.
After John Lennon’s and Bob Dylan’s sons the son of a third favorite pop star is my conversaton partner. What to do in such a situaton? At frst, you try–rather forcedly-not to talk about his old man, but at one point or another it has to happen. Jeff’s situaton is slightly diferent from the other sons of famous fathers, because when he was barely six months old, his parents decided to split up. When he was eight, he spent a week during Easter break with his father, who died from a fatal combinaton of alcohol and drugs two months later. Jeff has always had a closer relatonship with his stepfather, who also had a huge infuence on the development of his musical tastes. Though, his genes don’t let up and even if Jeff sounds diferent than his dad, they have a lot in common, especially in the compositon of their songs and the intense, passionate performance of them. Grace isn’t easy listening at all. Just like on the previously recorded mini-CD Live at Sin-é he can’t seem to limit his songs to three minutes, but that is far from troubling. Jeff produced the record alongside Andy Wallace and plays with his own, new band: Michael Tighe (guitar), Mick Grondahl (bass) and Matt Johnson (who shares a name with The The, drums).
“We came together five weeks before recording started. We did a couple performances as a trio before Michael joined us. Then we went into the studio and recorded the 10 songs in a short time."
Buckley works in several diverse styles from almost whisperingly sung, sweet ballads to tight rock songs, where he seems to emulate Robert Plant, a childhood hero.
“I was already a fan of Led Zeppelin at age five. My stepdad had all their records. My mother and my stepfather shaped me musically when I was a child. They loved the Beatles and I did too, but Zeppelin sounded much more anarchist to my ears. The range of that music was so impressive and it broke me open. Later I started loving other music, but those early infuences seem undeniable."
His impassioned way of singing doesn’t just remind us of his famous father, but sometmes it resembles someone like Morrissey, who was shameless in his emotonal performance. When I menton his name, he springs up.
“His work with The Smiths is still unbeaten. The compositon of the songs, the lyrics, their performance. What Johnny Marr and he did is something great. Nobody can top that. If I ever start a rock band, I want to try and reach that level."
When I ask him if he’s looking for a musical partner like Johnny Marr, he says: “I prefer working alone. Even though my songs come into being in the most diverse ways, I am the constant factor. Morrissey needs a partner because he can’t play the guitar himself, but I can sing and play guitar."
Grace has ten songs, seven of his own and three remarkable covers: Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, Nina Simone’s Lilac Wine and classical composer Benjamin Briten’s Corpus Christi Carol. Although two of these conjure up religious associatons, Jeff is quick to deny an evangelical intent.
“If you listen to the lyrics of Hallelujah closely, you notce it’s a song about sex, about love, about life on Earth. The hallelujah isn’t a tribute to a worshipped person, an idol or a god, but it’s the hallelujah of orgasm. It’s an ode to life and to love. The carol is really a fairy tale about a falcon who takes the beloved of the singer to an orchard. The singer goes looking for her and ends up in a room where his beloved lies next to a bleeding knight and a tomb with the body of Christ. My friend Roy played it to me when I was still in school and now I sing it for him."
Exactly how important are song lyrics?
“You can listen to my songs purely for their sound or you can really get into them. Both are okay. For myself, what I say is important. If the lyrics don’t speak to me, I can’t sing them. Music, lyrics, voice and rhythm are equally important."
The record has a notable amount of love songs. “I’m quite the romantc type," Jeff explains. Especially on the long Lover, You Should’ve Come Over he reaches great heights as a troubadour of love. It’s also a song about growing older, I tend to think. Jeff reafrms this: “Not necessarily growing older as a chronological thing, but more in the way of gaining experience. Sometmes you experience a lot of things in a very short time and because of that, you grow up very fast. Sometmes I feel very old. I had that in school, too. I felt like an outsider. Too old for my age. Leaving things behind and acceptng you’re somewhere else, that is what growing older means to me. The benefts of that are huge, because you can let go of things that are no longer of any use to you.
“Someone’s age is a shield to their youth. That way, someone can grow older and still stay young. Picasso always tried to stay in touch with the child within him. If you don’t, at one point or another you lose yourself and you die slowly. Or you go completely insane and kill yourself. It is very important to understand this (deep sigh)."
This seems like a good point to talk about his biological father. When I menton his name, he interrupts me: “He was one of the people who didn’t make it." Right. “He
was a marvellous guy," I contnue, “I met him twice and talked to him for a moment." Jeff listens to my story in silence and when I say that I think he took the torch from his father, even if it was only because of the great intensity in his performances, he responds coolly: “You say so, not me." “The lyrics to Dream Brother intrigue me," I contnue, unperturbed, “That could be a song about him."
“That is a song about my friend, who has lived quite an excessive life, which lost him the callous on his soul. He’s in trouble. The song is for him. I know what self-destructon can lead to and I try to warn him for it. But I’m a hypocrite, because when I called him and told him about the song I had writen, I was in Holland and the same night I OD’d on hash in my hotel room and woke up sick as a dog the next morning. It’s very diffcult to not give in to your negatve feelings. Life is a complete chaos."
Buckley isn’t afraid of tackling serious themes, which doesn’t make his music accessible at all. Further explanaton wouldn’t hurt. I only have to menton a title like Eternal Life and he can hardly be stopped.
“What I want to say with a song like Eternal Life is: if you are someone who thinks you should put your energy into talking other people down and discriminatng, or instlling your racist beliefs in your children or playing sick games with everyone, only to cover up your own lack of self-worth, then–in my mind-you are lost forever. There are so many things in life to focus on. There is so much to learn about existence itself. Why waste your time with all that bullshit? You should try to see people as people and stop fixatng on skin color, status or sexual preference. I get kind of worked up about it, because I see it as the greatest threat of our time. There is a widespread disintegraton, but it offers us unexplored opportunites for growth. From the ashes of chaos, you can rise greater and stronger.
“All the hassle around the independent music scene and the so-called Generaton X is a symptom of this confusion. Everything is labelled, but nobody knows what those labels mean. There is a fear of the unknown and that’s why everything is put into boxes with labels on them. I don’t know what Generaton X means, either, but I think it could mean: get the hell out of here or you’ll be X’ed out."
Hearing Jeff talk like this, it seems to be hard being young in the chaotic ninetes. What does he think to change with his songs? How does he see his own role as an artst?
“I can’t do anything more than write songs and whether people want to hear them is not my business. I realise that as a listener, you have to invest in my songs to make the most of what’s in them, and I don’t know how many people are willing to do that. I don’t feel like I can save the world. I look at the world and I come to the conclusion that it doesn’t want to be saved. People want to be bossed around. At my gigs, you can go wherever you like. You don’t have to listen, you can have a beer if you’ve had enough of it. I don’t mean to be crucifed."
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