Rumore, November, 1994
By Giorgio Valletta
Submitted by Ana
Translated by me
Like all "angels", our Jeff reveals a seemingly fragile but decisive, witty, sensitive personality...
An angel has fallen on the Earth. He has the surname of another cult legend, but prefers not to even mention the name of Tim, his father, absent from his childhood before his death. His voice, now soothing and now lashing, capable of touching octaves and emotional chords from others just imagined, betrays in some way the genetic legacy, giving the compositions he has written, and the literally rewritten covers, a breath of immense size. Like all "angels", our Jeff reveals, even in a face-to-face meeting, an apparently fragile yet decisive, witty, sensitive personality...
Your recording debut, even before Grace, was accomplished with an EP recorded live at the Sin-e in New York. Can you tell us about that place and tell us if it was your idea to publish a live as your first outing?
The Sin-e is a small place like this (indicates the bar where we are guests), very small, is an Irish cafe. They have three acts per night, the music ends at midnight. If you're lucky, you play last for about two hours. You play for tips, you do not get paid, and there are no contracts. Many say that it is their idea, as far as the EP is concerned, while it is mine, no one else could have thought of it. At first I would have preferred to leave that experience behind, but then I preferred to emphasize that moment, because the Sin-e is a great place for me. I'd like to play again, or at least wash the dishes there. I like washing dishes, it frees my mind.
From the only acoustic shows to the album with a band on the following tour: how did you meet the musicians who are now accompanying you?
Rather randomly and at the last moment. I did concerts alone to make some money and because at the time I needed it, because I was on my own and I discovered what I really wanted to do, letting the music coagulate on its own. Through those shows I imagined that I would find my band, that I would attract people who thought they had something to give, and this happened. The record was supposed to be recorded within a certain amount of time, but I did not have one of my bands yet, and I did not want Sony to choose it for me, I wanted it to be a natural process. I lied to the recorders, telling them it was all right, under control. Finally Mick, my current bassist, approached me telling me that he had seen me at a concert and I was struck on the first listening by his melody and the natural voice of his bass, very strange, elegant. Matt, the drummer, was recommended to me, while I had known Michael for years, the guitarist: I decided to try it after hearing the so-called nine professional guitarists. He arrived at almost finished album, just before the tour. He was never first in a band, and I had to start a world tour: a perfect choice. He has more groove than average, more melodic sense. Guitarists are notoriously horrible people, the downfall of the human race. Not egocentric, phallocentric! With Michael we recorded So Real and the cover of Kangaroo by Alex Chilton, which will appear on a single. So we started a 4 month truck tour in the States, and now we're on a bus in Europe.
You are one of the very few musicians who in recent times have spoken openly about music as something very important, divine...
Maybe others think the same things but they are smart, they prefer to keep their secret. Maybe they do not want to share certain things with a journalist or with the public. I believe that there is a lot of conviction, a lot of soul in the world, at the same level of what I put in what I do: it can be a musician, a street cleaner, it can be a restaurateur, a whore, a drug dealer, a woman. The best thing about going around America was to see certain places better. Forget the West Coast, the best things are coming from the inside: in Memphis there's an incredible band, the Grifters. In New York, John Zorn is a band you've heard of, Soul Coughing. I love Shudder To Think, and then there are tons of other bands that no one has ever heard, and then sculptors, performance artists, painters, actors. Tim Burton is a great director. I really like Edward Scissorhands...My influences? The fact that I did Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen does not mean anything, Cohen is something that you discover when you discover life, you do not get there when you're very young. I grew up with the holy trinity: Hendrix, Beatles and Zeppelin, and then with albums by Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, the first of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Funny Girl, by Barbra Streisand, Wizard of Oz by Judy Garland, the column sound of Grand Prix, I do not even know who wrote it.
Can you tell us about some of Grace's songs, like Dream Brother? It seemed to me that it could be a song dedicated to yourself, like looking at you from the outside...
In a sense it is for myself, but the basis of the song is that I have a friend, whom I love, to whom I have great respect and which I have always felt as a brother. He has lived on the street since he was a boy and now has two children. I saw him recently while we were on tour, bruised and I'm worried that one day he could be killed. I would not want his children to grow up like me, feeling old at 5. That's why I sing: 'Do not be like the one who made me grow old'. It is easy to leave, to die. You have to start loving yourself in a certain way before you can love those close to you.
Eternal Life, instead?
Each of us sooner or later felt without power in front of a madman with a weapon in your house that takes away your stuff, or your children, or rapes your wife, or compared to a man in the White House or any other man of power who takes control where you do not and who cares nothing for you about the consequences, what kind of pollution will hit you, and so on. To achieve their dreams of power, this person inflicts on you his strength, pain, violence, bloodshed. Because I can not sit in a fucking cafe in the South with my friend Chris because he's black, and someone has to come and break my balls. There are billions of the most important things in the world to focus on as human beings, and instead you spend years working to become war masters, to make a war faster and 'cleaner' or in a Portland Nazi camp to teach how to hate the different. They have the balls to shoot with a gun, but they do not have the balls to raise a child in peace, they do not have to love a person for real, why should I give my life to them? And then I say Fuck You. F-U-C-K Y-O-U!!!"
You look like Ice-T!
Yes, I'm Ice-T, the white, shorter, and thinner version of Ice-T. He had to deal with a deeper level of life in the street, because his skin is light, and they called him yellow. I was always called a fag, because I was different from the others and had long hair. You are not given room for your spirit to grow in this world. You have to fight for your space, for understanding, for loyalty. And you also have to learn how to put your arms in front of those who want theirs on you, beat them up good, and start again. The world is more willing to embrace tragedy and blood than it is to embrace joy, because that takes much more courage and strength.
Is this vision that also inspires the tale of interracial love of Mojo Pin?
No, that's really a song inspired by a dream. It's about when I was in love with a wonderful girl, and there was always something between us, no matter how cute or smart you were. A poem of sad love.
Is there anything that annoys you in particular, in this story of sudden artistic success?
The confusion in doing the simplest things, due to stress. In America, food on the road sucks. It does not bother me to be on tour, I'm used to it. Pressures? If there were no music business, of course, people would do very different art. But the music itself is innocent, compared to any convention. The real world of music, music as a form of life and the force of nature, is much larger than the business or the musical practice itself. I do not deny myself access to certain musical forms. The good half of my attitude in what I do is to think that you are not there to listen to me, this is a way that satisfies me to stay in the business.
By Giorgio Valletta
Submitted by Ana
Translated by me
Like all "angels", our Jeff reveals a seemingly fragile but decisive, witty, sensitive personality...
An angel has fallen on the Earth. He has the surname of another cult legend, but prefers not to even mention the name of Tim, his father, absent from his childhood before his death. His voice, now soothing and now lashing, capable of touching octaves and emotional chords from others just imagined, betrays in some way the genetic legacy, giving the compositions he has written, and the literally rewritten covers, a breath of immense size. Like all "angels", our Jeff reveals, even in a face-to-face meeting, an apparently fragile yet decisive, witty, sensitive personality...
Your recording debut, even before Grace, was accomplished with an EP recorded live at the Sin-e in New York. Can you tell us about that place and tell us if it was your idea to publish a live as your first outing?
The Sin-e is a small place like this (indicates the bar where we are guests), very small, is an Irish cafe. They have three acts per night, the music ends at midnight. If you're lucky, you play last for about two hours. You play for tips, you do not get paid, and there are no contracts. Many say that it is their idea, as far as the EP is concerned, while it is mine, no one else could have thought of it. At first I would have preferred to leave that experience behind, but then I preferred to emphasize that moment, because the Sin-e is a great place for me. I'd like to play again, or at least wash the dishes there. I like washing dishes, it frees my mind.
From the only acoustic shows to the album with a band on the following tour: how did you meet the musicians who are now accompanying you?
Rather randomly and at the last moment. I did concerts alone to make some money and because at the time I needed it, because I was on my own and I discovered what I really wanted to do, letting the music coagulate on its own. Through those shows I imagined that I would find my band, that I would attract people who thought they had something to give, and this happened. The record was supposed to be recorded within a certain amount of time, but I did not have one of my bands yet, and I did not want Sony to choose it for me, I wanted it to be a natural process. I lied to the recorders, telling them it was all right, under control. Finally Mick, my current bassist, approached me telling me that he had seen me at a concert and I was struck on the first listening by his melody and the natural voice of his bass, very strange, elegant. Matt, the drummer, was recommended to me, while I had known Michael for years, the guitarist: I decided to try it after hearing the so-called nine professional guitarists. He arrived at almost finished album, just before the tour. He was never first in a band, and I had to start a world tour: a perfect choice. He has more groove than average, more melodic sense. Guitarists are notoriously horrible people, the downfall of the human race. Not egocentric, phallocentric! With Michael we recorded So Real and the cover of Kangaroo by Alex Chilton, which will appear on a single. So we started a 4 month truck tour in the States, and now we're on a bus in Europe.
You are one of the very few musicians who in recent times have spoken openly about music as something very important, divine...
Maybe others think the same things but they are smart, they prefer to keep their secret. Maybe they do not want to share certain things with a journalist or with the public. I believe that there is a lot of conviction, a lot of soul in the world, at the same level of what I put in what I do: it can be a musician, a street cleaner, it can be a restaurateur, a whore, a drug dealer, a woman. The best thing about going around America was to see certain places better. Forget the West Coast, the best things are coming from the inside: in Memphis there's an incredible band, the Grifters. In New York, John Zorn is a band you've heard of, Soul Coughing. I love Shudder To Think, and then there are tons of other bands that no one has ever heard, and then sculptors, performance artists, painters, actors. Tim Burton is a great director. I really like Edward Scissorhands...My influences? The fact that I did Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen does not mean anything, Cohen is something that you discover when you discover life, you do not get there when you're very young. I grew up with the holy trinity: Hendrix, Beatles and Zeppelin, and then with albums by Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, the first of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Funny Girl, by Barbra Streisand, Wizard of Oz by Judy Garland, the column sound of Grand Prix, I do not even know who wrote it.
Can you tell us about some of Grace's songs, like Dream Brother? It seemed to me that it could be a song dedicated to yourself, like looking at you from the outside...
In a sense it is for myself, but the basis of the song is that I have a friend, whom I love, to whom I have great respect and which I have always felt as a brother. He has lived on the street since he was a boy and now has two children. I saw him recently while we were on tour, bruised and I'm worried that one day he could be killed. I would not want his children to grow up like me, feeling old at 5. That's why I sing: 'Do not be like the one who made me grow old'. It is easy to leave, to die. You have to start loving yourself in a certain way before you can love those close to you.
Eternal Life, instead?
Each of us sooner or later felt without power in front of a madman with a weapon in your house that takes away your stuff, or your children, or rapes your wife, or compared to a man in the White House or any other man of power who takes control where you do not and who cares nothing for you about the consequences, what kind of pollution will hit you, and so on. To achieve their dreams of power, this person inflicts on you his strength, pain, violence, bloodshed. Because I can not sit in a fucking cafe in the South with my friend Chris because he's black, and someone has to come and break my balls. There are billions of the most important things in the world to focus on as human beings, and instead you spend years working to become war masters, to make a war faster and 'cleaner' or in a Portland Nazi camp to teach how to hate the different. They have the balls to shoot with a gun, but they do not have the balls to raise a child in peace, they do not have to love a person for real, why should I give my life to them? And then I say Fuck You. F-U-C-K Y-O-U!!!"
You look like Ice-T!
Yes, I'm Ice-T, the white, shorter, and thinner version of Ice-T. He had to deal with a deeper level of life in the street, because his skin is light, and they called him yellow. I was always called a fag, because I was different from the others and had long hair. You are not given room for your spirit to grow in this world. You have to fight for your space, for understanding, for loyalty. And you also have to learn how to put your arms in front of those who want theirs on you, beat them up good, and start again. The world is more willing to embrace tragedy and blood than it is to embrace joy, because that takes much more courage and strength.
Is this vision that also inspires the tale of interracial love of Mojo Pin?
No, that's really a song inspired by a dream. It's about when I was in love with a wonderful girl, and there was always something between us, no matter how cute or smart you were. A poem of sad love.
Is there anything that annoys you in particular, in this story of sudden artistic success?
The confusion in doing the simplest things, due to stress. In America, food on the road sucks. It does not bother me to be on tour, I'm used to it. Pressures? If there were no music business, of course, people would do very different art. But the music itself is innocent, compared to any convention. The real world of music, music as a form of life and the force of nature, is much larger than the business or the musical practice itself. I do not deny myself access to certain musical forms. The good half of my attitude in what I do is to think that you are not there to listen to me, this is a way that satisfies me to stay in the business.
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