Credit: Dean Chalkley
Last month, I spoke to Josh Ritter over the phone during a short break from touring behind his new album, The Beast in its Tracks. That conversation informed a feature article on Josh and the new album, which you can read here. Now we?re posting an edited transcript of the interview for you; check it out below.
Before you do though, you can enter to win tickets to Ritter?s show at The Trocadero tomorrow night. More details on the giveaway are here.
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The Swollen Fox: First off I?d like to say congratulations on becoming a father ? Beatrix Wendylove Ritter [is] almost five months old [now six]. How?s she doing?
Josh Ritter: Thank you. She?s awesome. She?s awesome, she?s amazing, she?s practicing laughing right now. So, pretty great.
TSF: Where did you get the name?
JR: We just had a bunch of names in mind and those were two that we just really loved. We wanted something whimsical, kind of adventurous, wanted to give her as many options as to how she wants to be known. And she just looked like a Wendylove when she came out.
TSF: Awesome. How have you dealt with releasing and promoting an album and touring all while trying to father a newborn? You must be exhausted.
JR: It?s funny, they draw on different energy, you know? You get ideas and you can?t spend six hours agonizing over them. I used to have time, so much time, you know? And now it?s not the same. You have blocks, periods of time, so at the end of the day you know very concretely what you?ve done. Which is great. Also it?s taught me how to decide to learn to calm down and appreciate things a little bit more than I have in the past. Like constant movement is not necessarily the end goal.
TSF: So you?ve still had to time to write since she was born?
JR: Yea definitely.
TSF: I?m sure your process has changed quite a bit.
JR: You know it hasn?t, since she?s been born. You know, the first three months of her life were very, they?re also very much the first three months of mine. And Haley?s. You know you?re learning how to do something you?ve never done before. But also you know we?re on the road together now and that?s work, that?s not writing work. You know, Haley?s writing, but it?s creative work that I think can only be fed by having a job. Really we?re on earth for one real reason and the rest is just kind of passing time, you know? And so with that reason there right in front of you, it does change you. I can?t say how exactly, it?s so early, but I do feel, I feel that it couldn?t help but change my writing in some ways. But I have no idea how yet.
TSF: What is it like having a newborn on tour with you?
JR: It?s awesome. It?s amazing. The bus has a?we fitted it so that there?s a bed in back and it?s got a crib. It seems to be pretty much like how it always has been except you know we?ve got a couple new people. It?s such a family already on the road, the people that I?m with. We?re really close and having them there, it?s great. So far it feels just terrific to come back after a show and I?ll go down and be a family. I believe this and I?ve believed this for a long time, I don?t believe because you choose to be a musician or choose to do something that you should have to give up having a stable family and a good relationship. And I think so far we?re really lucky that that appears to be true.
TSF: I want to talk a little bit about the new album. It?s been called a ?breakup album? but much of it seems influenced by your finding of new love, it?s quite hopeful. What do you think this record would be like if you didn?t find that new love when you did?
JR: Well I?d say that this was an interesting moment. I believe that with every record there?s a narrative that the record folds into. If a record is made how I believe they usually should be made, which is very regularly, you?re trying to encompass a certain amount of time, a certain amount of a number of preoccupations and get them all in that record so that when you move on, you have a record of that thing that happened. Whether it?s a writer?s block and adventure stories or kind of those ragged tumbling stuff. Those are all important moments for me, and they?re autobiographical in their own much less literal way. This was like a record where I began really in anger and real bitterness, and wanting to get some power back in my life. And I think I raised the pen at a moment when I think I needed to, where I felt like ?these aren?t the songs that I want. These are not going to be the songs that I?m going to look back on and feel proud of, and it?s not the story that I?m creating right now.?
It took a while for the real black rage that I had to kind of get hampered a little bit so the other good parts of my life could come out. And along that process I met Haley and things changed in like a really radical way for the better. And that wasn?t something that was planned, but it changed the way the record sounded and felt altogether.
TSF: Would you say this was your hardest record to write, the most challenging to write?
JR: Well, you know, I think it strangely was actually one of the easiest I?ve ever done. You know there was like, when I was realized that I wanted to write about this stuff in a way that had a little bit more?it was a bit more interesting to me, I started to realize you know there?s only a couple of moments really in your life when you can see yourself for what you are. I sort of imagine it?s dark down there and you can see which way the river is flowing only like in a flash of light. You know you see where the river is going, where it?s gonna end up. You know yourself really well for just a few seconds. And when you get that chance, to describe it is for me, that?s the part that?s easy. But to see it itself and see like ?New Lover? or ?Evil Eye? or ?Joy to You Baby,? you can actually see what it is you?re trying to describe. To try to describe a situation where you?re hopeful that someone?s doing better but you also hope that they?re doing worse. And that?s stuff that you have to sometimes get a flash of inspiration or flash of clarity. So really I think it was actually one of the easiest because it was very right in front of me and true in a really powerful way.
TSF: Was there any hesitation to release these more autobiographical songs? Was there ever a point where you tried to get back to writing less autobiographically like you had earlier, or was just it something you just felt you had to do?
JR: I just felt like this was?you know I was writing them, I just had to decide whether I wanted people to hear them. Not so much, not in regards to something like ?Joy to You Baby? or ?Lights,? which were more happy. But especially with the darker ones?but I feel like that?s the job, you know? If people don?t understand something, that?s fine. If they find it distasteful, that?s fine. But this is something that happened to me and I felt like if I didn?t write about it right now it?d be a betrayal of what I?m supposed to be doing. I mean there?s times where you?re just sticking around until that moment when something really important happens, or where you have something really important to say, and at that point, if you don?t say it then you?ve wasted all the time leading up to it. Plus I felt like if I did it right then it might be?people might be able to relate to it.
TSF: Before you started writing the album and before you went through the divorce, what direction were you expecting your next album after So Runs the World Away to take? Were you already expecting to strip it down a little bit or were you going to continue to do the more orchestral type of music?
JR: I thought about that a little bit. You know, when I?m finished with a record I usually don?t know where the next thing is gonna go, it takes a little while to know. And usually I?ve been pretty comfortable with that, but sometimes I thought in my mind like ?wow, what would have happened? What would have happened if I continued down the direction of So Runs?? I mean that was a direction that was like big and cool and comfortable, and I felt like I was saying big things, you know? But I don?t think you can continue in that direction. I also felt like maybe I?ve gone as far as I wanted to for now, in that style. And so, so, wind. I always think the wind was basically just knocked out of my sails and in this way it was really, really positive.
TSF: What is ?The Beast.? Where did the title come from?
JR: The Beast is the heartbreak. You can so easily make terrible decisions with your life. And I?m inclined to often make decisions that are rash, and that works out really good sometimes on stage, and other times in life it?s less good. But in a situation like coming back and it?s late-November, early-December [in] Brooklyn, and the sun comes up late and goes down early it?s?I was writing songs just to feel like I was not out there making bad mistakes and things that I would regret. So I thought of The Beast as being the heartbreak and if I could just kind of keep occupied with songs or whatever, it would help me to move forward in my life. And stay alive basically, until the page turned.
Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band play at The Trocadero tomorrow, May 16th. The Felice Brothers support. Tickets are available here.
Source: http://theswollenfox.com/interview-josh-ritter-fatherhood-touring-the-beast/
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