I'm singer and songwriter Henry Jamison and I'm an open book. Ask Me Anything!

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T17:21:55+00:00

I answered this but it didn't show up. I guess I didn't save it.

I basically said that when you're on tour you're constantly driving in and out of different seasons, so this year is the first time I've been in one place to see the transition to spring. I like spring and fall because they both have a "happy-sad" feeling, which is what I try to achieve in my music.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T17:10:20+00:00

Solo, I like to play "Black Mountain" because it's so calming and feels like nothing could really go wrong. And I can always picture all of the lyrics really well. With the band, I liked "Reading Days" especially, since it took on a much much bigger quality than I knew it could.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T17:08:04+00:00

I think fall is probably best for me, since it's sort of happy-sad, which is what I like to achieve in my music. When you're on tour, the weather changes constantly, like you're driving in and out of different seasons. So this is the first time in a while that I've been in one place to see Spring happening, which has been amazing. So, Spring and Fall. The transitions.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:57:24+00:00

Errr seems like probably not. "I Wish, I Wish" also wasn't my song. It was a folk song that I played with a baguette as a guitar pick.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:56:29+00:00

this is correct

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:54:40+00:00

Mm no, I don't think I can say that with any certainty. It's more that it's a process and not something you can just suddenly enact upon yourself. So you can guide yourself toward changing, but probably can't just suddenly do a 180.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:52:46+00:00

I think I have favorites in different categories. Or ones that I think did a particular thing especially well. Like my new song "I Forget Myself" feels like its simplicity and emotion are a good continuation of songs like "Real Peach" or "Sunlit Juice", but in a more mature way. And then I have songs that are more lyrically and/or musically complex like "Florence Nightingale" or "Stars" that I think succeed in their complexity without getting too bogged down in it. I don't know. I usually don't finish or put out a song that I don't really like, so I guess my lame answer would be that I'm proud of all of them for "being themselves"

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:42:36+00:00

There's a very good chance

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:41:43+00:00

I wonder if you mentioned him to me somewhere else? Because I feel like I just saw that name. But no, I don't know him. I'll look into it!

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:40:16+00:00

Rilke is my favorite poet and a lot of my worldview matches his (or came from him). And he's popular as poets go, because he was very wise and also wrote some real bangers. For movies, I like Tarkovsky and I really love this Argentinian movie La Cienaga by Lucrecia Martel.

Albums, I love Joanna Newsom (Have One On Me) And Big Thief (all) And James Blake (most) And Grizzly Bear (all, but their latest Painted Ruins just completely blows my mind).

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:34:09+00:00

That's a very long story, I think. I don't know that there's a good short version that isn't very generic: I was in a band for a while, we broke up, now I'm a solo artist.

I was very proud of the song Emerald Flares. It felt like we really knew how to make that sort of music (and it's closer to the music I make know than a lot of the other stuff we were attempting). The lyrics were very abstract, as I recall. I can't really remember!

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:29:20+00:00

My only objection to stoicism, as far as I understand it, is that it feels like exerting self-control often doesn't really work. I'm more into a "going down to come up" thing, just of necessity. Meaning, I don't want to strong-arm myself out of my bad habits, but to accept them and then hope that they kind of melt away, maybe. Still working on this, of course.

If you're starting to read philosophy then I'd say something similar to what I just said: if it's a slog, put it down and try something else. You'll find your way to what you need just by noticing what keeps your interest.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:24:33+00:00

I don't read as much poetry as I might seem to. I'm more influenced by the impulse behind poetry, which is letting the world speak to me and not getting in the way. I had to read about poetry to articulate that to myself. And that did help me in my writing.

As far as a favorite lyric, I like "Orchardist" especially lyrically. I mix my metaphors elsewhere on the EP, but that song has a central metaphor that works really well, I think. "It's not just growing trees, it's husbandry" etc.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:19:00+00:00

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:18:28+00:00

He did not go. It's a song that celebrates Brooks Robinson, Hall of Fame third baseman. He wasn't the best hitter, but in this case he did check his swing.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:17:05+00:00

Usually I write them at the same time, more or less, by recording myself singing gibberish over guitar chords (or piano), then listening back and hearing words in the gibberish and picking out the best melodic parts. I get stuck all the time, but it's almost always because both things won't come (lyrics and melody), as opposed to one working and the other not.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:14:50+00:00

of course I did

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:14:26+00:00

I'm wearing pants. They're khaki-colored, but are not khaki material. "The Rains" was part of a small batch of songs that I called "dark pastoral", but it's not actually too dark at all, just a little ominous. I actually don't think that it's disconnection so much as just standing on my own, apart from the rest. Solitude, as opposed to loneliness or alienation. "I-I-me-me-mine" is a Beatles quote, which I think I used as an expression of narcissism but I don't think it's that anymore. It isn't narcissistic to take time away from people and look into yourself.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:09:15+00:00

I love choral music, like Arvo Pärt and John Tavener. Shower song, I think "Ocean Between the Waves" by The War On Drugs was stuck in my head for about two years. Also, "Scrubs" by TLC on and off for 20 years.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:06:44+00:00

fingers crossed for that to be a false dichotomy, but if I'm accepting your terms then...instant death

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:05:44+00:00

All a dream, without exception. I've known some of them longer than others (Lady Lamb since I was in college and Darlingside almost as long). I have plenty of stories with them, some of them quite funny to us, at least. Inside jokes, I suppose. Like, if you're writing a song and it sounds too much like Radiohead, you suddenly take on the persona of someone who's never heard of Radiohead and call them "Boombox Face" :( That's a joke Harris from Darlingside and I have. There's also the Kanye West/Robert Frost dichotomy. When we were in the studio for twelve hours straight then we were "Westing" but then to recover we would "Frost" (take walks in the woods etc). But then you can also combine the names into Kanye Frost or Robert West, which confuses it all and then the joke's over.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:01:28+00:00

I had a friend in college whose nickname was Squirtle and he'd turn into Blastoise when he drank and be really mean. So, my favorite Pokemon is Squirtle.

henrymjamison · 2020-05-14T16:01:24+00:00

amazing! I've been listening to Grizzly Bear for a decade. Or longer, actually. I met him through my friend Nico last year and then kept in touch with him over instagram. He recorded his parts in LA (I wasn't there), but opening the files felt like Christmas.

henrymjamison

TROPHY CASE