By Eliot Fearey
Seattle, WA, USA
Brooklyn-based musician Derek James has hit his stride with Take You Out Dancing. In listening to his latest album, you will find that one of the artist’s greatest talents lies in his ability to create harmonious pairings with disparate musical styles. Lullaby lyrics are accompanied by rock n’ roll instrumentals and, in telling the story of a longtime unrequited love, finger picking is layered with Motown backup. Many of the tracks are daringly flirtatious and reveal his adventurous and fun-loving character. The album is pretty close to perfect.
If you ever have a chance to go to one of James’ concerts… GO! As promised by the album’s title, Derek will have you dancing in no time. What is most apparent at any of his shows is the incredible joy he finds in creating music. His rapture radiates as an infectious energy. In the coming months, he will be touring the East Coast and throughout the Midwest.
A few weeks ago, Thirsty sat down with Derek to talk about Take You Out Dancing and discovered that he bubbles over with excitement when talking about horseback riding and his musical muses. The conversation went as follows…
THIRSTY: Do you know what I love about Take You Out Dancing?
Derek James: [Smiles and inquisitively raises one eyebrow] Not yet.
THIRSTY: I love that there is so much to listen for on each track. I can never listen just once. I’m thinking of Sexy Eyes, which starts with a single banjo and then crescendos with percussion, whistling, guitars, and something else that I can’t quite put my finger on… it’s like a horse clomping. There is such a diversity of sounds.
Derek James: Thanks! It was a very deliberate recording and I’m really fastidious about all of the details in my process. There was a long gestation period for this album, partially because there were a lot of parts in my head that I needed to figure out before I went into the studio.
THIRSTY: It sounds like there is a lot of intentional experimentation and manipulation of instruments.
Derek James: Going into the studio, I knew what kind of sounds I wanted to have. For example, there is a lot of 50s reverb on the guitars. Or, I hear a lot of my songs with weird percussion. When I was living in France, I was playing music with all of these gypsies who made music with garbage. They’d bang on pots and pans and I thought that it was so cool.
Derek James Live (credit: Paula Lobo)
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THIRSTY: This was something you wanted to incorporate into your own music?
Derek James: Yeah. So, while recording, we threw Ryan [Vaughn] in a room and he would just play with all of his different stuff. He had a spoon and washboard that I found at a flea market, cowbells, wooden blocks, and shakers. Afterwards, we could pick and choose different moments from what we had recorded and loop it, or make different things out of it.
THIRSTY: When we spoke about your first album a few years ago, you said that you were looking for “musical marriages”. That was the term you used to describe the relationship you wanted to share with band members. Have you found musical marriages?
Derek James: Asi [Spector] and Roy [Gurel] are, for me, like musical muses. They play things and my heart flutters. They are constantly coming up with ideas that resonate inside me for days.
THIRSTY: Do you have particular examples?
Derek James: Asi’s rhythms, either on the bass or drums, are from a different era. It’s a combination of Motown and this Bo Diddley style beat that echoes inside of me. It’s such an interesting thing that is hard to articulate. It is a matter of taste - and his tastes just match my tastes. With Roy, the way that he plays with the guitar and his musical choices on the guitar, it is really special and something I haven’t found with another guitarist. Both Asi and Roy come up with stuff that I would never have thought of and didn’t know was part of my taste until I heard them play it. In that way, it’s super exciting playing with them because I am constantly being surprised.
THIRSTY: I have another question.
Derek James: Wait, I want to say one more thing. For me, the joy of being a musician comes from a combination of the music sounding good and also the people that I create with. I could play with guys who could play the exact same parts as Asi and Roy, but it wouldn’t be their personhoods. I wouldn’t experience the same joy.
Derek James on Cattle Drive (credit: Paula Lobo)
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THIRSTY: At one point you told me that a lot of your songs come from personal experience, are these stories ever apparent on this album?
Derek James: I wrote Take You Out Dancing, the title track, when I was out in the Bighorn Mountains on a ten-day cattle drive. I was sleeping under the stars and I remember leaving my little teepee tent one night to go and sit on the flatbed of a pickup truck. I was sitting next to a stream, staring up into the sky, and just started writing what I was seeing. I was out there by myself and I was fantasizing how it would be nice to share the experience with somebody.
THIRSTY: I want to talk about New York as the creative environment in which you are working and how New York affects you as a musician. Do you think that your work is in any way a reflection of your location?
Derek James: When I think about how the City influences me, I think about the fact that there are so many great musicians here. There are so many different scenes and I’m constantly inspired by all of the artists that I see play live. Sometimes I go out and see five different acts in a week. Each one that I watch is totally different and makes me think that I should be doing this or that. First I think that I should be doing really dramatic stuff and then I think that I should be doing the country thing. You know, I like a lot of different things. I’ve tried to find my own sound and voice, but I am definitely influenced by everything that is going on here.
THIRSTY: As a non-musician, the “scene” can be overwhelming because it takes a while for me to find somebody whose music I really like.
Derek James (credit: Paula Lobo)
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Derek James: In other cities, where there is a little bit less going on, it can be easier for a musician to hold somebody’s attention. I like to think of finding an audience in terms of dating. If a princess has a ball, there are all of these guys there for her. It might be overwhelming for her get to know any of them.
THIRSTY: Wait, you feel like a princess?
Derek James: No! The audience in New York is like the princess because there are so many great options out there. Outside of New York, and in a lot of other cities, a musician can build more of an intimate relationship with his audience, or princess. The attention of the princess isn’t being pulled in so many directions.
THIRSTY: I like your analogy.
Derek James: It’s just fairy tales!
Link:
Derek James on Facebook
