Interview: Jay Farrar (Son Volt)

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the lives of Jay Farrar and his Son Volt bandmates, but it also helped encourage one of their strongest albums yet in Electro Melodier. The rockers had recently finished touring in support of their 2019 album Union when lockdown hit, so while the timing was right for embarking upon a new project, novel challenges nevertheless had to be navigated.

Prior to hitting the road, which will bring the band back to The Orange Peel on Wednesday, Sept. 22, Farrar spoke with Asheville Stages from his St. Louis home about making music while masked up, staying regular with collaborations, and creative uses for Everclear.

Edwin Arnaudin: In this weird past year and a half, how have you been in general? 

Jay Farrar: You know, trying to make the best of it. Really just looking at it, maybe for lack of a better word, as an opportunity to really drill down and focus on songwriting and recording because there was no live performance. So, in that respect, there was more of a singular focus on this recording than most of the rest, because the normal Son Volt routine is that there's always one eye on the horizon, looking at the next string of dates. But this time, that was not part of the part of the mix.  

EA: Without having kind of that normal routine — I don't know if I want to use the word “routine,” but what kept you motivated on a creative and a personal level?

JF: I dug through my vinyl collection and digitized some of that. So, I found inspiration in some of that, just finding old records — Emitt Rhodes on vinyl and stuff like that, but pointing me in the direction of making a more melodic-inspired recording this time around for Electro Melodier.

Again, beyond that, there's always kind of a two-year cycle for me that somewhat was fortunate in that we had been able to tour behind the previous Son Volt recording, Union. So, the writing and the recording part of the cycle was ready to go, so to speak. 

EA: I like that you're able to keep The Orange Peel a pretty consistent tour stop whenever y'all are out on the road. What about that venue stands out to you?

JF: It’s always stood out as a great place — just a great vibe. There was a video recording Son Volt did there. Now there's a vinyl recording coming out. We'll have it for sale. I think it's just called Live at The Orange Peel. Maybe Live in Asheville? [Laughs] One of the two. But it's there. [Laughs]

EA: And then whenever you're in Asheville, are there other things that you try to make it a priority to do? 

JF: Just walking around is always a pretty good vibe, I would say.

EA: So, I told my friend Matt that I was going to speak with you. And he worked at Charlotte Street Computers back when it was behind The Orange Peel. And he was like, “Oh yeah! I sold him a computer. Nice guy.”

JF: [Laughs] Oh, that's great. That's great. Yeah, that was my introduction in Mac computers.

EA: Started you down the path.

JF: Hats off to your friend. Tell him thanks. It worked out great. 

EA: I will. [Laughs] Well, with Electro Melodier, y'all have hit the 10 album mark, and I was curious what that milestone means to you and your bandmates.

JF: I think this recording is reflective of, like we talked about before, more time to really devote and put more of a focus — a singular focus. But I would also emphasize more of a team effort this time around because we've been working with the same group of guys, both in the band and the auxiliary folks, from Jacob Detering, who did the engineering, recording aspect of it, and John Agnello, who did the mixing, and Brad Sarno who did the mastering. All those components go into making the overall recording. And I felt like it was definitely a team effort this time. 

In a historical context, I sort of see Electro Melodier as an extension of Union, in a way. Both albums were inspired by melodic intent or sensibility, but this time around the topical songwriting kind of took a back seat.

EA: You mentioned being able to focus a little bit more being in lockdown. In terms of actually putting everything together, from planning to recording, how did the pandemic impact that process? 

JF: The studio guy, Jacob, and myself, we all had to kind of talk about it — like, do we want to do this or not? [laughs] We all decided that we did. Initially, we started off doing Zoom-type recording, with computers in different studios and headphones. That was somewhat fraught with difficulty. There's maybe a certain energy or synergy that gets lost. So, we did one song that way, "These are the Times.” And then after that, Andrew Duplantis and Mark Patterson from Texas came up and we all got in the studio, masked up, as they say.

EA: What other workarounds did you have to take once you were all together? Was it pretty straightforward after that? 

JF: More or less straightforward. We did do it incrementally, still, because we did rhythm section and myself in the studio, and then Chris Frame came in and added guitar parts and then Mark Spencer did do his parts on his own because he has a studio in Brooklyn. So, in some ways, that allowed him more freedom to kind of experiment and try things out, which, ultimately I think that's reflected on the recording. He didn't have me standing [laughs] next to him giving direction — which you know, why not? That seemed to work.

EA: One of my favorites, if not my favorite, is "Diamonds and Cigarettes." I think it's a beautiful song. When in the writing or recording process did you decide to essentially make it a duet?

JF: It wasn't so much in the writing stage. It was more after it was recorded. The band had done their parts and then it seemed like it needed that extra element. Mark Spencer and Laura Cantrell, who Mark plays with periodically, they got together and she did great — added a lot.

Photo by Auset Sarno

EA: And then speaking of duets, that made me wonder if you and Ben Gibbard are talking about working together again.

JF: We should. [laughs] I haven't talked to Ben in a while, but, yeah, it crosses my mind from time to time. So, hopefully next time we run into each other, we'll start talking and planning. 

EA: Yeah, there’s definitely some good chemistry there. I don't know if that's one of those cases where the stars aligned at that one time and you're able to do it, but hopefully they can link up again.

JF: Yeah, sometimes it's just happenstance, but it could happen. The other side project I do, with Anders Parker — Gob Iron — I think we're on the 10-year plan. Every 10 years or so we get back and do something. So, let's see, with Ben? Well, yeah — that should be happening right about now on a 10-year plan [laughs], so I better get on it.

EA: There we go! And then, just kind of getting back to touring life and reentering at this kind of strange time, with the delta variant going on… The Orange Peel’s requiring proof of vaccination, negative tests, masking. I'm guessing a lot of other venues you're playing are probably doing that, too. How does that feel, reentering that world in this strange time?

JF: Well, it's good to hear that The Orange Peel is doing that. Proof of vaccination or a negative test — that's the right way to do it. We've done a handful of shows, most of them outdoors at this point, but we have at least one indoor show and, yeah, it's just kind of touch and go from here. But in September, when we make it through Asheville, that has quite a few club dates indoors. So, hopefully everyone is either vaccinated or masked up.

But yeah, there's definitely some variables involved because every venue and every municipality is somewhat different. So, it's a little bit of a crap shoot, but we have to get out there and play these songs.

EA: And lastly, just sort of thinking about this whole cycle, this way of life that you've been used to for so long and then having that disrupted and now coming back to it — What aspects of your artistic life has the pandemic made you look at in a new light? Maybe things not necessarily that you took for granted, but how are things looking different to you now?

JF: One unexpected aspect of the pandemic was I caught up on a lot of family life, really. I got to see my kids a lot more and my wife and extended family. As any musician can tell you, you miss a lot of birthdays and [laughs] a lot of anniversaries and stuff like that. So, that was actually a good aspect of the pandemic —  making sure all that was taken care of. 

EA: Did you get to you embark on any film series projects or puzzles or anything like that with your family? Any kind of fun stuff like that? 

JF: When hand sanitizer was hard to get ahold of, I did buy a pretty substantial amount of Everclear, thinking that I was going to make hand sanitizer out of that, but I never did. So, it occurred to me that I should get a bunch of lemons and soak the lemon rinds in Everclear. You can make limoncello, which is a Italian liquor. And it turned out pretty good! So, that's one thing I learned during the pandemic, is how to make limoncello. 

IF YOU GO

Who: Son Volt with John R. Miller
When: Wednesday, Sept. 22, 8 p.m.
Where: The Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Ave., theorangepeel.net
Tickets: $20 advance

(Photo by Ismael Quintanilla III)