When three songwriters used to calling their own shots get in a room and decide to play in a band, there's always the possibility of a train wreck.
“Yeah, I considered that,” says Jim James with a laugh. “But I figured if it got really ugly or unlistenable we could all just walk away from it like nothing had happened. Just because we started out with the intention of making a record didn't mean we had to release it. But pretty much from the minute we started working on songs together, we all kinda knew it would work.”
James, the singer in
My Morning Jacket, was joined in the fancifully named pseudo-super group Monsters of Folk by M. Ward, whose resume includes a string of acclaimed solo records and a collaboration with Zooey Deschanel in She and Him, and Conor Oberst, of the band
Bright Eyes. Rounding out the lineup was Mike Mogis, producer and multi-instrumentalist in Bright Eyes and multi-faceted secret weapon behind numerous other recording projects.
The group took shape five years ago, when James, Oberst, Ward and Mogis toured together. The idea was to do a more stripped-down show, in which each songwriter would present his songs while working in different combinations with his peers. “It was fun to travel lighter and learn each other's songs,” James says. “It introduced us all to a different way of working and performing.”
The loose, collaborative, anything-goes spirit was a refreshing contrast to the songwriters' day gigs, in which they usually micro-managed the music. Plans were made to record an album when all their schedules aligned.
Finally, in February 2008, the four finally gathered at Mogis' home studio in Omaha, Neb., to begin work on what would become
“Monsters of Folk” (Shangri-La).
“Each guy brought in one song that was pretty much finished just to get things rolling,” Mogis says. “That first day, everyone was pitching in with ideas for lyrics, chord changes and song structures. It wasn't like, 'That sucks!' It was more like, 'What if we tried this?' The idea from the start was never to have a guy with a song and everyone else as back-up singers. We wanted a true collaboration, right down to playing all the instruments ourselves, no ringers.”
Only one small problem. No one in the band was really a drummer. But everyone took a shot behind the kit, and some acceptable beats were bashed out.
“Enthusiasm carried the day,” James says. “It was like being in your first band in high school --- you just want to rock. A kind of naïve, innocent spirit. We would sit around the kitchen table with acoustic guitars, and 20 minutes later we'd be miked up, figuring out the song on the fly. It was like one of those Snoopy cartoons, where you see the characters in a big dustbowl and an arm or a leg would come flying out.”
The quartet had nine songs recorded within a week, then returned sporadically to put the finishing touches on the album, which was released a few weeks ago. It's hardly a “folk” record in the traditional sense. It’s a mix of styles, everything from rollicking roadhouse rockers to call-and-response soul tunes.
“It's such a funny word,” James says. “Conor looked up the definition of ‘folk’ and it's basically music made by untrained musicians. That can apply to rock, hip-hop or Peter Paul and Mary. And now it applies to us.”
That tongue-in-cheek moniker translated to the music, which oozes easygoing camaraderie. Unlike some of the group members' individual projects, Monsters of Folk sounds like it was a blast to make.
“There's a section on the record where the songs get a little heavy,” Mogis says, 'but what I remember most about making this record was the laughs we had, everyone cracking jokes.”
James says he also learned a few things watching his new bandmates work. “I wanted to write and sing stuff that was the equal of their songs, just to prove I could hold my own with guys I admire,” he says. “Not competing necessarily, but wanting to move them emotionally as much as they move me. I tend to get a little surrealistic in my lyrics --- I'm content to paint a completely abstract picture that doesn't mean anything to anyone, a sound collage or a bunch of words that just sound cool. But Matt and Conor helped me look at my own art to make it a little more direct while maintaining the weirdness.”
greg@gregkot.com
Monsters of Folk: 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy, $33, $43, $48; ticketmaster.com.