James Fletcher is one of my favorite Orange County musicians. He is witty, stylish, talented and a gentleman. He's been tapped by Matt Costa and Scott Weiland for his drumming skills, but most recently he's decided to back up his own talent as a frontman, resulting in his first solo CD The Booze & Clocks.
Aside from being paraded around like a piece of meat by OC Weekly last week as part of their OC's Sexiest People issue, he's also holding down the Monday Night Residency at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa for February.
How was the show last Monday? Was it weird to be the frontman suddenly after so many years backing up others? Did you love it? Was it exhilarating? Excruciating?
It was a lot of fun. I've been fortunate to surround myself with a very strong band. That makes my part somewhat easy. It felt great to play those songs live. The record and rehearsals for the live shows have been quite time consuming. It's been the better part of a year seeing that through from making the record to getting on stage. I had the best night's sleep after I got home from playing that show last week, and it wasn't just the whiskey.
In your bio on your web page you said that you started hashing out some old songs you had on cassette tapes. These must have been collecting dust for a while since they are on cassettes. Did you always plan to do something on your own?
I started putting the songs together for the record about three months before recording them. I used cassettes because I have a crappy tape recorder, and that was my first stage of getting rough ideas together. I hadn't ever really attempted to write songs of my own from start to finish before, but it seemed a good time. I had a bit of time and a nice, quiet spot in my garage to try it out. I had stopped touring and was getting a bit restless at home. I thought, 'Why not do something else that takes up a lot of my time and makes me no money!!' I'm great at that.
Considering some of the concepts for these songs were written years ago, was it hard to dive back in and explore the emotions behind the lyrics? Did you end up combining old experiences with new?
The ideas were pretty fresh. I bought those cassettes brand new in Feb. 2010. Yes, they still make 'em. New song ideas that stemmed from a life time of experiences I guess.
"Wind Whipped" is decidedly different from the rest of the album. Tell me about that song. And "Mother Oh Mother." I'm not sure why but that song made me sad.
"Wind-Whipped" was one of the two songs that came from working with my great pal and legendary troubadour, Pat Visel. He had the chord progression, and I came up with the vocal melodies and words for the tune. The other song we did that way was "Some Summer." They both have a Viselian touch, and it's classic.
"Mother Oh Mother" was a mixture of something I'd read in a book about WWI and the basic idea of a mother. You know, the fact that if you can stand up, eat, think and wipe your backside, it's most likely thanks to your mother... well, my mother in this case. The WWI book told of how many young men cried out for their mothers while they were dying from gunshots, shrapnel and mustard gas in the trenches along The Western Front. Don't worry, I won't get all heavy and cerebral. It's the only book I've ever read.
Some of these songs sound very smooth seventies. Was that intentional? Does that come from your influences? You seem to have a penchant for low-fi seventies stuff like Bread and Buffalo Springfield. How does a guy growing up in Newport Beach gravitate to stuff like that? Why are you so un-punk rock?
We worked relatively quickly when making the record. The engineer, Ryan Mall, only had a month to spare, and I had a limited budget. I am very happy with the outcome thanks to the money and time constraints. It's the best way to do it. It forces you to make decisions and trust your instincts. The sound and feel of the record are what I like and what I know. The music I heard on the radio and at home as a young kid left an impression on me. I'm sure that comes through on this record. As far as punk rock goes, I grew up around it and played it, but I never loved shitty three-chord punk rock. The closest I ever got to punk was XTC,The Jam and Toy Dolls.
Can you tell me about the booze and clocks? Not the CD, but an answer to the same question you ask in the song.
Oh boy......explaining that song will be far to boring for print. It's a bit of hope and a touch of despair all in about 3 minutes. The rest is for your ears to decide.
For more about James Fletcher, click here for an article in the OC Weekly published recently:
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2011/02/james_fletcher.php
Or visit his Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/James-Fletcher-Music/139676419398145
