www.musicweek.com INTERVIEW JOSH RITTER
‘YOU CAN’T PINE FOR YESTERYEAR’
Josh Ritter’s latest LP takes him in an unfamiliar direction towards love, loss and heartbreak. We talk to the singer/songwriter about creative inspiration, making a living and artist development
TALENT BY RHIAN JONES
T
here’s a chance Josh Ritter has just released his seminal album. After resisting the urge to seduce the listener in reams of pathos for five
records, he’s given in and written about plain old heartbreak for the sixth – The Beast In Its Tracks. And it seems to have worked. The Guardian calls it “emotionally devastating” while The Independent reckons it’s Ritter's version of Bob Dylan’s similarly autobiographical Blood On The Tracks. Written in 2011 after splitting from his then
wife, fellow musician Dawn Landes, the album takes the listener on an emotional journey from nightmares and anguish to new love and hope. Recorded with Ritter’s longtime collaboration
producer and keyboard player Sam Kassirer, it’s out now on Yep Roc/Pytheas Recordings - his own label. Ritter will be in the UK in October for an acoustic-only tour including a date at London’s Barbican Centre on November 10. He also plays two dates at Village Underground on July 23 and 24.
Most lyrics tend to be autobiographical with recurrent themes of love, loss, and heartbreak apart from your previous works. Why have you avoided autobiographical records until now? I’ve never liked writing about autobiography; I think it’s over used in songs. It’s also easily feigned: you can only have so much heartbreak in your life so I don’t trust that kind of music when it’s overdone. Then [the divorce] happened and it felt like the biggest thing in my life that has ever happened to me and if I didn’t write about it what’s the point of being a songwriter? The songs were really one of the only things at night that I could do that wasn’t melting my brain. When you get your heart broken, you feel so powerless that just being able to describe your own anger and your own hatred to yourself is a feeling of power and maybe the only one you’ll have for a little while. There’s a lot of stuff that I’m really proud of on the record but they all come out of a period of time that I don’t really remember because I was kind of messed up. I hope if [Landes] hears [the album], she’ll hear that there’s a lot of love and forgiveness in [the songs] too.
How important do you think lyrics are these days? Lyrics are super important but then again sometimes they’re not. As a friend of mine said, when we went to the Grand Canyon, “It’s absolutely beautiful, it’s the most impressive thing ever and it’s also a hole in the ground.” Lyrics are great but they’re only as great as the songs
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themselves. Something has to catch hold. Like Louie Louie: It’s one of the best known songs in history and no one knows what the guy said. I love lyrics and I’m consistently annoyed by myself if I don’t get something right - it eats away at me but that’s just my thing. It’s an amazing time for lyrics. Watch The Throne - the Jay Z, Kanye West record - amazing lyrics, they’re both incredible writers.
How have you noticed the digital age have an affect throughout your career? The digital thing is great now I run my own label. The fact that you make a little less money is diffused by the way people can hear your music so much more easily. They can hear the songs they want to hear, I like that. I feel like there’s always so much complaining about the music industry but if you want to make music or art of any kind you have to work within the environment you’re given, you can’t pine for yesteryear. I’ve never thought of records as something I’m going to make money on. I’ve always thought you play shows and that’s how you make money.
Why set up your own label? What has been your experience of being on a major versus an independent, and now your own? I’ve never wanted to complain about my experience with major labels. They were giving me money to make music. I was lucky because I worked with
ABOVE
The Beast In Its Tracks: Josh Ritter’s sixth album is out now on Yep Roc/Pytheas Recordings. Single New Lover is out on July 29
people who really loved my songs and people who were fighters and genuinely love music and those people are now out of work. When I was with Sony I brought out one record and thought that I could do better than they did, which is the truth because they can’t move very quickly, there’s a lot of red tape. So rather than hang around for one more record I set up Pytheas in 2010. It’s great and more nimble - if I want to do something I can just do it. For example, for this record, in the States, we’re going to give everyone who buys a ticket to the tour a download of the album too. I feel like it builds a real sense of good will. I know how expensive shows are and I don’t want to take more from people. That’s something we can do quickly without having to fight a huge corporate edifice.
You’ve managed to carve out a pretty long career so far but a common complaint of the music industry today is that artists are not given enough time to develop, is that something you agree with? It’s easy to become a victim of these things, the reality is that it has never been easier to become an artist. You’re fighting for your own vision and you’re fighting to eat. Time to develop sounds like a luxury to me. What you need to do is keep writing songs and keep playing shows and to me that’s development. If an artist isn’t developing themselves then who should help them?
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