popwreckoning

As the songwriter that was cool enough to impress celebs like Ellen Degeneres and Zach Braff, Joshua Radin has garnered a lot of attention for a guy who has just released his sophomore album Simple Times. Radin took some time out from a recent tour to talk to PopWreckoning’s Joshua. Check it out here:

Joshua, PopWreckoning: Hey, this is Josh. What’s going on?
Joshua Radin: Hey man, how are you?
PW: I’m good. Let’s start with your newest album, Simple Times. You left Columbia Records where you released Here We Were to independently release Simple Times on Mom and Pop Records. Why the change?
JR: I turned in Simple Times to Columbia and felt they didn’t hear a big pop, Top 40 single and I was like, “Well, yeah, that’s cause I didn’t write one.” They said, “Keep working on it and then we’ll release the rest of the record.” And I said I wasn’t doing that so I bought myself out so I could release the record the way I wanted to release it.
PW: I think that’s great. I have actually heard the record and I think it’s wonderful and I don’t know what they were looking for.
JR: Thank you. Well, it’s a major label system these days and who knows. Everyone in the company actually heard the record and they all loved it and were excited and they’ve been doing two years of work with me and they were super excited to get a product out there, but just the guy at the very top was like, “I need one single.” And I was like, “Sorry man. I don’t do Top 40.”

PW: I think that is very commendable in a market where people will completely change their sound and change everything about them for a label. I think it is commendable to find an artist that will not.
JR: Thanks. It’s sort of scary, but at the end of the day I was told when I signed with them originally that I would have full creative control about what was released and apparently that just wasn’t true.

PW: Your songs have appeared in television shows like “Scrubs”, “Brothers and Sisters”, and “Grey’s Anatomy”, as well as movies like The Last Kiss and Catch and Release. In your opinion, how do you feel that the visual media world is helping to shape music and do you think that television is becoming the new radio, thanks to the influence of people like Zach Braff?
JR: Sure, I think for about three years in interviews, I’ve been saying that TV is the new radio. I think it’s the visual. I think there’s a form of energy of creativity in different forms of media. I think that ever since radio has become this sort of enigma of what gets played on it and a lot of people that I hang out with don’t listen to the radio and I don’t really listen to the radio, well certain stations. I listen to NPR, stations that have a backbone and play what they want to play rather than what they think they need to play. I think it’s just a new marketplace for music and songwriters. I think that’s why so many songwriters have moved to Los Angeles from New York, is to play for the music supervisors because it’s almost like playing for program directors now.

PW: In the past, you’ve recorded with Imogen Heap and Schuyler Fisk and it has add a colorful touch to your raspy voice. Who would you like to record with in the future if you were given the chance to record with anyone?
JR: Well, Imogen, we didn’t record together. She remixed one of my songs, so we never actually sang together like in terms of harmony and stuff like that. In terms of collaborations that I’ve done in the past that I’m most proud of are Patty Griffin on this record on “You’ve Got Growing Up to Do”. I would say, I did the song “Sky” on Simple Times with Meiko, she was great.
In the future I guess I would say I would love to collaborate with Feist, Leslie Feist. I’d love to collaborate with Gillian Welch.

PW: You mentioned Meiko who is a staple to the Hotel Cafe Tour. The Hotel Café Tour in my opinion seems to have become a bit of a movement. Kind of like a Brat Pack sort of thing where you guys all work together.
JR: It’s really just a, well if you look in the hip hop world, every one’s just a strength in numbers. Everyone records with each other, writes with each other and promotes each other. It’s just the same sort of thing happening in the singer / songwriter genre.
PW: I would have never thought to make that comparison, but it’s very true the way you just worded it. What is it like to perform so closely with that group of people? I’ve heard Cary Brothers say that it’s like working with your family.
JR: It’s great. Cary and I have been playing that tour since it has started and it’s always a great time. You get to get on a bus with your buddies and collaborate. Every one brings his or her own sound to the shows and get to introduce other buddies to their fans. It’s a family vibe. It’s supposed to be like SNL – the not yet ready for prime time players.
It’s a tour of not quite ready to headline. If we can’t headline, let’s all do it together and you get some special guests every now and then like SNL, we’ll have a guest host or something like that who has been successful and will come back. That’s sort of the model I guess for it.

PW: Smart marketing idea. You’ve recently performed the song “Today” at Ellen Degeneres’ wedding, winning the spot over Justin Timberlake and George Michael. What was that experience like for you?
JR: I went in. I got calls saying that Ellen wanted me to play at her wedding a couple days before the wedding. I was on tour. I said of course I would, I would do it. I flew into LA and went to her house, it was her house in her living room. Just 20 people: her family. I played like six songs and then I had some cake and hung out and it was really fun. Ellen and Portia [de Rossi] are just so cool and nice and I can’t say enough about them.

PW: What’s in the future of Joshua Radin?
JR: I think my philosophy has become you play a show in a certain town so that you can come back and play a show in that town. So that you can make another record. I just want to continue what I’m doing and build a career honestly and organically. If all continues to go the way it is going now, I’ll continue to be the happiest person alive.
I really feel like I fell into this career late in life and I feel extremely fortunate. I’ve had some good breaks and also if you just combine good fortune with being honest you’re going to be successful and if I can continue to pay my bills doing what I love to do then that’s what success is to me. That and being able to order anything on the menu.
PW: Sounds like a good life. I appreciate your time.
JR: Cool man. See ya.

Joshua Radin: website | myspace | Simple Times review

Photo by: Deborah Lopez

Mere weeks after completing his first world tour in fifteen years, singer George Michael was busted in a London public bathroom for drug possession. The police report doesn’t name Michael, but sources confirmed to the British press that he was busted Friday for crack possession after a suspicious bathroom attendant tipped off the cops.

Michael was famously arrested in 1998 by an undercover officer for lewd conduct in a Beverly Hills bathroom, and then in 2006 he plead guilty to driving under the influence of drugs after being found slumped over the wheel of his car and was forbidden to drive for two years. This time, the law is taking it easy on the former Wham front man: Michael was taken to a police station and given the caution for possessing class A and class C drugs.

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said drug laws needed to be “flexible” as “circumstances and context” have to be applied to each case. The Home Office website says possession of class A drugs can result in up to seven years in prison, an unlimited fine or both.

Why is it that pop stars always get special treatment when they should be facing the harshest penalties? They’re public figures who often times have young children looking up to them.

Arguably the Andrew Ridgeley to Ben Gibbard’s better known George Michael in the mid-90s band Pinwheel, Army Navy front man Justin Kennedy has his work cut out for him if he hopes to make a name for himself solo. So far, judging from his new band’s self-titled debut, he sounds content to just play it safe, not so much following as driving parallel to the indie pop road paved by his former colleague’s Death Cab. The result is an amiable, but unremarkable effort that while ripe with potential to explore on future efforts, lacks distinctiveness in and of itself.

by Travis Schneider

Despite being produced by Adam Lasus — whose resume most notably includes albums by the likes of indie faves Yo La Tengo and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!– the album has an acute Britpop feel, evoking memories of groups from early Teenage Fanclub to early XTC to The Libertines. The sound of the former act is particularly prevalent in the opening trio of “Dark as Days,” “My Thin Sides” and “Saints.” All three songs rock with a breezy, Bandwagonesque propulsion that one hopes the rest of the album can deliver just as easily.

However, what follows slips not so much into a consistent groove as a comfortable rut. The songs are far from unappealing. In fact, many of them are catchy and downright enjoyable individually. The problem is that together, they are completely transposable, hence robbing the album of momentum. Perhaps tellingly, the only song that even mildly stands out from the rest of the pack is the song that most closely resembles Kennedy’s former Pinwheel partner: “Unresponsive Ears” has a undeniable jangly charm, laced with what sounds like glockenspiel and blossoming lovely layer after layer of guitar with each passing chorus. It would have sounded right at home on the last Death Cab for Cutie album, but it doesn’t help on a debut album struggling for a unique identity.

Regardless of the album’s innocuous, interchangeable nature, the band displays a seasoned prowess in its execution. Kennedy’s lyrics are appropriate for the sound if a little generic in subject matter, and he often sings like a more nasal Britt Daniel(yet another American indie staple). Diverting but non-descript, these songs are the perfect fodder for teen movie soundtracks, which is fitting given how they’ve been tapped for the upcoming Michael Ceravehicle “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.” That will no doubt give them a modest boost for passing recognition, but they’ll need to push a little harder next time (and there’s enough raw talent on display here to justify a next time) for real longevity.

Army Navy’s debut album is released Oct. 14, 2008 by the Fever Zone.

Tracklisting:
01. Dark As Days
02. Jail Is Fine
03. Saints
04. Silvey Sleds
05. My Thin Sides
06. Unresponsive Ears
07. Slight Of Hand
08. Pocket Boys
09. Ignite
10. Snakes of Hawaii
11. In the Lime
12. Golden Pony

Army Navy: myspace | interview with

Written by: Rob Huff