Jeremy Messersmith Interview!
Sunday June 12th, 9pm at The Loving Touch: Jeremy Messersmith, The Pop Project and The Glossies
Jeremy Messersmith is a Minneapolis, MN, singer songwriter with a knack for writing clever catchy tunes. His latest album The Reluctant Graveyard has great depth and authenticity. Don’t take my word for it though, here’s some critical acclaim:
The Reluctant Graveyard, was one of NPR’s “Top 10 Albums of 2010.”
“The phrase, ‘worthy heir to the power-pop throne long held by Fountains of Wayne’ and the phrase ‘concept album about death’ don’t usually appear in the same sentence, but here we are.” – NPR
“Messersmith’s knack for melody and his skill as a songwriter are evident throughout, from the breezy, hook-laden pop of ‘Lazy Bones’ and ‘Dillinger Eyes’ to the almost Belle & Sebastian-esque vulnerable folk of ‘A Boy, A Girl, A Graveyard.” – Paste
“a singer-songwriter with a keen ear for 1960s chamber pop and folk…which evokes the Beach Boys, the Association, the Turtles, Simon Garfunkel and modern masters like Sufjan Stevens.” – The Wall Street Journal
Check out his single “Violet!” on NPR Song of the Day and the song “Organ Donor” courtesy of AOL Spinner.
How long have you been writing music?
I’ve been writing music for close to ten years now, although, I’d say that for maybe a good like six years it was really shitty [laughs]. I think I’ve been writing pretty good music or at least half way decent music for it took me six years but I finally got it figured out so four years of writing half way decent music.
I hadn’t heard any of your stuff until about a week ago and it sounds like you’ve been writing music for like twenty years because it seems like it comes very natural to you.
Oh good, I’ve worked amazingly hard to make it seem that way [laughs]. The music part ends up coming pretty easy for the most part. The hard part is actually writing songs and sort of pounding those melodies and harmonies and lyrics into something that people want to listen to. That’s sort of the tricky part.
When do most of your ideas come to you?
Actually I’ve got a few good techniques. One is take a shower. That seems to be a place where ideas hit. Going for bike rides seems to be another one. Every once in a while it will be from another song or a movie or maybe a book I read or something . But usually it’s me just doing something really boring like me taking out the garbage. A lot of times I find when my physical body is taken up with some mundane task I just start daydreaming and usually that’s where some of the good songs from.
Who are some artists that you’re listening to a lot right now.
I’ve been listening to the new Radiohead and some old Brian Eno ambient records from 1978 or so. I’ve been listening and studying. I’m also recently listening to Pheonix as a go-to. I just love those guys.
When you’re playing Detroit, the Pop Project is opening for you. Have you heard them at all?
Yeah! My friend Andy is playing with me, he’s my producer he also plays the drums. He’s worked with the Pop Project on stuff and he went to school in Ann Arbor. He showed me their stuff. We were hanging out last week and I asked “do the Pop Project sound like they do on their records?” And he was like “yeah”. And I was like “well that’s just insane” [laughs]. Their records are just perfectly crafted. I’m really excited to see them live.
Do you have a new album in the works?
Yeah. I’m kind of in the song writing phase right now. I did a lot of touring last summer for The Reluctant Graveyard. I took a bit of time off. Now I’m back in the song writing swing of things. I have about half the songs I would need to go into the studio and actually make the record.
Are there any categorizations that you hear your music described as that you’re not that fond of?
[laughs] yeah. The funny thing about that is everytime someone says “oh your song reminds me of…” they’ll name somebody, it always says way more about that person than it really says about me. When I play stuff for my family, they’ll be like “You sound like that guy from Owl City!” and I’ll be like “Oh Ok… that’s interesting.” They mean it as a real compliment so… every once in a while it happens but… I don’t know.
I see you compared to The Beatles a lot. You can’t complain about that too much.
No, I usually only get compared to stuff that I like. With the Beatles there’s a common branch that all pop music springs from. It’s hard to in some way not be derivative of The Beatles.
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If you had the ability to, would you undo the star wars prequels?
Oh yeah, absolutely and I’d probably delete that whole timeline. That includes all the tv shows going on now, although I do have a couple friends who really really like the clone wars a lot, but I can’t bring myself to watch them.
What about the Christmas Special?
[laughs] Alright, we can keep the Christmas special. Oh jeez, just for how terrible it is. Life Day, that’s got to be just the best thing ever
Hopefully they’ll do another christmas special and you’ll get to be on it.
I would just fucking love that. Did you see the George Lucas thing that was on the internet a couple days ago? George Lucas Strikes Back. It’s awesome! Someone made a trailer about a young George Lucas but it’s mixed in with the movie Old Boy. He was kidnapped and it’s not the real George Lucas making sequels and he’s got to bust out and find out who his imposter is and stuff. It’s just great. Well worth 2 minutes of your interview time. [view here]
I’ve also read you’re the most loved musican in mineapolis. Who would be second place?
I don’t know if I can narrow it down to one person. Dessa Darling from the Doomtree rap collective is just massively loved by this town. Also Martin Devaney who goes by the nickname the Unofficial Mayor of St Paul. Everybody knows him and everybody loves him.
Maybe we can get you a crown and you can be king
I’ve gotten nothing but from everybody in town here up until about last week. I got the first ever side snark on a comment and I was more flattered than anything. Does this mean the local backlash has begun? Am I getting famous or something?
Do you think your music has a midwest quality to it, or is that just something that people automatically push on It because you’re from the Midwest?
Hmmm. That’s a good question, I guess I’m not really sure. I think the concept is kind of like a contemplative Midwest singer songwriter. Like you hole up during the winter time while you’re here and make a record. That’s actually partially true. It’s probably more true about me than a lot of Minnesota artists. So I guess I wouldn’t chase at that too much.
That’s all the questions I’ve got, is there anything else you’d like to inform our readers about?
Just, be sure to get there in time to see the Pop Project!
