A transplant from Scotland to Virginia to New York to Los Angeles, Johnathan Rice is living a sort of musician's dream. Just off a few dates supporting Brit-pop wonder boys Gomez, he took a few minutes to speak with David DeVoe from Hybrid about finishing his debut record for Warner Bros. Records, Trouble Is Real, and how his life has changed over the past little while.

HM: Can we talk about the new record? I hope that some of the songs we heard the other night are going to be on the new record, especially some of the new ones.

JR: Oh yeah. Most of the songs that I was playing will be on the record. They'll be presented a lot differently than the way you heard them, but… There are some spare moments, but for the most part it's a pretty grand sounding record, I guess. There's a lot going on.

HM: How are the songs going to compare to the single that we got to hear late last year?

JR: What you heard was six songs from the recording session… Trouble Is Real was recorded last year in Nebraska, and then I finally finished it a few months ago in California. But about 95% of it was recorded in Nebraska with Mike Mogis. Then Mike Mogis came to California to visit me and we recorded a couple more songs. That's when I knew that I'd completed it. It took quite a long time to realize, and now it's going to be released.

HM: Tell me how it was working with Mike Mogis.

JR: Well, it was pretty great, man. The thing I liked about him before I worked with him was that all the records that he made sounded quite different from each other. All the different bands he worked with, he gave the records a different sound. I wanted to see if he could do that with me. He just seemed to have the right sensitivities and aesthetic. And he's very easy to work with. He's good at collaborating and he's good at enhancing the songs that already exist. He's a wonderful producer and arranger, but he's also an amazing musician. When you get the full version of the album, when you see the amount of instruments the guy played, it's kind of shocking. I mean, 25 to 30 instruments, you know?

HM: I've heard that Mike is very good at inspiring creativity, and pushing the music to its fuller potentials.

JR: He really does. He works by himself most of the time, but the way we set up the studio… I would be working in one room, and he'd be working in another. He works best by himself, you know? And I'd come in every six hours, cause I'd be working on one song in the A room, and he'd be working in the B room, and we'd meet up every few hours… but, for the most part, it was just him twiddling. I really like to record spontaneously, and I don't like to do many takes. I'd just go in there and do what it takes and then leave him to it for a while, and come back later and see what was going on. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. But it was pretty amazing, just because I got to play with some of my favorite musicians out there in Nebraska. I just think that most kids… I'm very fortunate to be on a major label, and get a major label deal, but… I think what often happens to people like myself who end up being on a big label, they end up making their record with some A list producer, and just produce the same homogenous shit, you know? Hopefully, we escaped that.

HM: From what I've heard, I'd say you definitely got away from that.

JR: Well, that's good. That was the total objective.

HM: The music I've heard definitely does not have what I would call a Warner Brothers feel.

JR: Warner Brothers has put out some amazing stuff, and they've been very kind to me, but I'm glad that… basically, I've always expected, and I've always been ready to put up the fight. But they let me do whatever I want… I made this record with Mike last year, but when I started working with him he'd only sold 100,000 records with Bright Eyes, which is a ton of records in the indie world, but not a lot in the major label world. I explained to my label: I know you're going to spend a lot of money on me or whatever, but these are the people I want to make my record with… you can't hear it until it's finished and you can't come into the studio. They were like… Fine. The whole time I was waiting for them to fight me on it, but the never did. I know it's cool to bitch and complain, but I can't at the moment.

HM: I think that's good. I think that definitely paid off, not having people try to step in and assume control over something that they shouldn't have control over. Let's talk about the new songs… Obviously, there's been some changes in your life, moving from coast to coast.

JR: Yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm glad it took so long to realize the record, because there's going to be everything from these really naïve pop songs that I was writing when I was like 19, 20 years old. And there's also going to be these new things that are the result of just relentless touring. I've just been on the road all the fucking time. Part of the reason the record didn't get finished is just because I was on tour all the time, in Europe and the UK. So, I'm glad because the touring gave birth to those songs that make the record more comfortable for me. Because, when you're a recording artist, sometimes by the time your record comes out you've already emotionally moved past some of the material. But I don't feel like that's the case anymore, now that there are some new songs. The song I'm most proud of on the record is called "Behind The Frontline". That's the song that I'm so glad I didn't release the record earlier, because it wouldn't have had that song on it. I see that song as more where I'm going with the music that I want to make. I see Trouble Is Real as… Hopefully it sounds like I'm emerging out of adolescence. Something like that. And I think that there will be material on it that is varied enough that it will confuse some people. Some of the indie rock kids are not gonna know what to do with some of the pop songs. Some of the pop kids aren't going to know what to do with some of the really spare sounding, terribly sad songs. But I'm pleased with it, and very proud to have the musicians that worked on it. I'm very proud to have worked with Mogis and all those kids.

HM: The record is supposed to be released in April, I believe. What are the plans to make the world more aware of yourself and your music.

JR: Well, I have to leave that... to a certain degree, I have to leave that to the powers that be. My only plan is to stay on the road as long as possible. I've been touring with my friend, Farmer Dave, but we've been building our full rock band here in LA. We'll start rehearsing them pretty soon. Hopefully, the next time you see me we'll be able to do all that stuff off the record and then some.

HM: I look forward to that. I really enjoyed seeing you the other night in the intimate acoustic guitar setting as well.

JR: That's still the truest test of your songs, especially in front of an audience like that. They didn't seem like they were used to shorter songs… they seem more like used to these kind of extensive songs, and they were there to be won over. I noticed over the course of the set the crowd getting quieter and quieter, you know? So hopefully next time I'll come and they'll shut up for me.

HM: I wanted to talk a little about the being Scottish thing.

JR: Oh that... the being Scottish thing.

HM: Mostly, just because I saw Damien Rice open for the Frames, and to me Damien Rice is possibly one of the most over-rated songwriters of the last few years. I think he's good, but I think he plays up to things that don't necessarily give him credence in my musical world. So, I think we need to have the trans-island Rice wars… and we'll have Damien Rice versus Johnathan Rice. Irish Versus Scots.

JR: I'm not particularly concerned about that. I don't have his records, I haven't heard that much of him. I think he's a really good singer from what I can tell, and people certainly seem to like him, and he's supposed to be a wonderful live performer. I haven't seen him live, but I think he's playing music for an older crowd than I am. I mean, I'm playing music for anyone who wants to listen, but that guy's a good ten years older than me… so maybe my slogan should be: Stick with me, 'cause I'll live longer.

HM: It's interesting to me that you say you're making music for anyone that will listen. When I listen to your songs, especially lyrically, there's a much more literary sense and depth than I hear from a lot of older performers. Listening to your songs, and hearing them in the acoustic environment like we had the other night, I got a lot more of a Bob Dylan feel, and then by the end of the night, I was kind of like… here's this kid on stage, and he's telling stories and writing songs like Paul Simon.

JR: That's very nice of you to say. That's very flattering.

HM: But by the end of the night, that's how I felt. These couple of newer songs that I've heard, and hearing these other songs outside of the orchestral environment… Now, the stories make more sense to me that way.

JR: I'm very glad to hear you say that. That's the goal of having these new songs on the record… Because I think that if I heard the record without those songs, it would be a lot easier to pin me as a well produced kid, if I was just listening to the record as a fan or a music lover. That there wasn't much substance behind the shadow of all these luscious string arrangements and woozy synths and stuff. Because the folk music, just me and my guitar, that is the closest thing to… Just me and my guitar... All the songs on the record were written in that context, but I just ended up doing different things with them. I'm glad the new songs are on there because people will really be able to see the source of everything. And also, in the past year… you know, I write songs every week, every day, every month… I'm writing a ton of songs. And the only way you get better as a songwriter is to write more songs. That's the only way, is to keep progressing. And I've had a year of writing songs, which has given birth to those songs, and they really round out the record for me. Make it sound more mature, I think.

HM: Other than experiences and the world around you, where do you draw your songwriting from? Because, as I said, a lot of the songs the other night, I realized that there was a very literate sense in a lot of your music… it is very poetic in a lot of senses. The arrangement of words, the use of certain words at certain times. Do you read a lot?

JR: I've always loved to read, you know. I think when I really fell in love with California, I'd never seen California. I'd grown up in the south, in Virginia, and in Scotland… I'd seen many different parts of the world, but I'd never seen California. And really falling in love with California, I started to seek out some of the California writers. I got really into this guy, John Fante. He wrote a lot of books about, I don't know… California desolation and romance. Those books struck me in the heart, and I really loved them, and I think that they put me in a place where I could… I don't know. Sometimes you can read just one paragraph from a book and never read the rest of it and it can change the way that you write. And other times you can read ten books by an author and it won't make any impression on you whatsoever. Most of my inspiration, I don't really know the source. It just comes to you sometimes. It can come to you very early in the morning, late at night, in the middle of the day. That only thing that I do more now than I used to is, when inspiration strikes, when it makes itself apparent, you have to make time for it… you can't just put it off until later. If a song shows itself to me, starts to take shape, I have to leave wherever I'm at and go work on it. Writing songs has truly become the most important thing. Everything else has become secondary, my health and happiness included. And that's the way I like it.

HM: That's a very enviable position to be in.

JR: The only things that I want to do are perform and work on new songs. That's all I've been doing for as far back as I can remember now. That's the only thing I can think about when I get up in the morning, and before I go to sleep… where is the next song going to come from? How can I make it sound different? And the last one, how can I make it better? You have to rake yourself over the coals every day.

HM: Well, I think it's obvious that it is working. I see progression and… from my point of view, and purely on songwriting, I would say that you are one of the more promising, especially young, talents that I have seen in a long time.

JR: That's very kind of you to say. I don't believe it, but it's very nice of you to say.

HM: Well, don't stop working at it.

JR: Well, make sure you get a copy of the record when it's out. I'm very proud of it and I think you should have it in your collection.

HM: One last thing. One final question. What should the world know about Johnathan Rice?

JR: (pause) I believe in Kombucha… Do you know what Kombucha is?

HM: No, I don't.

JR: Kombucha is a Chinese drink that re-affirms my life every day. It's a delicious and fruity drink, and I recommend that everyone drink it. It will make you feel great. It's fucking rockin' man. It's better than coffee. But I believe in Kombucha, that's the only thing I want people to know. That's the only thing that's really got my interest other than songwriting… I really like to go to the store and buy it. I drink two a day, and I haven't had to go to the doctor for anything in like a year…

-David DeVoe

www.johnathanrice.com

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