Fresh off the bus from Portland and a night playing the Douglas Fir, we left the great sounding Dr. Dog sound check at the Tractor Tavern to take Jonathan Jameson of Delta Spirit next door to the "rustic" themed bar for a drink and a nice chat. I have to admit I was expecting a long-haired rocker looking fellow (he did have a leather jacket on) but Jameson couldn't have been more down to earth and humble, smiling politely and accepting a drink ("this will be my first and last tonight") as we sat down for an initial "cheers." Jameson apologized for being late and tired explaining they had friends in Portland who kept them busy. He then showed us his iphone photo of his heavy breakfast from that morning at Haines street station which consisted of a biscuit, fried chicken, eggs, cheese, bacon, gravy.
Melophobe: So you guys formed about 3 years ago, is that right?
Jonathan: Yeah.
Melophobe: And you are from San Diego?
Jonathan: Around there. I live near Encinitas. We're kinda spread out in southern Cal. Between there and Long Beach.
Melophobe: You are one of the original founders?
Jonathan: Yeah, four of us started at the same time and then Kelly, he was the last guy to join. he was kinda the producer and then we suckered him into joining the band.
Melophobe: So I was looking you guys up on itunes, have you looked yourself up on itunes?
Jonathan: Right when it came out yeah.
Melophobe: So I noticed in the genre..
Jonathan: Yeah, what is it under?
Melophobe: It says unknown..
Jonathan: That's sweet. I like that.
Melophobe: But then is says in the biography you guys pitch between the indie rock and alt-country.
Jonathan: Weird.
Melophobe: Do you agree with that?
Jonathan: I feel like if anything the alt country thing probably came from the fact that we are on Rounder, but I don't think we really sound that alt country.
I like Nirvana who's alternative and I like Hank Williams who's country, so maybe we are alt country after all. Who knows. I would go more for the unknown.
Melophobe: Is this your first time playing seattle?
Jonathan: No. We've played once with Cold War Kids, once with this band The Colours who broke up... We played sasquatch.
Melophobe: Right. How was that?
Jonathan: It was great. It was the first big festival we've played. It was a really beautiful place to play.
(melophobe agrees)
Melophobe: Did you guys get a chance to see any other bands play?
Jonathan: Honestly the only bands I saw were some Cold War Kids, I saw a little bit of Flaming Lips, I saw the band White Rabbits, I really liked them. Other than that not really...
I was with my girlfriend and we're not huge festival people so we just kinda hung out, its such a gorgeous setting .. the Cold War Kids were staying next door at this winery so we just hung around.
Melophobe: You've toured with Cold War Kids and with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah [CYHSY] - how was that, what were the highlights?
Jonathan: It was about a year ago and it was cool because because we actually went through the east coast with Dr. Dog and then came back a week or two later and did the same thing with CYHSYand played the same places and we had some people come back and see us again. Its cool all the bands we've toured with have been really good people and we like their music so that's a positive thing.
Melophobe: So your name, Delta Spirit.... I understand it hails from, is it Kelly's uncle or your uncle?
Jonathan: Kelly's uncle is on the cover, my great uncle is uncle Red.
Melophobe: And how did you guys choose "Delta Spirit" as opposed to... "Delta Spirit Taxidermy Station of North Central Alabama?"
Jonathan: Yeah.
Melophobe: We were both saying we like the whole name.
Jonathan: Yeah. There are alot of long names these days, so we stuck to the easy version. It sounded alright. We had another name and we couldn't stand it so we changed it last minute to Delta Spirit. Its what it is. There's not a whole lotta meaning behind it.
Melophobe: Do you have southern ties?
Jonathan: Not personally to be honest, but our family heritage is, and I guess its like, American Music is itself most there. We like that stuff.
Melophobe: I came across stuff that talked about soul and gospel ... I don't personally hear alot of 60 soul in your music but I could hear maybe the bluesy soul influences?
Jonathan: I know some of the guys did Sam Cooke "peace in the valley" and we are big sam cooke fans.we like 60's soul and northern soul but it doesn't neccesarily come across huge on the album.
(discretely takes brief phone call)
Melophobe: So, ode to sunshine, how'd you pick that title?
Jonathan: It was a song before it was the album title. Its the last song on the record. If we have a gospel song, that's it I guess. It just has a positve feel. There are some inexplicitly heavy tracks on the record and we werent trying to make like some, weighty record and so there's alot of topics in there that's like, "wow that's happened." So this last one is sort of a release from that. "Hey, its gonna be ok." The feeling of making the record wasnt heavy and dark and such. It was more about, this feels good. We made it in the middle of summer in the mountains. So there was alot of heat and sunshine.
Melophobe: My understanding there was alot of whiskey?
Jonathan: There was alot of whiskey, yes. Actually honestly because of that I don't like whiskey anymore. I can't do it, I had enough. But when I do have it it reminds me of that, which is kinda nice, nostaligic. But it definitely took away my pension for whisky.
Melophobe: I noticed in the lyrics of your song "Children" you make reference to "god's on our side, everything will be alright." which reminded me of the Bob Dylan song "With God On Our Side" and with Bob Dylan he tells it more from a historical, storytelling point whereas the message I got from your lyrics is a little more direct, like this is what's going on, beware, be cogniscent of the fact that there are people who are not good. Am I off base? What's your take?
Jonathan: Its definitely an esoteric song. But from what I can get from it, it actually has three different perspectives, as far as three verses. The first one is saying, "don't trust anyone just because they believe in anything because all you can trust is here or there." The second one says, "god will save you but there are all those bad people who will try to steal you away from god." And the third one is kinda saying, "we don't buy either of those" And the "god is on your side," it kinda almost irks me every time we play it because its meant kinda tongue and cheek, even "god is on our side" is scary just to say. It has no humility, its very dualistic. Its not a righteous statement. But the way its meant is part the story. I get kinda scared people are going to take it [at face value]... if you get back to Abraham Lincoln's great speech at the entrance of a war. His message was we shouldn't ask whether god's on our side but if were on god's side. So that's what's more true to me, but from the story sake that is what made sense.
Melophobe: "People C'mon", would you say that reaches more of your crowd or following, a bit of a catchy tune?
Jonathan: Well, I don't think we originally thought of it that way. Its actually a song that Kelly wrote and he brought it to the band and we loved it so we adapted it to the band. Surprisingly it probably will be our next single but I don't think we thought of it as being a catchy song. We just thought of it as a beautiful song.
Melophobe: So what are your plans for your next album are you planning an EP or a full release?
Jonathan: Definitely full release. We've been writing songs since we stopped making the last record but we havent really had the time to sit down. Another problem we have is we're not really sure how we're going to make the record. The last one we did completely on our own. We had a friend help a bit mix, give a couple pointers. We did one or two live. A few of them in a cabin and then also in some other houses. We want to do it somewhere isolated because we fell we work best when were not distracted. We don't know if we are going to get an engineer or in some sort of studio or going to do it own our own again. So yeah its still tenative for the game. But the energy is there, we wanna make some music.
Melophobe: Along the lines of your recording process, some of the sounds on the album you have like, the trashcan lid or the bottles, were those a by-product of recording at someone's house, or were those intentional?
Jonathan: Alot of those things yeah, happened accidentally and found their place. Like the bottles, one of the places we practice, the bathroom was right next to there and Sean didnt' really have much of a part for what we were doing and it sounds kinda like a song that gets played at the end of the night in a bar or something so he was taking the trash out and we were like, wow it sounds like the song feels. And then we actually tried to re-record the song and it sounded totally fake, so you never know.
Melophone: I found your "Motivation" video online, do you guys spend alot of time in the woods or on a farm with chickens?
Jonathan: Yeah (laughing) that's really old. But not really. Our friend made that video and it was really last minute. We switched from another song to that song and he decided we'd just go out there, [he'd] rent some animals, [his] uncle has a barn and figure out and make it work. It came out pretty good for being last minute and no money. But its not all five of us so in that sense its kind of a different era.
Melophobe You guys covered "Duncan," by Paul Simon?
Jonathan: Yeah.
Melophobe: Do you guys cover any other songs?
Jonathan: We covered this other song that Kelly found on this Northern Soul Rarities cd called "I'm Waiting" by Bill Bush. Its a great one.
Melophobe: I think I heard that one..
Jonathan: Yeah, we did it on Daytrotter. We just did a new Daytrotter session but it was really last minute, we kinda forgot we had it until 2 days before so we had to drive like crazy to get out there. We were all kinda in weird moods and hadn't practiced at all so we decided we all wanted to cover friends songs. So we all picked songs, I don't know that they came out too great but we covered Richard Swift, AA Bondy, We Barbarians and Dawes. But we haven't done any of those live, just recorded.
Melophobe: Does you guys make a setlist? Do you have one for tonight?
Jonathan: Yeah but it usually happens like, 5 or 10 minutes before a show, we realize, "oh we don't have a setlist yet!" so not yet for tonight.
Melophobe: So collectively as a group, who would you say are your two biggest influences, as musicians that somehow permeated into your own style?
Jonathan: I would say Radiohead in a backwards way does, because Kelly and Matt are the guys who most of the recording. All of us are kinda fans, but Kelly's a superbig fan. Somehow I feel like that how an effect on the sounds we go for, it doesnt have so much to do with song writing. And the other one... man I don't know.
Melophobe: What about you personally?
Jonathan: Ok.
Melophobe: You said you are a Nirvana fan....
Jonathan: Haha. I like Nirvana but I won't claim to be a huge Nirvana fan, but I like them. I won't claim them as...
Melophobe: Well you are in Seattle.
Jonathan: Yeah. Um for me personally, maybe its because of the Bass I really love soul music because it feels sincere. So I like that, I like other stuff that is easy listening. I listen to weird things here and there but for the most part I just want to hear a really good song. I like the cheesier side of soul music, I like Van Morrisen. I really... lately, Sean got me into this guy Bon Iver...
(discussion about how we pronounce his name)
Melophobe: Yeah, they play them on KEXP along with your record.
(tangent about the band The National, whom Delta Spirit also likes)
Melophobe: So I have one question to ask you here for the site, since its got a fear theme, what is your biggest fear?
Jonathan: uh, let's see. The most recent fear thing I've encountered in awhile is when you spend alot of time alone, you kind of face yourself. They call it the dark night of the soul. I'm going to say myself. Its kinda weird and creepy answer but its all I can think of right now.
Melophobe: Does someone in the group have a fear of spiders?
Jonathan: Wait, where did you hear about that?
Melophobe: I must have read about it, somewhere it says you can hear someone scream over a spider.
Jonathan: Yeah, I think it was in an early version of that song Parade we did all live, our drummer Brandon something crazy happened. I think it was like he was counting off and like a spider fell on him or something. Its not on the record, we cut it off but I need to go back and listen to that.
Melophobe: The reviews I read of your stuff were pretty favorable.
Jonathan: Cool. I want a bad one. A gross one. Yeah.
Melophobe: I think I got one more question..
Jonathan: Wow there are alot of dead animals in here. I didn't really notice before. Yeah its pretty dark in here.
Melophobe: You can answer this personal perspective or as a group collectively, if there was one band or person you could jam with, dead or alive, who would it be?
Jonathan: hmm, that's a good question. Probably Van Morrison just because I hear he's such a dick. If he actually agreed to jam with me then we'd be at least on somewhat good terms. I'd be into being on good terms with him. And he has this voice that is just insane so it'd be great. I've never seen him live.
we offically ended the interview here but actually we kept talking, so...
Melophobe: Do you guys do acoustic stuff?
Jonathan: We did an acoustic version of Trashcan on Daytrotter, we do radio performances acoustic sometimes, in stores.. Its usually acoustic or semi-acoustic. There's a song we do every once in awhile called Vitaly, maybe we'll do it tonight. Its a story our singer Matt read in the New York times about this airtraffic controller who fell asleep and these planes ended up colliding and several familes, moms and kids died. Its a really elaborate story, this dad got upset and came to the airtraffic controllers house and showed him these pictures and ended up blanking out in rage and killing the guy because the guy shut the door on him, but then didn't remember. And so he got arrested but then somehow he got freed, because of some government thing. And so then he was hailed as a hero in Russia, but he didnt feel like it though, he fells like a failure. Its a heavy song. That one is all acoustic. Its called Vitaly. Its really beautiful. I think you'll like it, its one you gotta listen to.
Melophobe: Your music is interesting because it kinda strikes me initially as bright when you listen, but then you listen to some of the lyrics... I was listening to "Streetwalker" coming here and its like, wow....
Jonathan: Yeah, its pretty gnarly. Yeah its kinda about sex slavery. The new version is a little more dark, the old version was upbeat and poppy. Its kinda a heavy song lyrically.
Melophobe: Well, thanks for meeting us, we should probably let you go.
Jonthan: Thanks to you, you guys got me out of unloading. I appreciate it.
Addendum: After the "interview" we talked a little about specifics of the night, photo pass etc and Jonathan said he would look into putting a friend of mine on the list (I already had tickets) who had just come into town and found out the show was sold out (Jonathan attributed this to Dr. Dog being popular but I notice quite a few fans at the show push up front for Delta Spirit). After leaving the bar he came back into the bar to find us several minutes later to inform us he'd put my friend on the list and got the OK for the photo pass. What a nice guy.
