Jonathan Acuff from Brandon Setter on Vimeo.

Miss the live interview? Watch the full video archive!  

The 'A Word with Sean McDowell from ConversantLife on Vimeo.

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Yo! Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 11th @ 10:30 AM -11:00 AM PST (1:30 PM - 2:00 PM).  I'll be  interviewing Jon Foreman of Switchfoot about his Fast for Darfur. Join the conversation by asking him questions live via our video chat feature. BE THERE CONVERSANT PEEPS! Got to http://www.conversantlife.com/darfur.

 

I met Jon Troast at a house concert a few weeks back and decided his story would be awesome to share with the Conversant community. Check out this video: He even plays a tune of his that hasn't even been recorded yet:

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Fiction Family, the culmination of two of our generation’s most prolific and respected songwriters, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, debuted in January as a masterful collection of tales about murder, adventure, lost love, and war highlighting each contributor’s strengths and personalities while managing to defy perceived expectations. The best news? It’s only the beginning.

There’s a beautiful carelessness to what is now Fiction Family (originally named “The Real SeanJon” with a goal of being sued by Puffy) – a creative endeavor birthed out of rest, friendship, and unabashed innovation. With no immediate deadlines, rules, or formats to follow, Foreman and Watkins decided to embark on a musical journey of the purist, most unadulterated kind.

“We just started writing stuff we wanted to write about,” says Watkins from the porch of his San Diego home. “It was never going to be a record either. There were a lot of conversations that never happened. All that happened was having fun playing music and writing songs.”

“One of the endearing things about this record is that because we were doing it in our bedrooms, we were literally just screwing around,” adds Foreman. “I mixed the whole thing at my folks’ house in a couple of days just to get it done and shop it around to people. Those mixes ended up being the record. The demo became the final thing. I like to think that added a little bit to the charm. “

The result is a perfect union: two notable songwriters strapping each other’s strengths to their own songwriting utility belt, each coming out of the process even more equipped then they were before.

“One of the things I love about bluegrass music and where it’s coming from is the simplicity,” says Jon like an eager new student of the genre. “[Bluegrass] makes every note count. I think that’s one of the things I’ve been trying to learn more and more…trying to say one thing well. I’m captivated by the way melodies intertwine, and many times I end up trying to say too many things melodically. Sean is really good at pressing the mute button. It was a really freeing thing to have him there playing the producer role saying things like ‘yeah, that’s kind of endearing but it’s not needed.’”

Watkins feels equally appreciative: “A lot of times I’d bring [Jon] a verse and chorus of something and he’d say ‘that’s really cool but can we make this part bigger?’ or ‘Can there be a change in the middle that really departs from where you were?’ Those are things I think about now when I write songs. That’s the good part about working with someone. You get to collect pieces of who they are musically. You get to pick and choose what you want to add to your collection of songwriting tools.”


There’s an idea that the farther one departs from the traditional pop format, the less tangible their work becomes to the average listener. Not so with Fiction Family. Wildly inventive and spontaneous, the two recording artists who once enjoyed the luxury of major record labels now stand in victorious defiance against a crumbling conventional music industry. “This year has marked our first year of our independence from Sony,” explains Foreman speaking of Switchfoot’s long time relationship with the label. “It was the chance to let loose some projects that have been bottled up for a long time.”

An outpouring of that pent-up creativity, Fiction Family reflects a strong sense of musical maturity from both its contributors.  It’s the stories and raw emotion embedded into that music, however, that give the project a sense of profound timelessness. “At the end of any given record you’re left with the question of whether you believe it or not,” says Foreman. “Part of what you’re investing in that question is whether or not that singer/songwriter is putting a piece of him on the line. Voices like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan do that. Whether they’re singing their own song or someone else’s, you can hear a piece of them when they’re singing it. It’s a matter of vulnerability. That’s something I try to put into all my songs … which is kind of nerve-racking sometimes.”


Part of that vulnerability means wrestling with the deep spiritual complexities of human nature, familiar territory for both the Switchfoot and Nickel Creek members. On “Closer Than You Think,” a track from their album debut, Watkins muses over the widely held notion of heaven as a distant and out of reach destination, suggesting it may be “right under your feet.”


Watkins explains, “I felt like there are a whole lot of people putting all their eggs into a basket of after-lives while completely overlooking what we’ve been given today. I’ve seen so many people sell this life short of possibilities saying ‘man, someday it’s going to be great, but it’s just going to suck until then’ and that’s not the attitude we’re supposed to have. That isn’t to say the concept of heaven isn’t an amazing thing and shouldn’t be kept as a paramount in our mind, but we’ve also been put on this earth to do something, to live in the here and now.”

Along with focusing on “the here and now” Fiction Family is looking forward to the future. So what’s next for the duo? What once began as two friends jamming over coffee on their days off is now considered by both an adventure too fun to stop.

“We had a blast on this tour with Aaron Redfield playing the drums and Tyler Chester playing the bass,” says Jon. “It felt like a really natural fit. I’d love to make a record as a four piece.”

Watkins agrees, “We’ve been working on some new songs on this last tour and have a list we think would be good for the next record. During the course of this tour we really started feeling like a band so when we record we’ll record it more like that.”


With Nickel Creek on indefinite hiatus and Switchfoot adjusting to life apart from a major label, the continuation of Fiction Family sounds like an excellent way for these two songwriters to experiment, explore, and continue to learn from each other. In the meantime we’ll be anxiously awaiting the results.

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For some people life is best understood through metaphors, through stories from the past or visions of things the world has yet to see. M. Ward seems to communicate best this way. The accomplished auteur-songwriter emits a laid-back passion for creating space, pockets to reflect on truths he believes posses timeless qualities. M. invites his listeners inside his mellow creative mind and asks them to linger while his tranquil acoustic conceptions play warmly in the background as if methodically pulling against the needle of a record player—his newest release, Hold Time, is no exception.


“For me,” Ward says, “I wanted to take the big sounds of the record and make them larger and the subtle sounds subtler to see if I could put them in the same song, the same record, to create a new balance. I learned a lot on making the Post War record and learned even more making this one.”

M. Ward and his suitcase full of Americana licks and tricks travel light with a simple endeavor: to create songs that last. At the core of every serious songwriter is the desire to impart anthems of a timeless quality, works of art that stand on their own and beg the question, “When were these created?” Many of these artists point to the wax libraries they grew up with, vinyl contributions that still communicate powerfully amidst the noise of modern culture.

“I think my biggest inspiration is old records,” affirms M. “What’s ingested is always going to come out in some way. I’ve been lucky to grow up in this big family where there was a lot of music going on.”

M. Ward might be considered a leader in “the timeless campaign” with a body of work that most recently includes the critically acclaimed 50’s soul-pop collaboration with Zooey Deschanel, She & Him (which M. reveals is “currently in the demo stages of Volume 2”) as well as a knack for blending the new with the old.  Ward reflects, “A lot of my favorite records… you’re not sure exactly what time they were made or how old these ideas are and I think that’s a good goal for me.”

His latest installment, Hold Time, merges some of the biggest sounds ever heard from M. alongside some of the subtlest as well, oftentimes juxtaposed against each other within the same song. “The background is just as important as the foreground,” says Ward. “I spend a lot of time creating both elements in the studio.”

Perhaps it’s his deep affection for crafting timeless standards that causes M. to often saturate his songs with biblical themes and motifs that have long since accompanied traditional folk music throughout history.  When Ward posted the lyrics to “Hold Time” on his Myspace blog, a debate between fans ensued as to whether his rich use of spiritual metaphor and story was oppressive or liberating.  

One fan complained, “I love the tunes. But am I the only long-time, every-album M. Ward fan who's finding all the biblical/Christian references in the lyrics on this one to be...oppressive?”  

Another retorted, “Oppressive?! To me biblical themes have always been deeply rooted in American music. They make M. Ward’s songs even more timeless. I love how [he] is not afraid to sing what he feels. Am I the only agnostic every-album fan who finds his lyrics liberating?!”


It’s a viable discussion. Hold Time imparts lyrics like:

He Put His Name in my Chorus like the Dark before the Dawn
So that in my Hour of Weakness: I'd Remember It’s His Song

and

He Shifts in His Sleep and the Earth Begins to Quake
So How Much Difference Could it Possibly Make
To Save Me from sinking over the edge?


Ward joins a list of growing indie personas (My Morning Jacket comes to mind) that seem to enjoy seeping blatant theological themes into their albums while publicly smirking them off leaving them up to interpretation. Tracks off the new album like “To Save Me” and “Fisher of Men” possess strong attributes of the Christian God while the teachings of both Jesus and St. Paul are referenced in “Epistemology” and “For Beginners.”

While his lyrics are far from ambiguous, his commentary on them is. Like his contemporaries, Ward is cleverly quiet when asked to discuss some of his choices. Trying to explain his desire as a lyricist, he offers, “A good song is like a good movie or a book; times when you laugh; times when you cry; shadows in the light. A durable song for me has a long life; it somehow speaks to people’s lives. People’s lives aren’t all happy all the time and they aren’t all bad all the time. They’re both. I think that’s how my life is.”

A brilliant storyteller, thoughtful producer, and laudable guitarist with a warm crooner voice made that much more interesting by the mystical truths that accompany it at times, M. Ward has undoubtedly left  a one-of-a-kind footprint on the music industry. With  seven albums under his belt, not to mention several noteworthy collaborations, M. Ward continues to show off his creativity and ingenuity for throwing sounds and stories from different eras into the atmosphere, somehow stringing them together to deliver songs that are both unique and tangible, nostalgic yet timely.

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Molly Jenson is a singer-songwriter from San Diego who currently bases her operations in Orange County. Her new record, “Maybe Tomorrow,” dropped in stores March 3. Undiscovered was able to sit down with her a week before the album released to talk about her music.

Undiscovered: So your new album’s coming out next week right? I heard it’s actually a re-release of one that you did a few years back.

Molly: Yeah, I put a record out just independently and sold it at shows and to friends a couple years ago in 2005. And then when I signed with Bully!/Pulpit Records/Nettwerk Music Group, they bought the record off me and we changed the artwork and added a duet that Jon Foreman and I wrote.

Undiscovered: So it’s one week before your record releases. Is life any busier than usual for Molly Jenson?

Molly: It’s been crazy. This last month has been the busiest and most stressful month of my life, but it’s fun. I’m growing a lot, I’m learning a lot and I’m getting to do a lot. We shot my music video last week, and I got to go on tour with Fiction Family. We’ve been doing all these promotional things and it’s been really cool. This is the kind of stress I like. It shows me that stuff is getting done and things are moving forward.

Undiscovered: You mentioned touring with Fiction Family. Was that different from anything you’ve done before?

Molly: Absolutely! It was so amazing! It was my first real tour. I’ve played in Europe and I’ve played up the coast of California, but I haven’t left California on tour with my own music, opening for a band who has a good crowd of people. And I did five shows with them and I played solo. I’ve never played solo; I would always have at least one person backing me up because I never felt confident enough to play guitar and so they could cover up my mistakes. But I had the best shows I’ve ever played; we sold out every night.

Undiscovered: Your profile description on Myspace said you never planned on recording an album or ever doing any of this stuff. What happened?

Molly: Well, Greg Laswell and I went to college together at Point Loma in San Diego and we had mutual friends and we were only acquaintances in college. But in 2004 I moved to Orange County and I’d been singing on other people’s projects, but I really was starting to think that I wanted do my own stuff, but was really struggling. So Greg was working on his own stuff and producing other people. He heard that I was starting to write and called and said he’d love to meet with me. So we got together and wrote a song, and we just had this connection that can be really hard to find with other people, and it went on from there.

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Yesterday's Inauguration of President Obama was the most-watched inauguration ceremony ever. I have email from friends all over the world who stayed up into the wee hours to watch a live stream from Washington DC online. At work, we have a standing weekly staff meeting on Tuesdays, but this week everything "IAM" halted at 11 a.m. and we lowered the screen and streamed Hulu's live feed (while listening to a radio broadcast - the stream was very, very delayed! As my friend Alissa twittered, "At one point, Rick Warren was singing the National Anthem and sounded a lot like Aretha Franklin!") Everyone in the world, it seemed, was watching.

On my way in to Manhattan yesterday morning, I was sitting on the Staten Island ferry reading a pre-release of Mako Fujimura's forthcoming book from NavPress, Refractions, (it's excellent, by the way) when I was approached by a band of youths, one of whom was carrying a small video camera. They explained that they were doing a project for school, and asked permission to interview me. I agreed to it, and the interview began.

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