Interview with Singer Songwriter Jeffrey Gaines

Every once in awhile you come across something; a person, a place or anything really, that you can’t believe you never knew existed before. You can’t imagine how everyone on the planet isn’t as crazy about this new thing you discovered, and why not everyone knows of its existence. It’s just THAT good. You shake your head in wonderment at how blind, deaf or completely oblivious the rest of the world is to something or someone so magnificent. You also wonder what rock you have been living under that you missed it before.

That is exactly how I felt after listening to Jeffrey Gaines last night at the Opera House.

Amazing is not even a good enough word to describe the experience…Yes EXPERIENCE of listening to Gaines beautiful lyrics and music. He literally paints a picture with his words set to music. He exposes himself completely in his songs and you feel as if you know his every thought, trial and tribulation. You are watching a man spill his very soul out there exposed for all of the audience to see and hear. And he does it all with a great sense of humor. In between the pouring of his soul, he makes you laugh (he could be a stand up comic). Last night I felt as if we were walked through his albums and his progression and his experiences with his music and his career.

As I watched Jeffrey perform, I couldn’t help but notice on a hot August night that he was wearing his denim jacket. Another audience member and fan must have thought the same thing as I did and shouted out “Take your coat off and stay awhile”. And that’s when this man, whose guts we’d been watching spill out on the stage for the last hour, remarked that his coat was his protection and that he didn’t want to leave himself that vulnerable by removing it as he tied it into a story about his childhood and his Ramones like leather jacket he would wear. I found it poetically ironic that, as exposed as he was, he still had found safety and invulnerability in that jacket. It was just cool.

An artist like Jeffrey is best in an environment like the Opera House because it allows for the intimate interaction between the artist and the audience. Something that is lost in much larger stadiums and something you would never get or experience from a more “mainstream” artist and one that is confined by his fame. Jeffery is not, and that is what makes him and his music even more special. Jeffrey has his fans, both here in Jim Thorpe, and around the world, all of which have probably discovered him and his music the same way I did last night. And all of them, me included, are fans for life. If you missed the show last night you missed an amazing experience.

I had the opportunity to meet with Jeff and ask him about his long career, one that has brought him many different experiences throughout the years, and I got to ask him about songwriting and where it all comes from.

Q: You’ve had a long career and you’ve had a lot of different experiences and worked with many different artists. Out of all of them who was the one that was the most profound for you ,or the one that impacted you the most?

A: Probably this guy named Richard Thompson. He makes an amazing impact on people. You get to work with him and you get to see him and how serious he takes things and how passionate he is about it. Talk about how I’ve had a long career, that guy’s been playing so long and not lost a step as far as, you know, the urgency and he’s got anger in him still which is …like a lot of the people who have been playing through the 70’s and the 80’s 90’s and now, you know, they have the hits to rely on and they just get out there and go through the motions. The concert does it for them, the material just carries them and they are kind of blasé about it. But this guy, he’s the best. Out of all the people I’ve played with this guy, Richard Thompson, probably the wisest, you know.

Q: How old were you when you discovered your musical talent?

A: About 7 . Seven years old. My musical talent really was just… initially my talent was being a mockingbird., you know, singing along in the back of the station wagon to everything that was on 70’s radio and you know not having people say “shut up your messing it up” and “eh, it doesn’t sound bad keep going” . So you know you can do all that stuff with the Elton John songs and the Jackson 5 stuff and all that stuff. I thought yeah.. I can do this and by the time you get in school, you know, you get a little deeper into it with the music programs and you find art teachers and music teachers are taking you under their wing when your delinquent in every other class and you’re like ah there is a reason for this you know. I got into it pretty early.

Q: When did you start writing?

A: I started writing about probably in the 80’s sometime when I was in some cover band. I remember the first time the guys were like “hey we’re getting something to eat we’d been practicing for 5 hours you want to come?” And I was like “no I’m gonna stay. I’ve got a good sound on the guitar” , and I stayed and while not trying to attempt to play anyone else’s songs, working on you know Clash covers or whatever we were trying to attempt, and left to my own devices a song started to emerge as I was just strumming the guitar and instead of singing someone else’s I started singing this sort of….. subconscious thoughts started to come together and make some sense and when they came back I said “I got a song”. It was kind of a surprise. It wasn’t anything I had attempted to do . It’s just what came and occurred.

Q: Organically?

A: yea. And that song is’ called ‘Father Time’ and it’s very interesting. It’s the first thing I ever wrote. And um I guess from that point on when somebody remarks “hey it doesn’t sound local” that was a funny reaction to it but a guy named Vince in the band said that it doesn’t sound local which to us in Harrisburg PA it was a compliment at the time, it sounded like it could be someone else’s from like far, far away you know. So funny, I just kept at it and say about 88’ 89’ I got very serious about it and broke away from all the bands I was in and just started playing solo and then got signed in 90 and became Jeffery Gaines as we know it today.

Q: And out of all the material you’ve ever written which one is your favorite? Which one is the one that hits the deepest?

A: Ah.. The one that hits the deepest. I’ll tell you, that ‘s a song called “Alone” that I recorded. That hits me the deepest. I don’t often get to perform a lot of the material that hits me the deepest. I generally do the material that the audience reacts to and a lot of times what happens is you get a relationship with fans. They kind of come to know you as their inspiration you know? They like turn to your music to inspire them and be uplifting and maybe something that will hit me the most will be completely flat out bleak you know? Dude, this is what I’m really, really thinking when I can’t inspire myself so this is what hits me the deepest. You don’t want to know, they don’t want to know.. they’re like “no no say it ain’t so tell me Jeff give me one of those light at the end of the tunnel songs like you do” . And I’m like sometimes it ain’t man. So this track “Alone” I wrote I was in a hotel in Holland somewhere and I’m just like what am I doing, where am I? And, I picked up the phone just out of habit to call my mom and she had passed away like the beginning of that year, and I was still in the habit of who do I want to talk to? And I picked up the phone out of habit and started dialing and I was like you ass , and it hurt so bad because it was like man it’s just like who am I connecting to? Who would I call? This is it. I was just like man , I don’t speak the language here, I’ve got nobody here with me I’m a solo gig, you know? I was so alone. I wrote this tune and I got to the studio and I put it on the ‘Galore’ record, and I had to record it myself too. Nobody was even there. I didn’t want anyone to play it… it’s called ‘Alone’. I don’t want to drag you guys into it. I‘ll play the drums. I’ll play the base. I’ll play the whole song because it has to be alone. So that was probably one of my favorites that I ever recorded.

Q: Believe it or not I like the material that makes me cry.

A: ooh ooh… then that will just end your day. You say “you know I’m going to play this song and I’ll cancel all appointments because after I hear it I’ll just be done. “ Just you and the bed and you just be laying in the bed.

Q: What has been the most interesting experience you have had on the road in your touring?

A ; There are so many interesting things that have happened. I mean just recently. .. it happens all the time weird things. Misunderstandings are what breed all the weirdest stories. The other day I was playing and I’m looking at the crowd, just scanning the crowd and I see a young lady wearing a Jeffrey Gaines T-shirt . So, I acknowledge her like “wooo look at you”, you know what I mean ? I’m really going “ woo hoo look at someone is wearing my shirt”. But the subtext of it and the thing I don’t know is that I’m having a love connection here because she’s going he’s looking at me and acknowledging me and, you know , and picking me out of this whole bunch of people to pay attention to and that’s the messed up sad tragic part of a performer. You know my ego is that I’m going, wow look at my shirt on someone and she’s going wow he wants to get it on with me. And you know these accidents happen and I’m like ,oh my god, how do you… and then once you’re confronted with it how do you spare someone’s ego and esteem and you know you know I don’t want to completely blow that out of the water, so I’m like “rock on with your bad self, yes it was you”. You know you’re like yipes, but then how do you broach such a subject and, so, you know? There’s things like that that happen so very often and keeps it interesting and tedious simultaneously. Umm there’s so many things. ‘Somewhat slightly dazed’, I named the record in 94’ and hired a road manager . A lot of times people fudge their credentials and write bogus resumes and I come to find out after we have everything loaded up, that my road managers never left Philadelphia. So we’re all raring to go and I’m like dude we got to go and my road manager can’t find the Ben Franklin Bridge. How many times are we looping around Philly? Didn’t we all grow up around here and we can’t get to the interstate? I was like, you know this sets the tone for the first day of the tour. We’re lost in hometown. We re screwed for the summer.

Q: That was probably before GPS was around.

A: Ah. That was before GPS.. yes that’s 94 no one had that. No, we had a 15 seat van and at trailer behind it. This is gonna be some magical mystery tour... stuff like that. Rock and Roll is what it is.

Q: And what do you like about Jim Thorpe when you come here?

A: I like that I am liked. I mean that is the first and foremost thing about any tourist any stranger in town. You go back to the places that treat you kindly. For me, you pull off the Turnpike and here is this whole little echo of the past just sitting here all quaint and tidy and unto itself. So I think I like that it’s a secret in a sense and we’ve got to do more to expose it. I don’t know if that would contaminate that little specialty of it , that its such a nook and a special neat little place . On one hand you do want it infiltrated and people to know about it and on the other hand you want it to remain pristine.

Q: When you perform solo and with a band is it a different experience?\

A: Yea, it is a different experience. I like performing with a band more in a lot of ways I like that the music is fully realized. People don’t need to use as much of their imagination for you to impress upon them what my intentions are. You go out and play a song that on your record is a rock song and when you are doing a solo acoustic, if they are not familiar with it from the album, they don’t know that it has drums and base parts and they are wondering where the pocket is. They don’t know where to clap. But, when you do it with a band it flushes out the whole thing. The only thing that is probably better, the only thing that is better about the acoustic solo or any solo show is that it’s more spontaneous. You don’t have to have a written set list. You don’t have to tell anybody what you’re going to be playing next or anything.

Q: It’s a little more intimate?

A: Yeah.. it’s completely intimate and a little more interactive with the crowd because they become my band mates you know? Mostly it’s about the spontaneity. When you have a band you have a set list written and you know what you’re doing. When you walk out there you know what the middle is you know what the end is. Solo, you see where the crowd takes it. If I could have a band more often I would. It’s just that grown ups need to be paid you know? It’s not like the old days; you can get a band together and it’s like “Yeah I want to see America, I want to have the adventure. Maybe I’ll meet some girls and get some free drinks”. You used to start bands that way. Now everybody is like , “dude I’ve seen it how much are you paying me, how much are we making each month?” I got guys now that need to tell the wife something, they got kids. They got stuff. They got real lives going on they can’t just load up the van and see where we are going to sleep tonight. No, we need hotel rooms we need all this stuff. I can’t promise you guys all this stuff so I guess I’m playing solo. In a sense it’s a default. It was never a decided decision to be a solo act and that I feel bad about, you know. Because there are actually some people who do this solo gig by deliberate choice. It’s always been that the record companies not going to pay for tour support so how are you going to get across America ? Sufficiently. Just me and a guitar.

With that Jeffrey took the stage and immediately that intimacy and that interaction was apparent. I really appreciated hearing him stripped down. Just him, the songs, and that guitar. I look forward to the next time Jeff comes through Jim Thorpe and plays at the Opera House, and I’m going to download all six of his available albums and add him to my Ipod play list.

I’m also grateful to the Opera House for being in my backyard and bringing me such rich musical experiences I might never have had.

You can purchase some of his albums at Itunes or his entire collection at www.JeffreyGaines.com .