David Byrne: Trampoline was, to a lot of people,
a big change in direction. A re-invention. Was that
strange for a lot of people who thought of you one
way?
Joe Henry: I guess it was. I didn't think of that
while I was doing it. Every time you make a
record you're trying to re-think what you're doing
somehow and I had just gotten bored with the
colors on my palette, and I just assumed that
everyone does, and everyone expects that you're
looking for something else to do. When I grew up,
everybody I listened to, their records were always
different. I thought that was your job. I didn't
realize that people would notice, to the degree they
did, until it was out.
David Byrne: I thought it had a lot more mood.
Joe Henry: Well, I thought it did, too. And the new
one goes even further in that direction.
David Byrne: The earlier stuff, seems to me, to be
written from the words down. And these seem like
you work on a musical idea or a loop.
Joe Henry: That's exactly right. When I started
making Trampoline, I was determined to learn a
new way to work. Usually because I didn't have
enough money and I didn't know how to work any
other way. Just live in the studio. Get a band,
circle the wagons, and then just kind of have at it.
And it's more like making a documentary film, you
get what you get, problems and all. More like live
theater. That's what it is. And I wanted to think
more like a filmmaker, I wanted to be able to
manipulate things more. And work on it in bits and
pieces and I started by setting up a little studio at
home and exactly that. I came up with a drum loop
first, and thought, "Jeez, I've never written, here's a
rhythm, I've never operated under this umbrella.
Let's do this one." And then make myself write to
that. And, I just learned to work backwards. I think
it's good to be disoriented to a certain degree.
David Byrne: "Ohio Air Show Plane Crash"
sounds like it was written from something that
happened.
Joe Henry: No. First of all, I just thought that it
was a really funny title. I walked around with that
for months. And, I think the idea was just the
beginning. The song starts just before the crash and
I was trying to think, "You know, what happens
before this crash?" I was just trying to place a
really small story about two people and using this
tragedy as a backdrop. Thinking it was funny to set
up this big thing and then not really refer to it. The
real story is a smaller thing that's happening in
front of it.
David Byrne: And that's using something really
specific. Using something that somebody can
picture in their mind. An air show and a crash, you
read about 'em.
Joe Henry: Everybody thought that. I can't tell you
how many people, when I did an interview, asked
me if I had, since the last record, survived or
witnessed a terrible crash.
David Byrne: (laughs) Yes.
Joe Henry: And I'm always startled that people
don't assume that if you're a songwriter that you're
probably a fiction writer.
David Byrne: Yeah, but you're picking out specific
and concrete things and then mixing those in with
more abstract and ambiguous things.
Joe Henry: Yeah. And don't you find if you're
writing and you say "I" people think you're talking
about you?
David Byrne: Yes.
Joe Henry: And I guess I should know that by now,
but I'm always surprised that people really think
that these are just pages of your diary set to music.
David Byrne: And sometimes, of course, I think,
"Well, I should have gotten another singer to do
that."
Joe Henry: Yeah. Yeah.
David Byrne: Because it's not supposed to be from
my point of view.
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