Trinidad James Explains It All

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

Trinidad James is still wrapping his head around how it feels to be the proud owner of a viral hit. "To be honest with you, man, it's a learning experience," says the flamboyant Atlanta MC, 25. "It's a very fast, big learning experience."

James' "All Gold Everything" has racked up more than 10 million views on YouTube so far. Much of that attention is the result of a memorable drug reference: "Popped a molly, I'm sweating!" he exclaims midway through a verse, punctuating this observation with a quick "woo!" before repeating the line. This pithy phrase inspired a wildly popular online meme last fall, with countless tweets, funny JPEGs and even a YouTube supercut of James saying "popped a molly, I'm sweating/Woo!" for six minutes straight. "Honestly, man, I could not understand why that particular line connected with people," he says. "The reason why I did it is because the first time I tried molly, I got really hot. Shit! Like, it was a real expression. That's how real my music is."

Another key scene in the video features James strolling through the streets of Atlanta with an adorable puppy in one hand. "When we were shooting that scene, my friend that happened to be standing right in front of me had the puppy in his hand," he explains. "I was like, 'Hey, let me see that puppy.'"

James credits four years of experience managing a streetwear boutique for his unique fashion sense. "I'm not scared to wear anything, for the most part – if I feel like I look good in it, I will wear it," he says. "So when I did the video, I thought of the most hyped-up outfit I would want to wear to really represent me, the person, and that's what I came up with: the red slacks rolled up, Versace loafers, that leopard-print shirt from my favorite brand, Joyrich, and my Trinidad flag, repping my country, tied to the front so you know it's real."

James' stage name honors his birthplace of Port of Spain, Trinidad. "I lived a carefree young life, you know?" he says. "We weren't poor. We weren't rich. We were just happy. And then we moved to the States."

His family moved around a few times before settling in Atlanta when he was eight or nine. "You gotta think about it," recalls James. "I'm in second grade, with an accent, in Atlanta, which is the South – it's not even like New York or Miami, which are very cultural. This is Atlanta, where we know Spanish people, black people and that's it. You know? And I had an accent, so kids was giving me all the trouble. Like, me coming from Trinidad, and having to count, I'd be, like, 'One, two, tree.' Everyone was like, 'What is he talking about? Why he is talking about a tree right now?' So I had to deal with that for a long time."

Eventually, the schoolyard mockery helped shape his persona. "My aunties are very smart-mouthed, very snappy," he says. "That helped me to become very witty and get back at people when they started coming at me. People kinda calmed down on the jokes after a while when they figured out, 'Yo, he goes in. He comes back with his jokes.'"

James has only been rapping seriously for about a year, but the success of "All Gold Everything" has already landed him a lucrative deal with Def Jam, which is promoting his current mixtape, Don't Be S.A.F.E. "Dude, it wasn't about the money, honestly," he says of the label contract. "All it was for me was a bigger chance for more people to hear my music so that I get more criticism and more fame."

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Trinidad James Explains It All

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

Trinidad James is still wrapping his head around how it feels to be the proud owner of a viral hit. "To be honest with you, man, it's a learning experience," says the flamboyant Atlanta MC, 25. "It's a very fast, big learning experience."

James' "All Gold Everything" has racked up more than 10 million views on YouTube so far. Much of that attention is the result of a memorable drug reference: "Popped a molly, I'm sweating!" he exclaims midway through a verse, punctuating this observation with a quick "woo!" before repeating the line. This pithy phrase inspired a wildly popular online meme last fall, with countless tweets, funny JPEGs and even a YouTube supercut of James saying "popped a molly, I'm sweating/Woo!" for six minutes straight. "Honestly, man, I could not understand why that particular line connected with people," he says. "The reason why I did it is because the first time I tried molly, I got really hot. Shit! Like, it was a real expression. That's how real my music is."

Another key scene in the video features James strolling through the streets of Atlanta with an adorable puppy in one hand. "When we were shooting that scene, my friend that happened to be standing right in front of me had the puppy in his hand," he explains. "I was like, 'Hey, let me see that puppy.'"

James credits four years of experience managing a streetwear boutique for his unique fashion sense. "I'm not scared to wear anything, for the most part – if I feel like I look good in it, I will wear it," he says. "So when I did the video, I thought of the most hyped-up outfit I would want to wear to really represent me, the person, and that's what I came up with: the red slacks rolled up, Versace loafers, that leopard-print shirt from my favorite brand, Joyrich, and my Trinidad flag, repping my country, tied to the front so you know it's real."

James' stage name honors his birthplace of Port of Spain, Trinidad. "I lived a carefree young life, you know?" he says. "We weren't poor. We weren't rich. We were just happy. And then we moved to the States."

His family moved around a few times before settling in Atlanta when he was eight or nine. "You gotta think about it," recalls James. "I'm in second grade, with an accent, in Atlanta, which is the South – it's not even like New York or Miami, which are very cultural. This is Atlanta, where we know Spanish people, black people and that's it. You know? And I had an accent, so kids was giving me all the trouble. Like, me coming from Trinidad, and having to count, I'd be, like, 'One, two, tree.' Everyone was like, 'What is he talking about? Why he is talking about a tree right now?' So I had to deal with that for a long time."

Eventually, the schoolyard mockery helped shape his persona. "My aunties are very smart-mouthed, very snappy," he says. "That helped me to become very witty and get back at people when they started coming at me. People kinda calmed down on the jokes after a while when they figured out, 'Yo, he goes in. He comes back with his jokes.'"

James has only been rapping seriously for about a year, but the success of "All Gold Everything" has already landed him a lucrative deal with Def Jam, which is promoting his current mixtape, Don't Be S.A.F.E. "Dude, it wasn't about the money, honestly," he says of the label contract. "All it was for me was a bigger chance for more people to hear my music so that I get more criticism and more fame."

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Trinidad James Explains It All

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

Trinidad James is still wrapping his head around how it feels to be the proud owner of a viral hit. "To be honest with you, man, it's a learning experience," says the flamboyant Atlanta MC, 25. "It's a very fast, big learning experience."

James' "All Gold Everything" has racked up more than 10 million views on YouTube so far. Much of that attention is the result of a memorable drug reference: "Popped a molly, I'm sweating!" he exclaims midway through a verse, punctuating this observation with a quick "woo!" before repeating the line. This pithy phrase inspired a wildly popular online meme last fall, with countless tweets, funny JPEGs and even a YouTube supercut of James saying "popped a molly, I'm sweating/Woo!" for six minutes straight. "Honestly, man, I could not understand why that particular line connected with people," he says. "The reason why I did it is because the first time I tried molly, I got really hot. Shit! Like, it was a real expression. That's how real my music is."

Another key scene in the video features James strolling through the streets of Atlanta with an adorable puppy in one hand. "When we were shooting that scene, my friend that happened to be standing right in front of me had the puppy in his hand," he explains. "I was like, 'Hey, let me see that puppy.'"

James credits four years of experience managing a streetwear boutique for his unique fashion sense. "I'm not scared to wear anything, for the most part – if I feel like I look good in it, I will wear it," he says. "So when I did the video, I thought of the most hyped-up outfit I would want to wear to really represent me, the person, and that's what I came up with: the red slacks rolled up, Versace loafers, that leopard-print shirt from my favorite brand, Joyrich, and my Trinidad flag, repping my country, tied to the front so you know it's real."

James' stage name honors his birthplace of Port of Spain, Trinidad. "I lived a carefree young life, you know?" he says. "We weren't poor. We weren't rich. We were just happy. And then we moved to the States."

His family moved around a few times before settling in Atlanta when he was eight or nine. "You gotta think about it," recalls James. "I'm in second grade, with an accent, in Atlanta, which is the South – it's not even like New York or Miami, which are very cultural. This is Atlanta, where we know Spanish people, black people and that's it. You know? And I had an accent, so kids was giving me all the trouble. Like, me coming from Trinidad, and having to count, I'd be, like, 'One, two, tree.' Everyone was like, 'What is he talking about? Why he is talking about a tree right now?' So I had to deal with that for a long time."

Eventually, the schoolyard mockery helped shape his persona. "My aunties are very smart-mouthed, very snappy," he says. "That helped me to become very witty and get back at people when they started coming at me. People kinda calmed down on the jokes after a while when they figured out, 'Yo, he goes in. He comes back with his jokes.'"

James has only been rapping seriously for about a year, but the success of "All Gold Everything" has already landed him a lucrative deal with Def Jam, which is promoting his current mixtape, Don't Be S.A.F.E. "Dude, it wasn't about the money, honestly," he says of the label contract. "All it was for me was a bigger chance for more people to hear my music so that I get more criticism and more fame."

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Trinidad James Can't Maintain 'Gold' Standard in New York

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

It's hard to believe that three months ago Trinidad James held the strange distinction of being a cultural flashpoint, a divisive figure on the level of, say, Chief Keef. Once he dropped the video for "All Gold Everything," and for months after, James wasn't just part of the conversation – his name practically choked out the sun. It could not have been more impossible to visit a record company without getting surveyed your opinion on the guy, his song, his outfit, his teeth, the shopping cart, the puppy in his hands. Was his song more than just one line? Was he an artist or a meme? What else was up his sleeve – a second hit, or a second puppy? Purists bristled at his claim that he'd been rapping for only nine months. More casual fans passed around the "news" that producers of Martin planned to sue James for looking too much like the character Jerome, until it became a trending topic. Blogs churned, hype beasted, and the rapper signed a seven-figure-deal with Def Jam Records.

Yet now, in person, in 2013, Trinidad James seems very run-of-the-mill, just another Atlanta rapper. Maybe it's that too much time has passed – a hard assumption, given that he only just popped out of the toaster. But really, experiencing his live show, as at SOB's for his spot in Hot 97's Who's Next Live series last night, it's hard to remember what we all found so shocking in the first place. He sounds like a less-polished B.o.B. and dresses the way he dresses, which is barely enough to create a conversation, let alone many.

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

At this point in time, Trinidad James' biggest crime is that most of his songs are so derivative of his one song as to mirror and sometimes quote it, which – while something only music writers care about – seems to be part of a larger issue, where his career path has been overtaken by a catchphrase. If he was sweating over the molly, he must be defecating himself thinking about his next move. Just yesterday, the rapper Problem released a song, featuring a verse from Trinidad James. Its name? "My Last Molly Song Ever I Promise." (And yet he can't separate himself from it: whenever enthusiasm seemed to lag at his show last night, he pulled out the line "Popped a molly, I'm sweatin'" as a call-and-response.)

Last night James showed that he has personality oozing out of his pores. He's someone you can't help but smile at, or with, or because of. He's a character, hoarding the quality so many lack; one can see what made Def Jam sign him. He's a one-man pep band, popping his neck like a shampoo bottle top, delivering lines like the Rock or a Baptist pastor on a good Sunday. When it works, it's a revelation: "Females Welcomed" bounced and juked, its hook and enthusiasm undeniable. James ran the stage as if each step were a touchdown dance.

As the show dragged on, though, for the next half-hour, James revealed himself to be a good salesman usually pushing bad product, climbing to the top of a mountain just to get you to come down. During "Givin' No Fucks," he hurried so far ahead of the beat as to practically be on it again, plowing through anyway. As a whole, the concert experience was like watching a spinning top succumb to gravity. It became clear two songs in that people had just showed up wanting to hear the one song.

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

Long after the sheen had worn off, James teased, "Y'all ready for the turn up? Say you ready for the turn up." Some responded, most silently pulled their cameras up, as if the inevitable had finally arrived. And he performed "All Gold Everything," and it was good. But then he performed it again, on top of a table near the Def Jam section, and people started streaming out. A guy stood onstage with a giant Trinidadian flag. People still shouted the "woo" from "All Gold" as they passed through the doors. People still love that "woo."

And then, with a half-empty room sort of watching but mostly leaving, Trinidad Jame provided the night's one surprising moment. He looked down at the ground, away from the crowd still there, and said, "You don't gotta turn up with me. You don't have to, but you did, and I thank you for that. A lot of people don't, and that's fine. I'm gonna treat you like my fans, even if you're not, because a lot of people don't get the chance that I got right now. And I appreciate y'all for giving me a chance." For as much as he is gut and chest, he also seems to have something in his heart and a lot on his shoulders.

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Trinidad James Can't Maintain 'Gold' Standard in New York

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

It's hard to believe that three months ago Trinidad James held the strange distinction of being a cultural flashpoint, a divisive figure on the level of, say, Chief Keef. Once he dropped the video for "All Gold Everything," and for months after, James wasn't just part of the conversation – his name practically choked out the sun. It could not have been more impossible to visit a record company without getting surveyed your opinion on the guy, his song, his outfit, his teeth, the shopping cart, the puppy in his hands. Was his song more than just one line? Was he an artist or a meme? What else was up his sleeve – a second hit, or a second puppy? Purists bristled at his claim that he'd been rapping for only nine months. More casual fans passed around the "news" that producers of Martin planned to sue James for looking too much like the character Jerome, until it became a trending topic. Blogs churned, hype beasted, and the rapper signed a seven-figure-deal with Def Jam Records.

Yet now, in person, in 2013, Trinidad James seems very run-of-the-mill, just another Atlanta rapper. Maybe it's that too much time has passed – a hard assumption, given that he only just popped out of the toaster. But really, experiencing his live show, as at SOB's for his spot in Hot 97's Who's Next Live series last night, it's hard to remember what we all found so shocking in the first place. He sounds like a less-polished B.o.B. and dresses the way he dresses, which is barely enough to create a conversation, let alone many.

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

At this point in time, Trinidad James' biggest crime is that most of his songs are so derivative of his one song as to mirror and sometimes quote it, which – while something only music writers care about – seems to be part of a larger issue, where his career path has been overtaken by a catchphrase. If he was sweating over the molly, he must be defecating himself thinking about his next move. Just yesterday, the rapper Problem released a song, featuring a verse from Trinidad James. Its name? "My Last Molly Song Ever I Promise." (And yet he can't separate himself from it: whenever enthusiasm seemed to lag at his show last night, he pulled out the line "Popped a molly, I'm sweatin'" as a call-and-response.)

Last night James showed that he has personality oozing out of his pores. He's someone you can't help but smile at, or with, or because of. He's a character, hoarding the quality so many lack; one can see what made Def Jam sign him. He's a one-man pep band, popping his neck like a shampoo bottle top, delivering lines like the Rock or a Baptist pastor on a good Sunday. When it works, it's a revelation: "Females Welcomed" bounced and juked, its hook and enthusiasm undeniable. James ran the stage as if each step were a touchdown dance.

As the show dragged on, though, for the next half-hour, James revealed himself to be a good salesman usually pushing bad product, climbing to the top of a mountain just to get you to come down. During "Givin' No Fucks," he hurried so far ahead of the beat as to practically be on it again, plowing through anyway. As a whole, the concert experience was like watching a spinning top succumb to gravity. It became clear two songs in that people had just showed up wanting to hear the one song.

Trinidad James performs at SOB's in New York.Griffin Lotz for RollingStone.com

Long after the sheen had worn off, James teased, "Y'all ready for the turn up? Say you ready for the turn up." Some responded, most silently pulled their cameras up, as if the inevitable had finally arrived. And he performed "All Gold Everything," and it was good. But then he performed it again, on top of a table near the Def Jam section, and people started streaming out. A guy stood onstage with a giant Trinidadian flag. People still shouted the "woo" from "All Gold" as they passed through the doors. People still love that "woo."

And then, with a half-empty room sort of watching but mostly leaving, Trinidad Jame provided the night's one surprising moment. He looked down at the ground, away from the crowd still there, and said, "You don't gotta turn up with me. You don't have to, but you did, and I thank you for that. A lot of people don't, and that's fine. I'm gonna treat you like my fans, even if you're not, because a lot of people don't get the chance that I got right now. And I appreciate y'all for giving me a chance." For as much as he is gut and chest, he also seems to have something in his heart and a lot on his shoulders.

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Q&A: Jim James on His Dark Period, Going Solo and My Morning Jacket's Next Album

"I was going down a dark path," My Morning Jacket singer Jim James says of his personal life in 2008, when he fell offstage in the middle of a show in Iowa. "Too much activity and not listening to myself. I've been really bad and I'm trying to change." The accident forced the band to cancel the rest of their tour, but it ended up a productive time for James. While laid up, he began recording his new solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God, inspired by Lynd Ward's 1929 graphic novel God's Man.

As he sits on a New York rooftop for an hour-long conversation with Rolling Stone, James looks rested and optimistic. He gamely discusses his dark path, the future of his bands Monsters of Folk and My Morning Jacket and his serious issues with the modern music business. "Nine times out of 10, it's a fucking product scientifically engineered to fucking move units," he says of current music. "Nobody gives a shit anymore."

This record is much different from the last My Morning Jacket record. Was it hard to go to a mellower place after Circuital?
Not really; it's such a different thing. Circuital was just so much about us as a band.  We captured every song live, including the main vocal. That is probably my favorite My Morning Jacket record because it's really the essence of us being us. The solo record is just a completely different essence of just me trying to figure out stuff. 

50 Best Albums of 2011: My Morning Jacket, Circuital

The record was inspired by God's Man, a graphic novel from 1929. How did you discover it?
I got it from Gary Burden, who did the artwork for Evil Urges. He just gave it to me as a gift because he thought I would like it. When I opened it, I was just blown away. I felt kind of like the me that lived in 1929 when it came out was probably a big fan of it. It felt like I was seeing it again, you know? But I'd never seen it.

Also, I had fallen offstage and gotten injured and thought maybe for a minute that my life was done here on the earth. And then I fell in love and had this beautiful reawakening and stuff, and that's something that happens in the book and I was kind of getting into the book at the same time this stuff was happening to me, coincidentally. So it took on this heavy thing and I kind of just starting scoring the book. Like, I was just, like, just looking at the book and this music was coming out and evil music was coming out for the bad parts. It all spilled out in this really weird déja vû.

You've talked about going on lots of long walks at home. Is that how you wrote some of this record?
A lot of it just kind of comes from moving. Moving and motion tends to make things pop up. But things pop up for me really at just odd intervals or at random times that aren't really convenient, so I'm a big fan of the voice memo recorder on my phone. That's the only way I can remember things. I won't listen to it for a month later and I'll be, like, "I don't remember doing that at all." If I wouldn't have saved it, it'd be gone. I feel like it's our duty as a songwriter to remember those gifts.

My Morning Jacket has so many different sounds, whether it's "Holding on to Black Metal" to "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)." When you write, when do you know whether a song will be acoustic or eight minutes and heavy with tons of experimentation?
I think that's why I like variety so much. . . In "Holding on to Black Metal," for example, if I was writing that and part of my brain was, like, "I don't know, should I try to make it acoustic?" I would be, like, "Well, I mean, I could." I'll often question a song. If it starts more straight-ahead rock, I'll be like, "Could I make this, like, more danceable?" At least, for me, each song comes with a message. It comes in a distinct enough fashion that I try to honor that fashion and maybe sometime later I'll change it live or something, I'll try to play it different or record a different version of it but I try to let the idea come in and then put my mark on it working on the idea if that makes sense.

Was there less pressure to make these songs big-sounding sounds that might come off really well live?
For this record, I didn't want there to be any pressure at all other than just me liking it, 'cause I didn't have any time rush. I really didn't even tell anybody that I was making it because I just wanted to make it at home, you know? It's not like, "I'm going to New York for a month to make this record! And I gotta fucking make it!"

How long did it take you to make this record?
It was sporadically over the course of two years. Probably a year and a half, two years but that's just kind of whenever I could. If we were between tours for two weeks or something, I'd work on it at home.

How did you write "A New Life?"
Well, that just kind of came out of the beautiful part of God's Man. There's a scene where the main character's chased out of town and he falls off a cliff and is lost and kind of injured and this woman finds him and nurses him back to health and they fall in love. And they have a child together and they have this new life. That had happened to me. I had fallen offstage and gotten injured and gotten super dark and fell in love, and all that was happening at the same time I was loving this book.

It seems like your stage fall was a little more serious than some people thought.
It was horrible. I'm not complaining about it because it was meant to happen to me. In whatever way, I made it happen. I'm not saying it's my fault, but it was meant to happen to me.

Did you just step off in the wrong direction?
Yeah, I was in the front of the stage, and there's usually those rows of subwoofers. Before then, many times, I'd step on to the subwoofers to be closer to the crowd to play guitar. I thought I was stepping on the subwoofer, but I stepped into the air and fell into that pit down in front of the crowd. It was right at the end of a song because I was stepping down and all the lights went out and I just stepped into nothing and fell. It wasn't really that far but it was just so hard. That influenced the darkness for sure. I really identified with that part of the book, too, of the artist's fall, because I felt like I was falling mentally, too, at the time. I felt like I was going down a dark path in life and then it resulted in that physical fall, you know? Both were happening.

What dark path were you going down?
Too much activity and not listening to myself, you know? I knew I should have done other things. I've been really bad and I'm trying to change. You get into these life patterns and you get so sucked in. You almost don't listen to yourself, even when you know you need to change. Your body will be screaming at you, "This is wrong for you!" and you just don't listen. It's this struggle between your heart and your body and when you don't listen, you lose. You fucking fall off the stage.

What did you need to change about yourself?
Everything. Spiritually, physically. There's been a lot of ups and downs but I'm just trying so hard to listen to my heart. I think that's really hard for everybody to do. It's like God or the universe or whatever gave us this gift of a compass. We've all got this compass inside of us that says what we should really do, but we fucking ignore it so much of the time. That's part of growing older and whatever: making mistakes, because that's the only way you can know, to look at your mistakes and say, "Ok, I fucking made this mistake over and over and over again. How do I not make it again?"

Do you ever think about your life if My Morning Jacket hadn't become successful? Would you be able to live with having a regular job?
I think about that a lot, especially when I'm super tired from touring. I went to college for like a year and a half with the intention of doing some kind of art therapy or some kind of teaching of art, because I feel like art is a more free area in school than music is. I feel like music is too mathematic for me. Music school's so hard. It's math. It's fucking math. I just honestly don't know how to quantify it. I just couldn't handle that part of school, music school. I don't think it's wrong, because I feel like some of the most spiritual, brilliant musicians. . . our band is very schooled. And I'm so glad that they [are] 'cause when we do sections with somebody else or when we do sections with strings or horns, I'm like, "Uhh, I want it to sound like it's grey and it's purple and it's up in the clouds," and they're like, "It's a B diminished seventh chord, with an augmented fifth." You know, all that kind of technical talk.

What will your tour for this record be like?
I want to tour for this record and I'm going to bring a band because I want to play the record as it is recorded, with all the instrumentation. I'm sure I'll probably do a couple of songs each night acoustic and stuff like that, but I want this show to be more of a danceable affair. I feel like there's a lot of rhythm in the album, and I really want to celebrate that. I definitely love to play acoustic, too, so there'll be some of that.

When you're in a happier place, are you ever afraid the quality of your writing will decline?
I feel like our generation got sold the biggest fucking crock of bullshit that in order to be an artist, you have to be fucking miserable, especially Kurt Cobain. I loved Nirvana growing up and I still value their music and I feel bad for him for being miserable because I wish he would have had a happy life. But he perpetuated this myth that, in order to be successful, you've got to be shooting heroin, you've got to be fucking a miserable person. And I grew up buying into that and believing that. Even some of our great heroes like Neil Young and Bob Dylan project a lot of darkness and shit. But then you listen to Curtis Mayfield or Stevie Wonder or Bruce Springsteen and you see these brilliant artists projecting hope, [saying] we're in this together.

Did Monsters of Folk influence the new record?
Yeah. Working with those guys influenced me in lots of ways, probably more ways than I can count.

Do you still talk to Conor [Oberst]?
Yeah. Oh yeah. I still talk to those guys all the time. 

Will Monsters of Folk record again?
I hope so. We all want to. Everybody's just always so busy; it was so hard to make the first one happen, but I know everybody wants to.

Maybe I'm botching this, but in part of God's Man, the character compromises his art, and that's when things start to go bad for him. You're in a business where people can trade their integrity for short-term success.
Oh God, you see that all the time. You see it more often than not.  I don't know. It's fucked up.  It's a fucked-up world. The music business is fucked up!  It's so often you see people rewarded for the wrong reasons. You know, you see these people rise out of nowhere with little to no talent that are put together by corporations. That's the thing people don't realize, that all these people that you see rocket out of nowhere to superstardom: occasionally there's someone who's an awesome musician, but nine times out of 10, it's a fucking product and it's scientifically engineered to fucking move units. Or be controversial or be this or that, and people don't notice that but yeah I think most of those people. . . it's sad. I think they're taking the short route and it gets them that massive fame very quickly, but then they're gone.  Nobody gives a shit anymore.

How has My Morning Jacket avoided that?
Well I feel very fortunate to come from a really good family and friends that I feel like they help me keep in check and I want to make them – I want to try and make them proud, you know? I fuck up all the time, but I I don't feel like I've ever sold my soul to the devil and I don't feel like I've ever sucked anybody's dick to get anywhere. I don't feel like I've ever played that game. But I also know the sting of having your music used for something that you didn't want it used for or seeing that like happen. It feels so horrible. 

Do you hope My Morning Jacket become bigger than they are now?
I'm grateful to be successful and I'm grateful that we can make a living and I hope we can maintain our integrity forever. That's really my only dream.  The notion of bigness or smallness, I feel like that comes and goes in such waves that are kind of out of my control. All I can do is try to make records that we believe in and that's what we've always done.  And sometimes we put them out and people are like, "I hate these guys.  They're fucking hacks." And other people are like, "I love these guys." If we can somehow just be true to ourselves and be able to keep making a living and be sane and have love in our lives and love in our hearts for each other, that's all I really want.

Any music you're really into right now?
Yeah. There's this band called Floating Action that is from North Carolina. It's like my life's work to turn people onto this guy, [singer] Seth Kauffman. I feel like he's the most underrated person in music right now and nobody knows about him. And it's weird; it's like nobody will give them the chance that they deserve, cause his shit is deep. He's got an album called Desert Etiquette and then I put out his new record, Fake Blood, on my little label, and I swear to God I'm not just saying this because I put out the record: it's transcendent stuff that if nobody fucking catches onto it now, 20 years from now, somebody's going to fucking find it and they're going to be like, "Why didn't anybody fucking care?" It's that deep. 

Have you been working on Jacket songs?
It's going awesome. I actually just kind of finished up this whole process of getting this record done and it's like this new wave of voice memos coming for the Jacket record that I'm just now starting to get super excited about it. 

What's it going to sound like?
You know, I don't want to say, cause I got like this new vision for it that I think is going to be super fun, but I don't know if it's going to work yet.  So…

Want to elaborate?
No. Because I don't know if it's gonna work. We'll see.

Something new that hasn't been done before.
Well I don't know if I'll say that, but it'll be cool.

Was there a reason you switched to playing solo as Jim James instead of Yim Yames?
Yeah. I talked about it with friends and I thought Yim Yames was hilarious, but a lot of people just didn't understand and I just got so many questions about it.  And I thought people were talking about that too much, more than the music or whatever. After talking it over with some friends I thought, "I'm just gonna go back to Jim James, cause I'm not trying to, like, annoy people."  I just thought it was funny. But sometimes I'm wrong.

You're a big Neil Young fan. Are you into his current work?
The last Neil Young record I really enjoyed was Prairie Wind.  I thought that was a fucking beautiful record. I like everything that Neil does. Neil's a big hero of mine, but I really came to this realization: I saw Springsteen in Louisville, and I've never been giant Springsteen fan.  I only liked things here or there and I wasn't like a giant fan. I saw him in Louisville and he was fucking phenomenal! It was like seeing the sun shine for the first time or something. It was like he was so positive and it felt like every motherfucker in that place was his best friend. You know he touched everybody. He was crowd surfing. He was fucking running around and shit. When you see Neil and Bob, they're, like, all pissed and you feel like they don't give a fuck if you're there or not. I'm so sick of that, and seeing Bruce I was like, "Fucking-a, man!  Thank you! I paid a lot of money to be at this fucking show and you care I'm here." It was just, like, such a revelation.

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Q&A: Jim James on His Dark Period, Going Solo and My Morning Jacket's Next Album

"I was going down a dark path," My Morning Jacket singer Jim James says of his personal life in 2008, when he fell offstage in the middle of a show in Iowa. "Too much activity and not listening to myself. I've been really bad and I'm trying to change." The accident forced the band to cancel the rest of their tour, but it ended up a productive time for James. While laid up, he began recording his new solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God, inspired by Lynd Ward's 1929 graphic novel God's Man.

As he sits on a New York rooftop for an hour-long conversation with Rolling Stone, James looks rested and optimistic. He gamely discusses his dark path, the future of his bands Monsters of Folk and My Morning Jacket and his serious issues with the modern music business. "Nine times out of 10, it's a fucking product scientifically engineered to fucking move units," he says of current music. "Nobody gives a shit anymore."

This record is much different from the last My Morning Jacket record. Was it hard to go to a mellower place after Circuital?
Not really; it's such a different thing. Circuital was just so much about us as a band.  We captured every song live, including the main vocal. That is probably my favorite My Morning Jacket record because it's really the essence of us being us. The solo record is just a completely different essence of just me trying to figure out stuff. 

50 Best Albums of 2011: My Morning Jacket, Circuital

The record was inspired by God's Man, a graphic novel from 1929. How did you discover it?
I got it from Gary Burden, who did the artwork for Evil Urges. He just gave it to me as a gift because he thought I would like it. When I opened it, I was just blown away. I felt kind of like the me that lived in 1929 when it came out was probably a big fan of it. It felt like I was seeing it again, you know? But I'd never seen it.

Also, I had fallen offstage and gotten injured and thought maybe for a minute that my life was done here on the earth. And then I fell in love and had this beautiful reawakening and stuff, and that's something that happens in the book and I was kind of getting into the book at the same time this stuff was happening to me, coincidentally. So it took on this heavy thing and I kind of just starting scoring the book. Like, I was just, like, just looking at the book and this music was coming out and evil music was coming out for the bad parts. It all spilled out in this really weird déja vû.

You've talked about going on lots of long walks at home. Is that how you wrote some of this record?
A lot of it just kind of comes from moving. Moving and motion tends to make things pop up. But things pop up for me really at just odd intervals or at random times that aren't really convenient, so I'm a big fan of the voice memo recorder on my phone. That's the only way I can remember things. I won't listen to it for a month later and I'll be, like, "I don't remember doing that at all." If I wouldn't have saved it, it'd be gone. I feel like it's our duty as a songwriter to remember those gifts.

My Morning Jacket has so many different sounds, whether it's "Holding on to Black Metal" to "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)." When you write, when do you know whether a song will be acoustic or eight minutes and heavy with tons of experimentation?
I think that's why I like variety so much. . . In "Holding on to Black Metal," for example, if I was writing that and part of my brain was, like, "I don't know, should I try to make it acoustic?" I would be, like, "Well, I mean, I could." I'll often question a song. If it starts more straight-ahead rock, I'll be like, "Could I make this, like, more danceable?" At least, for me, each song comes with a message. It comes in a distinct enough fashion that I try to honor that fashion and maybe sometime later I'll change it live or something, I'll try to play it different or record a different version of it but I try to let the idea come in and then put my mark on it working on the idea if that makes sense.

Was there less pressure to make these songs big-sounding sounds that might come off really well live?
For this record, I didn't want there to be any pressure at all other than just me liking it, 'cause I didn't have any time rush. I really didn't even tell anybody that I was making it because I just wanted to make it at home, you know? It's not like, "I'm going to New York for a month to make this record! And I gotta fucking make it!"

How long did it take you to make this record?
It was sporadically over the course of two years. Probably a year and a half, two years but that's just kind of whenever I could. If we were between tours for two weeks or something, I'd work on it at home.

How did you write "A New Life?"
Well, that just kind of came out of the beautiful part of God's Man. There's a scene where the main character's chased out of town and he falls off a cliff and is lost and kind of injured and this woman finds him and nurses him back to health and they fall in love. And they have a child together and they have this new life. That had happened to me. I had fallen offstage and gotten injured and gotten super dark and fell in love, and all that was happening at the same time I was loving this book.

It seems like your stage fall was a little more serious than some people thought.
It was horrible. I'm not complaining about it because it was meant to happen to me. In whatever way, I made it happen. I'm not saying it's my fault, but it was meant to happen to me.

Did you just step off in the wrong direction?
Yeah, I was in the front of the stage, and there's usually those rows of subwoofers. Before then, many times, I'd step on to the subwoofers to be closer to the crowd to play guitar. I thought I was stepping on the subwoofer, but I stepped into the air and fell into that pit down in front of the crowd. It was right at the end of a song because I was stepping down and all the lights went out and I just stepped into nothing and fell. It wasn't really that far but it was just so hard. That influenced the darkness for sure. I really identified with that part of the book, too, of the artist's fall, because I felt like I was falling mentally, too, at the time. I felt like I was going down a dark path in life and then it resulted in that physical fall, you know? Both were happening.

What dark path were you going down?
Too much activity and not listening to myself, you know? I knew I should have done other things. I've been really bad and I'm trying to change. You get into these life patterns and you get so sucked in. You almost don't listen to yourself, even when you know you need to change. Your body will be screaming at you, "This is wrong for you!" and you just don't listen. It's this struggle between your heart and your body and when you don't listen, you lose. You fucking fall off the stage.

What did you need to change about yourself?
Everything. Spiritually, physically. There's been a lot of ups and downs but I'm just trying so hard to listen to my heart. I think that's really hard for everybody to do. It's like God or the universe or whatever gave us this gift of a compass. We've all got this compass inside of us that says what we should really do, but we fucking ignore it so much of the time. That's part of growing older and whatever: making mistakes, because that's the only way you can know, to look at your mistakes and say, "Ok, I fucking made this mistake over and over and over again. How do I not make it again?"

Do you ever think about your life if My Morning Jacket hadn't become successful? Would you be able to live with having a regular job?
I think about that a lot, especially when I'm super tired from touring. I went to college for like a year and a half with the intention of doing some kind of art therapy or some kind of teaching of art, because I feel like art is a more free area in school than music is. I feel like music is too mathematic for me. Music school's so hard. It's math. It's fucking math. I just honestly don't know how to quantify it. I just couldn't handle that part of school, music school. I don't think it's wrong, because I feel like some of the most spiritual, brilliant musicians. . . our band is very schooled. And I'm so glad that they [are] 'cause when we do sections with somebody else or when we do sections with strings or horns, I'm like, "Uhh, I want it to sound like it's grey and it's purple and it's up in the clouds," and they're like, "It's a B diminished seventh chord, with an augmented fifth." You know, all that kind of technical talk.

What will your tour for this record be like?
I want to tour for this record and I'm going to bring a band because I want to play the record as it is recorded, with all the instrumentation. I'm sure I'll probably do a couple of songs each night acoustic and stuff like that, but I want this show to be more of a danceable affair. I feel like there's a lot of rhythm in the album, and I really want to celebrate that. I definitely love to play acoustic, too, so there'll be some of that.

When you're in a happier place, are you ever afraid the quality of your writing will decline?
I feel like our generation got sold the biggest fucking crock of bullshit that in order to be an artist, you have to be fucking miserable, especially Kurt Cobain. I loved Nirvana growing up and I still value their music and I feel bad for him for being miserable because I wish he would have had a happy life. But he perpetuated this myth that, in order to be successful, you've got to be shooting heroin, you've got to be fucking a miserable person. And I grew up buying into that and believing that. Even some of our great heroes like Neil Young and Bob Dylan project a lot of darkness and shit. But then you listen to Curtis Mayfield or Stevie Wonder or Bruce Springsteen and you see these brilliant artists projecting hope, [saying] we're in this together.

Did Monsters of Folk influence the new record?
Yeah. Working with those guys influenced me in lots of ways, probably more ways than I can count.

Do you still talk to Conor [Oberst]?
Yeah. Oh yeah. I still talk to those guys all the time. 

Will Monsters of Folk record again?
I hope so. We all want to. Everybody's just always so busy; it was so hard to make the first one happen, but I know everybody wants to.

Maybe I'm botching this, but in part of God's Man, the character compromises his art, and that's when things start to go bad for him. You're in a business where people can trade their integrity for short-term success.
Oh God, you see that all the time. You see it more often than not.  I don't know. It's fucked up.  It's a fucked-up world. The music business is fucked up!  It's so often you see people rewarded for the wrong reasons. You know, you see these people rise out of nowhere with little to no talent that are put together by corporations. That's the thing people don't realize, that all these people that you see rocket out of nowhere to superstardom: occasionally there's someone who's an awesome musician, but nine times out of 10, it's a fucking product and it's scientifically engineered to fucking move units. Or be controversial or be this or that, and people don't notice that but yeah I think most of those people. . . it's sad. I think they're taking the short route and it gets them that massive fame very quickly, but then they're gone.  Nobody gives a shit anymore.

How has My Morning Jacket avoided that?
Well I feel very fortunate to come from a really good family and friends that I feel like they help me keep in check and I want to make them – I want to try and make them proud, you know? I fuck up all the time, but I I don't feel like I've ever sold my soul to the devil and I don't feel like I've ever sucked anybody's dick to get anywhere. I don't feel like I've ever played that game. But I also know the sting of having your music used for something that you didn't want it used for or seeing that like happen. It feels so horrible. 

Do you hope My Morning Jacket become bigger than they are now?
I'm grateful to be successful and I'm grateful that we can make a living and I hope we can maintain our integrity forever. That's really my only dream.  The notion of bigness or smallness, I feel like that comes and goes in such waves that are kind of out of my control. All I can do is try to make records that we believe in and that's what we've always done.  And sometimes we put them out and people are like, "I hate these guys.  They're fucking hacks." And other people are like, "I love these guys." If we can somehow just be true to ourselves and be able to keep making a living and be sane and have love in our lives and love in our hearts for each other, that's all I really want.

Any music you're really into right now?
Yeah. There's this band called Floating Action that is from North Carolina. It's like my life's work to turn people onto this guy, [singer] Seth Kauffman. I feel like he's the most underrated person in music right now and nobody knows about him. And it's weird; it's like nobody will give them the chance that they deserve, cause his shit is deep. He's got an album called Desert Etiquette and then I put out his new record, Fake Blood, on my little label, and I swear to God I'm not just saying this because I put out the record: it's transcendent stuff that if nobody fucking catches onto it now, 20 years from now, somebody's going to fucking find it and they're going to be like, "Why didn't anybody fucking care?" It's that deep. 

Have you been working on Jacket songs?
It's going awesome. I actually just kind of finished up this whole process of getting this record done and it's like this new wave of voice memos coming for the Jacket record that I'm just now starting to get super excited about it. 

What's it going to sound like?
You know, I don't want to say, cause I got like this new vision for it that I think is going to be super fun, but I don't know if it's going to work yet.  So…

Want to elaborate?
No. Because I don't know if it's gonna work. We'll see.

Something new that hasn't been done before.
Well I don't know if I'll say that, but it'll be cool.

Was there a reason you switched to playing solo as Jim James instead of Yim Yames?
Yeah. I talked about it with friends and I thought Yim Yames was hilarious, but a lot of people just didn't understand and I just got so many questions about it.  And I thought people were talking about that too much, more than the music or whatever. After talking it over with some friends I thought, "I'm just gonna go back to Jim James, cause I'm not trying to, like, annoy people."  I just thought it was funny. But sometimes I'm wrong.

You're a big Neil Young fan. Are you into his current work?
The last Neil Young record I really enjoyed was Prairie Wind.  I thought that was a fucking beautiful record. I like everything that Neil does. Neil's a big hero of mine, but I really came to this realization: I saw Springsteen in Louisville, and I've never been giant Springsteen fan.  I only liked things here or there and I wasn't like a giant fan. I saw him in Louisville and he was fucking phenomenal! It was like seeing the sun shine for the first time or something. It was like he was so positive and it felt like every motherfucker in that place was his best friend. You know he touched everybody. He was crowd surfing. He was fucking running around and shit. When you see Neil and Bob, they're, like, all pissed and you feel like they don't give a fuck if you're there or not. I'm so sick of that, and seeing Bruce I was like, "Fucking-a, man!  Thank you! I paid a lot of money to be at this fucking show and you care I'm here." It was just, like, such a revelation.

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Oscars to Feature James Bond Tribute

Greg Williams/Eon Productions via Getty Images

Though the Oscars have typically overlooked MI6's finest agent, this year's Academy Awards ceremony will feature a James Bond tribute, Deadline reports. Last year's Skyfall has become the first Bond film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide, and the film marked 50 years of James Bond movies, starting with 1962's Dr. No.

Travers: James Bond's Best and Worst

The Academy's history of ignoring Bond dates back nearly as far. Through 23 films (24 including Sean Connery's comeback in 1983's "unofficial" Never Say Never Again), the series has only won two awards: 1964's Goldfinger and 1965's Thunderball both picked up wins for Best Effects. Still, Skyfall's Oscar stock may have gotten a serious boost from its recent Producers Guild of America nomination for Best Picture.

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R.E.M., James Franco Trudge Through 'Blue' L.A.

R.E.M., James Franco Trudge Through 'Blue' L.A.Lindsay Lohan stars in hazy video for 'Collapse Into Now' cut $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); });

Last year, James Franco linked up with R.E.M.'s Collapse Into Now Film Project to direct two music videos for "That Someone Is You" and "Blue," from the band's last album, Collapse Into Now. Until yesterday, the clips were lost in the ether, but the video for "Blue," which features Lindsay Lohan, has surfaced. Cameras trudge through hazy Los Angeles in nighttime scenes, blurry parties and Lohan photoshoots, while vocals from Michael Stipe and Patti Smith swirl around the grainy images. The City of Angels may look beautiful, but she's also strangely unsettling.

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R.E.M., James Franco Trudge Through 'Blue' L.A.

R.E.M., James Franco Trudge Through 'Blue' L.A.Lindsay Lohan stars in hazy video for 'Collapse Into Now' cut $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); });

Last year, James Franco linked up with R.E.M.'s Collapse Into Now Film Project to direct two music videos for "That Someone Is You" and "Blue," from the band's last album, Collapse Into Now. Until yesterday, the clips were lost in the ether, but the video for "Blue," which features Lindsay Lohan, has surfaced. Cameras trudge through hazy Los Angeles in nighttime scenes, blurry parties and Lohan photoshoots, while vocals from Michael Stipe and Patti Smith swirl around the grainy images. The City of Angels may look beautiful, but she's also strangely unsettling.

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James Murphy Working on Film With Ron Howard

Rachel Murray/Getty Images For Canon

James Murphy, frontman of the now-defunct LCD Soundsystem, recently told Rolling Stone about his directorial debut, a short film that he will make with oversight from Ron Howard. "I don't know what I'm doing, but that's what I'm excited about," he said. The film, which Murphy will start working on this fall, is part of a series of shorts that will be inspired by the winning photography submissions in a contest sponsored by Canon.

Howard will serve as a mentor to Murphy throughout the filmmaking process. "Now I'll be able to call Ron Howard, which is super weird," Murphy said. "This is the beauty of having been in a band that did well enough, I guess. You have access to something as crazy as this."

Murphy has been on an exploratory bent ever since the planned breakup of his band, dipping his toes in the pools of film, literature, even cuisine. "I'm in this absurdly privileged spot by being in a band but not so famous that it makes me feel weird," he said. "It's amazing. I love to complain because it's part of my nature, but right now it's amazing."

LCD Soundsystem may be "kaput," as he puts it, but Murphy continues to make music through other avenues. His current situation – "for all intents and purposes, I quit my job" – has afforded him the opportunity to try new things musically. "I'm not going to curl up and die. I'm doing things that I would never have time to do, like go work on a couple of songs with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs," he said.

At some point, this period of exploration may come to an end, but for now, Murphy is happy to continue experimenting. He said, "After those 10 years with the band, I wanted to go back to that state of trying things and just seeing what happens. It's exciting."

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Sting, Elton John and James Taylor Rock Rainforest Fund Concert

Elton John, Meryl Streep, Sting and James Taylor perform at the Concert for the Rainforest Fund in New York.

When she and Sting first visited South America's Amazon rainforest in 1988, Trudie Styler remembers flying into thick smoke from a fire raging below. "It was like seeing paradise and hell at the same time," she told a packed Carnegie Hall at last night's Revlon Concert for the Rainforest Fund.

The evening's two-hour "Songs from the Silver Screen" event featured performances from Sir Elton John, James Taylor, Jennifer Hudson, Bruno Mars and more. Styler, who co-founded the Rainforest Fund to protect land and human rights for the indigenous there, singled out Chevron as the worst violator in Ecuador, where a court fined the oil giant $18 billion in February.

"I liked that Trudie named names," Tom Hanks – who was in the audience along with Aretha Franklin and Clive Davis – told Rolling Stone after the event. "It's good that she got there and told it like it is."

Backed by the 40-piece St. Luke's Orchestra, the show opened on a lighter note in the familiar Land of Oz, with Meryl Streep, Sting, Taylor and John trading verses of "If I Only Had a Brain" and sporting proper attire: Streep channeled Dorothy, while Sting donned a Tin Man hat and John wore furry lion "paws," red sequins and ruby slippers. John later joined Mars for a standout duet of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody," and Jennifer Hudson's sizzling gospel take on the Band's "The Weight" proved the night's heaviest hit.

President Bill Clinton briefly took the stage to remind the audience of the dark counterpart to the night's fun – the world's rainforests throughout Africa, Asia and the Americas, in need of $4 million. "You have more in common with those isolated native tribes and those people who know how to care for their habitat than you can possibly imagine," he said.

The concert exposed many in attendance to the devastation they've never seen firsthand. "I was inspired to go and try to write something," said singer Amy Grant, whose husband, Vince Gill, performed among the night's lineup. Taylor, who has performed in Brazil, said he has yet to visit the Amazon.

"It's just a reminder of what a dire and pressing problem it is. It's really the main thing facing mankind today, is whether or not we can live on this planet and not damage it too terribly," Taylor told Rolling Stone at a gala following the show. The singer-songwriter also confirmed that he's "about half-done" with his first album of original music since his 2002 LP, October Road, while John said he expects to release his latest, The Diving Board, next year.

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Sting, Elton John and James Taylor Rock Rainforest Fund Concert

Elton John, Meryl Streep, Sting and James Taylor perform at the Concert for the Rainforest Fund in New York.

When she and Sting first visited South America's Amazon rainforest in 1988, Trudie Styler remembers flying into thick smoke from a fire raging below. "It was like seeing paradise and hell at the same time," she told a packed Carnegie Hall at last night's Revlon Concert for the Rainforest Fund.

The evening's two-hour "Songs from the Silver Screen" event featured performances from Sir Elton John, James Taylor, Jennifer Hudson, Bruno Mars and more. Styler, who co-founded the Rainforest Fund to protect land and human rights for the indigenous there, singled out Chevron as the worst violator in Ecuador, where a court fined the oil giant $18 billion in February.

"I liked that Trudie named names," Tom Hanks – who was in the audience along with Aretha Franklin and Clive Davis – told Rolling Stone after the event. "It's good that she got there and told it like it is."

Backed by the 40-piece St. Luke's Orchestra, the show opened on a lighter note in the familiar Land of Oz, with Meryl Streep, Sting, Taylor and John trading verses of "If I Only Had a Brain" and sporting proper attire: Streep channeled Dorothy, while Sting donned a Tin Man hat and John wore furry lion "paws," red sequins and ruby slippers. John later joined Mars for a standout duet of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody," and Jennifer Hudson's sizzling gospel take on the Band's "The Weight" proved the night's heaviest hit.

President Bill Clinton briefly took the stage to remind the audience of the dark counterpart to the night's fun – the world's rainforests throughout Africa, Asia and the Americas, in need of $4 million. "You have more in common with those isolated native tribes and those people who know how to care for their habitat than you can possibly imagine," he said.

The concert exposed many in attendance to the devastation they've never seen firsthand. "I was inspired to go and try to write something," said singer Amy Grant, whose husband, Vince Gill, performed among the night's lineup. Taylor, who has performed in Brazil, said he has yet to visit the Amazon.

"It's just a reminder of what a dire and pressing problem it is. It's really the main thing facing mankind today, is whether or not we can live on this planet and not damage it too terribly," Taylor told Rolling Stone at a gala following the show. The singer-songwriter also confirmed that he's "about half-done" with his first album of original music since his 2002 LP, October Road, while John said he expects to release his latest, The Diving Board, next year.

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James McCartney: 'I'm Open to Beatles: The Next Generation'

James McCartney attends The MusiCares Person Of The Year Gala Honoring Paul McCartney at Los Angeles Convention Center.

Paul McCartney's son James has told the BBC that he is interested in teaming up with the sons of his father's former bandmates to form The Beatles: The Next Generation. "I don't think it's something that Zak [Starkey] wants to do," says McCartney. "Maybe Jason [Starkey] would want to do it. I'd be up for it. Sean [Lennon] seemed to be into it, Dhani [Harrison] seemed to be into it. I'd be happy to do it."

McCartney, 34, is furthering his solo career by performing soon at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, the old stomping grounds of his father's band. The rocker says he chose to play there because he wants to "just to embrace the Beatles legacy rather than running away from it."

McCartney has collaborated with his father in the past. Paul served as producer on his son's two EPs, and the younger McCartney played guitar on the elder's albums Flaming Pie and Driving Rain.

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James McCartney: 'I'm Open to Beatles: The Next Generation'

James McCartney attends The MusiCares Person Of The Year Gala Honoring Paul McCartney at Los Angeles Convention Center.

Paul McCartney's son James has told the BBC that he is interested in teaming up with the sons of his father's former bandmates to form The Beatles: The Next Generation. "I don't think it's something that Zak [Starkey] wants to do," says McCartney. "Maybe Jason [Starkey] would want to do it. I'd be up for it. Sean [Lennon] seemed to be into it, Dhani [Harrison] seemed to be into it. I'd be happy to do it."

McCartney, 34, is furthering his solo career by performing soon at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, the old stomping grounds of his father's band. The rocker says he chose to play there because he wants to "just to embrace the Beatles legacy rather than running away from it."

McCartney has collaborated with his father in the past. Paul served as producer on his son's two EPs, and the younger McCartney played guitar on the elder's albums Flaming Pie and Driving Rain.

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Creator's Project Brings James Murphy, Karen O to San Francisco

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform during The Creators Project in San Francisco.

When the Creators Project, Vice and Intel’s showcase of art, music and film, touched down on the windy piers of San Francisco’s Fort Mason this weekend, the collective reaction could best be described as a cheery, "What took you so long?" San Francisco needs more cultural events of this size, and the weekend’s crowd was eager to get that point across.

The three-year-old Creators Project, as a concept, benefits from an elevator pitch, which San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee was happy to provide during a brief speech Saturday: "Art, music and technology!" (This got some eyerolls.) Typically housed indoors, the Creators Project is something like going to a huge museum with the goal of seeing every exhibit on show. Unlike bigger festivals like South By Southwest and CMJ, it’s easy to be immersed in a Creators Project event, appreciate the common themes on display, and come out the other side inspired, rather than dehydrated and counting down the layovers til you’re home. This weekend, which kicked off the Creators Project’s 2012 tour, one could conceivably see ten musical acts in a row, check out some interactive art pieces between sets, and come back the next day to hit up a screening of David Bowie’s remastered and remixed "Life on Mars" video, a talk on Bjork’s Biophilia iPad app, and a documentary on Karen O’s rock opera Stop the Virgens.

The biggest draw, judging from how he transformed a quiet crowd into an elated one, was LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, who DJed the last two hours of the night with help from bandmates Nancy Whang and Pat Mahoney. Being able to bring this hugely popular figure back from "retirement" (let’s hope the quotes stick) lent legitimacy to the event to anyone doing a quick scan of the lineup. But the organizers deserve credit for nabbing a delightfully disparate group of up-and-comers to precede the big guns. Murphy and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the necessary crowd-pleasers, but the other bands, particularly Shabazz Palaces and Zola Jesus, made at least as big a splash.

Nika Danilova, aka Zola Jesus, is a trained opera singer raised in rural Wisconsin, now living in L.A., whose goth-pop is evocative of her childhood landscape. It’s also fun. Saturday night she essentially performed 2011’s Conatus, her impressive third full-length, in its entirety, stomping around the stage in a white minidress and at one point launching herself into the crowd. Her band consisted of a laptop guy, a drummer, and a woman playing an electric violin, and like preceding act, Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces, it was all about the drums: big, booming bass drums, glitchy beats, and a general relentlessness. For Shabazz Palaces, rhythm is melody – especially inside the nearly 200-foot-long building that housed the weekend’s music, where vocals indecipherably fly down the structure so that all that was really left was a beat.

The event’s largely 20-something crowd didn’t let loose until Karen O took the stage for a brief set of Yeah Yeah Yeahs singles old and new-ish, clad in a zebra-print shirt, sparkly red blazer with fringed sleeves, and matching red pants. There was a detectable swell for influential British electronic maestro Squarepusher, who hasn’t performed in the U.S. for years, but his impact was lost on some of the crowd. One person remarked that he "expected more from an electronic DJ from 1996." (Someone should tell him that Squarepusher was doing LED lightshows with a helmet over his head when Deadmau5 was still a kid.) But another guy just as dramatically decided, "This is the best electronic show I’ve ever seen!"

Those who came back for Day Two got some food for thought to go with Saturday’s revelry. The interactive art, which included a few video games, was fun and visually entertaining, but the panels and films offered deeper rumination on making art in the 21st century. The accessibility of art-enabling technology was a powerful theme, as was privacy, fame, and fandom. The schedule showcased creative teams that try to shirk broad categorizations in music, theater and technology. Bjork’s revolutionary iPad app for her album Biophilia is a great example of this, bringing "experiences that aren’t meant for a digital platform to a digital platform" as one of the app’s creators, Max Weisel, put it. Similarly, the director of Karen O’s Stop the Virgens described the work as musical theater for people who don’t necessarily like musical theater.

Intel and Vice did a fine job of catering the event specifically to San Francisco without getting heavy-handed about it. Internet Rising, a cerebral documentary about the future of the Internet, fit comfortably alongside On My Way Back Home, a short film of a Band of Horses concert in Big Sur, California. The end result: a free, diverse, art-and-tech geek-out.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Read more »

Creator's Project Brings James Murphy, Karen O to San Francisco

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform during The Creators Project in San Francisco.

When the Creators Project, Vice and Intel’s showcase of art, music and film, touched down on the windy piers of San Francisco’s Fort Mason this weekend, the collective reaction could best be described as a cheery, "What took you so long?" San Francisco needs more cultural events of this size, and the weekend’s crowd was eager to get that point across.

The three-year-old Creators Project, as a concept, benefits from an elevator pitch, which San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee was happy to provide during a brief speech Saturday: "Art, music and technology!" (This got some eyerolls.) Typically housed indoors, the Creators Project is something like going to a huge museum with the goal of seeing every exhibit on show. Unlike bigger festivals like South By Southwest and CMJ, it’s easy to be immersed in a Creators Project event, appreciate the common themes on display, and come out the other side inspired, rather than dehydrated and counting down the layovers til you’re home. This weekend, which kicked off the Creators Project’s 2012 tour, one could conceivably see ten musical acts in a row, check out some interactive art pieces between sets, and come back the next day to hit up a screening of David Bowie’s remastered and remixed "Life on Mars" video, a talk on Bjork’s Biophilia iPad app, and a documentary on Karen O’s rock opera Stop the Virgens.

The biggest draw, judging from how he transformed a quiet crowd into an elated one, was LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy, who DJed the last two hours of the night with help from bandmates Nancy Whang and Pat Mahoney. Being able to bring this hugely popular figure back from "retirement" (let’s hope the quotes stick) lent legitimacy to the event to anyone doing a quick scan of the lineup. But the organizers deserve credit for nabbing a delightfully disparate group of up-and-comers to precede the big guns. Murphy and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the necessary crowd-pleasers, but the other bands, particularly Shabazz Palaces and Zola Jesus, made at least as big a splash.

Nika Danilova, aka Zola Jesus, is a trained opera singer raised in rural Wisconsin, now living in L.A., whose goth-pop is evocative of her childhood landscape. It’s also fun. Saturday night she essentially performed 2011’s Conatus, her impressive third full-length, in its entirety, stomping around the stage in a white minidress and at one point launching herself into the crowd. Her band consisted of a laptop guy, a drummer, and a woman playing an electric violin, and like preceding act, Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces, it was all about the drums: big, booming bass drums, glitchy beats, and a general relentlessness. For Shabazz Palaces, rhythm is melody – especially inside the nearly 200-foot-long building that housed the weekend’s music, where vocals indecipherably fly down the structure so that all that was really left was a beat.

The event’s largely 20-something crowd didn’t let loose until Karen O took the stage for a brief set of Yeah Yeah Yeahs singles old and new-ish, clad in a zebra-print shirt, sparkly red blazer with fringed sleeves, and matching red pants. There was a detectable swell for influential British electronic maestro Squarepusher, who hasn’t performed in the U.S. for years, but his impact was lost on some of the crowd. One person remarked that he "expected more from an electronic DJ from 1996." (Someone should tell him that Squarepusher was doing LED lightshows with a helmet over his head when Deadmau5 was still a kid.) But another guy just as dramatically decided, "This is the best electronic show I’ve ever seen!"

Those who came back for Day Two got some food for thought to go with Saturday’s revelry. The interactive art, which included a few video games, was fun and visually entertaining, but the panels and films offered deeper rumination on making art in the 21st century. The accessibility of art-enabling technology was a powerful theme, as was privacy, fame, and fandom. The schedule showcased creative teams that try to shirk broad categorizations in music, theater and technology. Bjork’s revolutionary iPad app for her album Biophilia is a great example of this, bringing "experiences that aren’t meant for a digital platform to a digital platform" as one of the app’s creators, Max Weisel, put it. Similarly, the director of Karen O’s Stop the Virgens described the work as musical theater for people who don’t necessarily like musical theater.

Intel and Vice did a fine job of catering the event specifically to San Francisco without getting heavy-handed about it. Internet Rising, a cerebral documentary about the future of the Internet, fit comfortably alongside On My Way Back Home, a short film of a Band of Horses concert in Big Sur, California. The end result: a free, diverse, art-and-tech geek-out.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Read more »

Song Exclusive: James McCartney's 'New York Times'

Click to listen to James McCartney's 'New York Times'

James McCartney has a sister who's pretty well known in New York City: she's designer Stella McCartney. There's more talent in the family as well, or so we hear. "New York Times," a rocking pop song from McCartney's recent release, The Complete EP Collection, was written on a trip to the Big Apple with his father, a certain Sir Paul. "My dad said let's write a song about our trip to NYC," says the singer. "Instantaneously I came up with the main riff as he was just inches away from me." Apparently it rubs off. 

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Read more »

Song Exclusive: James McCartney's 'New York Times'

Click to listen to James McCartney's 'New York Times'

James McCartney has a sister who's pretty well known in New York City: she's designer Stella McCartney. There's more talent in the family as well, or so we hear. "New York Times," a rocking pop song from McCartney's recent release, The Complete EP Collection, was written on a trip to the Big Apple with his father, a certain Sir Paul. "My dad said let's write a song about our trip to NYC," says the singer. "Instantaneously I came up with the main riff as he was just inches away from me." Apparently it rubs off. 

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Jay Farrar and Jim James Discover Woody Guthrie's California in New Album

Over the course of dozens of hours spent combing through more than 3,000 Woody Guthrie lyrics collected in upstate New York, the thing that Jay Farrar kept discovering was California.

"I found myself not aware of the California connection at the time I was going through and looking at those lyrics," Farrar said of his exploration of the Guthrie archives that resulted in New Multitudes, his new album with My Morning Jacket's Jim James. "I guess that was an especially creative time for him, and I was drawn to the things he was thinking about at that time."

Both songwriters said inspiration came easily during their separate trips to look through the collection of nearly every notebook, sketch pad and scrawl-covered napkin Guthrie produced during his 55 years that made him one of America's most legendary folk singers.

Known famously for his workers' rights and protest songs, the California-specific material on New Multitudes presents a more fragile, lonely side of Guthrie, who married and divorced his third wife and saw his health falter during his California stints in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

"Careless Reckless Love," "My Revolutionary Mind" and "Talking Empty Bed Blues" are among the songs where Guthrie openly pined for love, while "Hoping Machine," "Fly High" and "Old L.A." show him trying to keep an optimistic stance as he moved into what would become his final, difficult years.

"I guess there's something in Jay that's attracted to L.A., and he found that in looking through Woody's lyrics," said Nora Guthrie, one of eight Guthrie children and the caretaker of the Woody Guthrie foundation and archives. "That's true of everybody, because you end up finding yourself in looking at those lyrics.  'Your Smile Cured Me,' was written in '52 or '54 when Woody was dealing with his own sort of skid row, and 'When I Get Home' is so heart-wrenching, it's one of my favorite songs of all time."
Both of the songs referenced by Nora Guthrie are found on the expanded version of "New Multitudes," which Rounder Records will release on Feb. 28.

Random Notes: Hottest Rock Pictures

Recorded in 2009 with Centro-Matic's Will Johnson and Varnaline's Anders Parker, the album is part of a year-long centennial celebration of Guthrie's birth that includes tribute concerts in all 50 states and an expanded boxed set release of Billy Bragg and Wilco's Guthrie-derived Mermaid Avenue albums released more than a decade ago.

A small parade of artists have released music from Guthrie lyrics in recent years, running the stylistic gamut from Boston punks the Dropkick Murphys and rocker Lou Reed to jazz artist Jonatha Brooke and Jewish traditionalist group The Klezmatics.

Guthrie said the Farrar/James collaboration made sense to her because the pair opted to carry a more personal side of her father's story to a new generation, and their country leanings had a direct connection to Woody Guthrie's recordings.

"I really wanted to hear something that returned to Woody's roots after working with The Klezmatics," she said. "Hearing it reminded me of those sounds of guys like Phil Ochs hanging around in the Sixties in the living room. That's the visual picture I get when I hear it."

When the quartet convened in a Brooklyn studio to complete the bulk of the record – Farrar had written and recorded some of the material on his own beginning in 2006 before James came on board – the mood was one of exploration and adventure. James took up the bass guitar and considered sticking with it upon returning to My Morning Jacket, Johnson put a musical saw to his spotlight song "Chorine" and Farrar sang in challenging keys and used song structures he'd never have attempted solo or with his main band Son Volt.

"It was a very symbiotic situation and in a way it was like we were all at music camp. We stepped away from our normal situations with our own bands and I liked that we were able to try things out that I wouldn't have done on my own," Farrar said of his register-pushing vocal on "Careless Reckless Love" and the repetitive song structure of the title track, which he termed "Walt Whitman-esque."

Writing and completing New Multitudes had lasting benefits for both men. The experience of working with another writer's source material made Farrar comfortable enough to embark on a similar journey with Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard for 2009's Jack Kerouac-sourced album One Fast Move And I'm Gone.

For James, the chance to explore a sort of musical wonderland at the Guthrie archives motivated him to be more studious with documenting the stray thoughts and feelings that become the source material for songs.

"What occurred to me was how important it was to capture this stuff, and I'm glad he did so we could look back on what he had to say," James said. "You might not pay attention to what the voices in your head are telling you, but it's important to get all that stuff down. His mind was shooting out like a machine gun or cannon and it was amazing to see everything, drawings and doodles and stuff on napkins. It feels like his brain was this constant waterfall of creativity."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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