Truly unpredictable, swinging between beautiful, melodic pop and brash, abrasive noise, My Morning Jacket encompass country rock, psychadelia, and everything in between. The Z album from 2005 really cemented them as a truly inspired and inspiring musical entity. It is, quite possibly, one of the finest records from last decade.
My Morning Jacket is also known for their now legendary live shows, sometimes playing up to four hour concerts. This is a band that one can truly lose themselves; they take musical influences and forms that the band members have a great deal of love and affinity for to somewhere very different and new. Keyboardist Bo Koster explains:
“There is a lot of retro happening in the world at the moment, not just in music. It’s something that I’m beginning to see more and more of. It makes me wonder if things have been that way all along, with looking to the past for inspiration. Maybe the 1960s and 1970s were this magical period where a sense of creativity was wide open, more so than what it is now. Music is a language, one that has come from other places in the past. In relation to My Morning Jacket, it’s a double edged sword in that we want to do something that is uniquely our own, but at the same time out inspiration usually comes from somewhere relating to the past. Making music means taking chances and not being afraid to fail.”
In regards to Koster’s style of playing and what he brings to the equation, he cites a lot of classical, jazz, soul and blues piano and keyboard players at what have inspired him over the years. “I’m a classically trained pianist. I grew up listening to jazz players like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea before I discovered more ‘rock’ piano and keyboard players like Billy Preston and Garth Hudson. They came to me later. The one who’s really influenced me is Tony Banks, the keyboard player from Genesis. He was way ahead of his time and a virtuoso on the instrument,” he says.
At one point, the band was set to collaborate with Disney on a Muppets project, one that unfortunately was abandoned. “There was someone at Disney that was really into our music at the time. Jim (James, frontman) has always cited Jim Henson as one of the greatest artists of our time and holds an incredible sense of love and respect for him, as we all do. The idea was we were going to tour as The Electric Mayhem, with the band hidden behind a screen, while The Muppets were performing at front of stage. Unfortunately, the idea fell through when the executive responsible was fired as part of a shake up at Disney when a new CEO came into power there. This was definitely one of those rueful ‘what if’ moments.”
“It did free us up to record our last album (2011’s Circuital) a lot quicker, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us. Things worked out for the best [but] I think we would have been perfect for The Muppets project.”
More successful was the band collaboration with members of [Boston based] The Boston Pops Orchestra. “It was amazing. We’ve had a lot of opportunities and done a lot of cool things. That was one of the greatest experiences of our life,” exclaims Koster. “Getting to play with those people in their amphitheatre with so much history and soul to it was insane. I felt like the punk kid in a rock band shoved into a tuxedo and given the opportunity of a lifetime. It is something I won’t forget in a hurry,” he laughs.
How does the collaboration process work when it comes to creating the intelligent and compelling sound scapes that My Morning Jacket are known and loved for? “Jim James, our lead singer, is really a lynchpin of the band. What has been inspiring him and what he’s been listening to really helps to infuse and shape the My Morning Jacket sound. Over time, we have gravitated towards certain things due to bouncing ideas and concepts off each other. It’s not something that we really talk about. It tends to happen more organically between the band members.”
“Jim usually comes in with demos or an idea. We play around with these and improvise to see what works and what don’t. Sometimes Jim has a vision and focus and we elaborate and contribute, but there are other times when he doesn’t have as clear a sense of a song or idea. That is where the band really collaborates. With the last album, we went in to the studio not completely knowing the songs due to writing and recording at the same time. That style and approach really kept us fresh and focussed. We’re open to any process that helps to get us to where we want to be with recording”.
Koster has very fond memories of various tours of Australia. “We have absolutely loved playing there. We’ve felt some of our strongest connections on a live front with some of the audiences we’ve encountered in Australia. The entire band always looks forward to playing there. One of our favourites was the Big Day Out when we played alongside Neil Young and did a side show tour with him around the country. Australians really seem to ‘get’ us and really love what we do. I remember playing in Sydney when it was really hot and it seemed like we played forever that night and the crowd didn’t want to go home and, frankly, neither did we. It is really special when you experience that on a live front.”
As amazing as the audiences were, the opportunity to tour with the legendary Neil Young was quite obviously a coup. “Neil Young is truly a sense of inspiration to us. Watching him play is like watching a nuclear reactor go off every night. Even though he’s played a song a million times, he always has this uncanny ability to play it like it is the first time, especially how he plays a note. It truly was like a master class for us and getting to watch a genius at work.”
My Morning Jacket is known for the incendiary, immersive and truly astounding live shows. This is where the band has truly made their reputation across the world. “We simply try to approach playing live as organically as we can. Recording and playing live are two entirely different beasts. It’s hard to make every moment feel unique and fresh with live performance. We try to leave everything on the stage every night and not hold anything back. The band tries to look for that uniqueness of moment rather than playing a photocopy of the record on stage. We try to give as much as we can physically and emotionally to the crowd as we can. That is what makes the live experience rewarding for us.”
