Jim James

By: Interview by Elizabeth Marcellino | Photos by Autumn DeWilde, Illustration by Derek Albeck | December 16, 2009 | Music

But c’mon, there must have been a little tension?

James says no. “It was very easy. Very spontaneous. Lots of hard work, but all fun,” he says.

Oberst agrees. “We took turns playing drums, bass — it was really fun. It reminded me a lot of when I was a teenager, and I’d get together on the weekend with some of my friends, and we’d have a four-track and a practice space full of whatever. You weren’t really a band, but you made songs together. It had that feeling of adventure and experimentation with everyone cheering each other on, encouraging each other to do things they don’t normally do.”

So, in that setting, how is inspiration channeled into a song? And, for James, what makes it an MOF song versus a MMJ song or something for the solo album he says he’s also working on?

For MOF, “I feel like I picked songs that reminded me of the other three guys or would be something they would like or [had] somewhere they would fit in,” the songwriter says.

James’ choice of the word “picked” gives the impression of a vast shelf of ideas qua songs simply waiting to be finished. His answer makes the process of filling that “shelf” sound effortless.

“The songwriting is a thing in and of itself that just happens,” he explains (or rather doesn’t). “Then I determine what happens to it.”

Oberst adds some clarity.

“Each of the songs started with one of the songwriter’s ideas. Some songs were more fully formed insofar as structures, but a lot of them would have maybe a verse or a chorus, and we would play them for each other and help each other finish them, toss lyrical ideas back and forth. M would be, like, ‘What if we changed this chord to that one or extend the bridge?’ It would start with one person’s idea but then go through the filter of all four of us. And we would have equal say once the song was in motion,” Oberst explains.

Each of the four members’ musical signatures is fairly distinctive, though they all have some elements and imagery of folk in their work. James, who has cited influences ranging from Curtis Mayfield to George Harrison, offers up John Prine as an important common influence for all of the artists.

The three lead voices are also exceedingly unique — Ward’s soothing, sultry rasp; Oberst’s intense, angsty delivery; and James’ soaring, keening instrument, used at times to imitate a passing freight train, could all be picked out of any melody.

But somehow they brought it all together in harmony (quite literally), and what results has been deemed by most critics to be an impressive, cohesive effort. Rolling Stone’s review of the album compared the band to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, saying, “Sometimes too many cooks are precisely enough.”

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