Greg Jacquin and bandmates Paul Griffin (piano, keys, vocals), Rich Berta (guitar, vocals), Peter Wilson (drums) and Lalit Loomba (bass) recorded Clocks Slow Down, a beautiful collection of eleven original songs. The album is a sprawling statement of sadness and hopelessness, pain and suffering, rebuilding and self-discovery, with a dash of politics and humor, too. This time around, Jacquin enlisted another impressive crew of musicians for the album, including Andrew Bordeaux on violin and guitar, Jim Keyes and organ and electric piano and Sarah Browne on vocals. The album was recorded by Fred Gillen Jr. (Pete Seeger) at Woody’s House in Croton, NY, and mastered by Scott Hull (John Zorn, Snarky Puppy, Loudon Wainwright III, Uncle Tupelo, Edie Brickell, Ani DiFranco) at Masterdisk. The album art is by Ian Felice (The Felice Brothers).
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Greg about his latest project, motivations, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from New York. I was born and grew up in the Hudson Valley just outside New York City. There has always been such an incredible music scene in this area with so many talented musicians who live or have lived here. From Rufus Wainwright to The Felice Brothers. I write indie folk, alt country music inspired by Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks and The Avett Brothers. My songs can tend to be sad because I suffer from depression and writing songs is a way for me to deal with my depression.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I started playing music when I was very young. Back then it was a fun way to hang out with my friends and show off in front of the girls. We played Van Halen, Poison covers and even some originals. Unfortunately we focused on hair and wardrobe more than the music so it didn’t last. I decided to take a break from music and focused on a career and family. I never stopped writing songs and so when I went through some personal struggles my guitar once again became my best friend. I recorded and released my first real EP, Hudson River Feb 2018 and I’m planning to release my LP feb 2019. I love playing these songs in front of people and feeling the connection that they have with the lyrics. When someone comes up to me after my set and tells me that they been through traumatic experiences or suffer from depression and that they love my songs and they can relate to the words and the emotion. That connection with people motivates me to keep going.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
This release is different from the last EP in that this time we kept the orchestration to a minimum. Last time we had a full string section and even horn on a song but this time we wanted to keep it more the “live band” sound. I also wrote a lot of the songs on “Clocks” in a short period of time just before recording or after recording had already begun. Fred Gillen Jr. at Woody’s house was such a pleasure to work with. We tracked the album and finished it well ahead of schedule and under budget. We were honored to have Andrew Bordeaux play violin and Sarah Browne sing background vocals and a duet.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
It’s hard to stand out these days as an indie musician because today with the internet anyone, anywhere can write a song and potentially get an audience of millions all around the world. It’s also pretty amazing that with the internet these days anyone, anywhere can write a song and potentially get an audience of millions all around the world. It does kind of suck that it doesn’t necessarily have to be based on talent or hard work anymore, it could just be because Kim Kardashian got paid to tweet about it.
What was the last song you listened to?
Sharon Van Etten – Comeback Kid
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I prefer vinyl but I do love the fact that I can now listen to any song I want in the amount of time it takes me to ask Siri or Alexa to “play Fiona Apple”.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I prefer Bandcamp because it gives that artist a fair share for their music. I appreciate Spotify because that seems to be what “the kids” are using these days and I’ve used Apple Music because I sold my soul to Apple years ago.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Anything else before we sign off?
We’ll be having our release show and party at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC on Feb 15, 2019 and then I’m heading out on the road for my first solo tour. Come say hello when I come to a town near you. -Greg
