Interview: Jesse Hadden

Jesse Hadden Photographer: Steph Gervais

I recently had the opportunity to interview my good friend, amazingly talented musician Jesse Hadden. Jesse has collaborated with many different musicians and artists, in addition to making great solo work. One thing that's always struck me about Jesse is how great he is at shaping something beautiful out of almost anything around--fantastic costumes, joyous gatherings of people, prints, and music music music. Check out his work!

How did you get started making music? What was the first instrument you played?

It started out as a forced march; no one in my family played music, and because of this my mom and dad really wanted me to play the piano. In some ways I still really don't understand what that was about. My dad didn't start enjoying even listening to music until recently. But for some reason it was important to him that I played. So anyway, I started out with the piano, which my mom had to bribe me with starburst to play. I really hated it for a long time, but when she finally gave me the option to quit, I decided I actually wanted to do it. Later on I picked up an old guitar that my dad, again, had lying around but had never played, and that's when I started getting into "fun" music like rock and roll, blues, etc.

Can you talk a bit about how your songs come about? Is there any place or setting where you feel you work best?

I wish I could say I had anything approaching a "method." Generally I sit down without a lot of foreknowledge of what I'll write. There've been times when I have a theme I want to address or a story I want to tell. Generally speaking, though, the seed of the song just sort of comes; some piece of nonsense that rises to the surface that I can then tease out; often I won't fully understand what I'm writing about until the song is near finished. Then it's editing. Everything is editing, really- paring down the surrounding bullshit until something rings true. Thematically, lyrically, that's usually how it is. I suppose with the instrumentation, with the texture- those things tend to come to me in more stark terms- a musical theme, a melody, a certain timbre or texture. I tend to think in abstraction anyway, so lyrically it's always a struggle to get the words to fit- words tend to constrict the conceptual parameters, I feel.

Then again, it depends on what kind of song i'm writing: if it's a pop song, then I feel much less pressure for the words to mean anything at all. If it's more of a traditional folk song then the challenge is to get the words to sound ghostly and indexical of something beyond their simple subject matter without it feeling like trying. Does that make sense? Usually in those cases it's also advantageous to let go a little bit and just focus on the feel. Hahah! I feel like I'm just spiraling back into vagaries here, but I hope that gets it close. hopefully I'll always be writing folk songs that wear different hats.

Place-wise, I've noticed that I like to write in small confined spaces; somehow that makes for better incubation or something. But to get the feeling, I like walks, trains, the outdoors. My music is pretty antisocial- I don't excel at the interpersonal relationship song. I've also noticed that being in Montana really brings it out in me. I feel confident there in a way that I don't most other places.

What's getting you going these days? I'm thinking music, art, whatever: what's sparking for you lately?

To be honest, I've been very absorbed by moving and getting settled in a new place- I just moved to SF- so I'm just now starting to have time to read, listen to new music, etc. Music-wise, I've been really digging old reggae- Carl Dobson, The Uniques, all that old Trojan stuff... I also just found this group called the Tenniscoats, a husband/wife band from Japan that I'm loving. Minimalist and barebones, lovely melodies... Townes Van Zandt has been playing a lot in my house, and this record by Real Estate has gotten under my skin pretty deeply. They have this song called Suburban Dogs that just kills me. I wouldn't say that any of this stuff is really influencing how i play though. But on the level of just getting me stoked, all this stuff counts. Art-wise, i'm pumped on where i live, and the art that crops up everywhere on buildings and in people's windows. My friend Jesse Kaupilla, a conceptual printmaker, is also blowing my mind. I just participated in a project of his entitled "Remastering the Anthology of American Folk Music" and it was incredible. I think it was fairly well-documented; one could likely Google this to learn more. Anyway, he's an animal and I love him. My friend Sam Korman of PDX has a cool project going in a garage on 12th ave called Car Hole, where they have an opening with really sick bands once a month. It's literally in my friend Andrea's garage. Super fun. I've been reading Andrey Bely's early novel, The Silver Dove. I dunno what else. Lots of things all the time, really.

The first time I saw you play was in 2006. We were at a costume party, and you bellowed out an impromptu Tom Waits cover on an old upright piano, getting the whole room up and dancing. It was pretty amazing--brightly clad people, spandex, commanding piano music and your deep voice lacing over it all. Can you describe some of the settings in which you've performed music? Is making a magical performance a big part of your focus?

Haha! Where was that? I don't remember this at all! But it sounds about right for the time and the place.

I go back and forth with theatricality. A good performance always draws its listeners in, but the shape that takes is pretty multiform. I've been listening to a lot of Townes lately, especially Live at the Old Quarter, and that's just him up there, but it's totally riveting. On the other hand there is definitely a part of me that feels the need to dress things up. Then there're people like Dave Longstreth whose arrangements are so acrobatic, so intricate and beautiful. Is that a distraction? I don't know. I think there's value in both. I can certainly tell you what I don't like. I hate a timid performance or anything that's less than one hundred percent committed to what it's doing. The world is filled with this sort of group right now and it's a huge bummer. After initially getting into, like, the Grateful Dead as a fifth grader, the next thing for me was punk music, and while I've expanded in what I like to listen to, you can't really go back in terms of commitment. You can just smell insincerity, fear. It's running down the streets in brooklyn right now, that "paranoid self-consciousness," as a dude I respect recently put it. So yeah, if that's what we're up against, I'm all about magic.

When you do feel like being theatrical, how does it manifest?

I really enjoy creating a mood, getting people loose when I can. This often involves me getting loose first, and that's something that I'm working all the time to maximize. I actually have a great deal of stage-fright/nervousness associated with performing, so paradoxically I feel like I need a fourth wall in order to really overcome that nervousness and connect with people. Right now I'm toying with the idea of creating a new persona around a new batch of songs, of which "monument" is exemplary. He'd be a well-dressed, well-groomed character (this is distinct, as you know, from the "regular" me), glamorous. We'll see what happens. I think it'd be a brazen way for me to push through my discomfort with attention.

Your latest songs are quite a break from your earlier work, more glampop than old timey. What prompted the shift and where do you see your music heading from here?

Like I said before, I'm interested in what makes a style work, how it fits together. I've been playing music with my friend Chris Edley, who's got a beautiful pop intelligence and production sense. We're putting a band together to perform music from his latest EP- he goes by SAFE.I really recommend it. 

The band SAFE: Chris Edley and Jesse Hadden

Anyhow, working with Chris made me want to try my hand at a more high-production aesthetic, also with a focus on beats and texture. What I've been enjoying about recording these new songs is how alien they feel to me- I am surprised that they came from me. It gives me the ability to listen a little more critically, but also to enjoy the music without feeling a lot of ownership. They allow me to give voice to some of my more melodramatic impulses- there's that theatricality popping up again- but at base, they have to do with real feelings. It's charming to see those original sentiments nested in this baroque production sense. Maybe I'm the only one who can see that original seed of intention, but that's ok. I think the project will be called Falseheart- which isn't to say that I'm being disingenuous!

As far as the shift goes, I see it more as a branching out. I think the old-time element will always exist for me, but I'll never be an old time musician, you know? So many people do that so much better than I do, and I'll leave that to them. But the Hug Point stuff, I think it will come around to occupying some sort of nether-region between the old-time and the pop.

One song that's been playing through your head these days?

Love and Happiness by Al Green. Pretty much sums up where I'm at right now.

Check out Jesse's song Breadwinner and more here.
Beautiful collaborations with the musician Hazel here.
Informal videos here and here.