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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!
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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.
