Name: The Bones of J.R. Jones
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: The Bones of J.R. Jones's new album Radio Waves is out via Tone Tree.
Recommendations for his hometown: I live in a very small town, with a wonderful community in the western Catskills. I would say beyond the general things like hiking and trying some decent restaurants … the most enjoyable thing happens on Wednesdays between 10 and 2. The local farmers market is up and running and we are lucky enough to have some of the best produce you can find grown locally. Come get a pie, rhubarb, and a freshly caught trout. It’s heaven in the summertime.

If you enjoyed this The Bones of J.R. Jones interview and would like to stay up to date with his music and live dates, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, bandcamp, and Facebook.
 


Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

Yes and no. I remember listening to music on a tape deck as a kid — For me then - and even still now - it’s the melody and delivery that sells a song. That’s the hook. In a lot of instances the lyrics are secondary in a way.

But that’s the beauty of it too. I could listen to “My Father’s House” by Springsteen when I was 6 and not understand a word that I was singing along to, but somehow intuitively understand the meaning.

The melody and delivery hold that.



And I think looking back I can recognize that THAT was the nugget. That feeling. That’s what planted a seed.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

Without going too deeply down this rabbit hole, I think Tom Waits changed how I felt about lyrics, especially on Rain Dogs. He taught me that absurdist and nonsensical lyrics could work, because it was all about building a world.

I don’t implement that practice much in my work, but I try to keep it in the back of my mind. I try to remember that you can take a bit of truth and build a world of lies around it to reinforce the point.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

I think this goes back to my original thought on lyrics. Words are incredibly powerful … but where do they fall short? We all have our ear worms. We all have licks and hooks that get stuck in our head that we play over and over and over, why?

I think there is something to be said about the shared experience of listening to a song. Why are so many people attracted to the same songs? It’s universal. We go out. We sing along. We commune. It’s a release. Words are just one element of the moment.

I’m digressing but I think we forgive a lot of bad lyrics for the sake of the song— and that makes sense because of some inner drive to share an experience with a group of people.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

I’m a firm believer in that you write what you know.

That’s not to say you should retread the same themes on every record (which I’m admittedly somewhat guilty of), but a good writer should be able to find hidden bits of their life and exploit and explore them. They should be able to find a relatable moment and find a new interesting light to talk about it. I’m working on it, with varying degrees of success.

I find myself writing a lot about home, love lost, hopes, and youth. I’m not sure why honestly. My themes have changed over the years, but these days I am trying to be more intentional and introspective with my words.

On the basis of a piece off Radio Waves, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

I treated this record a little differently than my prior releases.

I wrote up a deck— a mission statement of sorts. I knew how I wanted this record to feel and what world I wanted it to live in. That statement was sort of my north star or touchstone for the creative side. I referenced it any time I was lost in writing the lyrics or unsure of production choices.

All that to say, many of the songs came from the same inspiration point. I wanted this record to feel like a hot kitchen late on an August night with friends sitting around a table. Some lost in heartbreak. Some hopeful for tomorrow. Some just trying to figure it out. Some looking too fondly back at the youth.

It’s full of bottles clinking, chatter, songs, and memories.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

No. I don’t think a song needs to be consistent with the larger whole. I say that with some trepidation, because I do think a song should at least live in the same world thematically as the rest of the whole. It’s a sticky distinction.

Hypothetically, all these songs came from you at a similar time in your life. Even if they are sonically worlds apart, there has to be some thread that leads them to each other. I love records that play to that. That don’t hold back because they feel tethered to a genre.

I want to be surprised. I want to be challenged (sometimes).

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Unpopular opinion maybe? But I think and expect lyrics to change over time, just like I think artists should feel comfortable recording and releasing multiple versions of the same song.

If I cover a song, I want to make it my own. I don’t feel personally obligated to recreate the song lyric for lyric. I feel obligated to be a radio tower for that song and relay through my own interpretation of how it makes me feel. It may change the song completely, but that's ok. It may be a disaster, that's ok too. It’s art. Mistakes are healthy.

Lyrics, like songs, are living things. It would be hell for me to play the same song the same way all the time only because it felt right one arbitrary moment years ago.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I never interpret it as a misunderstanding, because the way we consume songs is wholly personal to ourselves. Even my wife - who knows my songs backwards and forwards - has different meanings for my songs, which is wild for me. It never ceases to blow my mind especially when I think my lyrics are pretty self-evident.

It’s just a testament to how every single one of us interprets every bit of nuance differently and how the sum of all that creates completely unique interpretations.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I live for mundane tasks. Please have me over. I will mow your lawn and weed your garden and be infinitely happy.

All this to say, I think doing the mundane creates space in our heads to be creative. It’s the proverbial “shower moment.” When we stop thinking about something is when we have our best ideas.

It’s not inherently different for me, it’s just that the mundane tasks are part of the process and it’s always unexpected. I fucking love that.