Name: Thee Conductor
Members: Jason Butler, Justin Douglas
Interviewee: Jason Butler
Nationality: American
Current Release: Thee Conductor team up with Bonnie Prince Billy, Glenn Kotche, Tosca String Quartet, and Kevin Shea, for Ennoia, out now.
Recommendations:
Book recommendation: Andy Kaufman Revealed: Best Friend Tells All, By Bob Zmuda
Song or album recommendations: Song - “Gee I’m Glad It’s Raining” from the Earnest Goes To Camp movie; Album - Plux Quba: Nuno Canavarro

[Read our Bonnie Prince Billy interview]

If you enjoyed this Thee Conductor interview and would like to stay up to date with their music, visit the project on Instagram, and Facebook.  



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

There is an inherent, unmistakable need for me to create. I attribute it to internal reactions to things around me and the way I process life events or things happening in my peripheral.

The source of this reaction could probably be from any and all of the things you mentioned and in some ways all of them collaged together.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualization' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

With initiating new music, I don’t really have an intentional approach. I’ve never been one to plan out a day of writing new songs and have it feel natural.

New ideas or parts of songs will randomly land in me and from there, will mostly likely sit for months until I finish them. It’s a long process compared to other song makers I’m sure.

I know that when I start a song and slowly start to attempt new layers, new instrumentation and voice that it's only the beginning. Knowing I have so much work to do on lots of these small parts lying around is both exciting and but can also bring on an anxious feeling.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Being within nature, being around family and reading biographies of people I admire seems to all trigger something within. I will sometimes enter a late night rabbit hole peeking at lots of interviews, performances or any old thing specific to a subject or person I am interested in at the time.

An evening of YouTube can really push forward something buried within you. New information, a wacky performance, new perspective on a particular subject matter or maybe a new comedian’s one liner all can get the juices flowing.

What do you start with? And, to quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I have started with a single lyric line, a vocal singing pattern, a drum kit and more often piano or acoustic guitar.

Discovery vs creation - that is a wonderful question and I am uncertain.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

For me I feel lyrics come from a subconscious place. I have written words to prepared music and I have written music to established words. It's an interesting marriage between the two and probably takes me the longest when completing a song.

My songs are relatively short but it still takes me quite a while to feel that the words and music will have a strong, lasting relationship.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

When I take a new song to my engineer and music partner Justin Douglas, I know for certain that the initial instrumentation or notes will be the base layer, the foundation almost always. If I start writing a part with an acoustic guitar, that part will always be the ground floor of the music ...

However I have also taken that acoustic guitar part and shifted it to say, a harp. It's the same notes with a different instrument. So I believe it to be both I think. There is a solid, known, controlled beginning or start to a song but from there the song can go anywhere and I let it!

Also, as I sit and think about all of this, for me, the beginnings of making and recording a song is like riding a giant-slow turtle and by midway through the song we are holding on for dear life as though we’re on the back of the fastest rabbit.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I would definitely say it feels spiritual in a sense. A happening that can spawn at any given moment.

I have written a song while watching the 80s TV show Different Strokes. I have written a song in the dark while sipping red wine and I have written a song like a ‘normal human’ with a guitar in hand sitting in a chair.

When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

With this project there might be less of an importance of capturing a special moment in real time. Much of what we do with Thee Conductor is working with people from afar.

My music partner Justin Douglas (King Electric Studios) and I spend lots of time in the studio together and do eventually bring in other players such as The Tosca String Quartet. Others on the record often send us the work that they’ve done from their respective studios.

For instance on the new album Ennoia, we were lucky to have Glenn Kotche perform on two songs. He actually recorded a few Kalimba tracks in the green room while on tour with Wilco. Will Oldham uses his home studio as well.. these days distance is much less prohibitive.

[Read our Nels Cline of Wilco interview]

Also, I have always been a fan of imperfection and though we work hard to make our albums sound nice, we keep in the flubs, the mistaken notes and other wonderful mishaps.

Even recording a solo song is usually a collaborative process. Tell me about the importance of trust between the participants, personal relationships between musicians and engineers and the freedom to perform and try things – rather than gear, technique or “chops” - for creating a great song.

I have great trust in my friend, music partner and engineer Justin Douglas of King Electric Studios in Austin. I was quite bashful with the first record we did. I was uncertain of what I was trying to do and was operating with a lack of real focus but his kindness and encouragement really sparked something in me.

There were many others on that record that were very encouraging, supportive and had great musical gifts that they shared on the songs.

It's nice to look back at that record which is now 7 years old and see how far we’ve come. We’ve achieved true cohesion that I am very proud of and I believe that to be attributed to trust with all involved.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?

Production can be important, especially if certain sonic dynamics are a goal. Mixing and mastering are an integral part of the record making process for me.

With the amount of work I or we put into the song making itself, it is nice to represent that work as best as possible.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I definitely feel the post release emotional dip. As a group that doesn’t play often, releasing a new album into the world after having worked on it for 2-3 years probably feels a little heavier than it might to others.

I seem to always be floating within the state of creativity in some capacity. So it isn’t really something I have to return to per se.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music 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?

Music making and some mundane tasks can both feel spiritual at times. I construct small livable dwellings and I’ve found that slowly painting the exterior walls all day (in the cooler Texas temps) can feel just as good as constructing a song that I am stoked about.

I guess the feeling of doing and then completing can feel similar. The expression or what each of those two activities conveys is completely different but both are satisfying in a similar way.