Jon Auer -2007: The Year of Bitch Slapping, Ben Lee, Paris Hilton and Our Demise

Jon Auer, famous of the Posies and Big Star, is about to embark on another solo tour downunder. A man of many words, Jon talks with us about his recent solo release, 'The Year Of Our Demise' and is candidly open, honest and engagingly funny in this revealing interview:

“Songs from the Year of Our Demise” delves into a wide range of emotions. As a writer, does personal reflection stimulate or distract you from the creative process of song writing?

I’d say that personal reflection falls under the stimulant category for me - and thankfully so as I can be unbelievably indulgent in this area. Still, it's a fine line: too little reflection and I'm not writing enough, too much and I can't get anything done. Sometimes it’s surreal to realize you can transform memories or pain into songs. I’m just lucky enough to get paid for it.

It has been emphasized how this is your first full length solo album, taking many years to complete. Are you a perfectionist or more of a dreamer?

It used to be a volatile, counteractive mix of both, but in the last few years I stopped dreaming as much and really started getting down to business. I guess I went through the proverbial dry spell and came out the other end believing that creating is both what I do and where it’s at. Bottom line, I just feel better being creative and the more I do, the more I want to do. And sure, I still dream. But it’s fair to say the perfectionist took over a few year back, albeit one who gets a lot more done than he used to.

There is sparseness to some of your new album material. What feel where you trying to capture and would you change anything in hindsight?

I think I know the sparseness you are referring to. It’s mainly there as an antidote to the more baroque and layered recordings of which there are many. For me, the record was ultimately conceptual. Using death, sometimes literally, sometimes as a metaphor, I wanted to dissect and celebrate loss and renewal in life and love, to illustrate hurts and hopes at the same time, side by side. The whole process became a compulsion and took much longer than I could've predicted, but in the end I knew for certain I'd examined every possible option. Just by chance, I heard Songs from the Year of Our Demise on my wife's I-tunes recently and I actually listened to the whole CD and was rather pleased. There's hardly anything I would change which is saying a lot for me.

The term "Power Pop" has been an almost automatic suffix to most journalistic ramblings when describing your musical style. With constantevolving of your personal life and musical experiences, how would you describe your present musical style?

If you're looking for a label, 'Sadcore' works for me. Or maybe 'Thera-Folk'. Currently, I’m into bittersweet combinations: the melodic juxtaposed with dark, revealing lyrics, the uplift with the downbeat. On Songs from the Year of Our Demise, there's a light at the end of the tunnel I’m describing, but you'll have to get through the tunnel first!

Many song writers suffer from writer's block. How do you deal with an unfinished song?

I beat the living shit out of it and call it all sorts of names, reminding it of how worthless it is to me without a catchy chorus or final touches. Then I put it in a padded cell with the other unfinished songs and there it stays until it finishes itself or dies. Sometimes the more stubborn fuckers haunt my dreams. Often they come back reincarnated in another form, hoping for a better shot at completion. Poor bastards. Nobody ever tells them what they're getting themselves into.

Many artists have differing opinions on how the muse within is most stimulated. Which personal state of being do you feel at your most creative?

Not always, but at times I feel that good old-fashioned fear can be quite useful in the muse department. Fear that the life clock is ticking and time is running out. Fear that I'll 'lose it if I don't use it', to paraphrase some cliché. It’s funny to me how positive results can be born from what is often considered a negative feeling, proving there’s an upside to almost everything if you look hard enough.

You have a list of recording and production credits that reads like a who's who of the music industry. Would you consider yourself to be arecording studio junkie?

Oh, hell yes. Jon Auer is to studios as Paris Hilton is to Greek shipping heirs - I can’t get enough of them.

Do you find other producers and/or artists open to suggestions when in the studio or is it a closed book..."Thank you Jon but I want it like thisand don't improvise"

Honestly, I find most I work with want me to contribute as much of myself as I can - that's why they have me around. Also, from what I've seen, in the best situations, there is rarely such a thing as a closed book in the studio. I think most artists and producers are always hoping some new idea will come along and surprise everyone involved and make the music better, no matter who or where the idea came from. That's what keeps it interesting, makes the party worth attending.

How much pressure is there from the live audience for you to produce a trip down memory lane greatest hits show as opposed to delivering your new material?

If there is any pressure, I certainly haven't sensed it. I usually do what ever I feel like and as long as I do it well and enjoy myself it seems to work out fine. The thing about memory lane is that it’s a place you always have the option of going to because you've already been there before and know the directions. On a good night, said lane is an old road you're happy to re-navigate, on a less inspired evening it becomes a complacent roundabout. Mostly I like to keep things centered on the present with a few key doses of the past every now and then, not to placate, but because there are parts of my past I enjoy reliving once and a while. It’s all me, so why not?

You've mentioned in the past that you enjoy Australia, the sun, the surf, and even the quality of the Thai food here. With your swirling andgroovy Hammond organ work on the iconic Oz rock legends, You Am I's classic song Minor Byrd, you've almost got an honorary Aussie citizenship. Aussies will love your gigs but what would Jon Auer love to achieve from this tour?

Mr. Whyman, you flatter me. The check is in the mail and yes, I love a good Thai green curry, something.

Besides finally learning how to play cricket once and for all, bitch-slapping each member of Regurgitator at least thirty times, and selling millions of Jon Auer Action Figures, I would also like to vaccinate everyone in Australia and make them immune to the Ben Lee Virus so they will be primed and free to 'Catch MY Disease' instead.

You can catch Jon Auer, this February as he rolls through the East Coast of Oz. Check out dates on www.jonauer.com or http://www.myspace.com/jonauermusic and his new album, Songs From The Year Of Our Demise is out now - go buy it dwarfers!

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