Bostonist Interviews Mason Jennings, Scheduled to Play Somerville Theatre Thursday

Mason Jennings with Anni Rossi The Somerville Theater (55 Davis Square, Somerville) Thursday, October 15, 8pm (doors open 7:15) $24 [ Tickets ] Mason was interviewed by Cat Mooney . Tomorrow night, hippie-folk rocker Mason Jennings will grace the stage at the Somerville Theater with indie songstress Anni Rossi . Shockingly, there are still tickets available, so take advantage of this opportunity. Dubbed “one of the best acoustic-based singer-songwriters you’ve never heard” by Rolling Stone , Jennings most recently released Blood of Man . On this, his eighth album, Jennings takes a new direction by incorporating electric guitar, drums, and distortion. Mason took some time while touring for a phone conversation with Bostonist, talking about our great city, his doodles, and his favorite psychic waitress. He was beyond polite, calling five minutes early and telling his sick interviewer to feel better. Bostonist: You have a show coming up in Boston this week. Mason Jennings: Yup, I’m excited. I like it there. Bostonist: It’s not your first time here. How have your other experiences in the city been? MJ: Oh, It’s been great. It’s an awesome place, you know. I used to come there a lot when I was little. I remember seeing the The Del Fuegos back when they were first starting…My cousin was in that band [bassist Tom Lloyd]. Bostonist: I’d like to talk about your new record, Blood of Man. It’s very raw and has an as-is, honesty to it—you recorded it yourself. How long did you work on the project? MJ: I worked on it for about 4 months. You know, off and on. I took off the winter when I was working in Minnesota and then I just spent from about Thanksgiving through March just working on it. Bostonist: And what kind of schedule did you do at home? MJ: I worked pretty much every day, 9-5. You know, I like working in that sort of space. I like getting in there in the morning and working and then being done. After about 7 or 8 hours of recording, doing it all yourself, that’s about enough. Bostonist: This is a really personal record. You definitely dig into your past growing up in Pittsburgh. Were any of the songs more difficult to write than others? And was the process a release for you? MJ: …It felt good to do all those songs. It felt like getting free, you know. Like I was just trying to make music that I would want to listen to. Bostonist: I hear you’ve become a fan of True Blood on tour. Who’s your favorite character and why? MJ: Oh man, I don’t know. I’m not even sure of the names. Like I just watched it every once and awhile, but I like the main girl. I forget her name. What’s it? Sookie? Bostonist: Yup, Sookie. MJ: She’s awesome. Bostonist: You’ve been compared to Bob Dylan. Has anyone told you Elvis? He comes to mind when you sing “Lights go down” in the “City of Ghosts”—it had a kind of a blues quality to it. MJ: Ah, cool. That’s awesome. No, I haven’t heard that before, but that’s nice to hear. I love Elvis. Bostonist: “City of Ghosts” was the first song you wrote for the album, right? MJ: Yeah, that’s the first one. I didn’t know, I was kind of was expecting to write a simple guitar and vocal record and that thing came out. I was like, O.K., I guess this is what we’re doing now. Bostonist: What was the last song you wrote and how did that sum up your creative experience for you for this record? MJ: The last song was “Blood of Man” and

that’s the last song on the record…When I was recording the songs I didn’t expect to be putting them out. I thought I was just making it for myself. And then, you know, after thinking about it, I think this should be a record. This feels good to me. So, when I decided to put it out, I’d seen that the record was missing sort of a capstone, like a final song, a final gesture. That song just kinda came to me. It was so exciting. That sort of summed up the record with one song… Bostonist: Listening to your other records, I’ve noticed that you’re not afraid to mention religion in your work. And you’ve said that the title Blood of Man came to you. Does the title have any religious significance? MJ: Not as far as I know. I just kept hearing the title in my head while I was recording. At first, I thought it might be in the Bible or something, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. I think it’s more open than that. It’s more about instincts… that connect us all. Bostonist: The video for “Ain’t no friend of mine,” [above] has some interesting drawings. I like the one where you do a jig with the devil. Can you tell us more about these? MJ: My friend Barry [Kimm, video director and producer]…asked me, cause I draw all the time around the house, but I never really do it for the music, to combine it. Then he said, ‘why don’t you try drawing something for this one?’ So we got one of those old, overhead projectors and set it up in my studio, and he put on the record, and just during every song, I drew a different thing. I did about 80 or 90 drawings. He had it animated by a friend of his in Chicago. It was cool to see it actually moving and stuff. I was stoked. I had fun. Bostonist: Did you save any of the drawings after the video shoot? MJ: I don’t where they are actually. They’re somewhere around, probably. Bostonist: And, so here’s a random question: collections say a lot about their owners. Do you collect anything or have you? MJ: Not really. I actually pretty much don’t keep anything physical. I don’t really have any possessions of mine that I would really even miss. So, no, I think that might say a lot about me too… Bostonist: Yeah, a non-collector. That does say a lot. How you’ve liked being on the road with your opening act, Anna Rossi so far? MJ: I just met her this week. My tour manager, Chad, is a big fan, and he really liked her music. And he asked me to check it out and consider her. And I heard it, and I was like, ‘yeah, this is great.’ She plays the viola and drums. It’s really sparse and just really beautiful songs and [a] really unique sound. It’s a good fit I think. Bostonist: Do you have any upcoming projects or collaborations? MJ: Not so far. I’m just kinda focusing mostly on this record. It’s kind of a new step for me. This record feels fresh and new and I have a bigger band now than I’ve ever had—two electric guitars on stage. So we’re just right in the middle of this right now. I’m trying to fully experience this and bring it to a full expression through these live shows. Then we’ll see what happens this winter when I take some time off the road.

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Bostonist Interviews Mason Jennings, Scheduled to Play Somerville Theatre Thursday