DANIEL LANOIS: Fighter for the Spirit

Just an ordinary day in L.A. Daniel Lanois is high on life, cooking some couscous and carrot salad-a rare repose enjoying a pedestrian existence for an artist whose life is anything but ordinary. Between studio sessions with mentor and longtime collaborator Brian Eno in France, where they are laying the groundwork for U2’s next record, the songwriter somehow found time to co-direct (with Adam Vollick and Adam Samuels) his first feature film, Here Is What Is, along with a companion soundtrack.Just an ordinary day in L.A. Daniel Lanois is high on life, cooking some couscous and carrot salad-a rare repose enjoying a pedestrian existence for an artist whose life is anything but ordinary. Between studio sessions with mentor and longtime collaborator Brian Eno in France, where they are laying the groundwork for U2’s next record, the songwriter somehow found time to co-direct (with Adam Vollick and Adam Samuels) his first feature film, Here Is What Is, along with a companion soundtrack.

Lanois and I spend 45 minutes chatting like fast friends-philosophizing on the ways of the world and discussing some of the spiritual songs on his new record.

Here Is What Is was released digitally on Lanois’ newly created Red Floor Records (www.redfloorrecords.com) in December; it marks the first digital download release in high resolution CD quality, .wav format.

“We tried this out as a way of bypassing the myriad of complexities associated with record releases in modern times,” he explains. “If you want to put out a record through a record company these days, six months will go by before something even comes close to being on the stand for purchasing.

“I own the rights to this lovely collection of music, so I said, ‘Why not put it up on the website immediately?’ So there you have it: Lanois’ corner store…we’ve harvested a nice batch of apples and here they are on the stand…they have not been on a truck ripening, and we did not have to clear them through customs or anything.

“That is what is special about the technology,” he adds. “Spontaneity can be our friend in these modern times.”

For his sixth solo record, the title of which Lanois explains is a Jamaican proverb meaning, “Look at what is in front of you and make something of it,” the 10-time Grammy winner follows this carpe diem philosophy to offer 18 spiritual stories that depict the shared human condition in modern times. As Lanois sings in the chorus of the title track, “Here is what is/Here is what is/Don’t you go walking/too long in the dark.”

Finding the light within the dark and “getting out of the mire and letting the spirit rise”-that’s Lanois’ secret. The record includes sound bytes of philosophical conversations with celebrated English producer and ambient musician Eno, taken from the film. Like the title of the opening dialogue with Eno, “Chest of Drawers,” Lanois lets listeners in on his secrets, revealing what lies beneath our fragile souls and leading to a greater understanding of knowing-in a world gone wrong-there’s still hope in his soulful songs.

“Beautiful things grow out of shit,” says Eno on the interview cut “Beauty.” “Things come out of nothing…the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest. The most promising seed in the wrong situation turns into nothing. It gives people confidence in their own lives to know that is how things work.”

For this recording, the seeds that filled Lanois’ cup were inspired by everything from late-night philosophical conversations with movie stars to early morning, casual chats with coffeehouse heroes. He describes the songs as “heart-and-soul spiritual songs.”

“What else can we hang on to?” Lanois asks. “You have to be a fighter for the spirit…I just don’t know any other way to do it. Without that you become cynical and adopt an attitude of, ‘I can’t do anything about it anyway, so fuck it,’ which promotes greed.”

Here Is What Is was recorded in Toronto, Los Angeles and Shreveport, La. with jazz drummer Brian Blade and pianist Garth Hudson (The Band). In Shreveport, Lanois recalls how he and his fellow musical merrymakers sat in with a local band for a week to perform a roaring rendition of “This May Be the Last Time,” an event which is captured on film. “I love that piece with its lyrics: ‘Maximize your moment because this may be the last time,'” he comments.

The prolific producer and soul-searching songwriter has adhered to this credo for more than 20 years. He doesn’t take his gift for granted; he’s still a humble Canadian kid who continues to make something of what lies ahead, never looking back. Yet, he never forgets his rural roots and what he describes as “the rise of a son of a hairdresser,”  building on his musical mythology one storied song at a time. “These days, anybody who is a supporter…I don’t take it for granted,” he says.

One of the most heartfelt of these spiritual, visual vignettes on Here Is What Is is the song “Harry,” which Lanois penned after spending a long night with actor/musician Harry Dean Stanton. He describes it as a “touching way to look at the world through someone else’s eyes.”

“Harry had been robbed and was afraid to go back to his house, so he came to my hotel and we spent a fascinating night together,” he says. “He just told stories. I wish I had filmed that because he is really somebody who has lived through enough chapters to qualify as one of the mentors of modern times. I asked Harry if he had any kids, and he said, ‘I think I got one’…and he was really evasive about it all. But he said, ‘I’ve pretty much always been a womanizer.’

“I said I was going to write this song about a womanizer, and on that night the woman who comes to him is his angel that is going to take him away-someone who is kindhearted and generous.”

Lanois recites me the opening verse: “You are traveling full speed/and your heels are sliding down that muddy hollow/You’ve lost your grip/In a distance called this feeling/nothing you can follow/Desperation sends a shock to your brain/Now you must fight/The sins are great/The arms with her life/Harry pray for your angel tonight.”

Another of Lanois’ new and memorable songs is “Not Fighting Anymore.” “It’s about a guy who is giving up the fight, but giving up the fight means that he is now able to stand up and see what the fight should really be about,” he explains, before reciting this poignant lyric, which he says is the pivotal point in the song: “But I’m not fighting any less/I feel it in the chest/I heard something in the breeze/Now I know where I’m bound…”

Catch the Spirit

“I have a few coffee-drinking buddies down on the corner here in L.A., and we talk about this kind of stuff,” says Lanois. “One guy is post-slacker and he always says, ‘You are an idealist, Lanois.’ He is always going for the big one, but as it turns out, he’s never really done anything. He’s still the maître d’ at the burrito joint, but he doesn’t respect that job and doesn’t want it…he thinks he is going to write a masterpiece.

“My other friend runs a coffee shop and believes in running a coffee shop and loves it,” Lanois continues. “My friend who wants to write a masterpiece thinks that guy is insignificant…he is just a Mexican guy who gets up in the morning and makes coffee, but to me he is a neighborhood hero. I believe there is beauty and pride to be associated with excellence on any level.”

Movie-making vs. Music-making

“I just wanted to include all aspects of my world: my visuals, my music, the way we do things in the studio and how the imagination works,” he explains of his first foray into film. “It was an opportunity to operate with a new medium, but really it’s not that different. I’ve been told by some of my friends that they believe the film is like one of my albums, or an album I’ve produced…it has that feeling about it.

“They both require tender love and care,” he adds. “We just looked for the same kind of moments of levitation that you would want on a record. There are a few points in the film where there is an emotional lift-off. You never know how you are going to get those. Garth Hudson’s hands on the piano that opens the film was that kind of moment. We got that shot early on, and we thought-in a very hurried world-wouldn’t it be nice to watch a master at work for four minutes.”

Last September I had the privilege to watch this master musician at work in his Toronto studio during a private concert for friends, following the premiere of Here Is What Is. Hudson made a surprise guest appearance.

In his studio, Lanois played for me the pedal steel he’s had since he was a teenager, which he describes on the record as his “church in a suitcase.” The singer/songwriter also showed me some of his prized instruments, including a Martin D-28 acoustic crafted from the finest Brazilian rosewood, and a Gibson SJ-200 (circa 1940, worth as much as a compact car) given to him by Emmylou Harris. His passion for his art was evident as he picked up each instrument like a kid discovering music for the first time. Grammy Awards lined the player piano where he offered some notes from Here Is What Is.

Flash ahead to December and our second interview. As our conversation comes to a close, Lanois lets me in on another secret. He’s also working on a memoir, which he describes as “travels through rock ‘n’ roll.”

“Respecting my gift, that’s the story,” he says. “It’s fun to write it down. I had apprehensions at first, as I did not want to be viewed as a braggart; but as I see it, it’s a chance to include a few philosophical bends in the road, cover the making of some of the records I’ve been involved with, including Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, and talk about my work with Eno and Peter Gabriel.

“It will certainly be interesting for folks who want to be in my line of work, and at the lighter-reading end…for anyone who is interested in the rise of a kid from Steeltown.”