The milestones keep coming for My Morning Jacket. Armed with an impressive catalog of beloved albums and known as one of the finest touring acts in the land, the band is enjoying the 20th anniversary of its landmark third album, It Still Moves, and it’s now been 15 years since Evil Urges in 2008. Jim James has led the band through it all, and they’re currently in the planning stages of a new MMJ album.
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Jim spoke to American Songwriter during a brief break in their 2023 touring schedule about the longevity of his band and about coming to terms with older material that once wore him out.
American Songwriter: You’re currently in the middle of a little break from touring before you head back out. Do you like to put music away for a while during times like this, or are you always at it?
Jim James: A little bit of both. I feel like when we come right off, I usually need complete downtime just to recuperate. It takes so much energy to be on tour. But then the music always creeps back in, and I’m working on a new My Morning Jacket record, trying to figure out what that’s gonna be. There are a lot of different demos and ideas that we’re trying to sort through, so that’s been cool.
AS: You’ve been playing It Still Moves in its entirety during certain live shows to honor the 20th anniversary. As you dug back into that album to prepare to play it all, was there anything that surprised you?
JJ: That’s a good question. We played It Still Moves a couple of weeks ago at Red Rocks in its entirety, and we had done that once or twice before. But it’s funny, this far out from it, so much of it we play all the time. We were kind of laughing about it. We said we really don’t have to do too much homework for this one.
One thing that I really laugh about, especially when I look at the first three records, is how long they are. I don’t why we were always so fatalistic, but we were always joking that every record would be our last. We had to cram as many songs onto it as we could. Like, “Well, they’re really gonna ax us after this one, so let’s make sure we put as many songs on there as possible so they’ll live.” (Laughs.) I don’t regret it or anything. I think it’s cool, and it’s just a different thing. But it’s just interesting how long they are. In a lot of ways, they’re almost like double albums.
AS: Well, it was the CD era.
JJ: We literally would make them 74 minutes exactly, or as close as we could get.
AS: Do you enjoy the process of playing an entire album live?
JJ: It’s amazing. It really is so cool, because it does take you back to the journey of the album and why we decided the sequence we did. Because we put a lot of thought into the sequence, into the artwork, and into the whole vibe of the album. It’s always like a time-machine experience. It’s so cool that this is the third record now that we’ve had a 20th anniversary for. Each one, you step back in the time machine, and you look at the old pictures. You’re transported to that time again, and it’s definitely a gratitude moment, where I just feel so grateful to have been able to make this music, grateful for all the people in my life that have helped make it too, and the band. And that we’re still doing it, I feel grateful for that too.
It’s just such a wild thing when you look at so many things that come and go. And there are the heavy hitters like the Rolling Stones who are still going after 60 years or whatever. And then you look at more of what I call the older brother bands, like the Flaming Lips or Yo La Tengo’s of the world, that are a good ten years older than us. They’re still going. It’s really inspiring because it’s been like 23, 24 years for us now, and I’m just awestruck by all the peaks and valleys we’ve been through, the times the band could have been over, and the fact that it’s still going. It’s such a blessing.
AS: I read an older interview with you where you said that you sometimes struggled with playing older songs live because it was mentally taxing to go back into the headspace of who you were when you wrote them. Have you found ways to deal with that?
JJ: I really have. It’s funny because I remember saying that and feeling that for a long time, as I struggled with depression, struggled with my own battles. It was kind of too much for me to do a lot of that stuff. I think that really limited us in how much we could switch the set lists around, and how different we could make things. Because there were so many songs that I didn’t want to play.
But now, I feel like I’m on a little better track. I’m feeling better and healthier as a person. So now, I really enjoy a lot of those things. I really see them differently. It used to take this Herculean effort from me to find the energy to sing some of those songs. But now it’s more like there’s this different source of energy, where it doesn’t really bother me anymore. It’s more of a gift. It’s so cool that I get to step back in time and do these songs and not have them negatively impact me. Bo [Koster of MMJ] has been really encouraging us to switch up our set list in the last few years. It’s been baffling to actually be able to do it. I’m not saying no to so many songs anymore. I’ll play any song now, which has made it so much fun for everyone.
AS: To what do you attribute the longevity of My Morning Jacket?
JJ: There’s something behind the music, for every band, that we can’t understand and that keeps the thing going or not. There’s some spirit or some source. It’s hard to explain. I love creating music in so many different ways. I love making solo records, playing with people, and doing My Morning Jacket stuff. And there were times when I was really burned out with My Morning Jacket, and it almost ended. But, for whatever reason, the spirit brought it back around. I don’t really feel like it’s even in my control. That’s the interesting thing.
It’s kind of like when you look at the Rolling Stones. When Charlie died, that could have been the end. But it’s like the will for the thing to keep going is even larger than the death. But conversely, sometimes death finishes the thing. I don’t think you even know until you get there. I’ve never been the kind of person that’s into making big declarations. Even when we took a break from My Morning Jacket for a couple of years, I never thought, “Well, My Morning Jacket is over. Goodbye.” At least for me, that kind of finality is only declared when all the people are literally gone.
It’s interesting how it flows. But the mystery of it all is cool. I love seeing bands that I admire, where there’s this mystery. Kind of like Radiohead. They’ll disappear five, 10 years, or whatever, and then, out of nowhere, another record comes. Life flows in so many different ways, and we change in so many different ways. I think that’s the way that this will go. It goes in waves, and it changes, and people’s families or people’s health kind of send things up and down. And you just kind of ride along.
The Epiphone Jim James ES-335
Long known as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, Jim James was an ideal choice to get a signature guitar from the folks at Gibson. The Epiphone Jim James ES-335 includes touches that will endear itself to any guitar head, including a solid maple center block for increased sustain and Kluson Waffleback tuners. But, as James told us, he was all about creating a guitar that you’d want to turn to in any situation.
AS: What inspired this signature guitar?
JJ: It’s kind of based on a blend of two guitars. When we were making It Still Moves, I got my first Gibson 335 guitar. And I still play that onstage to this day. It’s a brighter sunburst kind of color. Before that, I had always had what I guess you’d call solid-body guitars, like a Strat or the Flying V. Or I had a couple of Gretsch hollow bodies that were less rock and roll, for lack of a better term. When I got the 335, I was just in awe of it because it kind of does everything. It’s a hollow-body guitar. You can sit and strum it without an amp or anything, and it sounds really nice. But when you play electric, you can do everything with it. You can play beautiful, shimmering stuff, or you can get into it and get really dirty. Whereas other hollow bodies feed back horribly, or you can’t really play them at loud volumes on stage, because they’re too uncontrollable. They’re made for quieter playing. I had that 335 for years, and I then I got a black 335 that I also played on tour forever, probably when we made Z.
When I got the opportunity to do this, I worked with Dustin Wainscott at Gibson. And I just wanted to create something that was a kind of a combination of both of them. Kind of a classic wood-grain finish. I wanted to make something that felt timeless and really useful. It’s almost like a tree or something. I wanted it to feel really natural. Rather than being some wild, exotic thing, it’s like the hammer that you grab out of the toolbox every time.
We put a really thin neck on it. I like thin-neck guitars because I have bad carpal tunnel. We put some cool details on it, so that hopefully it would feel timeless and like your favorite hammer in the toolbox. Like, “I could play this thing, or I could play that thing, but I’ll just go with this 335 all the time.” (Laughs.)
There are so many elements, choices, and subtle variations. Things like the Waffleback tuning heads, the witch hat volume knobs, and the exact color of the finish. Just these little details. We went back and forth on the neck. That was one of the things that I wanted to make sure, to get to where you just glided across, you could play it for a long time, and it never felt taxing.
AS: As someone who loves guitars and guitarists, how does it feel to have one from such a beloved brand named after you?
JJ: That’s so mind-blowing. We always talk about the eighth-grade me. We’ve had some of these crazy moments, Patrick [Hallahan of MMJ] and I, because I’ve known Patrick since fourth grade. He’s just like, “What would the eighth-grade you say if he knew he had his own signature guitar? He wouldn’t believe it.” I used to sit at the grocery store reading guitar magazines while my Dad shopped for groceries, looking at all the signature models in there.
But that’s another thing that we talked about a lot. I wanted to make a guitar that was so classic and natural that hopefully people would see it, and even if they didn’t know who I was, they’d just think that it was a beautiful guitar. I wanted it to be one of those things where you would see it hanging on the wall and be like, “Oh, what’s that one?” And not even care who I was.
Photo courtesy Gibson
