Words With: Johnathan Rice

Born 22 years ago in Alexandria, Virginia to Scottish parents, young troubadour Johnathan Rice has elicited comparisons with the likes of Ryan Adams, Jeff Klein, Pete Yorn and Ed Harcourt. He's supported, amongst others, Dido, Martha Wainwright and Starsailor. Yet with his debut album 'Trouble Is Real' Rice is earning rave reviews he is all set for a headlining future. In the soon-to-be-released Johnny Cash biopic 'Walk The Line', Rice plays Roy Orbison, is there anything this man can't do? With so much going on Gigwise thought it wise to contact the Californian singer /songwriter while he was checking out the big smoke, to ask him about his album, the movie, Dido and just why he spells his name like that...

Gigwise:  So, Johnathan, is that the Scottish spelling of the name then?
Johnathan: (In an accent that's more Glaswegian than Virginian)  “I don't know what kind of spelling it is. I recently visited the folks and I was trying to explain to my mother that all across Europe it looks like my name has been randomly misspelled. She said she added the extra h to make me unique. But I pointed out to her that it doesn't make me unique. Just misspelled.”

G:  Do you feel more Scottish than American?
J:  “Well, I have dual nationality. My dad always used to encourage me to call myself Scottish. He reasoned there were 280 million Americans compared to just 5 million Scots. "We're in the minority, son," he argued. "We need all the numbers we can get." I don't necessarily feel out of place in either country, yet neither do I feel at home.”

G:  You previously consigned English hotel service to Room 101. How are the Columbia Hotel treating you?
J:  “I did that when I was interviewed during my last stay at the Columbia. Having just flown in from LA, I was pretty knackered. Not bothering to turn on the lights, I crawled into bed and went straight to sleep. When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was warm liquid on my hands and back. I was bleeding. Somebody had left half of a broken pint glass in my bed. Now that's what I call pretty alarming. A.) The fact someone would do that and b.) That the hotel hadn't cleaned the room properly.”

G:  Shocking!  Yet you're staying there again.
J:  “It's near Hyde Park. It's got a lovely view. I would stay here regardless. But let me tell you of another story that sums up what I think of English hotel service. I'd just played the 100 Club. It was a really good gig and I invited a load of mates I hadn't seen in a while back to the Columbia for a drink. After all, the bar here enjoys a reputation an an open-all-hours-type of place. We were confronted by Douglas, the night porter. He threw all my friends out, saying only residents were allowed to drink there. I tried to reason with him, but all he could say was: "I'm depressed. Why shouldn't you be too?" That attitude really got me."

G:  You should have walked around the corner from the 100 Club to Hanway Street. It boasts a number of friendly late-night Spanish bars.
J:  “Thanks. I'll bear that in mind for another time!"

G:  You're playing Roy Orbison in the film about Johnny Cash's life. Who, though, would you choose to depict yourself in any future biopic?
J: (perhaps more than a little flippantly)  “Well, Walter Matthau would have been great. But he's dead. Hold on a minute. What's the name of that famous blonde actress? Shelly Duvall. That's her.”

G:  Shelly Duvall? Really?
J: "Yes. She's so cool."

G:  Going back to 'Walk The Line', did Roy Orbison's and Johnny Cash's career overlap that much then?
J:  “Well, Sam Phillips put together a loose collective at Sun Records comprising Cash, Orbison and Carl Perkins. And later in life Johnny and Roy were neighbours. They lived across the lake to each other. I actually saw the film for the first time when I went back to the States a couple of weeks ago. I'm not in the film that much as my role is more musical. It was really good to see the bits that I wasn't in.”

G:  I take it working with T Bone Burnett was particularly enjoyable?
J:  “It was really lovely and interesting to be on a film set in the first place. It's an experience I probably won't repeat. But recording with T Bone had always been a dream. Just because of who he is. He's a modern-day Alan Lomax.”

G (Interrupting ignoramus-style):  Alan Lomax?
J: "Alan Lomax was a musicologist. He dedicated his life to archiving all the blues, Leadbelly, Sun House, etc. Burnett is similarly steeped in all that old American music. He's a go-to guy for that type of knowledge. He's worked with Bob Dylan and all my heroes in fact. He produced Roy Orbison's 'Black and White Nights' too which remains one of my favourite shows."

G:  Before signing to Warner Brothers, you were struggling to make it as an artist in New York. What was the worst job you took on there to support yourself?
J:  “That would be when I was a telemarketer. I was selling cellular phones. Most of the people you're talking to are shut-ins and the elderly. They want to stay on the phone because they're so lonely. My boss didn't like that, obviously. The offices were in Brooklyn, an area which is steadily becoming more gentrified. But they were closer to Coney Island which remains a rough place. My boss was a crooked character who paid your salary late. One day a guy who came in who used to work there with a gun, demanding his back wages. It was at that point that I decided to get out and play some gigs."

G:  You once described Dido's audience as a "bunch of ****ing dentists". What did you mean by that?
J:  “That line was taken out of context. I didn't mean Ms Armstrong any disrespect because she was so kind. Dido's a totally lovely women. It was just a really strange proposition supporting her. I'd play these long, sad folk songs to her audience who had no interest in them nor understood them. It just wasn't up their alley as her music is definitely more mainstream. I'd be playing to 3,000 people like that and following her tour bus in a rental car. It was a kind of trying experience."

G:  How hard for you was it to be the support act for more established artists?
J:  “I've had some great experiences supporting. You don't just graduate into a headliner overnight. You have to build an audience, steal a few fans here and there, from the likes of Starsailor for example, and make them into my own. It's that old phrase: 'paying your dues'. There'll be times you're throwing your heart into songs that people couldn't care less about, but you have to painfully learn the process of holding an audience's attention. However, I really enjoyed opening for Martha Wainwright. She and her band are like-minded artists and when I played, her audience immediately responded."

G:  Do you still people watch as inspiration for your songs?
J:  “I can be inspired by anything. It just taps me on the shoulders now and again. It can be in the middle of a conversation, on a plane, I can't identify the source. It's a different source each time. I've only started playing with a band just now, so before I had lots of time by myself. Some of which I would spend walking around, watching people. When I'm in transit, that constant change of scenery still informs my writing.”

G: What did producer Mike Mogis contribute to 'Trouble Is Real'?
J:  “Oh, man, everything. I was already signed to Warner Brothers as Johnathan Rice. If I hadn't I would have recorded under a different name. It was a really trying album to record. I'd recorded it four times already before I hooked up with Mike but wasn't happy with it. I found myself unable to convey what I wanted to all these different people. Mike, though, translated everything perflectly. He's one of the great undiscovered talents in music right now. The next time I want to record an album with him I might find out I'll have to wait as he'll be working with someone of the calibre of U2. He really added things as well. On 'My Mother's Son' I wanted the song to explode. Mike did all these arrangements and went with an orchestral approach I wouldn't have thought of."

G:  It's funny you should mention 'My Mother's Son'. That's my favourite off the album. I love the different textures. What's your favourite?
J:  “It changes from time to time. But at the moment it's 'I Wouldn't Miss It For the World'. It's just me and a guitar. That's a reflection of what I do. That's how I start to write a song. That one just appeared in front of me. It took all of five minutes, but I'm more proud of the writing in that song that any other. It's frustrating because others can take six months. Writing for me is a source of much frustration and happiness. I'm still learning, but I haven't written a song the same way twice."

G:  You've described 'Trouble Is Real' as a "snapshot of your late teens". Was this period in your life more troubled than most?
J:  “Absolutely not. Everyone has their share of troubles, but when you're in your late teens the weight of the world seems a lot more profound than it really is. At that time I'd moved to New York. I was striking out on my own. It was really exhilarating. No-one was looking out for me anymore. And in New York, I saw more trouble than most; pretty miserable things, tragic things. Happening in the bedroom next to me. That made its mark on me and and on the album."

G:  You had a Catholic education. My sons are going will be too. What can they expect?
J:  “I'll probably send my children to Catholic schools. I don't have much time for the clergy in terms of what they believe in, the doctrine and all that. But the educational standard is pretty high. And I don't think you would have got a writer like James Joyce if he we went to a hippy school in San Francisco where you paint your homework. Catholic schools can crush your spirit if you're quite weak or make you stronger if you're not. Personally, I'm glad of all the verbal abuse those nuns gave me.”

G:  Changing the subject completely, What's your favourite tipple?
J:  “Drink? It changes as your liver gets older. Being in California, though, I like to drink tequila.

G:  Does it have any effect on your voice, do you think?
Johnathan:  “Only in that over the course of an evening I become less intelligible. My American friends say my accent becomes progressively more Glaswegian. I think that's down to the fact that I started drinking when I spent some time over there. I'm not an advocate of getting drunk before I play. Some of my musician friends can, but I just can't do that."

G:  You're getting lots of positive press right now, but how much are you steeling yourself for a backlash?
J:  “I'm kinda prepared. The way I handle it is that I don't think anyone should believe anything written about them good or bad. If I have to believe all the good things I have to believe all the bad things too. But believe me, I'm the harshest critic of my own work. I rake myself across the coals. I'm very hard on myself and see huge gaping wounds in this album, more than any music writer could see. The British press have a specific purpose of building you up and then burning you down. I just have to stand by and watch it happen, although I'm not really interested. It interrupts the creative process and can become a very dangerous pastime."

G:  What's the best piece of advice anybody has ever given you?
J:  ““Get off the roof.” I was out in the desert in California with some friends and we climbed onto the roof of the building we were in. I phoned a friend and was like,“Hey, man, we're on the roof right now. Right by the edge. It's great.” And he just said, “Get off the roof.” So I did.

Wise words, indeed...Johnathan Rice's debut album 'Trouble Is Real' is out now.