Chicago – Jesse Marchant, the artist formally known as JBM, is ready to release a new album and a new sound. The Canadian singer-songwriter has taken his years of music exploration to create an album that is less folky, filled with a “broader palette” of sound and sheer emotion. He is the Bruce Springsteen of his generation, truthfully exploring relationships around him, with a sultry baritone and riveting lyrics. After spending months holed up alone in New York, writing his heart out, Marchant headed to the studio to record his most unrestrained album yet. I talked with the NYC transplant about his soon-to-be-released fourth album, titled Jesse Marchant, comparisons to his idols, and film photography.
Sarah Hess: I listened to your new album; it’s beautiful. You’ve said you wrote the songs during ‘a general period of falling outs, absence and abuse, both of self and of what should or could have been surrounding.’ Can you elaborate more on that?
Jesse Marchant: That sounds pretty dramatic. (laughs) I was living in New York and a lot of my relationships were falling-out; romantic relationships, friends, and just complicated things that I don’t really want to overly elaborate on because that’s personal stuff. A lot of friends around me, as well though, who were in [failing] marriages and relationships, everything sort of felt like it was just falling apart, and it was just a weird coincidence that it all fell into the same time period. So the structure of life the way that I knew it, in terms of references I had around me, just wasn’t the same anymore, so I just ended up being alone for a long a period of time in the city. People were either absent or not around the way that usually were.
Sarah Hess: In ‘Every Eye Open,’ you start out with ‘I thought you had opened your heart to me’ and later you talk more about realizing that you’ve always loved whom it is you’re singing about. Is this a song about heartbreak or something else?
Jesee Marchant: It’s not all about unrequited love. I guess this song is more about things that are not said, that are felt. A lot of the songs have several meanings that are just compounded on top of one another. They’re specific and non-specific at the same time; my viewpoint and the other person’s viewpoint blended together.
SH: My favorite song on the album is ‘Reminders, Defeats.’ I especially love these lyrics: ‘You can tell both of your parents that they got it wrong / Pushing you aside / All that anger they left you now with their pain.’
JM: You’re really into the lyrics, huh?
SH: I love lyrics!
JM: I do, too.
SH: Is this song about you? What inspired it?
JM: This is one of those songs that started with one particular person and then turned into being about three or four different people. When writing songs, you’re observing people around you and have a commentary about it, but the commentary itself is rooted in what you know. So a lot of it becomes a projection of yourself onto these people. That particular song is about a couple of people in my life, who feel like they are fighting something, they don’t know what it is, and they’re being held back by it or held down by it and how that manifests into the state that they’re in.
SH: In the song, is that you playing the piano?
JM: Yes!
SH: I’m a Chicagoan, so I’ve got to ask about ‘Snow Chicago.’ Were you in Chicago when you wrote that?
JM: I actually was. You know, I don’t often write songs in the moment, they’re usually more reflective, and I write them after the fact, after an experience. But that was actually sort of an eerie morning I had waking up in a hotel; it was in April and it was snowing out. It was basically summer weather the day before, but that morning it was snowing. I was in my hotel room, and I had had the chords for it for a while so I just wrote the words.
SH: I know exactly what day you’re talking about! (laughs) Everyone was freaking out like, ‘Why is it snowing in April!’
JM: Yeah, it was really weird! It was originally called ‘Summer Snow Chicago,’ but I shortened it.
SH: You’ve been compared to Neil Young and Nick Drake. Those are some heavy and prestigious comparisons. How do you feel about that?
JM: It’s cool. Both of those artists I absolutely adore. I don’t feel like I was ever consciously emulating them, but of course influence is a very rich thing. It seeps in and comes out in funny ways. The spirit of those artists and the way that they sing, to me is pure, so it’s an awesome comparison.
SH: In listening to your album, I’m filled with childhood memories of my father playing folk albums. I’m curious as to what type of music your parents played when you were growing up and what types of music you discovered as you became a teenager and grew into an adult?
JM: My parents weren’t really into anything that obscure, so there’s definitely the ones you mentioned (Neil Young and Nick Drake) but then all sorts of songs from the radio, they were non-discriminating, you know 80s and 90s adult contemporary, which I grew to really despise and now I’ve come back around to liking out of nostalgia. In my teenage years I got really into Nirvana and things that I guess were still very mainstream but had more of an angst and an edge to them. Then I went through a hip hop phase in my teens, and I guess it was in my early 20s when I really started to discover new and old music. Since then I’ve just been building my music into all kinds of genres. I think on this album there’s more of a broader palette. It doesn’t quite feel like a folk album to me, whereas my first album did. I feel like everything has sort of come together a little more thanks to all the music I’ve listened to over the years.
SH: I see you’ve joined the world of social media. Your facebook profile photo is a selfie of sorts with an old film camera. Do you dabble in photography?
JM: I do, I guess. I have an old Canon 35 mm camera that was my dad’s. I used to take a ton of pictures with it, but I’ve slowed down a bit. Whenever I’m on tour I like to take a ton of pictures, and when I travel I just go into that mode. If I’m home and just sort of living life, I don’t find myself taking that many pictures. I don’t consider myself to be a photographer, but I feel like I have an eye for it. I took the cover shot for the record, too. That was one I took with an old film camera when I was out in the desert.
SH: You dropped JBM for your full name. What brought that about?
JM: I guess I felt like I outgrew it, and going by my initials always felt weird when people called me JBM. (laughs) It was a moniker I hadn’t put much thought into, and I was totally fine with it. It was a non-dramatic choice to use that and also a non-dramatic choice wanting to go by my name. I’ve just been doing this now for years, and it just feels very natural to be recognized for it as myself and not under some sort of veil.
Jesse Marchant is currently on tour, so you can see him veil-free at a venue near you. He’ll also be touring again this Fall. Click HERE for tour dates. Jesse Marchant comes out September 9. Head over to iTunes to pre-order your copy today, or if you’re a vinyl lover, head to Insound to add this gem to your record collection.
Photo credit: Darek Dziong
Sarah Hess
After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.
You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.
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