 
Since it’s release last month, Son Volt’s Okemah and the Legacy of Riot has been in constant rotation at my house, and with practically everyone that’s a Jay Farrar fan that I know. When Farrar was regrouping the band, it was after a few years of solo shows (or with a few friends) and a tour with the DC band Canyon as his opener/backing band. He had been reveling in the freedom from having a band, continuning to make music, putting out eclectic albums full of friends famous and not (Sebastopol, Terroir Blues) and raising some kids. The big question for me, when I found out that Son Volt was re-emerging with a new lineup was “why even bother calling it Son Volt? Why not just keep it Jay Farrar?” And even after talking to Jay on the phone, I don’t really have the answer, except that Son Volt does seem to have a distinct energy separate from his solo endeavors. Tom Chandler: How did you get hooked up with Sony/Legacy? Jay Farrar: I met some of the guys there, Don Jackson and Adam Block showed up at some Son Volt shows in the mid 90s, so I had a rapport with them going back that far.. I’ve always admired a lot of the stuff they’ve been putting out. I own a lot of their catalog. Overall there’s just a shared story going into it. We think the same way. TC: Did you have any trepidation about going back to major label land? JF: Not really. I was ready to try something else this time. Coming from a position where I was putting out records on a self produced label, it doesn’t take long to realize the limitations of that. You can barely even get your records in the stores. TC: So it’s not about the money to record, it’s more about the distribution end of it? JF: Somewhere down the line, money might help. With this one, I just did it on a credit card, essentially. There was no label involved during the recording. That didn’t come about until later. TC: I thought you had your own studio and gear and all that.
TC: And you recorded it pretty much live? JF: That was the approach, yeah. I guess maybe if there was a guide, it would be the Rolling Stones approach of the late 60s early 70s, where they try to capture as much live stuff as possible, and yet they didn’t hesitate from adding a lot of stuff either. I did wind up doing overdubs. I tried to do a minimal amount of them, though. TC: Did you approach the songwriting differently this time? JF: I guess I didn’t consciously go into it that way, but I did know that I was gearing up for a Son Volt record one way or the other. So in that respect, maybe it was different. TC: So you have a differentiation in your head as to what Son Volt means compared to what your non-Son Volt material would be? JF: To a certain extent. I mean, the solo stuff was a little bit more free-form, an anything goes approach. With Son Volt, I feel like I have to do something that will still translate in a live context. Everyone can still play it. TC: I understand what you’re saying, but in a way it sounds limiting, like why would you want to go back to that if it has constraints? JF: I guess it depends on your perspective, whether it has constraints or whether it’s something that works. TC: Do you feel like you had to be a reality TV star, making the documentary and all that? [the dualdisc of Okemah features a bonus making of documentary featuring live in the studio footage and interviews- ed.] JF: Fortunately it never really felt that way. It added a little element of lightening things up. We had the web-cams in, which we knew about, but we knew it wasn’t going to be there for long. All it takes is one day of doing it and that’s it, pretty much. TC: It’s weird to me that our whole society has become so savvy, that you could put a camera on anybody now and it would be normal. There could be a Son Volt reality show! JF: God help us! Tommy Lee goes to college! It feels great to have options like that! TC: On the dvd, you said something about how you wanted to write more melodic material. I wondered, does that mean that your solo albums were less accessible somehow? JF: I guess maybe that’s the case. I never really thought about writing melodic songs. I don’t know if it was a phobia or what, but I felt like other people were already doing it and doing it well. More recently, I”ve come to the realization that that’s the kind of music that got me started, like the Beatles especially. TC: It’s funny to me, because I don’t think of your music as non-melodic. JF: Yeah, I never thought of it as melodic, so that strikes me as a funny thing you’re saying. TC: Okay! So we’re even now. But that goes back to your approach to songwriting being different. JF: I guess it reflects my current outlook. A little bit brighter. TC: This seems to be the happiest record you’ve ever made, perhaps. JF: Perhaps. I’m interested in seeing how happy I can take it.
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Jay Farrar and Son Volt find their Happiness
JF: I do, but still there was
people, John Agnello, engineered it and mixed it. There were still
expenses.