Gentle Is As Gentle Does

He's a wonderfully enigmatic figure, Jonathan Wilson. When a few years back the North Carolina-bred musician decamped to LA in chase of his musical dreams, he soon became the de facto flag waver for the Laurel Canyon sound of yesteryear – that gently psychedelic, country-tinged vibe which was so prominent there in the '60s and '70s – revitalising the scene with massive private jam sessions in his compound in the hills, gatherings that became so infamous that he soon found himself surrounded by luminaries such as Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Robbie Robertson, Benmont Tench, David Rawlings, Erykah Badu, Chris Robinson plus members of like-minded bands such as Wilco, The Jayhawks, Dawes and Vetiver.

On top of that he quickly became renowned as a quality producer as well, the analogue equipment in his LA studio Fivestar providing warm tones and textures for artists such as Glen Campbell, Roy Harper, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and the recent Father John Misty album.

But it wasn't until 2011 when he finally released his own solo album Gentle Spirit that Wilson's true talents really came to the fore. A beautiful album of exquisite warmth and luscious harmonies, it broadly deals with themes of trying to reconcile a quest for inner peace with the impulse to rail against the general malaise which plagues modern society. The modern equivalent of a master craftsman, Wilson toiled on the album for years before releasing into the world, and he has no intention of changing that painstaking process as he readies himself to record album number two.

“Well the good news is that I've got a bunch of stuff that I've been doing since [Gentle Spirit] came out – I planned ahead,” the softly-spoken artist chuckles. “So when we get back from Australia, in September, I'm going to take the band back into the studio, and we'll have an album ready to be out in the northern spring. It's coming from the same spot – I'm not really trying to purvey some sort of drastically-changed sound – but the difference will be contained in the songs.”

Even though his debut album was widely acclaimed and there's huge anticipation for his sophomore release, Wilson is happy to keep taking his time, not wanting to fix a process which he doesn't believe to be broken.

“Well I've been sort of doing it already – to be honest I'm doing the second record in exactly the same way that I did the first, which on Gentle Spirit was me doing it basically a track at a time, and just going with the flow,” he tells. “Some of it was done with a band all at the same time, but it was mainly a compilation of things that I'd done on my own. So since that one came out – or even before it came out – I've been doing the exact same thing. So currently I have between six and eight of the tracks already done, so it will span quite a long time. The truth is, even though Gentle Spirit came out last year, it was finished in 2010 and started in 2006 or 2007, so this album will come out in 2013 and it was started in 2010 – it's the same thing.

“It's always been a fear of mine that I'll be so busy on the road that I'll have to grab some guitar and go to some fucking hotel and try to come up with an album in a week. That would be fun as an experiment, but to do it as the culmination of all of the millions of insane fucking ideas that I have, that would be kind of scary. Yeah, so it's definitely a very long process and I can't really tend to speed it up.”

As a songwriter Wilson seems equally adept at writing gorgeous music or warm, thought-provoking lyrics, but doesn't believe that his talents are stronger in one field than the other.

“One definitely has to have the other,” he muses. “I would say, to be honest – and not to circumvent the issue – but they both sort of come at the same time, in respect that I don't spend a great deal of time trying to compose bits and pieces with guitars and things like that. It's kind of like if I don't have the melody then I don't have anything. But definitely it's tough to sign off on a song, and give the cheque and admit that it's done – the concepts of the song, and the words. That's probably the toughest part, just being able to do that type of editing.”

But surely it can't be a breeze being so forthright in his songs, and putting so much of his inner-self into the public domain?

“No man, it's not tough to be honest,” he smiles. “Sometimes it's tough to have the perspective on it that someone else would have when listening to the album though. For example my song Gentle Spirit,  to this day I've listened to that song tons of times – thousands of times – so I think during that long process you get sort of indifferent to what it's about, and how I was feeling when I wrote it. But when I go back and see what's being said in that song, I'm extremely excited that it happened. That's the pay off, to be able to go back and listen to something that you're proud of.”

And what of his immeasurable collaborations of recent times – what does he get from sharing creativity with others in this manner?

“I think if I didn't do that, I'd be far too far up my own ass, on my own trip,” he laughs. “That tends to show you what it's all about, which is the exchange of ideas in songs, and the influence that you get from being exposed to people that you get to jam with. Just the other day I got to go deep inside the Grateful Dead, I got to jam with those guys and perform with them and sing with Bob [Weir] and sing with Donna Jean [Godchaux]. So now I've gone back and I'm listening to the Dead every day. It's just that exchange of ideas that I love.”

And Wilson is adamant that we're going to enjoy the live aspect of his craft on this trip Down Under, although it might be slightly different to what we're expecting.

“It's a full band – a great band man – a band that I'm really excited to have,” he enthuses. “We've been together for a while and done a ton of shows. But the one thing that I'd say to expect is a bit more of an amped-up performance. When people have listened to the album I think they expect the show to be extremely sort of subdued, but my band does a great job of putting some excitement into the tunes, so that's really fun. There are dynamics where it comes down too, so it's quite diverse, but the band is amazing – I think people will be stoked about it.”

Jonathan Wilson will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 14 September - Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Friday 15 September - The Standard, Sydney NSW
Sunday 16 September - Brisbane Festival, Brisbane QLD
Monday 17 September - Brisbane Festival, Brisbane QLD