{"id":5813,"date":"2012-04-25T09:01:11","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T16:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5813"},"modified":"2012-04-25T09:04:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T16:04:41","slug":"counting-crows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/04\/counting-crows\/","title":{"rendered":"COUNTING CROWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"COUNTING CROWS<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Adam Duritz and company make an eclectic set of covers their own\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Nearly two decades have passed since Counting Crows exploded onto the scene with their multiplatinum debut\u00a0August and Everything After<\/em> and its smash single, \u201cMr. Jones.\u201d Even as the band has built on that foundation with one critically acclaimed album of originals after another, it has carved out a reputation for interpreting others\u2019 material\u2014from filling in for an absent Van Morrison by performing \u201cCaravan\u201d at the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony to scoring a surprise hit with a 2003 cover of Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u201cBig Yellow Taxi.\u201d The group\u2014which has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide\u2014marked its 2009 departure from longtime label Geffen by releasing a live version of Madonna\u2019s \u201cBorderline\u201d through its website.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s no surprise that Counting Crows has long considered making a full album of other artists\u2019 songs\u2014an ambition finally fulfilled with the new Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation)<\/em>, released on the group\u2019s own Collective Sounds label. Wildly eclectic, the covers disc ranges from vintage power-pop (Big Star\u2019s \u201cThe Ballad of El Goodo\u201d) to \u201970s country-rock (Pure Prairie League\u2019s \u201cAmie\u201d) to a clutch of tunes by lesser-known indie artists (Dawes\u2019 \u201cAll My Failures,\u201d Coby Brown\u2019s \u201cHospital\u201d). \u201cThis is probably the most obscure covers album ever made,\u201d says frontman Adam Duritz. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the fact that great music is coming from all sorts of places.\u201d Duritz spoke with us from San Francisco about the new album, his uneasy relationship with fame and why 2012 is an especially good time to be making music.<\/p>\n

How was it recording covers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t anticipate how great it would feel. You put in all the effort you normally would with arrangements and everything else, but you\u2019re not ripping it out of your own gut. You want to be as emotional as you can be and reveal just as much feeling, but the stakes aren\u2019t as big in the sense that you\u2019re not opening up about your life. It\u2019s great to put aside all the turmoil that goes along with scraping out your insides and just play\u00a0music because you like it.<\/p>\n

How did you choose the songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We picked songs we loved without regard to genre or time period. They span about 50 years. These are all great songs, but we didn\u2019t concern ourselves with what other people would think about them. It\u2019s different from when you\u2019re writing. When you\u2019re writing, you want to express how you feel. Judging whether a song you\u2019ve written is good or bad is up to someone else. If you express what you\u2019re trying to express, then you\u2019ve accomplished what you\u2019re trying to do. It\u2019s different when you\u2019re looking at someone else\u2019s songs, determining what you want to sing and what you want to play. You\u2019re looking more for what gets you fired up.<\/p>\n

Did you record live in the studio?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve always recorded that way. That idea came from Robbie Robertson. We hung out and talked with him before we started recording our first album. I told him I was worried that the band would get uptight in a big recording studio. I was concerned that our songs would become sterile because the guys would feel pressured to play them \u201cright.\u201d He said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just rent a house? That\u2019s what the Band always did.\u201d So we\u2019ve always rented a big, empty house and set up a home recording studio with our own equipment. It was only when we made our last album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings<\/em> [2008], that we made a complete album in an actual studio.<\/p>\n

Do you still like \u201cMr. Jones\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love that song. The label didn\u2019t want \u201cMr. Jones\u201d as the single. They wanted \u201cA Murder of One,\u201d because it had a Jesus Jones-style drum beat. They also wanted to edit it down, but I told them I wasn\u2019t editing any songs. I felt \u201cMr. Jones\u201d was better, so we agreed to disagree\u2014and released nothing. Then we went on the road, and radio folks started asking about our album. We suggested they play \u201cMr. Jones.\u201d But actually, the band really blew up big after we played \u201cRound Here\u201d on Saturday Night Live<\/em> [in January 1994]. \u201cRound Here\u201d set the tone for what everyone was coming to our shows for. \u201cRound Here\u201d was a good song to launch us.<\/p>\n

How did you handle success?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I flipped out. I had a hard time dealing with that first year. I didn\u2019t change much at all, but it seemed everyone around me began acting weird. They\u2019re looking at you all the time, and they don\u2019t talk to<\/em> you anymore. They talk at <\/em>you. You become more like a souvenir than a person, a souvenir of yourself. I wasn\u2019t ready for people to look at me in that way. It still makes me uncomfortable. Also, silly as it seems, I\u2019ve always been camera shy, going back to when I was a kid. Suddenly I found myself in a situation where everyone wanted to take my picture. That alone nearly caused a nervous breakdown. Standing in front of a camera with a stupid grin on my face\u00a0makes me sweat even now.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For long stretches I don\u2019t write much. Then I\u2019ll start, and out pops an album. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s changed much\u2014I try to write and sing what feel. I can\u2019t play guitar or piano very well. I can\u2019t play by ear, and that lack of ability makes writing more difficult. A lot of times I hear songs in my head, then write them on piano and teach them to the guys. They don\u2019t really become songs until we all work on them. That\u2019s when they get good. After that I let it go as soon as I can. I have no idea how to play \u201cMr. Jones,\u201d for example. I taught that song to them a long time ago and I haven\u2019t had much occasion to play it since. I can play \u201cA Long December,\u201d but that\u2019s only because I play it on piano in our shows.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s about vocal melody?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. I hear the chords in my head and often hear arrangements as well. I can\u2019t play it all, but I hear it and I tend to be good at arranging things. I just have to hum it to the other guys. I have my own names for chords, which the guys think is hysterical. And occasionally I\u2019ll pick up the guitar, but we have three guitar players in the band\u2014anytime I\u2019ve tried to get serious about it, they make fun of me. (laughs<\/em>) Their worst nightmare is a fourth guitar player. As much as we love one another, as much as we\u2019re like brothers, they would die if I\u00a0started playing in concert.<\/p>\n

How do you see the music industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fantastic time to be a musician. In some ways it reminds me of the \u201980s. There was a freedom about the way bands were making music. The popular bands weren\u2019t necessarily on major labels. R.E.M. was huge, and they were on I.R.S. We came out of that college radio scene, as did a lot of the bands we toured with after that. The \u201980s really was the heyday of college radio and independent music. There was a flood of great music then, and the same is true now.<\/p>\n

\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COUNTING CROWS Adam Duritz and company make an eclectic set of covers their own\u00a0 Nearly two decades have passed since Counting Crows exploded onto the scene with their multiplatinum debut\u00a0August and Everything After and its smash single, \u201cMr. Jones.\u201d Even as the band has built on that foundation with one critically acclaimed album of originals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[3510,3511,3509,3303],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5813"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5821,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions\/5821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}