{"id":6814,"date":"2012-06-22T13:32:43","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T20:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=6814"},"modified":"2012-11-12T21:32:09","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T04:32:09","slug":"norah-jones-may-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/06\/norah-jones-may-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"NORAH JONES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>NORAH JONES<\/strong><\/h1>\n

How she made the most unexpected music of her career with some help from Danger Mouse.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In June 2009, Norah Jones was somewhere not many people would expect her to be: in a small Los Angeles studio, cooking up new music with producer Brian \u201cDanger Mouse\u201d Burton.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Jones\u2019 diamond-selling debut, Come Away With Me<\/em>, established her as a pop icon with a soft, jazzy touch. Each of her follow-up solo albums\u2014all of which are platinum or multiplatinum\u2014has steadily but gently expanded upon that sturdy musical foundation. Burton, meanwhile, first drew attention for his copyright-flaunting 2004 mashup of the Beatles and Jay-Z (The Grey Album<\/em>), and has since built a reputation as a producer known for banging beats and making hits like \u201cCrazy\u201d as part of the eccentric duo Gnarls Barkley. But there they were. \u201cI was really sick with horrible allergies that week,\u201d Jones recalls. \u201cI remember that being a bummer. I was so tired, and I thought, \u2018I\u2019ll bet he thinks I\u2019m an ass. I\u2019ll bet he doesn\u2019t think I\u2019m having fun.\u2019 But we worked fast together, and we got along well from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then again, observers whose image of Jones remains the wistful chanteuse who broke through with the adult-contemporary smash \u201cDon\u2019t Know Why\u201d 10 years ago are missing the full picture. Between work on her own projects, Jones has earned a reputation as a collaborator who\u2019s comfortable in practically any genre. She\u2019s logged studio and stage time with perhaps a wider and wilder variety of artists than any other modern act: Outkast, Ryan Adams, Foo Fighters, Talib Kweli, Bonnie Raitt, Q-Tip, Jerry Lee Lewis, Belle & Sebastian, Willie Nelson, Charlie Hunter,\u00a0M. Ward, Herbie Hancock, the Lonely Island and Tony Bennett for a start. \u201cI like music,\u201d she says with a shrug. \u201cAnd I\u2019m open.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hunger for musical adventure is in Jones\u2019 DNA. Her father is 92-year-old Indian master sitarist Ravi Shankar, who helped to make \u201cworld music\u201d a household term; her younger half sister, Anoushka Shankar, is following in their father\u2019s footsteps with crossover-minded Hindu classical music. But the Brooklyn-born Jones\u2019 musical upbringing was much more the provenance of her mother, Sue Jones, who raised her in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb after separating from Shankar in the mid-1980s. \u201cMy mom listened to a lot of different things,\u201d says Jones (who legally dropped her father\u2019s surname at 16). \u201cRay Charles, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, a lot of opera\u2014good stuff.\u201d Jones fell especially hard for country music; her country-covers side project, the Little Willies, released its second album, For the Good Times<\/em>, in January. She took piano lessons as a child, and eventually majored in jazz piano at the University of North Texas. After school she headed back to New York City, where she signed to the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records. Come Away With Me<\/em> reached No. 1 a year after its February 2002 release and earned Jones an armful of Grammys. \u201cIt was definitely overwhelming and exciting. It was stressful, but it was fun,\u201d she says. \u201cGod, I was just a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

On successive albums, Jones pushed the boundaries of her debut\u2019s template. But that fateful 2009 session with Burton eventually led to the new \u2026Little Broken Hearts<\/em>, Jones\u2019 most assertive break yet with both her musical reputation and her public image. After that initial burst of activity, busy schedules kept Jones and Burton from completing the album for two years. But once they set to work seriously, the pair wrote music and lyrics from scratch and swapped instruments freely\u2014Burton occasionally handles keyboards on the album, while half the tracks feature Jones playing guitar. They built up tracks together at Burton\u2019s own Mondo Studio, then finished up by spending three days in an outside studio to add contributions from players like drummer Joey Waronker.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s lyrics trace the melancholy arc of a breakup, with sentiments like those in the murderous \u201cMiriam\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m gonna smile when I take your life,\u201d she sings) mirrored by Burton\u2019s often jagged and unsettling production. America\u2019s sweetheart, it would seem, has a tough side. \u201cMy friends know that if I\u2019m too hungry, I get a little angry and I can be kind of sharp,\u201d she says with a self-deprecating chuckle. \u201cBut that\u2019s not necessarily the me most people think of.\u201d She\u2019s prepared for whatever reaction \u2026Little Broken Hearts<\/em> brings from listeners. \u201cYou\u2019re going to win some and lose some,\u201d figures Jones, 33. \u201cIt\u2019s about being true to what you want to do. That will come through no matter what. I don\u2019t want to make the same record over and over.\u201d We caught up with Jones on a day off between solo and Little Willies shows in Austin, warming up for a summer world tour. \u201cWhen I come to Texas, it does feel like home,\u201d says the longtime New Yorker. \u201cIt\u2019s too hot, though. I\u2019m a winter person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the album have a\u00a0lyrical concept?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went into this record not knowing what we were going to write about. I\u2019ve never worked this way with somebody, where you write all the songs in the studio. Once it started coming together, it seemed like a real relationship album. It examines a lot of different angles, especially the endings of relationships, more than forming a big story. But since we were writing so intensely every day, we got into that mindset. Once we wrote one song it was like, \u201cOh yeah, this ties into that other song.\u201d That just happened as we went along.<\/p>\n

Is writing sad songs easier?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s way easier. I wasn\u2019t unhappy when we made the record, but it\u2019s easy to tap into those feelings, even if you\u2019re moving on. It\u2019s easier if you\u2019ve been down that road. There\u2019s a lot of personal stuff, but it\u2019s part fictional\u2014it\u2019s songwriting, not a diary.<\/p>\n

How would a song begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some songs would start with a line of lyrics. Some would start with me playing keyboard bass and him playing drums, eventually finding a cool groove and then me singing a melody over it. Some would start with acoustic guitar. Every song was different. Once we found something that felt right, either a hook or a chord progression or a sound, I would sing gibberish over it. Maybe Brian would say, \u201cOh, can you try singing this?\u201d I\u2019m always getting stumped with lyrics, and it was nice to have somebody to write with who is very smart and has a lot of great ideas. Whenever we found something that stuck, even just a tiny little piece of a lyric, we\u2019d go from there.<\/p>\n

Who would play what?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We just jump in. It doesn\u2019t matter. If Brian comes up with a piano part that he thinks I could play better, he\u2019ll say, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come play this?\u201d Same with me. If there\u2019s a guitar part I like, but I don\u2019t have the right feel for it, I\u2019ll say, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you play this?\u201d Usually we\u2019d just play whatever we thought of, and it either worked or it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

How long have you played guitar?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

About 10 years. I\u2019m not a shredder. But I got a guitar solo on the record, that made me happy. (laughs<\/em>) I enjoy writing on guitar. I love the piano, but it has a specific sound that is not always what I want for the song. That said, we have a lot of piano on this record.<\/p>\n

Are you brand-loyal with pianos?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll play anything. I have a Yamaha endorsement, and they\u2019ve been kind enough to give me a really nice piano to tour with. That\u2019s been great. But I like old, funky pianos. Actually, we found a cool Yamaha spinet to tour with. It\u2019s nice not having a grand piano onstage, because it took up too much space between me and the band or me and the audience.<\/p>\n

What about guitars?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I brought my acoustic out to the studio, and I brought my [Fender] Mustang electric. I played those a little bit, and Brian had a couple of guitars \u2026 I cannot remember what they were. I\u2019m not a good gearhead. (laughs<\/em>) I think I used Neumann mics. I have some nice mics that I use, but I also used a cheapie crappy mic for a while on the record, because it just sounded good. It\u2019s whatever works.<\/p>\n

How do you avoid external pressures?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the beginning I\u2019ve been lucky. I have people at the label who love music. They have pressures on them, but they also know as well as I do that my first record didn\u2019t sell the way it did because it was engineered to be commercial. It was just a crazy thing that happened. We made that record very naturally. Some of those tracks were demos\u2014it was definitely not premeditated. I think what people responded to about that record was that it was the very opposite of all that commercial stuff. So nobody is going to put pressure on me to get commercial. Also, I\u2019m pretty stubborn. I usually work on stuff without the label messing around. If I need their help, I know who to call who won\u2019t suggest something stupid.<\/p>\n

Do you worry about expectations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. Either people don\u2019t want to listen to it because they want to hear the old stuff, or they\u2019re excited to hear something new and they don\u2019t want to hear the old stuff. I don\u2019t pay too much attention to that. I learned early on that you can\u2019t pay too much attention to what people are saying or what their impressions of you are. It just makes you crazy. Even if their impressions are good, it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

How did you learn to handle fame?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was stressed out for a year and a half straight, but it was also wonderful and there were all these good things. Finding a way to make it fun was the key. I\u2019m lucky enough to do what I love, and it doesn\u2019t make sense to do it if it\u2019s stressing you out. I had to find my balance with it\u2014what I\u2019m willing to do, what I enjoy doing, how I like certain things.<\/p>\n

How has the business changed?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the luck of selling a lot of records before people stopped selling a lot of records, so I don\u2019t know what it would be like to be a new artist right now. I think it would be hard. There\u2019s a lot of stuff out there, and it\u2019s hard to cut through all of it. So I try to just make music and not think about it too much.<\/p>\n

Are you accustomed to being\u00a0a bandleader?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gotten a lot better at it. In the beginning it was hard for me. I don\u2019t love rehearsing, so if somebody can\u2019t get something I get impatient. I think I\u2019m pretty good at it now. I know more than I used to. I\u2019m very specific about what I want, so I can\u2019t just let people do their own thing. I have to be there and make sure everything is right. But it\u2019s important to hire people whose playing you love, so that you\u2019re not going to have to change every single thing to make it what you want. It\u2019s going to be interesting this year, because I have a new band and we have to fit the new songs in with the old songs. That\u2019s always exciting, the way things unfold.<\/p>\n

Do you tire of \u201cDon\u2019t Know Why\u201d?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel like I have to play old songs. I mean it\u2019s nice to play \u201cDon\u2019t Know Why,\u201d because people love it. I don\u2019t get sick of it, especially if I change the arrangement every few years and make it a little different. The song still comes through. The last tour I was doing it solo with just the background vocals, which was nice and intimate.<\/p>\n

Do you have a goal in mind?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a ton of stuff, but I\u2019m just rolling along. I\u2019m happy where I am. I don\u2019t have crazy long-term goals, because life is unpredictable and I\u2019m not that organized. I would love to travel a bit less, get into more of a routine where I\u2019d tour every once in a while, but not a whole year straight. It would be nice to have a family, do normal stuff, be home more. I\u2019ve got a house I bought a couple of years ago, and now I miss it. Before that, I traveled so much that I had this apartment that was like a giant dorm room. It\u2019s nice to have a home. \u00a0 M<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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

NORAH JONES How she made the most unexpected music of her career with some help from Danger Mouse.\u00a0 In June 2009, Norah Jones was somewhere not many people would expect her to be: in a small Los Angeles studio, cooking up new music with producer Brian \u201cDanger Mouse\u201d Burton. Ten years ago, Jones\u2019 diamond-selling debut, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4835,23],"tags":[3671,3676,3186,3665,3666,3672,3664,3663,1633,3678,3667,988,3670,3677,3679,3513,3303,1178,3668,3669,3675,3263,2956,1478,3154,3673,3674,2005],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6814"}],"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=6814"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8060,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6814\/revisions\/8060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}