Interview – JBM

It is rare to find a performer capable of silencing a room within their first song; someone who quiets everyone with a heartfelt tune that is given, like a gift, to the crowd.  If you have a chance to watch JBM, the musical moniker of Jesse Marchant, you will find just that.  Marchant crafts delicate, engrossing songs that he performs with calming effortlessness.  He self-released his debut album, not even in July, in early 2009, but it will receive a well-deserved publicity boost when it is re-released through Partisan Records in April.  You might also recognize Marchant’s voice from the gorgeous and heartbreaking songs in the movie, Lovers in a Dangerous Time.  Marchant is currently on a North American tour with Sondre Lerche, but took some time out to chat on the phone after his soundcheck in Tallahassee.

How did you get into music?

You know I don’t even remember really.  I was really young when I started playing the guitar.  I guess I just kind of expressed an interest in it and so my parents put me into guitar lessons, and bought me a guitar and stuff.  And I started doing that but I wasn’t really all that – I was kind of into it, but you wanna play and it’s frustrating when you start ‘cause you can’t really do anything.  And the classical lessons, I got into it later but as a kid I thought it was kind of dull. But I got into it when I started playing by ear.

I often sang other people’s songs, sang along to CDs and stuff like that.  I don’t know what song it was first [of mine] that kind of started it.  I guess one day I decided I was gonna write a song, and then I did and it just became a thing that I do, you know?  But it’s weird, you don’t remember the moment you start it, just all of a sudden you are.

My grandfather, my mom’s dad, was a musician – not for his living, but he played the cello and he was a musical guy, so he wrote a lot of poetry – there’s definitely that in my blood.  There was always music playing [in my house] and stuff, my mom and dad were big music fans.

You’re from Montreal.  How did you end up in New York?

I just left.  I was in college in Canada but wasn’t enjoying it and I wanted to leave, and ended up moving to New York and just living there for about five years or so.  My family had a place in upstate New York, so I’d been growing up there a lot, too, in the summers and for vacations.

I like living in the US; I like living in New York up in the country, in the Adirondacks.  I left when I was 18, so I kind of developed my adult life in New York.  I don’t really relate when I go back [to Montreal] anymore.  It’s a beautiful city and everything, but I just don’t relate to it much anymore.  I kind of always feel like a tourist.  It doesn’t really matter to me what country I’m living in; you just have places you live that feel right, and you keep living in those places.

Canada has a lot of good points, though.  Like the free health care!

True! How do you deal with that here?

You go without it for periods, and then when you have enough money, you get it.  I think the unions end up paying for it at some point, once you’ve sold a bunch of records or something.  A lot of artists I know kind of ignore it and hope for the best.  I ride a motorcycle, and every once in a while it hits you – oh fuck, if something goes wrong, it’s gonna go really wrong!

I read you recorded not even in July in a church – what was that experience like?  What made you decide to do it?

Well the engineer I wanted to work with, he had just recently purchased [the church].  When I first spoke with him he was in a studio in New York City, but something happened to that; they probably bulldozed it to put in condos or something.  So when I met with him he was in the process of looking for a church and he found one in Hudson and he bought it.  I was one of the first people who got to record there, so that was really nice.  Six months went by while he built a studio in there, and I was working on stuff at home in the meantime.  I didn’t have much time to record [the album] so I wanted the stuff to be ready to go.  I ended up doing a lot of home recordings and stuff, working all that out.  Doing it in the church was amazing, because it’s really quite big and there was kind of a positive energy inside, it was kind of tranquil.  And then Henry [Hirsch], the guy I recorded it with, was really helpful.  We basically just like would go on for really long sessions.  And then I stayed up there also in the town, nice town of Hudson; we didn’t spend much time out of the church, but when we did get out it was a really welcoming town.

Some of the music sounds like something Carol King or Todd Rundgren might have written back in the day.  Who would you say are some of your musical influences?

I mean a lot of the sounds, Henry was responsible for, and he’s a big Beatles-head.  He likes all those old recordings.  I wouldn’t say I’m partial; I kind of like a real mix of things.  I like using reverbs and stuff and that comes from – I don’t know, maybe David Lynch movies.  I just like that kind of spacious, haunting sound of the reverb.  I think maybe [the record] sounds old because we recorded it on tape and we didn’t use a lot of effects; it really was sparse, and that’s how they used to make them.  Now things are often really spliced and arranged; you don’t get so much the performance of it, it’s a little more static.  Influences range from old folk recordings to newer electronic stuff – like the electronic Radiohead albums.  I have a broad palette; the next record will probably be a mix of old and new.

You were just signed to Partisan Records – are you excited about this?

It just happened earlier this year; I made the album myself and printed up a bunch of copies and put it on iTunes and stuff like that but the re-release is to get help with getting it out in other ways, stuff like that.  A lot of people find it strange but it’s the way it flows in the music world.  The proper release helps getting it in stores and getting reviews and stuff.  I finished the record and then I started getting help with a manager and agent and all that and it’s obviously a great blessing because you can have people helping you with the stuff you don’t want to be doing, and you can do what you want instead.

Are you going to be recording any new material soon?

Well, I guess when I end up having a good spell of time; I don’t like doing those things piecemeal, you know?  If this year gets tied up with touring – I imagine I’ll be doing more touring when the record comes out.  I feel like it’s a very separate thing for me, being on the road and being on my own settled somewhere, writing and recording and putting that stuff together to make an album.  I don’t really write on the road and I’m not really in the spirit to be recording.  I guess whenever I get to settling in again, maybe earlier next year?  Hopefully soon!

You’ve done some acting in the past – are you still interested in it?

I was presented with an opportunity to move to New York from Montréal to do that.  I studied that for years and was involved in that and I liked it a lot, but something always felt not right about it.  I have a lot of respect for the art of acting; I think it was just the world.  I never quite gelled with the world of it.  I was living in L.A. for a while doing it, too, and that put the nail in the coffin.  I realized I didn’t want to spend a lot of time…and that’s when I jumped into the recording stuff, because I had a lot of time there.  I don’t [act] anymore.  It’s funny because I stopped doing it and I don’t miss it anymore.  But I’m grateful because it allowed me to save money and get in the studio and record.

Do you see yourself sticking with music for the long-haul?

This is definitely what I do and it’s kind of always been what I do, but I never really considered doing it for a career.  Now that I’ve been doing it, it feels like I’m at home and I’ve arrived at a place where I’m doing the right thing.  I can see myself doing this for as long as I live, as long as I’m interested in it.  No matter what other things I’ve done, I’ve always played music. I’m putting together a band, so I’m excited to play with other people.  I’d like to get to a place where I can record and tour and live comfortably doing that.

Any plans to return to Texas?  Folks love you here!

The last tour I went on with Sondre nobody really knew who I was; this time, I felt like maybe I had some fans in Texas, so that was pretty cool!  I think I’m coming back for South by Southwest.  I don’t have a confirmed show; I mean, I know I’m playing in it, I just don’t have the date yet.  I’ll probably be playing a few shows, like a main gig and parties.  I hear it’s mayhem!