Josh Joplin Group |
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Wed. September 25.2002 4:37 PM EDT |
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Josh Joplin: His Future is NowSelf-proclaimed dork proves star power not needed to make a very cool record. by Gil Kaufman |
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Josh Joplin Group (VH1.com) |
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Josh Joplin is a dork. Dont worry, his publicist isnt going freak when she reads that, and Josh himself wont launch a campaign against VH1. The reason is simple: Joplin knows hes a dork. In fact, hes the kind of dork who realizes he will
The designation sits okay with Joplin. Indeed its likely the reason why his songs are so smart, rich and full of life, especially on his second album, The Future That Was. See, when youve spent lots of time on the outside looking in, you really get a good perspective on what the rest of the world is up to. It couldnt have hurt that Joplin dropped out of school in tenth grade, bumming around the country washing dishes. The kid with the dream of being the modern day broadsider learned a lot of harsh lessons about life during his vagabond days. Many of them were turned into the songs that showed up on his excellent 2000 debut, Useful Music, a folk-pop mix of R.E.M. earnestness and Kerouac-inspired word-craft. Life on the road turned this former slacker (he was a D student in grade school) into a well-read songwriter who packs his music with enough literary references to short-circuit an SAT prep course. VH1 sat Joplin down for a few minutes and found out why the Hamptons are just like high school all over again, why his parents attempts to straighten him out only made him more crooked, and why hes frequently mistaken for Matchbox Twentys Rob Thomas. VH1: With all the references to novels and historical figures, you seem awfully bookish for a guy who dropped out of school in tenth grade. This is no Avril Lavigne record. Josh Joplin: If it was, Id be rich! Ive always liked to read. I got out of ninth grade and I had serious wanderlust. I took myself pretty seriously at the time and I wanted to be, of all things, a protest folk singer like Bob Dylan or Phil Ochs. I didnt even model myself after any successful ones, like James Taylor. VH1: And your parents were okay with that? Joplin: They werent too happy. It was the third week of tenth grade, so I didnt even get through that grade. It was pretty tough for them, especially since theyre both college graduates and they had higher expectations for me than becoming a ninth grade drop out. [But] how dangerous does it sound, "Im dropping out and I wanna be a folk singer!" Its not like I said I was going to drop acid and get a Harley. In some ways that must have balanced all the stupid things I was doing at the time. VH1: What did you do at that point? Start busking, flipping burgers? Joplin: I was 15, so I couldnt drive, but I did something that put the last nail in the coffin of ever going back to school. The plan was to get my GED and go to community college. My parents shipped me out to visit my sister, an academic, and they thought that would be good for me. At the time, she was dating a wild, crazy artist who absolutely inspired me to do everything that my parents were scared of. I wanted a motorcycle because he rode one. You couldnt have put me in a worse danger zone. It was in Seattle, with throngs of homeless teenagers having fun. Everything they wanted to shelter me from I was exposed to during that visit. I got a van at 16 and started doing odd jobs and traveling. Id settle for a while and sing on the streets. I thought that Id go around the country until I eventually landed in New York at 19 and play Gerdes Folk City. Thats how naïve I was. At the time I didnt even know it had closed, I had no earthly clue. VH1: What kinds of jobs did you have? Joplin: I swept up a tailors shop in Denver. I worked on a farm or two. I worked at TCBY, and I was a busboy a lot. VH1: Were you always a guy who read a lot and enjoyed literature? Joplin: No, not until I had a growth spurt physically and mentally in the seventh or eighth grade. I was a D-average student. My parents were happy if I came home with Cs. I didnt like to read because I was a slow reader. Something clicked and I read a few books over that stint in Seattle. My sisters boyfriend gave me a few books to read and one was a Charles Bukowski book. When you discover that as a teenager you think, How could anything be better than this? It changed everything. Id never been exposed to a book that talked so plainly about sexuality. At that time I was also dabbling in Hemingway. I started to get into reading, and at the same time I started listening to Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. Id already listened to Britpop stuff, which I kept in the closet because I also liked hardcore stuff like Minor Threat and I didnt want people to know I had Smiths albums. At some point, something clicked and everything started to make sense and I started to recognize that school was absurd for me and I enjoyed learning on my own. VH1: Not what youd expect from a guy who starts off his album quoting Descartes with, "I think therefore I am ..." Joplin: Yeah, but its I think, therefore I think I am! Its not even Descartes in its forcefulness. I have to question whether I even know that much. Its probably a pretty nerdy way to start an album. I definitely qualify as a nerd, though Ive never been hip like Ben Folds or Wes Anderson. Like, [Wes] is a nerd and a hipster. I cant even do that well; I miss it somehow. I have friends who are pretty well known avant-garde painters and I think, Man, Im never going to fit in with these cats because theyre all so cool. They just exude it. VH1: Does that hinder your being a rock star? Joplin: Totally. We had this pop song ["Camera One"] that did well last year, and Id get on these stages where it landed us, like in front of Pink or Myas audience ... and I cant be Rob Thomas, and I cant be Beck, so Im part of this in-between purgatory. I feel like I did in high school. I get in front of these audiences and talk about George Bush or talk politics and its a bunch of 13-year-old kids who are like, Shut the f*ck up and play our Matchbox Twenty song. Thats who they think we are, because were the only ones on stage playing real instruments. Then Ill go into some Brooklyn club and I cant make it with the hipsters because they already think I am Rob Thomas. Were not wearing make up or anything in our new pictures and were wearing our own clothes. It made it easier to be who we are, which might be people who never fit in. VH1: So many adult situations are like high school all over again, but its funny to hear you say that since you didnt really go to high school. Joplin: I watched the VMAs and thought, What am I doing? Eminem taunting Moby like its the f*cking playground? I mean, get over it! I left high school for this very reason. It made my stomach turn and my hands shake. VH1: What did the first album teach you about making it in this business? Joplin: On Useful Music I was a bit more eager to say yes to a lot of things. Ive learned that saying no is okay, like having my face plopped on everything. When the radio and marketing machinery are working in tandem, at times you can get lost in who you are versus what is being sold of you. Theyre not necessarily the same thing. I was more comfortable saying no this time. Like, This time I wont be sticking my head out of the car for the record cover." VH1: "Siddharthas of Suburbia," another nerdy song, could definitely qualify as existentialist pop. Who are these people? Joplin: Its every kids journey out of the suburbs - from Brahma to riverboat captain. Once you leave Northern New Jersey to come into the city you realize this world is a lot bigger than the cul de sac and the mall. I think thats a great experience, and I idealized what I expected it to be. VH1: Youre sort of rapping on the single, "I Am Not the Only Cowboy." Isnt that another thing that just might get you beat up? Joplin: I call it spoken word so I never have to compete with Eminem. I probably would have been better off if Id done it like, [adopts nu-metal voice] And it starts like this! But thats not who I am. I just cant get jiggy. I want to get jiggy, but I wont and thats the stuff that probably gets in the way of the pop star lifestyle that a lot of people around me would like me to have. VH1: In "The Wonderful Ones" it sounds like youre talking about the person you never were: they always win, theyre larger than life, fabulous. How does a guy go from busking on the street corner to being obsessed with high-rolling Hollywood lifestyles? Joplin: Im obsessed with Hollywood and the Hamptons. VH1: Have you been to either? Joplin: Absolutely. VH1: How did you fit in the Hamptons? Joplin: I couldnt afford to get in. To me ... [sighs] its probably just another version of high school. |
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