Norah Jones |
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Mon. March 15.2004 12:00 AM EST |
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Norah Jones: Girl on TopQueen of mellow talks about her heroes: Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits, AC/DC, Nina Simone, and Dolly Parton by Brian Ives & C. Bottomley |
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(Blue Note Records) |
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Just as doomsayers predict the end of the music industry, along comes Jones. The New York-based singer's Come Away With Me didn't seem like blockbuster material at first. Released on the jazz label Blue Note, its low-key tunes were marked by
Any doubts about the 24-year-old repeating the trick have been proven foolish. The new Feels Like Home has been at No. 1 for four weeks running. What's the secret? Jones sounds both confident and breezy on her second album, whether she's praising the sunrise on one of her own originals or tackling the bruised heartbreak of a Tom Waits song. Roping in Dolly Parton and The Band's Levon Helm and Garth Hudson, she's found a way to work a great middle ground - neither pop, jazz, folk, nor country, she nonetheless uses bits of each to concoct an enchanting blend. In person, Jones is closer to the girl next door than a superstar maverick. The self-depreciating singer is slightly befuddled about why people like her, but she's eager to share her enthusiasm for roots rocker Lucinda Williams and the bad boys of AC/DC. AC/DC? Maybe Norah isn't as serene as people think. She told VH1 about the changes success has brought, hanging with Dolly and Tom, and the pursuit of rawness. VH1: How has the success changed your life over the last few years? Norah Jones: I think in general I haven't changed. I have the same band, the same boyfriend, the same friends who don't really give a crap about it, because they're my friends. I just do the same stuff I always did. I have a bigger apartment - that's the main change. VH1: What happened with your old apartment in Brooklyn? NJ: The day after the Grammys the New York Post put [a picture of] my apartment on the cover of the paper with my address and how much I paid and all this stuff. It's funny because people have come up to me and gone, "Yeah! Brooklyn!" I'm like, "Sorry, I moved into the city." It was funny. It's not really a bad thing, because we were going to move anyway, but if they did it again, I'd probably be pretty upset. VH1: Hopefully, they'll keep it under wraps. NJ: I have a door man now, so it's not as big a deal! It's funny, though. It was a pretty big two-bedroom apartment, and New York prices are so high, it was a decent price. But they made it sound like it was cheap or something. It wasn't! Coming from Texas, it wasn't cheap. VH1: What is it about your music that has connected with so many people? NJ: People ask me that question all the time. I don't have an answer. There are a lot of theories, I'm sure there's truth to all of them. It's just some freaky luck thing! [Laughs] I think at the beginning it was good timing. I think when you have success with anything there's a lot of that and there's hard work involved. Hopefully it's quality music, but I think luck has to have a good part in it. VH1: Do you think maybe you represent something for people that reject the pop mainstream? NJ: Mmm & I don't know. I've heard that from people, which is great for me, because I never really paid attention to the pop mainstream during the past couple of years - until I became it! I try not to think about it because then it will affect me in a weird way. I just want to play the music I play and be done with it. VH1: Do you ever have an urge to "rock out"? NJ: I've played really mellow music for some reason & I'm drawn towards it. I feel like my voice is suited for it. When I try to sing loud and be different, I usually listen back to it and I hate the way I sound. That's probably why I play such mellow music, really. You gotta remember, I'm 24 years old. Who knows if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing? I probably have a lot of [musical] phases I'm going to go through. I hope that I have fun doing it. But yeah, I'd like to rock out some day! VH1: But you cover AC/DC. NJ: We do "Ride On" because it's a great song, not because it's AC/DC. But yeah, we cover the mellowest AC/DC song! I have a lot of different things that I like. It's funny being so mellow. I don't really care. [Laughs] But I do have other sides to me! VH1: You've said you love Lucinda Williams' music. NJ: I really love her last record, World Without Tears. The way she sings is so raw. She's an amazing songwriter, but sonically, she's got this voice that's got gravel in it. I can't wait to have that someday. I don't know if I ever will, but I love that sound. Tom Waits has that thing, too. VH1: Lucinda kind of grew into that sound. NJ: That's what's exciting. There should be a progression. Making records is an art in itself. You've got to put everything together and make sure it's cohesive. It takes a while to get it, y'know? So I can't wait to make good records! I want to get better every time! I want to get better as a singer, as a songwriter, as a piano player, as a record-maker, even though they say the art of making a record [is disappearing] with downloading. VH1: Do you believe that? NJ: I can understand it. But I like putting on a whole album of 12 songs and having a mood be created. It's really interesting and fun. VH1: Well, your record sales disprove the theory that downloading is king right now. NJ: That's the thing: I've come to appreciate this world of singles. For my music, I never really thought about pushing one song as opposed to the whole record. It's weird to have like one child out there when you're proud of a whole record. Maybe you put that one song on the record because it went with the other ones and it tied it all in. Maybe it wasn't the standout song. It's more fun for me to think of it as a whole. VH1: Do you like making videos? NJ: I like to watch them, but I don't like to do em, no. It's hard to come up with a good one that's fun, but not too cheesy. The "Sunrise" video was fun. My band was in it. And there weren't too many close-ups of me! [Laughs] I'm a musician, not an actor! VH1: How was it working with Dolly Parton and the guys from the Band? NJ: It was a nice surprise. I wanted to make this record with just me and my band, because we'd been touring for so long. Then these situations [happened] where Dolly and Levon and Garth ended up coming into the studio. All three of them are huge inspirations to me. It was like being a kid in the candy store. That's been the coolest thing about all this - I get to meet people that I worship! VH1: You and Dolly seem like an unusual pairing at first. NJ: I sang ["The Grass is Blue"] on a tribute record to Dolly [Just Because I'm a Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton]. She asked me to come to the CMAs and sing the song with her. That week was so amazing. It was fun to be in Nashville. She was really hospitable, a real wonderful person. VH1: How did you meet Tom Waits? NJ: I met him backstage at a show that he was playing. I was so nervous! He said, "Hi, did you get the songs I sent you?" I was like, "What are you talking about?" I think he has a ton of songs that don't make it on a record, and I'm sure he sends them to a lot of people. I was thrilled to just hear them. His version of "The Long Way Home" is really great - I almost didn't put my version on, because I didn't feel like we did it as good as him. I sing so different from Tom Waits. VH1: Do you record any covers that didn't make the final album? NJ: We've recorded "Sleepless Nights," the song that the Everly Brothers and Gram Parsons did by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. It's a really beautiful song. Me and my backup singer Daru Oda love singing together, so it's fun for us to do. We recorded "She," which is a Gram Parsons song. I thought we got a great version of it and I was hoping to use it for something, but listening back to it, I don't know if we did. It will definitely pop up somewhere, I'm sure. VH1: If you wanted to turn on a young person to some good music, what would you suggest? NJ: I would get them The Essential Nina Simone, the one where she does all the more bluesy stuff. She does [George Harrison's] "Isn't It a Pity," a Randy Newman song, a Bob Dylan song, Bessie Smith ... It's a great CD. I'd also turn them onto Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, The Band, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones. VH1: Who's your favorite piano player of these three: Nat "King" Cole, Elton John or Dr. John? NJ: Nat "King" Cole, because he really swung. I hate saying that - "he swung." But he was just so swinging. The amazing thing was he could play and sing like that and be such a showman. Watch these old videos of Nat King Cole. He's playing his tail off, and you almost don't notice, because he's crooning into the camera like this [leans in]. Being able to do all that at once was amazing. VH1: You've also got a side project, the Little Willies. What's it like? NJ: I don't know if I want to talk about that. This is a band that I go play with and have fun in. We do really old stuff like Hank Williams, but we also do John Prine and Townes Van Zandt songs. My friends play in it. They have all of their things going on, too, so it's like a no-stress gig for us. Now that the cat's out of the bag, it's become a little more stressful! |
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