{"id":27598,"date":"2024-06-06T05:30:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T09:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27598"},"modified":"2024-06-05T07:21:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T11:21:55","slug":"david-j-on-the-creative-process-and-the-inner-flame-of-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/06\/david-j-on-the-creative-process-and-the-inner-flame-of-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"David J on the Creative Process and the Inner Flame of Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Bauhaus and Love and Rockets bassist shares his personal archive of home demos<\/strong><\/p>\n

David J (Haskins) first entered the public consciousness in 1978 as bassist and collaborative songwriter in Bauhaus, the influential gothic rock band from Northampton, England. When that band went through its first split, J and band mates Kevin Haskins (J\u2019s brother) and Daniel Ash formed the more pop-oriented Love and Rockets. Over the following decades \u2013 punctuated by periodic reunions of both of those bands \u2013 David J established a solo career, writing and recording songs as well as scoring music for the stage.<\/p>\n

And along the way, J amassed a substantial backlog of original songs, many of which have never been heard by the public. A new three-disc, career-spanning collection changes all of that: Tracks From the Attic<\/i> was released May 3.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo by Raymond Ahner<\/p><\/div>\n

The 34 recordings featured on David J\u2019s expansive Tracks From the Attic<\/i> represent sonic snapshots of particular moments in his life. Nearly all of these spare and informal recordings feature only voice and acoustic guitar. Never intended to be shared beyond J\u2019s coterie of musical collaborators, these musical sketches offer a fascinating window into the creative processes of this remarkable and prolific artist.<\/p>\n

Some songwriters create songs on demand; they sit down to write a song, and then they just do it. David J is not that sort of artist. \u201cI have tried to do that a couple of times in the past,\u201d he says, \u201cand it just didn\u2019t work.\u201d He says that songs have to come to him unbidden. \u201cAnd sometimes that\u2019s a bit of an inconvenience,\u201d he admits with a chuckle. \u201cEspecially if you\u2019re seized by an idea in the wee small hours of the morning: you have a [lyric], and you think, \u2018Oh, I can remember that.\u2019 And then another line comes: \u2018Oh, no, it\u2019s started!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When that happens, J says, there\u2019s but one thing to do. \u201cMake a cup of tea and light a candle.\u201d
\nSongs often come to him fully formed. And when they don\u2019t, he still finds that he\u2019s able to complete them. \u201cQuite often, if I get an idea and it\u2019s an arresting one, I\u2019ll write the lyric out in one flow,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then I go back and hone it. But the basis is there.\u201d All that can happen without an instrument being at hand. \u201cLater, I get access to a guitar \u2013 or on rare occasions, a piano \u2013 and then the music comes really quickly,\u201d he says. That happens, he says, because the lyrics come to him with a rhythm and syntax already established. \u201cThat form of the lyric dictates \u2013 or at least suggests heavily \u2013 the form of the music,\u201d J says.<\/p>\n

\"\"David J\u2019s lyrics span the range from direct to oblique. Sometimes he writes in a reportorial, near-documentary style, as with \u201cThe Long Ride Home,\u201d a vivid story and highlight of Tracks From the Attic<\/i>. Other times, he might write a song thinking that it\u2019s about one thing, only later to discover that it is \u2013 or becomes \u2013 about something else altogether. \u201cThat\u2019s the subconscious coming into play,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The Bauhaus track \u201cWho Killed Mister Moonlight\u201d is a standout song on the group\u2019s 1983 LP Burning from the Inside<\/i>. J says that the track was originally written about the death of John Lennon. \u201cBut then, in my mind, it came to be associated with the demise of Bauhaus,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s also a whole other mysterious, beautifully surreal level to that song as well, the meaning of which remains elusive,\u201d he teases.<\/p>\n

Tracks From the Attic<\/i> initially came about as a personal archival project. A \u201cmad Hungarian\u201d friend named Gabor offered to digitize J\u2019s trove of cassettes. \u201cI shipped them over to him in Budapest,\u201d J recalls. \u201cHe did some mastering of WAV files, and they came back really nice.\u201d That might have been the end of the story, but not long thereafter, J was approached by Independent Project Records head Bruce Licher, who was interested in releasing some of his music. \u201cHe asked if I had anything that was obscure and demo-y,\u201d J explains. Serendipity resulted in this new limited-run three-disc (digital, vinyl or CD) set, lavishly packaged and featuring artwork by J himself.<\/p>\n

David J is mounting a tour in support of the release. \u201cBut it\u2019s not going to be just a conventional set of music,\u201d he explains. Each evening will begin with a Q&A session, followed by a screening of three videos J has produced. \u201cAnd then I\u2019ll come on and play,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m going to recreate my writer\u2019s room situation, which is the kitchen with a candle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pausing to consider the safety regulations he might encounter at concert venues, David J amends his comment. \u201cIf they let<\/i> me have a candle, that is. I might have to have an electric candle.\u201d<\/p>\n

An edited version of this feature appeared previously in <\/em>SPIN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Bauhaus and Love and Rockets bassist shares his personal archive of home demos David J (Haskins) first entered the public consciousness in 1978 as bassist and collaborative songwriter in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,62],"tags":[271,638,1354],"class_list":["post-27598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-bauhaus","tag-david-j","tag-love-and-rockets","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27601,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27598\/revisions\/27601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}