{"id":29188,"date":"2025-04-17T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T09:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29188"},"modified":"2025-04-18T09:06:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T13:06:52","slug":"my-morning-jacket-put-us-in-coach-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/my-morning-jacket-put-us-in-coach-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"My Morning Jacket: Put Us In, Coach (Part 1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cMusic is the invisible architecture that holds up the universe,\u201d says Jim James. Leader, rhythm guitarist, singer and songwriter with rockers My Morning Jacket. He\u2019s had more than a quarter-century to develop that inspiring philosophy. It works for him, and for his band. My Morning Jacket recently completed work on the idiosyncratically titled is<\/i>, due March 21 from ATO Records. And the new album\u2019s \u201cinvisible architecture\u201d is the product of a deliberate departure from the band\u2019s customary way of working.<\/p>\n

My Morning Jacket\u2019s self-titled 2021 release earned enthusiastic reviews, but that in itself was little surprise; the Louisville, Kentucky group has long been a darling of fans and critics alike. As with every MMJ album since 2001\u2019s At Dawn<\/i>, the record was created with James in the producer\u2019s chair. That approach suited the self-contained band well, and by all accounts James\u2019 skilled production work portrayed his band\u2019s music in its best possible light. With that history behind them, there wouldn\u2019t have seemed to be any reason to change working methods as the band began what would become is<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But they did. James says that in recent times, he\u2019s been doing a fair amount of self-work, \u201ctrying to be a more peaceful person, trying to love myself in a way that isn\u2019t based on external validation.\u201d What that meant in practice is that for the first time, he was open to working with someone outside the band to produce a new My Morning Jacket record.<\/p>\n

James landed on Brendan O\u2019Brien. The Atlanta-born producer got his start in the \u201880s, producing local bands like high-concept pranksters The Coolies. He quickly earned a reputation as the go-to producer for acts on a shoestring budget. O\u2019Brien scored his first high-profile engineering gig with Black Crowes\u2019 1990 debut Shake Your Money Maker<\/i>; that success led to work with a dazzling array of top names including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Aerosmith, Paul Westerberg, Neil Young, Matthew Sweet, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, AC\/DC and countless more. For artists who want an authentic and honest rendering of their sound, O\u2019Brien is a first-call choice.<\/p>\n

In theory, My Morning Jacket working with O\u2019Brien seemed like a good pairing. In practice, however, if and how a collaboration would actually work remained to be seen. James concedes that typically when he works with an engineer or co-producer, they\u2019re somebody \u201cwho\u2019s on our same level.\u201d O\u2019Brien, of course, is a respected heavyweight. What the group quickly discovered is that with My Morning Jacket, O\u2019Brien would take on a role James describes as \u201ca coach. He\u2019s more of a mentor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At the stage of the project in which O\u2019Brien was brought in, a coach is exactly what the band needed. \u201cWe had already done two full sessions of songs,\u201d James admits. \u201cWe were beating our heads against the wall, and we weren\u2019t really happy with the way it was going.\u201d Yet he and his band mates were initially wary of opening the door to an outside force. \u201cBecause these people usually bring in a lot of ego,\u201d James says.<\/p>\n

The band was pleased to find that O\u2019Brien didn\u2019t fit that preconceived notion. \u201cHe\u2019s fun to be around, and he\u2019s a kind person,\u201d James says. \u201cAll he cares about are the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

James brought a bounty of songs to the sessions \u2013 more than 100, he says \u2013 drawing both from songs written specifically for My Morning Jacket and from a cache of tunes originally set aside for use on his own solo work. \u201cWe had a mountain of songs,\u201d James says. \u201cI told myself, \u2018Let\u2019s do this exercise of letting go; let\u2019s just see which songs Brendan likes.\u2019\u201d James says that thanks to that previously-mentioned internal work, his self-worth isn\u2019t dependent on the approval of others, so he was content to let O\u2019Brien make song choices. \u201cI thought, \u2018It doesn\u2019t matter if he doesn\u2019t like song X or song Y; I can always work on those some other time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast to the jam-band side of the group\u2019s character, the ten songs on is<\/i> are tightly structured, economical, supremely melodic pieces. Not a single one of the tracks breaks the five-minute mark, and the music never meanders. O\u2019Brien \u201cis not a big improv or jam guy,\u201d James explains. So when songs that James brought revealed themselves as \u201c10-minute explorations,\u201d they didn\u2019t make the cut for what was shaping up to be a concise and sharply-focused set. James nonetheless stands by those rejected songs, suggesting that they may well turn up on a future My Morning Jacket or solo album, \u201cwith another producer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the music on is<\/i> has origins in the distant past. The composition of \u201cHalf a Lifetime\u201d dates from My Morning Jacket\u2019s breakthrough fourth studio album, Z<\/i>. \u201cIt\u2019s a song we had completely forgotten about, because we never made a rough mix of it at the time,\u201d James says. \u201cI was digging through old hard drives and found it; Brendan ended up liking it and picking it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An edited version of this featured appeared previously in SPIN. \u201cMusic is the invisible architecture that holds up the universe,\u201d says Jim James. Leader, rhythm guitarist, singer and songwriter with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,62],"tags":[5645,5644],"class_list":["post-29188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-jim-james","tag-my-morning-jacket","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29311,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29188\/revisions\/29311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}