M. Ward: The Literary Virtuoso

You have collaborated with a long list of people, including Lucinda Williams, Jason Lytle, Jim James, Howe Gelb, Jenny Lewis, Conor Oberst and of course Zooey Deschanel. Who’s left that you really want to collaborate with?

– You know, time will tell, I guess. All the collaborations that I’ve been involved in have all happened organically. Sort of popped out of nowhere. And I imagine that’s how future collaborations will happen.

You’re waiting for people to contact you?

– That’s normally what happens. For Lucinda it was a different story. I was hearing her voice during the production of a song I was recording in Portland called Oh Lonesome Me, and I thought, “wouldn’t it be great if she said yes to do a duet?”, and she did, and that was a great thrill.

So you don’t have someone you might be afraid to ask, or someone that you hope will ask you? The Rolling Stones?

– (laughs) You know, if The Rolling Stones wanted me to play guitar on their record, I would say “yes”. But first I would say... “Why?”.

Do you have a favorite collaboration out of all the ones you’ve done?

– My favorite ones right now are the She & Him project and the Monsters of Folk project.

I was just gonna ask you about that. The Monsters of Folk album is a couple of months away from being released. Are the songs on there the result of you guys writing together, or have you contributed songs individually, which you then recorded together?

– We all brought in ideas or skeletons, and then we all worked together to fledge them out. It turned out great. We’re excited for people to hear it.

Laughs, comics and James Joyce

What’s your favorite song, or songs, that you wrote yourself?

– That’s really a hard questions, ’cause there are hundreds of songs to choose from! Again, I could make something up, but I’m more interested in other people finding the answer to that question.

My favorite songs are the O’Brien ones. I know you don’t want to give away too much specific information, but can you tell me if he’s an actual friend of yours? Or a fictional character?

– I’ve had a lot of people come up with their own interpretations. And I learned a long time ago that it’s no fun to paint the song into a corner in an interview or a dialogue. So I’m very happy to leave those types of answers to those questions open-ended.

Fair enough. What’s your favorite joke?

– What’s my favorite joke, Mike? (Coykendall, guitarist, who just walked into the room, and he suggests “2:30”, a joke, which neither Matt nor Mike can remember properly, but it’s a dental pun-joke about the time 2:30 being pronounced as “tooth-hurty”.) But I don’t have a go-to joke. I’m not much of a jokester. I leave that to the professionals. I like Monty Python. I like the bits that sort of go over my head. I think John Cleese is great, and everything he’s in is really good.

When’s the last time you laughed so hard you almost peed your pants?

– That’s a very good question! It was probably in a movie. And I’m trying to think of which one it might have been. But I’m usually not somebody who laughs hysterically.

That’s why I asked.

– (laughs (not hysterically)) So to remember the last time I laughed hysterically is very difficult.

Then just the last time you had a really good laugh.

– A good chuckle? Our friend Scott McPherson has a great photo of our guitar player, Nathan Junior, next to his luggage outside a hotel in Oslo. It’s him basically falling asleep over his bag. It’s the bag that he left. It had his passport in it, and he missed his flight. He was so tired, ’cause he had woken up at 7am or something. So... That picture was funny! We’ll try to get you a copy.

Do you have a hobby that might surprise people?

– I don’t know if it’ll surprise people, but I like to walk, I like to read, I like to run. (thinks for a while) Not very surprising! I don’t have any collections. But when I was a kid, I collected comic books.

Which ones?

– Marvel comics. I used to collect Fantastic Four. And Thor. I thought Thor was cool.

Why’d you stop?

– I just grew out of it. I think it was when I was discovering books.

What’s your favorite book?

– I don’t have one.

What’s the last good one you read?

– Dubliners, by James Joyce.

What’s so good about that?

– He’s just a genius writer. He makes me feel things.

To what extent do you use literature as inspiration for when you write songs?

– All the time. I get a lot of phrases that stay in my head, in the same way that a melody will stay in my head. It happens all the time. I remember wanting a song I wrote called Outta My Head to look and feel like an Emily Dickinson poem, so I remember taking time to chop away at it in that way.

How aware are you of you having what people usually call a “public persona”?

– To start with, it’s not something I think about very much. But if I had to think about it, I think I’m only aware of it when I’m on stage. Or when people recognize me on the street or something.

Do people ever just call you “M”?

– Yeah, it’s a nickname of mine from school.

My boss wanted me to ask you this: Do people ever confuse you with the group M, who did the song Pop Muzik?

– No.

Do you know the song?

– No.

“Pop, pop, pop muzik...”

– Oh, okay, I do know that song! But no, I’ve never been confused with that!

No cameras please

I have a theory that there’s an increasing tendency of young people going to shows, bringing their pocket cameras, shoving it in the faces of the performers and each other – mainly because they want to be able to say that they went this specific show – as opposed to being there genuinely for the music. How does that correspond with your experience?

– I personally am annoyed when I go to a show, and the person next to me is snapping photos. I think it’s a distraction. And I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way. So at my concerts I make it a rule – no photos, no filming. I realize that I’m sort of living in a dream world, but I like the idea that music can be enough. I don’t think snapshots are required to satisfy people’s craving to connect with the music.

How do you feel, though, about the crappy quality clips that people record on their cameras often are a source for people to discover new music? It’s quite possible you have gained a good chunk of fans through the likes of YouTube.

– Yeah, and I’m not against YouTube or anything. I just think there’s a time and a place for cameras and videos. And that time and that place is not the entirety of a show.

I’ve seen you perform under the chandeliers in the Fillmore, in bright daylight at a festival, and in small, crowded clubs. Your music works wonderfully in every setting, but I’m guessing you have a favorite one – which one would that be?

– It’s whatever world I’m in the mood for. Sometimes it’s a tiny place, and sometimes it’s a bigger, outdoor place. Especially when the weather is beautiful. It’s a very diplomatic answer, but I don’t have a favorite.

Do you have a specific venue that you have warm memories of?

– There are so many great rooms around the world. I like the last place I played in Copenhagen. I think it was called Vega. There was something about the sound and the energy from the crowd. Last week I had a good time at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. And I like the Henry Fonda in Los Angeles – the architecture and the sound. In certain rooms you just feel closer to the audience.

You mentioned your show at Vega in Copenhagen in 2006, and from my experience, it had one of the most respectful crowds I’ve ever seen. They were quiet when they were supposed to and cheered when they were supposed to. It wasn’t a weekend show – it was on a Tuesday. Do you think those two facts are related?

– That it wasn’t a party atmosphere? That might have been. But I have not noticed a big difference. In general, weekends are a little bit more rowdy maybe, but I think it depends more on the city than the day of the week. New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles are gonna have a bit more volume in their voices, and in other places, maybe people are there to enjoy music in a different way. I definitely don’t think there’s one right way or one right way to enjoy the music – as long as you’re listening, and you’re not taking pictures!

Is it your general experience that the crowd is respectful towards you?

– Absolutely. I’m very lucky to have respectful crowds.

Do you have a story of a show that really took you by surprise, where everything just went by smoothly?

– You know, it’s a general rule: The shows you think are gonna be terrible are your favorite ones. And the ones you think are gonna be great very rarely live up to what you thought they were going to be. Before I travelled by bus, I remember always thinking, “we’re gonna be late!”. There’s traffic and security, so you’re gonna be late. But then you show up, and there’s always an hour or two to kill. And then the days when you think you’re gonna have plenty of time, those are the ones where you run into traffic, or you have a flat tire, or you get locked inside your car or something. So, we live in a world of paradox, and music in not an exception to that.

I hope you have really poor expectations for the show tonight.

– Today I’m very excited, so we’ll see what happens! I like this festival so far. We’ve only been here a couple of hours, but something I’m getting tired of is going to European festivals that always seem to have the same music. But just walking around today, Roskilde seems like it’s involving different styles. Like this band that was just playing moments ago on our stage. (The Chinese-Mongolian group Hanggai, red.) I didn’t understand what it was, but it sounded really good. So, so far I’m really impressed with Roskilde.