1. Home / News / Features / Reviews / Videos / About
Follow Bearded on...
Bearded Magazine / Features and Interviews / Jesse Malin / One Little Indian
Interview: Jesse Malin
The New York songwriter discusses his first release in five years
Posted on Mar 25th, 2015 in Features and Interviews, Jesse Malin, One Little Indian / By Henry Bainbridge
Freshly delivered copies of Jesse Malin’s new album New York Before The War lie open on a
table in One Little Indian’s south London office and a hound roams loose around the open-plan
space, seemingly unfazed by new visitors.
It’s decided that we should pop out and conduct the interview over some food; Jesse has a busy
week in London to promote the record so multi-tasking is inevitable. Fortunately, the label is
located amongst some of London’s finest South Asian eateries and we are soon sitting down to
plates of spicy spinach, chickpeas and pilau rice. He talks eloquently, peppering his speech
patterns with a deep elongation every time he uses a positive adjective.
'It’s been just shy of five years and in that time a lot went down, but I’ll never go this long again'
the singer explains. Since the release of 2002’s lauded The Fine Art of Self Destruction Jesse
Malin has etched a niche for producing rock and roll records that have an inimitable New York
quality about them; swaggering, bold, conflicted, and genuine.
The period from then up to 2010 saw three more original studio albums, a covers set and two
live LPs, then relative quiet. It’s not that Malin wasn’t working: he toured for two years 'non-stop'
after the 2010 release of Love It To Life, supporting The Hold Steady, Gogol Bordello, Alejandro
Escovedo, reunited with his former punk group D Generation and recorded a new (as yet
unreleased) record (produced by old friend Ryan Adams), and recorded this album twice.
He explains; “First time I went to Virginia, to a farmhouse… did it out in the woods, very different
for a city boy like me that likes to walk and talk and drink in pubs and bars. Then I felt like it
needed some more up-tempo energy. We did another fifteen songs in Soho, New York at Magic
Shop Studios, where Bowie just did that secret record. In fact, we used his engineer, Brian
Thorn’.
What came out of those sessions is, in Malin’s terms, a ‘record for now; there’s reminiscing but
definitely [the album is] about creating something and trying to find a place to fit in, in these
times’. ‘The title isn’t about a particular war, it’s a metaphor for surviving, for holding onto your
ground and the things you believe in…’ Belief is a concept that we return to regularly throughout
the interview, ‘… a lot of my friends, we’re believers, fighters, artists’. ‘You got to be dedicated,
you’ve got to believe in it, believe in yourself’ he says later.
Also in Features and Interviews
» Interview: Dabbla
» Interview: Jack Danz
» Introducing… Olo Walicki
» Interview: aave
» Interview: Lindi Ortega
» Interview: Dirty Dike
» Introducing…Sam Frankl
» Jaga Jazzist hit Electric Brixton
» Interview: Pinkshinyultrablast
» Interview: The Black Tambourines

2. Listening to Malin talk about his new album his belief is clear by the enthusiasm with which he
describes the content. ‘My stories paint a picture with characters and put you in a place in time,
‘Dreamers’ opens the record: disjointed in hotel room in another time zone, another country
where you don’t understand the language. But on the flipside it’s [seeing] how we’re all
connected. As much as I travel I realized how there are still wars, greed, chain stores, people
fighting over sports teams…’
‘One of my favourites is ‘I Would Do It for You’’ the singer continues ‘which is the story of
someone calling you up out of the blue and asking you to come back and do this thing you used
to do, (whether it’s sex, drugs, robbery… I never say) and this is the one person in the world that
you can’t say no to. There’s a great song that’s on the digital download in the vinyl called 'Here’s
The Situation', it’s another one of my favourites; J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr plays guitar on it and
kills it’.
It’s not ego that allows Malin to talk about his songs as great, it’s a clear passion and enjoyment
of playing music. It’s almost as if he sees the songs as separate to him. Still, I feel the need to
ask him about the day-to-day lifestyle of someone has been relentlessly touring and performing
for over thirty years, especially when he is so aware that many of his friends are beginning to
settle down or give up on ‘the dream’. ‘There’s a lot of hard work; long hours, bad food,
soundchecks, so much waiting around but the benefits are getting to play your songs for people
and having your outlet. You do it all for that hour or so on stage… you get to do things that other
people dream of’.
‘Some nights you’re staying in a five star hotel playing to a sold-out house or sometimes you’re
playing a Monday night in the middle of nowhere for 40 people and you’ve got to give it to them.
You’re staying at the worst hotel, it’s freezing and the van breaks down’ He pauses for a second,
‘But every job has its Mondays’.
I’m struck that Jesse comes across as a dying breed of old school ‘believer’, someone who talks
about art and meaning as absolute truths rather than press-release fluff. Who acknowledges the
cynical side of the music industry and accepts it as part of the journey. I’m struck that this seems
‘old school’.
Perhaps the glamour faded a while ago but the heart remains to keep on keeping on. It’s an
infectious enthusiasm, easy to absorb from across the table, but similarly experienced by the
couple of a hundred or so industry types and competition winners who were at The Social the
previous night for an acoustic showcase of the new album.
With a woolen newsboy cap pulled low, a tight leather jacket and projectors casting peculiar
shadows across his features Malin could be menacing if he weren’t so engaging and energetic.
He’s a raconteur, reeling off wry anecdotes full of outlandish New York characters, raw
impressions and frank insights into the writing and recording of New York Before The War in
such a way that the set of mostly unheard material draws a rowdy response. The new songs as
honest and humble as ever, Malin continues to ‘give it to them’ every night.
New York Before the War is released via One Little Indian on 30th March and features
contributions from Peter Buck, Craig Finn, Wayne Kramer and J. Mascis
May Tour Dates
14th MANCHESTER Night & Day
15th NOTTINGHAM Bodgea Social Club
17th GLASGOW King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut
18th NEWCASTLE The Cluny
19th BIRMINGHAM 02 Academy 2
20th PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
21st LONDON Tufnell Park Dome
Related Articles
Elsewhere on Bearded
Rocket Recordings EP series to
issue new Oneida disc
Posted on Nov 25th, 2015 / News
Disappears, Low: Live in Chicago
(Sonic Cathedral)
Posted on Nov 24th, 2015 / Albums
Imaginary People: Dead
Letterbox (Five Five Diamonds
Records)
Posted on Nov 23rd, 2015 / Albums
Jenny Hval @ Hoxton Bar &
Kitchen, London 11.11.15
Posted on Nov 23rd, 2015 / Live Reviews
Ringo Deathstarr @ The
Compass, Chester 14.11.15
Posted on Nov 20th, 2015 / Live Reviews
Jesse Malin on Bearded
One Little Indian on Bearded
Jesse Malin Online
One Little Indian Online
Jesse Malin on Twitter
Jesse Malin on Twitter
Listen to Jesse Malin on Spotify
Jesse Malin on Last.fm
Buy Jesse Malin Tickets
Buy Jesse Malin Music
Jesse Malin Links
Bearded Content Bearded Magazine RSS Feeds

3. Bearded Magazine / © Untitled Magazine Experiment
News
Features & Interviews
Album, Single and Live Reviews
Music Videos
About
Contact
Advertise
All Content RSS Feed
News RSS Feed
Reviews RSS Feed