Mike Doughty - Interview

Singer/songwriter Mike Doughty has all the answers on “The Question Jar Show” tour. In addition to introducing songs from his new album, Golden Delicious, due out in early 2008, the former Soul Coughing front man will answer questions that fans place in a jar at each venue. According to the press release there is “no question too weird, no topic taboo.” What more could you ask? Doughty discusses the tour.

On this tour you'll be previewing songs from your upcoming album, Golden Delicious, due out early next year. Can you talk about your thinking going into this record?

Well, my thinking is mostly not-thinking, or maybe I should say trying-to-not-think. Accidents are usually more fun than intentions! I did know I wanted to play on the strengths of my live band—my piano player John Kirby is a genius. Obviously, given Soul Coughing, I'm a guy who likes to exploit and encourage an idiosyncratic, highly-stylistic musician.

Will you describe a new song or two-what's happening lyrically and musically?

Hmm, this is always difficult, as I get a better perspective after I play the tunes for a year or two. "Put It Down" is a kind of bouncy song, maybe in the same species as "Circles," that was semi-nonsensical until I broke up with my girlfriend, and now it's a heartbreak tune that rather embarrasses me. "Ft. Hood" is a song based around the chorus from "Let the Sunshine In." Fort Hood, TX is the Army base that's lost the most soldiers in Iraq. I am vehemently, vehemently, vehemently opposed to the war, but the song is more about denial, and about the soldiers coming back scarred. I went to Walter Reed a year ago, with my band, to visit some wounded guys, and it really messed my head up.

Tell me about the "Question Jar" part of the show?

Welp—there’s a jar—folks put questions in it—I answer 'em between songs!

You're not afraid of what people will ask?

I am TOTALLY afraid of what people will ask!!

On Golden Delicious you worked with Dan Wilson who produced your last album, Haughty Melodic. What did he bring to the process this time round?

I would say that I kind of come from a New York hip hop background, about rhythms, with one or two unchanging chords in the song, and he comes from a Beatles-y background, which is about lots of chord changes, very arrangement-complex. He tends to want more instruments in there, and I tend to want less.

What kinds of things inspire you to write songs?

Love, cars, food, trees, places, names, trains, guitars, China, cable television, bodies of water, milkshakes, electricity, nice suits, digital watches, horses, fire, my friend Scrap, hardwood floors, Marc Ribot, and did I mention love?

Describe one of your earliest music memories.

I used to sit in the back of my Mom's massive green Oldsmobile, circa age 5, listening to John Denver's Greatest Hits on a little tape recorder pressed up to my ear.

Mike Doughty performs at Joe’s Pub on November 15 and 16.

Watch Mike perform "Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.