Johnette Napolitano Converses

Anyone visiting this website regularly (and I know who you are so don’t try and hide behind that thin tree)  will  know that Johnette Napolitano is an artist about whom I have generated many a word over the years.

But I’m only paying her back because in the many conversations I’ve had with her over the journey she too has generated many a word.

It’s only words….

But its for artists like Johnette that this website actually exists. You may have noticed that I play favourites on here and that’s because I can. Johnette has always been a favorite and so when word got out that she was going to do a short tour of Australia I was quick to request an interview.

“Interview” is a funny word for it. I don’t do interviews any more. I have “conversations”, (and not just little conversations). I have conversations with people I like.

Here’s some annotated excerpts from that conversation.

HHMM : So where do we find you and how do we find you?

JN : I’m sitting on the porch at my house at the Joshua Tree. My Dad passed away three weeks ago and so I have his Golden Retrievers head in my lap. That has changed my world a lot. I really loved my dad a lot and so him passing away has changed my stuff a lot. But basically I couldn’t be more fortunate. I love Joshua Tree. It’s where I live and I love it and I’m doing some work that I really want to do.

HHMM : What is your balance now between art and music and other things like looking after the place where you live?

JN : Priorities change over the years. I still love to play and I do play, but I don’t really do as much as I used to but when I do I have a lot more fun.
One thing doesn’t matter without the other. A good song doesn’t matter unless where I live is cool. It’s that simple. I’m very happy to have found some balance in that way. It’s good to find your life and see where everything fits and realise that everything is very integral to your wholeness and your well being. I owe everybody the very best at what I can do all the time which ironically means simplifying everything. I know you know what I mean by that.

I do know what she means and this little site is a good example of it. Like the music business, the publishing business got a whole lot healthier when you were able to start doing it yourself.

HHMM : How has the post apocalypse music business treated you?

JN : It’s more of the same. It’s the same as in 1979 and 1980. It gets big, it eats itself and creates a vacuum. The indie labels and now the artists themselves fill that vacuum. It’s that way now but its even easier because you have so much more access to the media. I don’t understand why anybody could be complaining about anything. I’m better off now than I have been in the last 10 years in the music business. I’m more accessible and I can get myself out there. It’s a good time.

Johnette has recently released a couple of albums called Sketchbooks which were essentially limited edition collections of music doodlings and ideas. In a way this was an expression of the freedom she was allowed being free of record label ties. It must be nice to be able to make music without worrying that the A&R guy is concerned because the marketing department is worried that the business affairs guys don’t hear a single.

But even with that freedom Johnette is returning to the idea of making more completed albums.

JN : A thousand CDs I can sell no problem and I’m lucky to be able to do that. I was able to get away with putting a half arsed idea on it and throwing it out there. People liked it, because, god bless ‘em, they were fans. But I think I owe them a bit more now. I’ve worked with some people who have upped my game. So I think that if someone goes to I Tunes now for 99c they deserve something more than a half baked idea.

HHMM : I read that you played with some old friends recently in California.

JN : I sat in with Bruce Moreland the other night in Long Beach. He’s called Ravens Moreland now and he has amazing people in his band. It was great. He’s playing a lot of the stuff he wrote for Wall of Voodoo. He’s scary. He’s like The Cure but scary. If Tarantino produced The Cure it would sound like Ravens Moreland.

HHMM : I saw you describe it as being like a reunion of the LA punk scene. Then the same day I saw this thing on Facebook trying to organise a reunion of the Melbourne punk scene of the 80’s. It kinda struck me that organising a reunion wasn’t a very punk kinda thing to do!

JN : Hahaha – well the ones that are left are trying. But they had better hurry up! It is a weird concept but its also kinda nice when you lose enough people to see so many still alive and doing stuff and its kinda heartening to see that people are still there for the music. No matter what you do its always about the music and it always has to be. That’s what was nice about it. I don’t care what genre of music it is – if you are still doing it after all this time you have either married well or you really love your music – either way – good job!

There was another whole bunch of stuff that we talked about but really if I typed it all out this would start to look like an interview and not a conversation. Suffice to say that we talked a bit about death and life and being adults. The interview took place before the news of Jim Carroll’s death came through or otherwise we would have talked a lot about that.

For those who need to know in her Australian shows Johnette will be playing music from the full gamut of her career. She’ll be doing plenty of Concrete Blonde songs. Did I mention she was the lead singer of Concrete Blonde? No? Well she was and they were one of the best so-called “alternative” bands of the late 80s and 90’s and briefly in 2002. But hopefully if you got this far into reading this without me mentioning the band name I was correct in treating that as assumed knowledge. She’ll play some music that derives from her interest in Hispanic music and some new songs. She’ll have a great band with her because she wouldn’t bother doing it unless she had a great band.

But she’ll also being visiting her god daughter who lives in Melbourne.

“She’s old enough to have a conversation now which is what I was waiting for”.

More words, more conversations…….