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Email Interview With John Brodeur
For those of us who grew up in households that canonized The Beatles and The Byrds, it’s not out of place to hear a song like John Brodeur’s “Be True” drop from the major to the minor, up the ante on how hard the guitars drive while maintaining a steady sweetness in the melody, or populate musical landscapes with ‘oohh, laa, laa laa’ harmonies imported directly from Rubber Soul. Brodeur adds some early 80’s sounding analog sine waves, perhaps in an effort to sound slightly less 1966, but if that’s the case, it’s unnecessary. “Be True” is a timeless, ageless specimen of that animal we call power pop. Brodeur is clearly a musician’s musician. He’s the kind of songwriter other songwriters swoon over because he touches that raw nerve in the heart of every kid who’s ever picked up the guitar after hearing The Beatles, The Kinks or Cheap Trick and found a pleasure unshared by his generation in Big Star or Elvis Costello. Brodeur will be playing The Fire on 412 W. Girard Ave. at 9 p.m. on Friday night, March 4th.Philly Venues - So the album you released prior to the one you’re touring on now (2009’s Get Through) was sort a redux of material you started recording earlier both with and without your former band The Suggestions? Your current album, Tiger Pop Ten, is also a look back, this time at your 2000 album Tiger Pop. It shows a real dedication to that material to keep it for so long. A lot of musicians will trash a song after a few years. Why, would you say, do you feel so strongly about this material?
John Brodeur - Actually, Get Through had been finished for a number of years when it finally came out. So that wasn't really a redux, just a long delay. But when I was playing those songs on tour the last few years, some of them were already 9 or 10 years old. Now I'm doing a bunch of the Tiger Pop songs again, which are minimum 10 years old. I enjoy what happens creatively when I revisit songs I wrote as a teenager, for example. Some songs get better as they, and I, age. But I'm psyched about putting out an album of new material next. This album was kind of a surprise; I'm planning to finish a new record right after this tour.
P.V. - John, it seems like power pop is out of vogue. It started making a comeback in the late 90’s and early 00’s with Fountains of Wayne and early Weezer and then again on the indie circuit with The Shins and Ted Leo. Where do you think the state of power pop is today? Do you see a lot of peers doing what you do or do you feel kind of alone?
J.B. - Every interview or article about power pop begins with something about it being out of style. But it seems like there's always room for power pop bands and songs to break through if they're good--those four bands you mentioned cover a lot of ground. As a style, it's just never going to be as mainstream hip as it was in the late '70s. I don't see a problem with that.
P.V. - Truth is, I kind of put you in a different class than those bands. I hear a lot of Jason Falkner (The Jellyfish) and Mike Viola (Candy Butchers) in your songs. Those guys both have similar stories to yours. They each broke away from collaborative efforts to kind of take the helm. Do you think of yourself as a pop song perfectionist (it sounds like you almost admit to that when you sing the line ‘it’s not like me to forgive and forget’ on Be True) or did you just feel it was time to streamline your ideas?
J.B. - The original Tiger Pop was about as far from streamlined as you could get, and that was the result of a bunch of failed bands. Jason Falkner's first few solo records had a big influence on my making that album that way. These days it makes sense for me to put records out under my name because I'm more comfortable in my sound and style, and more interested in letting the songs do the work. I'm probably less of a perfectionist now than I was when I wrote Be True. Though, I'd love to make another purely solo record in the future.
P.V. - I sometimes like to imagine I can pick out the equipment I’m hearing. The guitar on Birthday Girl is so Help-era Beatle’s I have to wonder if you use a Rickenbacker or maybe it’s just a very careful study in that jangly tone. Do you consider, when recording, what George Harrison would play or, if you could have Pete Townsend in the studio, how he’d handle your songs?
J.B. - The guitar on Birthday Girl is my Epiphone Casino. Right band, wrong guitar. I don't think about Townsend much (though I am a fan), but Harrison is a huge influence on my playing.
P.V. - Tell me about using PledgeMusic.com to raise money. It sounds like an amazing success story that enough people contributed to hearing your work. Does it make you feel validated?
J.B. - Maybe not validated, but very pleased. Pledge Music was super helpful in bringing this project to life. Benji and his awesome team kept an eye on every aspect of the project to make sure it went smoothly. I am thankful for everyone who pitched in. Plus Pledge has a charity component--I was happy to donate a portion of the funds raised to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
P.V. - A lot of artists who see the album as a whole work and not just a collection of songs seem irritated with i-tunes for raising a generation of music fans who are focused on singles. But there’s the argument to be made that it’s an outlet for out-of-print albums like Tiger Pop to be re-released without much overhead. Any thoughts on that?
J.B. - Sure, it's super easy to issue albums digitally these days. I prefer Bandcamp, mostly because I can put an album up in half an hour and it's in the store on my website. Barring a stretch between the late '60s and '70s, I think the pop market has almost always been about singles. It's all about getting that one song to hit, and hoping that success trickles down to the rest of the catalog. It's not iTunes' fault that people have short attention spans. I'd love for people to discover my work 10 songs at a time, but I'll take what I can get.
P.V. - Tell me a little about the first time you picked up a guitar. Did it feel right, right away? Do you come from a musical family?
J.B. - My family was never musically inclined--I gravitated to music on my own. My first guitar was one of those cheap solid-body electrics from the Sears catalog, with the little built-in speaker. I taught myself chords and songs by ear. It felt natural pretty much right away certainly more so than saxophone (which I studied in school).
P.V. - What’s next for John Brodeur? Are you working on any new recordings?
J.B. - I've been working on a new album called Little Hopes for a few years. Hoping to wrap that up for a fall release. And I'm thinking about putting out a collection of my old 4-track demos. I'm sure someone will want to hear that. At least I hope so.
-Billy Kekevian (Philly Venues Contributor)
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