Son Volt – Anatomy of an interview
ND: Does it provide valuable context to your music?
JF: I wouldn’t know.
As your knowledge and experience grow, you will limit your questions in some areas and expand them in others.
— Bates and Hoekelman
ND: Let me ask you this: Do you cook?
JF: Do I cook?
ND: Yeah.
JF: Ahh…yes, I do, sometimes.
ND: Okay. Well, if you cook a good meal for someone, will they think the meal tastes better if they know how your kitchen is set up?
JF: Ahh…probably not. But maybe music and cooking are two different…ahh…activities completely.
ND: In a sense it’s a disingenuous question, but I am fascinated by someone saying, ‘I love that music, but that’s not enough. I want to know what kind of strings they were using, I want to know where they were sitting when they recorded it, or I want to know more about the artist.’ I’m always a little bit confused by that.
JF: Actually, things like you mentioned do play a part, it’s just a matter of how far you want to take it. I mean, certainly placement in a room has a lot to do with the ultimate sound, and strings can have an effect. Especially if it’s the difference between flat wound strings or round wound strings. In a couple instances, on songs that had alternate tunings, a song like “Question” or something, I had to use really heavy gauge strings. Sometimes getting into detail is informative, and it matters.
Understand the client’s perceptions of self and others.
— Kaufman
ND: Would you classify yourself as someone’s who’s shy?
JF: I don’t know. I tend to shy away from psychoanalytical questions like that. [laughs]
ND: Someone told me you were ‘painfully shy.’ The question I would ask you is, if one is painfully shy, where does it hurt?
JF: I…I…I don’t accept the characterization.
ND: Someone else explained your reticence by telling me you were “strongly Midwestern,” with “Midwestern inhibitions.” As if Liberace had never happened. How would you define the demeanor of the “strongly Midwestern” man?
JF: Ahh…I don’t know. Where are you from?
ND: I’m from Wisconsin.
JF: Where’s Liberace from?
ND: Milwaukee.
JF: Well, I guess, find Liberace, and we’ll talk about it, and come to some sort of conclusion.
When I was a nurse, I had express permission and a responsibility to ask personal questions. The patient and I may have found the history-taking process uncomfortable, but we took some comfort from the thought that necessary work was being done. On the phone with Farrar, neither of us is so sure. And we’re both too polite, too “strongly Midwestern” to make any definitive move. It doesn’t come through in the transcript, but we’re performing an elaborate, tentative courtesy dance amidst a swirl of ah’s, er’s, um’s, and uncomfortable chuckles. He’s embarrassed by the questions, and I’m embarrassed to be pressing him. It’s not so much that I feel a wall between us, as a vacuum. He doesn’t want to be characterized. He doesn’t want to offend. You can hear all this in his voice.