‘I’ll Give You the Moon’ by Jad Fair & Kramer | Reboot of Shimmy-Disc
Exclusive video premiere of ‘I’ll Give You the Moon’ by indie rock duo Jad Fair & Kramer off the album ‘The History of Crying (Revisited)’ out on Shimmy-Disc.
Jad Fair & Kramer announce their third collaboration (and first in almost 20 years): ‘The History of Crying, Revisited’- a 12-track record produced and recorded by Kramer at his studio in Florida, Noise Miami, released on his newly relaunched Shimmy-Disc label. Long-time fans of Jad Fair will be blown away by his vocals on the album, and fans of Butthole Surfers will go “hog wild” for Paul Leary’s fiery guitar solos across the record.
About ‘I’ll Give You the Moon’
So I sent a barrelful of song titles to Jad for ‘The History of Crying’, so he could write lyrics for this brand new LP we were making together. Our first in 20 years. ‘I’ll Give You the Moon’ was the 3rd title I sent, and it was weighing heavily on me, at that moment. Heavier than all the others. the whole notion of it…of what it takes. People refuse to just believe in love. They need to be convinced. and then they still just refuse to believe it. That was really bugging me. I needed to talk to Jad about it. So I called him on the phone. “Hey Jad, if you really could give someone the moon, not just metaphorically, but, I mean really just reach up into the nighttime sky and pull it down, and give it to that person, just as you would 100 red roses, do you think they’d finally
believe that you really and truly loved them?” “Well, Kramer, I think, hmmm… hummm… I think it would probably depend upon the person you were giving the moon to.” “So, Jad, you don’t think there’s any one thing that would always work, to prove your love, for everyone and everyone? The same way a vaccination would work all the time, no matter whose arm the needle was stabbing into? To prevent polio, or the measles, or diphtheria, or that thing you get when you step on a nail?” “I don’t know, Kramer. I think you just have to try everything. I think it just isn’t a one-shot-deal.” “But you’d start with the moon, if you really really really loved them. Right, Jad? No matter who it was.” “Well, Kramer, I guess that would be a good place to start, if you really really loved them.” “The way I see it, Jad, if you really really really really do love someone, you start at the very top, and then you just work your way up from there. So I’d always start with the moon. And if that didn’t work, I guess we’ll just have to write a song about it, and see if that works.” “OK, Kramer. I’ll send you some lyrics in a few days. Or maybe in, like, hmmm. Would maybe about ten minutes from now be OK?” -Kramer, May 2021
Kramer On The Return Of Shimmy-Disc
Why the restart of Shimmy-Disc in 2020? What does it mean to you personally?
These are two really tough questions, and maybe impossible to answer clearly. Obviously, with the manner in which Shimmy-Disc circled the drain in the late 1990’s, thinking of WHY it’s been re-started requires an honest examination of why it ended, and, after so many years have passed, it seems obvious to me that I’m simply not brave enough to offer that level of introspection. I’m better at forgetting things that bring me sadness, and just lazy enough to let it go at that. I am however working on a book, finally, after years of cajoling from various friends and fellow writers and artists, with offers from several publishing firms (including the University of Texas Press), and hopefully I can articulate my feelings successfully therein. But as of this point in time, I think the only reason I can offer for having re-started Shimmy-Disc is that Karl Hofstetter of Joyful Noise Recordings presented me with the opportunity to do it in a manner that complimented the place I’m currently at in my personal life. And what I was offered was precisely what I’d always wished for; to be like the classic A&R men of the past who chose the artists, produced the records, and organically nurtured the artists developments in a manner that inspired mutual trust and an ever-growing love for the processes in which the art we create together would (by nature) become something greater than anyone could have previously imagined. Ahmet Ertugan, Phil Ramone, John Hammon, Jerry Wexler…visionaries who steered the labels they ran single-handedly by personally guiding the artist in the recording studio and creating timeless and enduring works that defined their very essences. These are just a few of the names I could mention that continue to inspire me, and what they shared in common was that they had the freedom to work ONLY on the music. They left the business dealings in more capable hands. And in my case, today, those capable hands are attached to the ends of the arms of Joyful Noise Recordings. So, that’s why I’m here, re-starting Shimmy-Disc in 2021.
“I loved the music, I loved the artists, and I loved making records”
And, what does it mean to me? Well, it’s only just beginning, so…I really can’t say, yet. I’ll know more about what it all means and what it’s all meant when I have a body of work to assess, alongside a cadre of artists who either trust me, or don’t. All I can say right now is that I’m very thankful for the opportunity to make records of my own music again, and even more thankful for the opportunity to help other artists make their own records and then release them via a streamlined distribution service and an experienced and talented sales team that’s equally committed to the art and the commerce ends of the music industry. It’s a fine balance that I was never any good at. I was only good at choosing the artists and making the records, and I have zero interest in doing anything other than just that. I never did, really. I only ran a business in the past because there was no other way at that time, and once it all ended, frankly, it was a great relief. I had forgotten what it felt like, to be beholden to no one. And it felt pretty fucking good. Trust me when I say that the last 20 years have been very peaceful, and more than welcome. I’m no businessman. I’m just an artist who feels compelled to help other artists make their records, and the only way to do that in 1985 was to run a recording studio and a record company. And now, in 2021, I’ve been granted the miracle of a better way, thanks to Joyful Noise.
How did you get hooked up with Joyful Noise?
I had been working with Karl at Joyful Noise on various projects in the years leading up to my Artist-in-Residence project there in 2020, the most recent being the intense and lengthy job of re-mastering ‘It’s Spooky’, the classic double-LP by Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair. Having been recorded by Jad onto a barely-functioning 1/4″ tape machine with a couple of $50 mics duct-taped together, it was a real labor of love to get those nasty sounding recordings to sound reasonably professional, while still preserving the DIY spirit of the original tapes. Through that work, Karl and I became friends, and I eventually made a trip to Indianapolis to see the Joyful Noise operations there, and really just to meet and have lunch with Karl. I had also just completed an LP of very personal work with Xan Tyler called Let It Come Down that I was hoping to find a welcoming home for, and although my initial hope was for Karl to want to release it on Joyful Noise, Karl, being the fearless visionary that he is, said, “I might have a better idea. Mind if I ask what’s happening with Shimmy-Disc?” and that was the beginning of a conversation that culminated in the reboot of the label after over two decades in hibernation.
“Suddenly, labels need artists more than artists need labels”
How has the record industry changed in 30 years since Shimmy-Disc inception, Is it more or less so artist friendly?
Well, Shimmy-Disc originally launched in 1985 so we’re closer to 35 years (!!!!), and I’ve only just recently jumped back into the trenches, but I can offer some initial thoughts and feelings on this history…
The record industry has always had the potential to be “artist-friendly”. Right from the earliest days of RCA Victor and 100 other “indie” labels no one has ever heard of before, there was at least the potential for equity. But the men who ran the show were in business, meaning that they were in the business of selling. So right from the start, artists have struggled and felt forced to take what they could get from the businessmen making the investment and running the operation. Things have changed a lot since then, and a lot more in the last 30 years, in that so many record labels are now run by artists or music lovers who are hoping to create business environments that would treat the artist the way they themselves would wish to be treated. And artists don’t require the presence of a record company anymore. They just don’t. So the leverage each side possesses has somewhat evened out. Once upon a time, a band with no label didn’t have a prayer. Nowadays, an artist with no label can win 8 Grammys. Things have changed. Suddenly, labels need artists more than artists need labels. Still, there are a myriad of uncomfortable compromises that must be made. art, and the commerce of art (i.e.; artists, and labels), must find a happy median. And the biggest change I’ve witnessed since the early days of Shimmy-Disc (thanks in great part to the “online” opportunities freely available to anyone on the planet) is that many artists have found a way to operate as businessmen, and not lose their shirts in the process. I wasn’t very good at this back in the 80’s and 90’s when the only way to promote an artist was to manufacture and sell physical product and invest a small fortune in doing so. And sadly, as a founding member of several of the bands on the label, well, let’s just say that the increasingly strained dynamics between myself and the other artists was untenable.
I loved the music, I loved the artists, and I loved making records. Like a pathetic junkie, I just couldn’t stop. I knew it was all bound to come crashing down someday, and I thought, what the hell. The sooner the better. And when I saw the brick wall approaching, with gathering speed, I just pressed harder down on the accelerator pedal. Suicide by music.
So the reality now, for Shimmy-Disc in 2021 and onward, is that it’s being run by a team qualified and experienced enough to handle 100% of the business, while I do only what I do well; being the head of A&R, choosing the artists on the label, and working with the artists in the recording studio to produce art that wholly reflects their vision, and perhaps even inspires the expansion of that vision into places the artists themselves never even dreamed…to give… to devote ALL of myself to their creative process, in the hopes that the results will be something far greater than the artist had ever imagined. That’s what a good producer does, if he’s doing his job well, and that’s the only job I’m concerned with now. Karl and the talented and loving team of professionals at Joyful Noise will handle all the rest. I’m just making music now, which is all I know how to do.
I’m just a musician. So I feel like I’ve finally come Home again; to a Home I’d never actually had, but had only dreamed of having. I’m just the A&R man now. Finally. I hope there’s enough time to build things up, above this rock solid foundation. The concrete has been poured. Now we need the walls and windows and rooms and the beautiful views that only great artists can provide. All I need, is more Time.
“I think the biggest problem artists encounter is that they often can’t bring themselves to begin”
You seem to be very prolific these days. What inspires you as an artist and as a producer these days? Has it changed over the years?
Inspiration. OK. Let’s talk about “inspiration”. I think that a lot of artists find themselves blocked creatively because they’re waiting for inspiration. Richard Serra said, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”
I couldn’t agree more. If I waited around for something to inspire me (which admittedly I did, for a good chunk of time, as the 21st century rolled in), I’d never do anything. Here’s how it happens; like a great writer adopts a routine and gets up at dawn and writes until noon and then breaks for lunch and then goes back to his desk and writes until sunset and does that every single day, I just go into my studio here in my home every morning, turn on the computer, launch Logic X (or Final Cut Pro, if I’m working on a film that day), and I get to work. Once I start working, that thing we call “inspiration” is right there in front of me. I just have to be OPEN, focused, receptive to the colors of the day. Like a writer who simply starts writing, I start working. I think the biggest problem artists encounter is that they often can’t bring themselves to begin. Picasso was once asked how he knew when a painting was finished.
“Start a new one”, he replied. Work is the key. There has to be a work ethic. This is one of the very few things about my so-called “creative process” that hasn’t changed. What’s changed is that I’m no long playing gigs, no longer “on the road”, no longer wasting huge swaths of time waiting for a soundcheck, or a tour bus, or a train. Being on tour was always very disturbing for me, because it prevented me from creating lasting work in the recording studio. Spending 23hrs each day dedicated to waiting to be onstage for that one remaining hour in the day… Wow. I never did anything more stupid. And I did it for years. But I did it because I was convinced that it was necessary for the promotion of the music I was making, and for the artists whose music I was committed to helping to create. Live performance never interested me much, so I was often bitter on the road. Here’s what I’ve learned;
The best promotion for your music is to keep making better and better music, and you do that in a recording studio. And coincidentally, there’s nothing more inspiring, in my opinion, than knowing with at least some small degree of confidence that the next record you make is going to be better than the one you just finished. The artist must keep moving the goalpost forward with each piece of work he/she creates. The moment I see that my new work isn’t better than my previous work, I’ll hang it up and go fishing. And with each new LP of my own music that I start working on, I wonder to myself, “Is this the one?”
If anything truly “inspires” me, it’s not my own work. It’s the work of other artists, like those I’ve just signed to Shimmy-Disc…
Younger, just-emerging artists like the retro-sonic genius Curtis Godino, and the empyreal music of Stephen McAll of Constant Follower, and the 21 year old singer-songwriter Gavin Preller, whose first ten songs are as good as any first-ten-songs of any artist I’m aware of, ever… therein lies the source of my inspiration; hearing something unlike anything I’ve ever heard or imagined before, the possibility of helping the artist to make it sound even better than it already does, and the notion that I could be at least some small part of the reason people other than myself have the opportunity to hear it. That’s all the inspiration I need, and more than I’ll ever need.
This illuminates the one way in which Shimmy-Disc has NOT changed since it’s inception in the 1980’s; if I hear something and instantly fall in love with it, it breathes fresh life into this fantasy I have wherein I believe with all my heart that others will love it, too, if only they had the chance to hear it. A big part of what “inspires” me as a producer is fueled not just by the pains and pleasures of working side-by-side with the artists in the making of their art, but also in the hopes of what might follow that work’s completion. The mere possibility that someone aside from the artist and myself will hear this music, and find value and meaning somewhere within it, is inspiring. The Time I have left will be devoted solely to the artists and their art, with a little set aside for my own work, perhaps, I hope. With the kind permission of Joyful Noise, I will do my very best to ignore the business machinations that make all of this possible. It’s a most extraordinary opportunity, for which I am grateful beyond words.
“Artists must never turn and stare back at their own ghosts”
Will you be doing reissues of past releases?
NO. The goal of Shimmy-Disc in the 21st century is not to live in the past, or to pick up where I left off in 1999, when my inner and outer worlds simultaneously imploded. This is a reinvention and a rebirth. There are few things more pointless to me than a re-make. Citizen Kane is fine just as it is. nobody needs Moby Dick, Part Two. Everyone already knows how it ended. Let’s let the end rest in peace. Please.
That having been said, I may find myself agreeing to do a limited edition vinyl run of something that was never released on vinyl before, like my 1998 LP ‘Songs From The Pink Death’, for example, but someone would really have to twist my arm to make that happen. No, if anyone wants to waste their lives listening to Bongwater over and over again, they can log onto eBay and hit Buy-It-Now and google that shit till they bore themselves to death. I cringe at the very thought of being stalled in a rusting time machine, trapped in between recycled universes on a treadmill that never stops. Artists must never turn and stare back at their own ghosts. The road back is the road to nowhere.
There is only one way forward, and that means UPWARD.
Jad Fair Official Website / Facebook / Bandcamp / Spotify
Shimmy-Disc Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp
Joyful Noise Recordings Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp / YouTube
