James Booth & The Return | Interview | New Album, ‘Postcards From The New Frontier’
James Booth & The Return recently released their seventh album, ‘Postcards From The New Frontier’, which is a cross-pollination between power pop and progressive rock.
This briskly-moving album paints a cosmic portrait of doomed relationships. The deeply felt poetry of the lyrics are complimented by the dynamic and stylistic shifts in the music. At once intimate and epic, accessible yet self-contained, this is easily the band’s most ambitious and polished work to date.
Would you like to talk a bit about your background?
James Booth: I was born and raised in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, which is right across the tracks from the University town. I spent a lot of my childhood wandering around the campus.
I’ve been singing since I was a really young kid, but it wasn’t until I was in 5th or 6th grade that I started seriously thinking about music. My mom would play oldies radio as she drove me to school every day, which definitely gave me a unique edge over the other kids in school. I took piano lessons as a kid (which definitely helped, I have a tricky relationship with theory), but things didn’t really start rolling until I picked up guitar at 13. I learned other instruments along the way, and here we are. I had a band in high school, but that ended when I decided it would be a good idea to go to college. It wasn’t. After I graduated, I needed an outlet, so I started recording by myself, in a low fidelity, DIY, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants manner. The first few albums I did are a bit rough around the edges, but looking back on them now I can see they have a certain charm and character. After a few years of this, I followed my brother out to California, where I was introduced by a mutual friend to Fernando Perdomo, multi-instrumentalist and producer extraordinaire. He liked my stuff, and after a few shows together he suggested we record together. It was definitely a head trip at first, I’m very much a control freak about my music, but the results spoke for themselves and it became evident that if I wanted to reach the next level, I needed to work with Fernando.
How long did you work on ‘Postcards From The New Frontier’?
Believe it or not, it took us two and a half years from start to finish. We began recording in late 2019, things were going pretty swimmingly, then the virus broke out. My brother and I holed up in our apartment for a few weeks, figuring that cooler heads would prevail and we’d all “flatten the curve”. When we realized that wasn’t gonna happen, we ended up trekking back to New Jersey to be with our family and stick it out together. One year later, when we were both fully vaccinated, we came back to California and I finished what I started with Fernando. I didn’t want to record remotely because I wanted to be there with Fernando to make the decisions together. We finished principal recording on the album in Fall 2021, then I sat on it for a while to listen back and make sure that everything gelled. We ended up making one really drastic change near the end. I grew more and more unsatisfied with each repeated listen of the second-to-last track, so we cut it and replaced it with ‘Naked Came The Stranger’. Then we locked the album in place and put it out.
It’s such a fantastic release. Can you share some further details on how your latest album was recorded and released?
Thank you! Basically what I pitched to Fernando was that we would split instrumental duties down the middle. I’d always do rhythm guitar and vocals, and he’d always do the lead guitar, but when it came to bass, drums, keyboards and everything else we’d switch it up. There are some tracks where one of us carries more instrumental weight than the other, but I think in the end it all evened out throughout the album. One of the advantages of working with Fernando is, in addition to being a really supreme and imaginative musician, he works very quickly. I don’t like to waste a lot of time in the studio when it comes to arrangements and stuff, so when he comes up with something for the song, it’s almost always the exact right touch. He’s also a master with Pro Tools, and whenever I wanted the song to have a certain quality (for example, an effect for the snare drum), he was able to pull it up, no problem, no questions asked. He also had an arsenal of guitars that he let me play around with for different moods and sounds. As tight and concise as the album sounds, it was a pretty loose atmosphere. I knew what I wanted, he knew how to make it happen (with a bit of his own magic thrown in), and it all came together very organically. As for the release, I mastered it and cut it together myself. It was such a strange sensation sending it out into the wild on streaming, after spending two and a half years on it. I’m more used to recording and releasing an album in the span of three weeks or less (which has gotten me in trouble before when I hear a mistake, or when I realize that it’s not the way I want it to sound). This one was different. I wanted it to be as good as it could possibly be. And for the most part, it is.
How would you compare it to the previous albums?
It’s infinitely more sophisticated in terms of its recording and fidelity. In the beginning it was just me with a couple of microphones and an Apogee Quartet, trying to make it sound better than just some college kid in his basement. Fernando, as I mentioned before, has the best possible version of Pro Tools plus a million other plugins, in addition to some really unique methods with his microphones. I once compared it from going from a beat up Fuego to a souped up Mustang. Everything just sounds cleaner, too.
What’s the songwriting process like for you?
It really changes from song to song. Sometimes, a fragment of a song will just pop out of nowhere, and I have to repeat it over and over until I can grab my phone and record it for future reference. Then later I’ll grow it into a real song, and most of the time it’s those songs that resonate the most with people. Other times, when I’m feeling mischievous, I’ll write a parody of another artist— and then get rid of all the satirical content, which I’ve also had some luck with. Sometimes I’ll just write a poem, and if I think the content is powerful enough I’ll try to put it to music. So there’s no one method for me, inspiration tends to sneak up on me like an assassin in the dark.
Who are your major musical influences?
Gosh, that feels like such an impossible question. I’ve listened to so much music over the years… I can tell you the influences I drew from for ‘Postcards From The New Frontier’: 10cc, The Soft Boys, Jefferson Airplane, Black Sabbath (I still think Ozzy Osbourne is a severely underrated vocalist), The Strawbs, The Who, Pentangle, PJ Harvey, The Cars, Neil Young, Rush, Todd Rundgren & Utopia, Meat Loaf, Guided By Voices, The Velvet Underground, Love, Yes, Pink Floyd, Cream, The Band, The Monkees, early Bee Gees, Traffic, The Black Crowes, The New Radicals, Blind Faith, Sparks, The Stone Roses, Scott Walker, Donovan, Jethro Tull, Renaissance, King Crimson, Liz Phair, Nick Drake, Simon & Garfunkel, XTC… So many others I can’t think of off the top of my head. But if you had to press me for the all-time inspiration, I’d have to say (at the risk of cliché) The Beatles. Over and over I keep coming back to them. If I could sing like one person, I’d love to sound like either Tim or Jeff Buckley. And if I could write songs like one person, it’d be Stephin Merritt.
How would you describe your sound?
That is a question that keeps me up at night. I want to consider myself a prog rock musician, but I probably fall more into that more ambiguous genre of “art rock”. Fernando will tell you that this is a psychedelic rock band. If I had to think about it, I think we’re like a late-60’s to early 70’s band that happens to exist in this modern era. Back when I was doing all this on my own I used to call our sound “Indie Deluxe” just because I thought it sounded cool. But I think maybe Fernando’s right, so bring on the color. Bring on the noise.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
I’m really digging what’s coming from this new version of Porcupine Tree, I really like Phoebe Bridgers (I’ve been a fan of hers ever since she smashed her guitar on ‘Saturday Night Live’). A band I’ve rediscovered lately that I remembered loving is The Move, they put out some really fantastic stuff and it’s kind of a crime they never broke through here in the States. If there’s one band that I’ve encountered in the wild lately that I really, really like, it’s a band out here in California called Porcelain Hill. I saw them at The Viper Room, where they were on before me! They were so high energy that I really had to bring them that night to try and match them. They’re really groovy, I can highly recommend them.
In terms of my favorite albums… Again, such impossible questions! I know that there are two records I would take with me to a desert island if I had to. One is ’69 Love Songs’ by the Magnetic Fields, the other is ‘Grace’ by Jeff Buckley. I think those albums are just immaculate, start to finish. I’d probably take The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Cosmo’s Factory’, The Zombies’ ‘Odessey & Oracle’ or The Who’s ‘Tommy’ as a third. But again, it just depends on what I’m in the mood for, what I feel like listening to. It changes as readily and rapidly as the wind.
Thank you. Last word is yours.
Thank you for having me, Klemen. I’m glad the CD reached you safely. ‘Postcards From The New Frontier’ is out on streaming, and on Bandcamp as well.
As for all of you out there, keep the faith, eat your veggies, and remember what the man said… Rock & Roll Never Forgives.
Klemen Breznikar
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