News : Jameson & Co. Drop Long-Awaited Disc
News : Jameson & Co. Drop Long-Awaited Disc
Out of the Canyon on Crutches, the first proper album from budding O.C. artist Jameson, has been a long time coming. It took so long to compete the collection, which dropped Tuesday, that in the process of recording it he was able to finish and self-release an introductory set (last year’s extended EP Synergist) and wrap work on a second full-length effort, Carnivore, cut at Zion Studios in Santa Ana and due in spring.
He diligently but patiently worked on his latest endeavor for the past two years at the legendary Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. Jameson, now billed as Jameson & Co., was an invited guest of the studio’s pros, who wanted to help the 28-year-old prepare a grander-sounding album. The Santa Ana resident made the drive to L.A. once a month on average, eating up any time available in between Henson’s paying customers.
There were times when he was frustrated by the piecemeal process, but he says it was well worth the wait.
“It sounds polished to me,” Jameson said as we kicked back in his camper, parked just outside of his home-base studio and lockout, where he also practices with his other band, Echo Echo.
“There’s no toilet dripping in the background like there is on all of my other recordings – I record vocals in the bathroom, so that’s just part of it. I’m so used to that, but to hear all of that buffed out, it’s very different and it’s nice. I’m glad I had the chance to record at Henson, and who knows if I’ll ever record in a studio like that again.”
Though he’s relieved to finally have the album out, Jameson (last name: Burt) says he’s grown so much as an artist that it’s odd to promote songs he initially penned three years ago. He’s moved on from the lyrical subject matter as well – most of it was about his first real relationship years ago, one that came to a dramatic end.
“I was 21 at the time, and when I look back and think about it, even now it feels like this grand tragedy of a relationship,” he said between puffs of a cigarette and sips of Jack Daniels. “I think it could have been a movie – maybe a romantic comedy but with a tragedy at the end.”
The title, Out of the Canyon on Crutches, came about “because she lived in this house in the Hollywood hills and it wound down through this canyon. Driving out of there for the last time … (I was) so broken by the whole drama and weight of the situation. I felt like I was crawling out of there.”
Last year, while still inching along at Henson, Jameson received a banjo from his current girlfriend and began working on new songs between helping customers at a local roadside strawberry stand. He set out to record it on his own, enlisting bassist David Beste, drummer John Wilson and Justin Burrow on lap steel. Jameson also hooked up with longtime collaborator and Zion Studios owner and producer Dallas Kruse to fill out the sound.
Initially he wanted only acoustic instruments and to record it live and outdoors, but after hearing the mixes come together while Kruse tinkered with them during late-night sessions, Jameson grew open to suggestions.
“I had this subconscious fear that what I was doing had to be within this set of railroad tracks and could only ride those rails. I’d be working on the record with Dallas and he’d pull up a drum sound or a keyboard sound, and I’d have this reaction like ‘that’s not me.’ I think from working with him and David Beste – the three of us co-produced that record – I realized that there has to be no rules, formula or boundaries.
“That excites me – that nothing has to have limits anymore because if it sounds good, (forget) whatever it’s supposed to sound like.”
Further pushing out of his comfort zone, he also crafted what he considers more “pop-sounding” songs and came to the realization that he needs to release his music faster, possibly by issuing one song a month online. Meanwhile, the guitarist has been busy recording new tracks with Echo Echo, formerly the Steve Carson Band, a local group he joined eight years ago.
“In some ways I owe everything to those guys for pushing me along,” he says.
At 19, Jameson was added to the lineup after impressing the band during an audition. Growing up in Mission Viejo, he says he lived in “a bubble of safe suburbia” and as a kid was painfully shy. His father encouraged him to learn guitar early on, but Jameson resisted until he was in sixth grade, when he wanted to join some neighbor boys who had started a band.
His dad regularly listened to the early Beatles, the Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Gordon Lightfoot. It wasn’t until Jameson started hanging with those boys down the street that his ears were opened to heavier, louder music. He immediately asked his dad to teach him guitar.
“I had been exposed to the bubblegum side of things,” he says, smirking. “My dad only liked the Beatles until they really started getting interesting, because he was 17 at the time and a good Christian man, and when things started to get weird he had heard that it was like druggy music. But the other boys’ dad back then, he was into Led Zeppelin. I would drive to Laguna with them in the summer and he had Led Zeppelin IV on cassette. I remember hearing ‘Stairway to Heaven’ all the way through for the first time and my mind exploded. That was a turning point for me.”
When he started in the Steve Carson Band, Jameson says he was so comfortable behind the Orange Curtain that he had never been to Long Beach and made only a few trips to L.A. to purchase guitars. One time he went with friends and parents to see Santana at the Hollywood Bowl.
“I remember driving to Long Beach for the audition and thinking I was in like the ghetto or something,” he says with a laugh. “I was never a kid that was part of the scene here, like going to shows at Chain Reaction. I grew up in the church, so I’d go see rock bands at church and that was safe.”
Now, nearly a decade later and with much more experience behind him, Jameson says he’s ready to take his music further. He’s writing from a different place than he was a couple of years ago.
.
“In the last year I feel like I’m getting into what I’m really doing as an artist. The recordings I’ve done, they are special to me, but I’m writing better things now than I was at 25. Maybe when I’m 35 I’ll be like ‘the (stuff) you were writing at 28, you had no idea what you were talking about.’
“I’m not saying right now is the pinnacle, but now I look at music like it’s work. I get up and I do it every day. Even the non-fun side and non-creative side of it, I treat it like work. I wish I would have done that earlier on.”
Contact Jameson & Co.
Contact Orange County Register
Good site! I really love how it is simple on my eyes and the data are well written. I am wondering how I could be notified whenever a new post has been made. I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed which must do the trick! Have a nice day! Exciting!!!I know a good cheap price but also very fashionable place, it sell rolex atlanta, I know we also need it.
ReplyDeleteIcebox,
ReplyDeleteThank you u so much for not just stopping by but participating. Your participation is key to our success. Let us know if you would like to see more of anything or even less of anything. We value your opinion. Thanks for stopping by The Velvet Couch. We look forward to your participation. FYI, let us know a bit more about Sell Rolex Atlanta. We would love to check it out and spread the word.
Milan (The Velvet Couch)