A Conversation with Richard Julian (continued)

PM: There are so many things I want to ask you, and I've kept you so long already. Are you what you'd call a spiritual person?

RJ: Man, that's...  The fact that I won't answer that question probably means yes.

PM: Definitely means yes.

RJ: It's too deep of a question.

PM: Yeah.

RJ: I don't belong to any religion, other than being a musician, which I've tried to convince my mother a lot of times, because she actually is. She thinks she's a Catholic. I think she's a musician.

PM: [laughs]

RJ: And my reason for thinking of that is that she's never once ever come home to me after being at church and told me what the priest said or told me some inspiration that she got from the sermon. But countless times, when I've been telling her about some dogged situation I'm in in my life, she has quoted from a Hank Williams' song, quoted from a Kris Kristofferson song, to relate to me about the situation I'm laying out. And what is religion other than scripture that you live by.

PM: Right.

RJ: If that's her code that she lives by, then she's really a musician.

PM: [laughs]

RJ: And so I've tried [laughs] to lay this concept out to her, and she's a very expansive woman. She's heard me out, but she hasn't signed off on it, as far as I know. She still says she's Catholic. But I'm a musician, and yeah, to me, just going out--I could hear a drummer play a figure one night that just knocks me in the gut, and to me, that could fill me up for two days, remembering this moment. It might not even be a drummer I love, just some fill, just something that happened in a club that seems inspired and strips away the material aspect of our lives, and makes you be so in the moment and so overjoyed in the moment.

Or writing--if I don't write, I get miserable when I'm not writing, when I'm not applying myself. Writing is almost like my spirituality and what I connect to, and what makes me feel adjusted as a human being, the way some people feel adjusted on heroin. So yeah, spiritually, yeah, but it's very--it's a lot about the music, and a lot about love, and what you learn from people in your lives, and all of this. But it's not--it's closer to Buddhism than anything else that I've ever read up on. But I wouldn't apply to--I'm not a Buddhist at all.

PM: You're a musician.

RJ: Definitely.

PM: You read anything lately that turned you on?

RJ: Well, I've been too busy to read. I haven't even done the crossword puzzle since July.

PM: [laughs]

RJ: That broke a ten-year string of doing every single Sunday Times, including even while I was touring in Europe.

PM: [laughs]

RJ: So no, I haven't been reading. But--

PM: Just smokin' busy.

RJ: Yeah. Just too busy. I've been too busy. I've been feeling very uninspired and tapped out, actually, because I did the Willies project. I followed it up with the project with Sasha, and had to write for that, and I've been doing interviews for my own record, and just been overloaded, and not in that zone, not in that spiritual zone that you just asked me about, and looking to get back to it, actually. I took a trip with Lee Alexander back in June, where we went upstate and locked ourselves in a Norman Bates style hotel where we were the only people staying there, and we did nothing but write from dawn until dusk for four days.

PM: Really?

RJ: Yeah. And I'm about to do it again. I'm looking for that three-day window. See, I can't even get that window right now.

PM: And how did that four days turn out?

RJ: Fantastic.

PM: Wow.

RJ: I didn't know how it would be. I was more afraid. I wasn't afraid of being alone up there, I was afraid of not turning anything out.

PM: Of course, that's frightening.

RJ: I wrote my ever-lovin' ass off for four days, and got a lot of really good shit. I can't wait for the next record.

PM: So what's Lee like? Is he a good dude?

RJ: Lee is a very deep, very quiet and shy person, compared to the rest of us, you know, showbiz types.

PM: [laughs]

RJ: He's not a showbiz type. He's a really good writer. And man, I loved it on the trip, because he did a lot of writing for himself. His whole experience of writing has been writing for Norah, which is a beautiful thing. I mean, that's going to pay some bills.

PM: Right.

RJ: And on top of that, you're going to get to work with an amazing singer, so that's going to get you off creatively on one level. But you never get to that zone where you're writing for yourself and processing your own ideas only through that prism, which I think that he has needed to in his development. And I think he acquired a lot of that on our trip, which can only be a good development for him.

PM: Wow. It's a very, very interesting story, my brother. I'm so happy for you, and I'm really grateful for the time today. You're really generous, and not just with your time, but in what you'll say, and what you'll share.

RJ: Yeah, man, well, you're very generous yourself, in covering a lot of the indie artists that you cover. People need that kind of exposure, because it's so hard to find. It's basically--there's a huge gap--a chasm, I should say--between the corporations, which I'm now part of, and doing it yourself. There's too much of a chasm. And things like Puremusic and stations like WFUV, and some of the people who will actually put their money where their mouth is, basically, is a really helpful thing when you're doing it yourself. So there you have it.

PM: When I get up to New York next, I'll give you a buzz. Good luck with your record, and I hope to see you soon.

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