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Jules Shear


A Conversation with Jules Shear (continued)

PM: So what about songwriting? I mean, you've been doing it so well, so long. Does it hold the same joy for you that it always did?

JS: Songwriting is the one aspect of it all that, yeah, it definitely does...

PM: It's the best, right?

JS: It is. Over the years, I've figured it's the best way for me to do this thing. And I write them, and I just stick them away somewhere. I just write them and stick them away. And like when it came time to do this record, I really thought about, okay, what am I going to--I should just record all the songs with guitar vocal and see what they sound like. So I started taking out the songs. And I was going, "Wow, this is really cool." It was almost like taking out somebody else's songs, because I had just written them, and that day I had done a little demo of them on my own little tape recorder, like the one you have here, and then just put it away. And I had just done that with so many songs, and when I took them up, it was like they were new songs to me, only I had written them.

PM: Wow, that's totally cool.

JS: It was really great. And that's one way for me to keep my enthusiasm up about everything. Otherwise, I'd be so far into the middle of it, I don't know if I would ever know if it was good or not.

PM: Do you tend to rewrite and work the hell out of a song, or do you tend to write it and--

JS: Well, rewriting to me means--if I work on it for three days, I've rewritten it. Then it's usually there.

PM: I've had co-writers where they'll call up in successive days and go, "Listen, I've been thinking about that bridge"--and I'm going, "That song is done! Why are you calling me again?"

JS: Yeah, I know what you mean. It's like being told when you're seven years old, "We're going to spell your name differently."

PM: When you wrote, say, "All Through the Night," did you have any inkling at the time that, "Hey, this could be my biggest song ever"?

JS: No. I had no inkling at all. I wrote that song just because I hadn't written any songs for a while, and I was with a bunch of people, and they had stuff to do that day, like press or something, and I was by myself. And I just sat down and thought, "I'm going to write a song today, I'm going to give it a try." So I just wrote a song, stuck it on a tape like everything else. That was just another song.

PM: It was no big deal, just a song.

JS: Yeah, that's right. It was a song. And not that I don't give thanks for that song and everything, I do, all the time. But I didn't really think of it when I wrote it. I tend to think of them all as being--I give them all kind of equal rights. And that's the way it goes. On this record, for instance, I let the producer, Stuart Lehrman, and my manager, Peter Lubin, choose the songs.

PM: Really? That's very interesting.

JS: I had these twenty-five or thirty songs, when all was said and done. And they decided, "Let's do these." And I said, "Okay." So I went and recorded them. I was glad somebody was going to do that. And sequencing the record, I left that to them, also.

PM: That's amazing. I mean, many or most artists would not dream of doing that. I like that.

JS: You just got to figure that these guys are really into doing this stuff. I'm not into doing this stuff.

PM: You're into writing songs.

JS: That's right. [laughs] Exactly. So why do it just because I can? That's kind of crazy, if somebody really wants to do it.

PM: Because I know good songwriters in Nashville that are even a step further than that. They write a song, and a week later, they don't even know how it goes.

JS: Oh, well, that's quite possible. I can understand that.

PM: A buddy of mine, Rory Burke, he'll sing you a line of a song--he's written a million hits--a lot of times he says, "Well, I don't know how it goes after that." I'll say, "What do you mean?

[laughter]

PM: "It was a huge song." But Rory says, "I don't know, Frank. I'm not in the business of remembering. I write them. That's what I like."

JS: I can relate to that. You want to just write them. That's right.

PM: Oh, so let's talk about Stuart Lehrman a little bit, because you've worked with him a whole bunch.

JS: Uh-huh.

PM: What's the nature of your relationship with him, or your process with him? How do you guys do it?

JS: Well, our relationship at this point is that we're buddies. I started out doing demos at his studio a long time ago. And when I started to do this record called The Great Puzzle, I just thought, "I want to do it with Stuart." And that was just like a brainstorm to me, that Stuart will produce my record. And we did it together, and that was the beginning of Stuart's career as a producer.

PM: Wow. So he was surprised that you said, "I want you to produce my record."

JS: Yeah, he was maybe a little surprised it would go that far, but--

PM: Because he was a musician.

JS: --he was willing to take it on. Yeah, he was a musician, but he had a studio, and he was an engineer. And yeah, it was definitely the right time for him to take on something like that, so that was fine.

PM: And he's in the City?

JS: Yeah, he's in the City, 14th Street.

PM: Oh, yeah. So how many records have you guys now done together?

JS: Four, I think? I think four. It might be four.

PM: So when he's not doing a record with you, what is he likely to be doing? Is he out gigging or producing a record?

JS: Oh, producing. He did Dar Williams' latest record. He's done Darden Smith, and Suzzy Roche.

PM: I don't have the credits with me here in Austin. Who were some of the major contributors on the record?

JS: Well, Stuart himself was a contributor, he added a lot. Rob Morsberger arranged the strings and played accordion on the record. He was a big part of it. So it was me, Stuart, and Rob, really.   continue

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