Returning to Ithaca for the second time in 2009, Mike Doughty returns to Castaways on November 20. For those unfamiliar with his work, He emerged in the early to mid 1990s as the singer and songwriter for the band Soul Coughing. After the band broke up he began his solo career without a label and touring by himself in a rental car. He’s a fantastic performer, especially in the duo setting he is currently touring with his friend and cellist Andrew “Scrap” Livingston. Prior to his last performance at Castaways this past January, I interview Mike Doughty as well. That interview covers much more of his background and can be read online here.
Dynamic Meter: You recently released Sad Man Happy Man. The sounds and songs on this record seem to really meld your solo work with your earlier work with Soul Coughing. Can you talk about your approach to the record?
Mike Doughty: I wanted it to be acoustic, because my crowd has been kind of demanding that for a while now. But I’ve been working a lot with drum machines and such, and samples, and so there’s some of that stuff in there, too—I guess that makes for the melding of the solo stuff with the old stuff.
DM: On “Golden Delicious,” your song, “Fort Hood” got a lot of attention. Do you think this changed how people perceived the whole album and/or you as an artist?
MD: I don’t think so. I heard from a lot of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, that was really gratifying. Certainly I’ve written more political songs in my solo stuff—well, “Fort Hood,” and another one, “Move On,” that I wrote during the 2004 election.
DM: One of the songs I especially like on “Sad Man” is Lorna Zaubeberg. Can you talk about writing that song?
MD: I started with the second line, “On the wheels my hands are burning from the cold.” The rest of it was sort of sculpted out of there. It’s a fun way to work, starting with an inkling and then sort of teasing the story out.
DM: Also, I love your approach to language and lyrics. You even use the word “soothsayer,” which I can’t believe has been used in too many rock songs before. Can you talk about your approach to writing and language?
MD: I just have a love of words, and when I find good ones I want to deploy ‘em. I keep a notebook on me at all times and write down things I overhear.
DM: You have a very distinctive guitar style, which is really apparent on the new album. Can you tell me how you developed that?
MD: My style (well, one of my handful of styles) is called the Gangadank, it’s sort of a lopsided take on an old break-beat rhythm. I kept trying to perfect it
DM: Please talk about your question jar tour?
MD: It’s a pretty simple concept; the audience puts questions in a jar and I answer them. It’s usually weird questions, along the lines of, “Who would win in a fight, the Lucky Charms leprechaun or Count Chocula?”
DM: Also, you played Ithaca last year. Is it fun to return to the same towns while touring?
Only when it’s fun towns like Ithaca. I love Ithaca.
DM: Are you going to be incorporating the sounds from the record into your live performances?
MD: Well, just essentially the guitar and the cello. The samples and the drum machines and stuff, no.
DM: There seems to be a spiritual component to your work, such as His Truth is Marching On. On the new album, “Lord Lord Help Me Just To Rock Rock On” seems to have this spiritual element as well as what you have described as the song being your, “walk On The Wild Side.”
MD: “Walk on the Wild Side” is a celebration of transvestites, and yet it’s all over the radio. I don’t know if “Lord Lord” will make it onto the radio, but it’s all stealthy drug references: “Tango and Cash” and “Dr. Nova” are brands of heroin, and “works, bundles, and jumbo rocks,” are, respectively, syringes, ten bags of heroin with a rubber band around them, and crack cocaine.
It’s true, I’m a spiritual guy, though I don’t mean “Lord” in a Christian sense. I’m not sure that I believe in God as an individual, as a human is an individual—somebody that lives somewhere. It’s hard to believe in God, though, without personifying him to some extent.
DM: You’re also a photographer, traveler, and writer, blogger. Can you talk about how these things influence your music?
MD: They’re mainly outlets, and ways of keeping myself distracted. I find that when I’m focused on something else, the lyrics just come to me.
DM: Who are your influences, musical or otherwise?
MD: For the solo stuff, Billy Bragg and John Lee Hooker.
DM: Who are you digging now?
MD: Jose Gonzales and Bon Iver.
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