Back in the late '90s, my erstwhile boss raved about a singer/songwriter named Josh Rouse. At the time, our music tastes differed, so I never bothered to check out the young troubadour.
Looking back, I can safely say I was I stupid.
In 2003, I decided to give Josh a try, as he just released 1972
Boy, was I glad I did. 1972 clocked in at No. 1 on my top 10 list that year and has remained one of my all-time faves.
Since then, Josh got divorced, met a girl and moved to Spain. Last year, he released Nashville
Like everything he puts out, Subtitulo has that signature Rouse charm: beautifully written tales set against his lovely voice. He draws you in and allows you to see the picture he's painted. If you close your eyes, you can genuinely see the scene he conjured when writing a particular song. It's hard not to fall in love with Josh's voice when you hear it.
I spoke with Josh about two weeks ago just before kicking off a North American tour on April 1. We talked about life in Spain, giving up drinking after being sent to the hospital a few years ago and the haters on his fan forums. We had some initial phone issues, but the fourth try was golden.
Read the interview after the jump or stream it.
Q&A with JOSH ROUSE:
SomethingGlorious: You know, it's interesting: I was reading the questions from our interview a couple of years ago. You mentioned that you had just been in Spain just after the bombings and how much you love the peaceful quality about the people there and how the sun always shines. You told me that you thought back then that you could live there for a while. Did you know right away when you were getting divorced that you would move over there?
Josh Rouse: No not al all. It just worked out that way. I met a cool girl there who rented me an apartment. I've been there a year and a half. I bought an apartment there.
SG: What are some major differences of living in Spain vs. the States?
JR: Everyone speaks Spanish, they don't work as hard and aren't as gung ho on having to work to be who they are. I don't meet quite as many people whose parents are divorced.
SG: Do you think it's because Spain is a predominantly Catholic country?
JR: I think they have different things to enjoy. They're not as preoccupied … it's hard to explain. There are people who get divorced there. It's more of an innocent country. I don't know why. [Former Spanish ruler Francisco] Franco instilled this kind of morality on the country. Sex isn't taboo and you can smoke a joint walking on the street. It's just a state of mind. It's a small country and the school system is really good there and there's a higher intelligence level. They're pretty happy with their government. There isn't so much preoccupation with superficial things. There's not marriage counselors on every corner of the block. People communicate there more.
SG: Do you participate actively in Siesta?
JR: Yeah. You kind of take a long lunch and take a long nap afterward.
SG: Do you nap everyday?
JR: I like to nap when I can. It's nice. I don't really have a job there but I have noticed that everything closes until about 5 o'clock and opens up again. Everyone eats around 10 or 11. Everyone's different. If you walk down the street between 2 and 5 it's pretty dead. I do a lot of working at night because of the States and my manager lives here.
SG: Was it a hard adjustment – like would you want to go to the drugstore or grocery store and you'd get there and everything was closed?
JR: Yeah it took a little while. I got out of my Spanish lessons around 2 o'clock. And everything is dead.
SG: How is your Spanish?
JR: I am pretty fluent now. I live with my girlfriend now and we speak Spanish about 80% of the time. I screw up my English sometimes now. I'll say something like "I'm making some concerts."
SG: Your girlfriend sings on the new album correct? Her name is Paz? Where did you meet?
JR: I met her in Spain about 2 summers ago. She's not a singer. I thought it would be cool having a song coming from a girl. She sang pretty well in the house and I suggested her coming down to the studio – I wasn't even sure it would make it to the record. She did the artwork for the record and my website.
SG: So you're pretty happy being in Spain.
JR: I miss the States too. I miss everything being really familiar. I'm a foreigner there as well.
SG: Any regrets about moving there?
JR: No, not at all.
SG: Being a foreigner, do you feel like you've had any negativity thrown your way regarding the Iraq war?
JR: I haven't experienced anything like that. Spain doesn't support the war and their president doesn't support George Bush, really. You see stuff in the papers, but it's not like it is here. If anything they're more fascinated with [America]. Pop culture has a huge impact on Spain: music, film. I think people are really interested in the States.
SG: You've said you tend to be a moody person. Has being over there helped make you any less moody?
JR: Just being over there and just relaxing about everything – my career, my life – it's helped. I'm not in a rush to get anywhere. When I first got there, I felt like no one does anything here; people aren't stressed out here. We got work done on the apartment and it took so much to get people to do anything. It's not a big deal. It could be frustrating but if you apply it to different parts of your life. It's really commercial [in the States] and at triple speed. It's such a consumer culture.
SG: Was it hard to leave Nashville or did you just need to make a clean break from that part of your life?
JR: It wasn't hard to leave at all. I was ready to go somewhere. I was tired of Nashiville. I was there for 9 years. I was bored.
SG: How has being over there helped your creative flow?
JR: It's pretty much the same. I haven't noticed anything. I don't think Spain has had any influence on my music. Maybe it has but I'm too close to it to tell. I still write songs in the same way.
SG: Your albums, it seems like you have an unconscious formula. Your albums are consistently good. It's like you have a few slow songs and a few upbeat songs, but there's always good songwriting. Do you have a formula or does it just flow?
JR: It just flows. I just kind of write songs. When it comes time to write the record, I spend months looking at the songs and see how they can fit together and make a good record. I do have a formula in that way. It's something I learned in Nashville, how to craft a song. It's like any craft. If you do it for awhile, you get kind of good at it and it's fun.
SG: How do you keep it from getting mundane and boring?
JR: I'm not the person who writes a song a day. I write in waves. All the ideas for this record came in a few weeks and then I didn't have anything for months. That's the way you do it. It just kind of moves through you. You write and then do something else. I don't force myself to write songs.
SG: Then you're just making music for making music's sake.
JR: Yeah, I've never understood that. Are [people] putting out records just to put out records.
SG: This recording, I would think it was different than any album you've done for the fact you recorded it in southern Spain. Was it significantly different based on the setting?
JR: It was fun to record outside of Nasvhille was nice. I was pretty inspired by the songs. We'd go swim in the pool and eat a long lunch – it was a different way of working but once you're in the studio it's all the same. It was nice to be in a different environment. We were in Puerto de Santa Maria. Down by Cadiz near Africa. [We were down there] just 10 days.
SG: So did you go to Morocco?
JR: Nope, I didn't have time. I had a concert a couple days later.
SG: What about Gibraltar – isn't that right there?
JR: Nope, didn't do that either.
SG: So Josh have you been anywhere in Spain?
JR: [laughs] I actually haven't traveled that much. I've been to Barcelona and lived in Altea. Driven down the coast to Malaga. But haven't been inland at all. I've been to Lisbon a bunch of times to play. I haven't traveled like I want.
SG: Why did you decide to leave Ryko and start your own label?
JR: It seemed like the best option. I wanted to make money for my records. You invest time and work hard and promote it to sell it for another company. The way contracts work, you don't really make a lot of money off of it. They give you money to make it and promote it and it's hard to recoup that money. I thought I can get some money and record it and license it. I didn't want to sign with a major label. It seemed a little silly. I have a good fan base and didn't want to get caught up in any … I mean, people get fired all the time. They wouldn't be interested in the kind of success -- if I had sold a half a million albums, it wouldn't be enough for them.
SG: Have you used the Internet to get your music out?
JR: About 20% of my sales are from downloads. I have an active fan base on the Internet. I think in a couple years about half the people will be downloading music – and actually paying for it.
SG: I saw that you're really into Wolf Mother.
JR: Some of the first songs I learned were Black Sabbath songs and they're young and that's what rock is all about.
SG: You and I had talked about how you find people and make up stories about them. Is that how you still write songs?
JR: I just get ideas and picture characters in my head. A lot of experiences come from my experiences. "The Man That Doesn't Know How to Smile," I have no idea what that's about. It's just a story I made up. Sometimes I just get a line and that will be the title of the song and then there's a melody around that. Some of your own experiences go into that.
SG: Like on "Giving it Up" is that about you?
JR: That was definitely inspired by quitting drinking three years ago – I was hospitalized for days.
SG: Has it been a struggle for you?
JR: It's been easy. The biggest struggle is the first six months. I don't go out to bars anymore. When it's absent from your life for that long.
SG: Were you already sober for Nashville?
JR: I was sober for all of 1972 and all of Nashville.
SG: In the past when you recorded, did you spend a lot of the time fucked up?
JR: [Being hospitalized] happened in the middle of 1972. I'd get a six-pack and record a couple of songs. I wasn't down-and-out alcoholic but I got pancreatitis. I didn't drink that much – people in my band drank way more than I did [laughs]. It was something with my body. It did recover, but a year later I was still having problems without drinking. It was a weird thing – maybe some kind of sign. I don't know.
SG: Are you able to be around…
JR: Yeah yea. I'm not like "god, I need a drink." I completely blocked it out.
SG: I bet you save a lot of money.
I saved a lot of money and lost a lot of weight. For a little guy, I could put the pounds on [laughs].
SG: I saw the Black Orchid show in Chicago in January. How with this tour be different?
JR: I'll have a bass player and a drummer with me. In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, I'll have a string section. The rooms are bigger.
SG: I noticed you sound off on some of the haters who post notes on your web forum.
JR: It's funny because, in general, there are about 20 people who post on there, like everyday. There's the same two or three guys on there and every time I have a new record come out, they'll say I'm going downhill and not selling tickets. They're trying to bring me down like I'm George Bush or something. Of course, the record gets out there and get on the forum and just trash it. I'm like, "fuck you man." These guys, from London, who think they're the official critics for my website. There are people who don't like this record and some who love it. It happens with every record and I have thick enough skin to absorb all that.
SG: Does that ever affect you?
JR: Yeah, of course. I don't think about it all day. Every time a record comes out, for the first week or two, I'll see what reviews are out there. Now I see if people are going to buy it or dig it. It's doing well on iTunes and people love it. Then I get too busy touring and don't keep up with that stuff. Every time I put out a record, Pitchfork hates it. They think I'm some kind of Ryan Adams and Wilco rip-off and I moved to Spain because they're not popular there.
SG: That's kind of lame.
JR: That's kind of funny. You gotta take that stuff in stride. That's what matters at the end of the day.
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