As promised, here is part three of our interviews with the McEuens! Today, we’re back for part 2 with John discussing his songwriting process, who inspires him most, and just why he decided to turn the tables and start interviewing others after over 12,000 interviews in the hot seat!<\/p>\n
CP:<\/strong> I\u2019d love to get right into your songwriting process. What do you find really inspires you?<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> It\u2019s strange; I often have to give myself an assignment. I need to get something done by next Friday or I will not play for a couple of days, then I\u2019ll pick up an instrument, turn on a recorder, and just see what comes out. I\u2019ve got four or five of what I think are really nice little instrumentals that have come out in the last few months, and those are just by picking a nice key, finding a melody, and then I sometimes find myself writing a piece of music that seems to come together effortlessly. Those are the ones I really like.\u00a0 Sometimes there are other pieces that are more crafted. I\u2019ll sit down and get the first half, and then two months later I\u2019ll get the second half.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Do you use any special programs or drum loops when you\u2019re writing at all?<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> No. I\u2019m old school. I pick up the guitar and see what happens (laughs). I\u2019m often playing the guitar or banjo; sometimes it\u2019s the keyboard. I\u2019m not really proficient at the keyboard, but if I have a chord structure, I find that I can find a melody quicker that I like.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ve got one piece of music on the other hand that took me two years to finish. I think it\u2019s one of the best things I\u2019ve ever written.\u00a0 It\u2019s a piano piece that goes over like a hit when I play it. Nobody has ever heard it, and I play it and think, \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll change that one note. (Laughs)\u201d It\u2019s a lot of fun though. I find that open tunings on guitars also help. They give me a different space to go to.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I know last time we spoke, you mentioned Earl Scruggs as an incredibly influential artist for you, and unfortunately he passed away the next day. I\u2019m so sorry to hear about that. Are there any artists that you listen to that really inspired and influenced you?<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> Yeah, Doug Dillard, Lightnin\u2019 Hopkins, he\u2019s a blues guitar player, people on other instruments like Stuart Duncan; he\u2019s always been very inspirational to play with. I don\u2019t listen to very much newer stuff though. I really like my sons\u2019 music. I listen to a lot of that. I like Chelsea Williams\u2014 she\u2019s an LA street performer that just got a record deal. I like her writing. I also just wrote an album of really interesting melodies that me and the singer wrote, and I arranged the music and produced the album of William Blake poetry. William Blake was a poet of the 1800\u2019s. Martha Redbone, she and I put together the music. I played the instruments and produced the album with a couple of other musicians. I enjoy that.<\/em><\/p>\n For the last year, I\u2019ve been listening to music for over ten hours a day with all of these projects. I would say that there\u2019s a couple of songs that I go to every now and again, like Little River Band\u2019s \u201cCool Change.\u201d It\u2019s one of my favorite records. Anyway, so I don\u2019t listen to a lot. One of the difficulties in this also is that you\u2019re writing a song that you think is pretty good, and someone listens and says, \u201cOh, that sounds like so and so\u2019s song!\u201d and you\u2019re thinking, \u201cOh, I didn\u2019t know that.\u201d (Laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I know you also have a radio show where you interview other artists. What inspired you to turn the tables and take on the other side?<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> Well, I\u2019ve done over 12,000 interviews, and I really like it. It\u2019s fun. But one of the things that keeps it fun is that I\u2019d ask the interviewer questions, you know? I\u2019d ask, \u201cWhat got you into radio?\u201d \u201cIs this where you wanted to be, in Columbia, MO? Where are you headed?\u201d And that was years ago. Over the course of this experienced path I\u2019ve been on, I found myself in a position where I had to interview people. Since I knew the questions that I didn\u2019t like being asked, I didn\u2019t ask them.<\/em><\/p>\n Back when Johnny Carson was a teenager, he realized that the best way to interview people was to ask them one question and don\u2019t be thinking of your next one while they\u2019re answering. Really listen to what they\u2019re saying and let that drive you in a direction. Johnny Carson was a master interviewer.<\/em><\/p>\n But why? It\u2019s fun! You say something, and then the other guy has to do all the work (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> That\u2019s one way to look at it!<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> Can I answer a question you haven\u2019t asked?<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Absolutely!<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> (Laughs) One aspect that\u2019s exciting to me about playing with my sons is that I hear the influences from about a million things from Phish to Rush coming through their instruments. So many times I find myself looking at them going, \u201cHow did they do that?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> That\u2019s a cool moment. I can only imagine what it must be like to hear all of the influences of music you\u2019ve introduced them to, plus the things they\u2019ve found on their own coming together.<\/em><\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> The acorns went rolling around other trees is what happened there. People say that the acorn doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree, but if that\u2019s the case, then how come I can\u2019t play that solo he just played (laughs)? It\u2019s a good combination.<\/em><\/p>\n Once again, I’d like to thank John and Nathan for taking time out to chat with us! It was an absolute pleasure, and I can’t wait until they come to play for us! You can preview their new record, The McEuen Sessions<\/em>, at the Spotify link below, and tickets can be purchased below that!<\/p>\n The McEuen Sessions on Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT: <\/em>John McEuen & Sons Nathan and Jonathan<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More with John McEuen by Casey Pukl As promised, here is part three of our interviews with the McEuens! Today, we’re back for part 2 with John discussing his songwriting process, who inspires him most, and just why he decided to turn the tables and start interviewing others after over 12,000 interviews in the hot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-5993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32917,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993\/revisions\/32917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/john-and-son.jpeg\" "\\"john-and-son\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Sunday, April 29, 7:00 pm<\/strong><\/em>
\nTICKETS: $10-$29 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/em>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n