British Grammy award winning singer-songwriter Joe Jackson talked with host Jill Riley about his new album Hope and Fury, his upcoming show in Minneapolis, and more.

Listen to the full interview in the player above, and find a complete transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current, I'm Jill Riley. Joe Jackson is a Grammy winning singer-songwriter and a composer with an eclectic catalog of albums, going back to the New Wave era albums like Look Sharp, I'm the Man, and the reggae sound of Beat Crazy, the New York flavored 1982 hit "Steppin' Out," to albums built on Latin rhythms, the blues, jazz, classical composition. Joe Jackson's new album is called Hope and Fury, and his Minneapolis tour stop is Saturday, May 23 at the Pantages Theatre. Well, Joe Jackson is on the line. Joe Jackson, welcome to The Current. Thanks for taking the time.

Joe Jackson: Okay, thank you.

Jill Riley: Well, the title of the record. Let's start there, Hope and Fury. How do those two words kind of play together in context of this new album?

Joe Jackson: The title was the last thing that I thought for this album. It's usually the hardest thing, actually, is the title of the album. And I wanted it to be something English, because there's a lot of England in this record, and there's a lot of my kind of love-hate relationship with England. And so eventually I came up with a twist on hope and glory, land of hope and glory, but suggesting these kind of extremes and contrasts. You know, it's not, not straightforward.

Jill Riley: Well, the opening song, "Welcome to Burning by the Sea," when I heard the song, I instantly wrote down, "Latin, industrial." I went, Okay. I mean, because it really is an attention getter. And I wonder if there's that hope and fury, maybe that love and hate with your hometown. And I wonder if you could talk more about that, because I think that's a relatable thing for a lot of people with their hometown.

Joe Jackson: Yeah, sure. Well, my hometown is Portsmouth on the south coast of England, and I actually have a place there. I spend quite a lot of time there, and I really like it, actually. I think England as a whole, I have love-hate relationship with. Actually, the song started out some ideas came to me when I was in Brighton, it started off being about Brighton, but my hometown kind of forced its way in, and then followed by the whole rest of the country. So ended up being a song about England. A fictional seaside town, but sort of a microcosm of the whole country. And it's just all contrasts of old and new and happy and sad, and hope and fury really.

Jill Riley: The inspiration is very English, but I understand that this album was written and recorded, kind of between New York City and Berlin, and I hear those two cities almost showing up in the musical composition. And I wonder if you could kind of talk about that, because when I heard the song, I thought, "Well, it just sounds like a Latin Night Club, but one that is very late at night, and one where the music is really banging."

Joe Jackson: Oh, right, okay. Well, there's definitely a huge Latin influence. And that goes back to my early years in New York. And when I first lived in New York in the early 80s and mid 80s, which was a fantastic time for Latin music in the city, and I could never understand why so many of my peers knew nothing about it, weren't interested in it. I absolutely fell in love with it, and it's an influence that's always there, and it's kind of come to the surface more on this album than other recent ones, I would say. I mean, I sometimes have made the joke that I'm bicoastal, instead of New York and LA, it's New York and Portsmouth. But I think I'm sort of bicoastal musically as well, because my roots are probably the pop music, British pop music that I heard as a kid, The Beatles and so on. But then there's also, you have roots and you have branches, and I have huge branches in New York, which are more to do with jazz and Latin music. So it all kind of gets thrown in the pot and cooked, and hopefully something tasty comes out of it.

Jill Riley: Hope and Fury is the name of the new Joe Jackson record. Joe Jackson is on the line. When you talk about New York and you talk about a Latin influence, but then also the pop influence. When I heard the song "Fabulous People," I thought, well, there's something kind of familiar about this, as in classic Joe Jackson sound. I just thought there was something so familiar about the sounds on the piano, or maybe was the chord progression or the layering of the sounds. I wrote down classic Joe Jackson. And I wonder if there was an intentional call back to an earlier time period, or that kind of fruitful time in New York.

Joe Jackson: Yeah, there is a bit of that in it. Sort of a trick that I did on "Steppin' Out," which is layers of kind of bright, shiny, sort of bell type sounds, keyboards, acoustic piano, electric piano, vibraphone and the glockenspiel on the top, kind of like the cherry on the cake. And it's actually a trick I've done a couple of other times as well. But it seems to be right for this song, because I was looking for an intro for it, and that's where this came in. And it comes in again, sort of halfway through as a sort of, I don't know, like the sorbet between courses or something, yeah?

Jill Riley: Well the trick worked on me.

Joe Jackson: The dessert at the end as well.

Jill Riley: Yeah. I'm talking with Joe Jackson on The Current. The Joe Jackson Minneapolis tour stop is Saturday, May 23 at the Pantages Theatre. You have a long history of playing shows in Minneapolis. I mean, your Minneapolis debut was at the Guthrie in 1979 and I've heard stories where people still point to that show as one of the best shows that they've ever seen in Minneapolis. And so from the Guthrie Theater to the Orpheum Theater, The Fitz, the Minnesota Zoo, I know that in the early 2000s you played at First Avenue on a tour where you had reunited the Joe Jackson Band. And I just I wonder if there's anything in particular about Minneapolis, that when you're on tour, if you have any kind of connection with the city.

Joe Jackson: It's been on every tour, I think, and it usually is a good gig. What can I say? I mean, there's been a couple of great gigs that I didn't expect. You mentioned the one at the zoo. I remember thinking, what we doing here? I don't like open air shows generally, but it was actually great, I remember. It's been a good place to play over the years.

Jill Riley: I do want to ask, because not only are you known for your catalog of music, but you are known for touring and being on stage and connecting with your fans. For you, what is your favorite part about being on the road and being on stage?

Joe Jackson: The thing that isn't said enough, I think, is that it's not all about me. I think more artists need to realize this, that it's not all about them, because what actually happens in the show is a combination of me and my band, and my road crew, and the audience. It's like everyone is involved in this. It's been really interesting to me over the years. How many shows I've not wanted to do? You know? I mean, there's always days on tour where you just feel like, "Oh, I really don't feel like doing a show tonight," and yet, you go on stage and some sort of magic happens, and it can be a really great show, and you just never know, because you get so much support. And I've also done shows where I've been sick and could barely drag myself onto the stage, and it's still been a great show, because I get so much support from my team and from the audience. The audience gives you energy. They're very much a part of the show.

Jill Riley: Yeah, all of those pieces moving together in what can be a really beautiful harmony for a live concert. Well, yeah, we're looking forward to you coming back to Minneapolis, the Pantages Theater, Saturday, May 23. The new album is called Hope and Fury. Joe Jackson, appreciate you, and appreciate you taking the time to talk about the new record with the current.

Joe Jackson: Thanks very much.

Jill Riley: All right. Thank you. You're listening to The Current.

Credits

Guests – Joe Jackson
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer - Natalia Toledo

External Link

Joe Jackson – Official Website