http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/art ... 1001993970

With his song "In the Sun" the centerpiece of a digital charity EP spearheaded by R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur is in various stages of work on three new studio albums. The artist is also about to stage his first art exhibition before embarking on a seven-date U.K. tour.

One new album, dubbed "Invisible Parade," is already finished, having been recorded in 10 days in Berlin. "I had a bunch of songs I was writing on the road," Arthur tells Billboard.com of the 11-track set. "I'd been working on a bigger production record in Los Angeles for awhile, but I just wanted to do something really minimal. I've never done that before; something totally stripped-down. I decided to go to Berlin and find a studio and self-produce it."

Arthur says he plans to finish the L.A. sessions in March, all the while juggling work on a separate, entirely instrumental album. The only problem? The artist is currently without a label in the United States, having parted ways with Vector after the release of 2004's "Our Shadows Will Remain." Arthur was previously signed to Peter Gabriel's Real World imprint as well as Universal's Enjoy label.

"There's a couple of indies we're talking to, but I'm thinking about just going completely indie and putting [new music] out myself," Arthur says of finding a new label home. "I don't really see why not." However, the artist's draw continues to increase in Europe and the United Kingdom, where he will play London's 2,000-capacity Shepherd's Bush Empire on Feb. 24.

"[U.K. label] 14th Floor is just beginning to work ['Our Shadows Will Remain'] overseas, and it's doing really well," Arthur says. A new single, "Devil's Broom," will see U.K. release Monday (Feb. 13); the seven-inch vinyl edition sports a live cover of the Smiths' "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out."


As for Arthur's first art show, he has been in London hanging 20 large painted canvases at the Vertigo Gallery in anticipation of tomorrow's grand opening. Also in the works for this spring is an art book, which Arthur expects will be "a limited-edition, coffee-table sort of thing, but I'm sure it will be available on the Internet or boutique stores."

Asked if there's any chance all three new albums could see the light of day in 2006, Arthur offers, "That would be ideal. I would like that. It's difficult to make that happen, but I'm doing my best.


Mark

A) 3 albums would be too stylin' for words.

B) Are record label people slightly defficient in the ole brain department? If I had a label and Joseph was on it, I'd pretty much give him free reign to do whatever in whatever time frame he was comfortable with.

Maybe Joe's been unsatisfied with Vector not giving him an international market like they'd done with Damien Rice. On the other hand, releasing his music as an independent artist will close the door to true international release forever. Concerts outside the US would get harder and harder as only the fandom would know about him, and even with all the british and french fans he has by now, promoting him would be rather difficult. He would most likely become the next Davíd Garza.

I really can't believe it's the old "label won't release enough records" story, though, a planned summer release would be almost two years since Joe's last regular release, which would be normal. And with the vinyl release and the additional indie shop EP, they also demonstrated how they'd release unusual material (like a "underproduced" album and an instrumental one). Add to that that OSWR has been a hit with critics and most probably hasn't sold badly for a non-mainstream release, I can't imagine them giving bad conditions to Joe.

Maybe future interviews will shed light on this...

Damien's US release was handled by Vector and his Eurpoean release by 14th Floor - same as with Joe. Vector is a US label.

I know, but Damien has his international release with some division of Warner (EastWest) and his records are available almost everywhere, or at least in more places than the USA and UK.
It would have been a perfect situation as Warner is also R.E.M.'s label. Having him as tour support would have been much more meaningful to marketing. Actually, I don't understand how Warner ignored Joe's record although R.E.M. took him along to Europe anyway...

Oops, wasn't logged in...

Ah, OK. I don't know much about Warner. I mainly wanted to make the point that an International release is not something Vector would handle. Joesph said a while back in a private conversation with someone that he was very happy with Vector. I have heard that Vector's connections are primarily in London, so I wasn't surprised by the 14th Floor deal.

I remember Joseph was looking (in Europe) for a way to release OSWR in Europe about a year ago. Looking at OSWR on amazon France....that is a Warner release, not an import, is it? (Not sure.)

That's funny, I didn't know it was released in France... Still, WEA UK looks strange, it's Warner alright, but why UK...? And what's up with the UK import from 14th Floor being cheaper?

There's a Vector import also, did you see? Mad world! I don't even think the album was properly released in France. Warner UK may have handled some limited European distribution (hence it not being an "import")?

If you look at Damien Rice's 'O' you'll see the whole gamut: a Vector import, a Warner release, a Warner import, an East West release, a 14th Floor import....you name it, it's there!

I don’t know much about record companies and labels, to say nothing of the complications you are discussing here. To be honest, I don’t have a clue what you are talking about. (Simple as I am) I just hope the parting with Vector will have positive effects on Joe’s work, success, life and everything. I’m more confident than worried actually as I trust his decisions and intuition.... As you might have guessed I'm very very happy about the chances of 3 new albums in 2006 of course. Can’t wait for more informations about Invisible Parade, what does minimalistic production mean in detail and how noticeable will the influence of the German background be?

In the end, it's not really important, I guess we got carried away... Let's drop the subject until we've formed our own label...


Minimalistic production means recording/finishing tracks in about a day and that's it, no further tinkering. Most probably Joe either went into the studio and recorded a new song each day, or he recorded rough versions the first few days and then worked on them until the studio contract expired.
Normally, production means musicians recording lots of extra stuff in several sessions and finally deciding which parts they use, which leads to layered sounds and lots of detail work.
For Joe, minimalistic approach should work really well as he's got his songs all written and only has to add layers in the first place. I believe Vacancy was done in only a few days, too. Someone like Peter Gabriel has a box full of interesting sounds and then puzzles them together, writing lyrics (and thinking about the meaning of the song) only when the music track is set.
A good example to compare the two approaches is Howie Day's "She Says", which was released as a solo acoustic version on the (minimalistic) Australia album and as a sugar coated pop rock piece on his second record. In the end, the song itself remains the same, but there's been lots of additional work done.


Unless there's us cheering in the background I can't think of any possible influence. Well, maybe Joe's one of those impressed by German beer, which could translate into a, well, unrestrained sound.
He once wrote a Road Note about the Body Worlds exposition in Cologne, though. While this wasn't typically German, it had certainly influenced him, but I doubt there's a lost song about skinned body parts

Thanks for the lessons in minimalistic production! If you should also know what the resulting songs on Invisible Parade EXACTLY sound like, what the lyrics are about and the artwork looks like ... please specify!



Great, idea ... What I meant was that you get always influenced by the culture that surrounds you, more or less, I think it’s impossible to avoid that completely. Of course I won't try to detect details on the record to prove this, but I will certainly look for the most beautiful parts of the music and just say: See, this is what Germany does to Joseph’s creativity.

Do you remember which poem was inspired by the Body Worlds exposition?

I like your avatar!

Actually, I've got the album right here, but unfortunately I promised Joe not to talk about it
No, only kiddin'...


I meant this one, but I just found out that it's actually a series of four cologne-poems with three of them dealing with the exhibition.
The gig he describes was the one I could have attended had I known about Joe at the time Okay, I already had BCS at that time, but hadn't yet become a fan or even found out about CTWIF (which I saw & bought in May, I believe, and which finally got me).


Somehow, I thought so...

3 albums in 2006 would be absolutely fantastic, but too good to be true!

One of my other favorite singer-songwriters Grant-Lee Phillips did a minimalistic/acoustic CD called Ladies Love Oracle. He recorded it in 3 days. He's on the indie label Zoe records. Maybe it's something like that: with very few or just one instrument... I'm only guessing...

And an instrumental CD? I can only think of one that I own and that is Boards of Canada's 'Campfire Headphase'. I read somewhere that Joseph is a Brian Eno-fan, so he could be a big influence for this instumental CD

Thanks ... I like the poems, he's clearly shocked and disgusted, a reaction I was hoping for and concerned about at the same time. And then the day after this the show with a handful of people in the audience! I hope Hamburg was a little less disappointing, oh well.