Norah Jones -- success and all that jazz

By GRAHAM REID

Singer Norah Jones has been one of music's conspicious successes of last year. The 23 year old's debut album Come Away With Me has sold upward of five million copies and she has been nominated for five Grammys. The album was produced in part by the legendary Arif Madrin, and released on Blue Note, the famous jazz label. Although Jones was schooled in jazz her songwriting and interests changed between the time of her signing and the recording and Come Away With me hardly fitted the description of jazz. It included a version of country singer Hank Williams' Cold Cold Heart alongside material written by Jones, her bassist/boyfriend Lee Alexander, and guitarist Jesse Harris. That this came out on a jazz label annoyed some jazz purists - but five million buyers haven't been troubled by that, they just liked what Jones did.

But as the album took off Jones was under considerable personal pressure to do interviews and reveal herself to a public curious about her. She finally cracked in May 2002 and put a halt to the gruelling interview schedule. She was also touring relentlessly and, with Alexander who had contributed four songs to the album, had little time to write new material.

Ten days out from the Grammy awards she gave us a rare interview in a hotel room in Auckland before her two sold out concerts. She was cheerful and quick witted, curled herself up casually on the hotel couch, and was animated and open. Stardom rests easy on her, and she gives the clear impression of someone very level-headed and in control of her career, despite the speed at which it had been travelling.

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it because I know this not what you do for a living, this is the endurance test around it.

Yeah, we were just talking about that. It's fine when it's just a few hours. It's when they try to schedule the 12 hour press day that I just can't handle.

I guess when the album took off that's exactly what happened.

Yeah, and I had no boundaries. But I set them very quickly. (Laughs)

You would have found you also started repeating yourself.

Basically, and it wasn't fair to the press people either. If someone arrives at the end of an eight hour day I'm kinda like [mimes being asleep] so it's not fair for anyone.

After this you go back to the States?

We go back and are there for three months.

And you have a break between here and the Grammy's on the 23rd?

Three days or something. That's not too bad.

How do you feel about the Grammy's?

It's going to be exciting.

Are you going to take your autograph book?

(Laughs) I've never been into that, I'm not one of those people. I'd rather shake somebody's hand and talk to them than get them to sign something.

What do you think your chances are? Do you sit around alone at night and think about it?

No, I can't think about it. It's fun, it's already been amazing being nominated. Sure it would be cool to win but . . .

With all due respect you've already won lots of awards, do you find the edge has gone of it?

Of the excitement you mean?

Yes.

A little. I don't take it for granted, like with the Grammy's going, 'Ho-hum'. No, it's awesome but it's not what I have been working for. This past year has been amazing and the Grammy's are like the icing on top of the cake, but it's not the main thing.

When does the album come to the end of its natural lifespan?

Hopefully right now. (Laughs)

That's what I'm thinking, the Grammys are the fullstop and you can put it behind you.

Yeah, we're recording in April regardless. Nobody wants to run this album into the ground. I definitely don't so we're not going to. I'm sick of it. I love my album and I'm proud of it and it's done really well but I'm really ready to move on. I don't expect the next record to be anything like this one, I know not to expect the same thing. I know this was kind of a fluke and . . .

You think it was a fluke?

Oh yeah, it's 100 per cent a fluke.

Why?

Because there's great music everywhere. I think it's a great CD but there are lot of great CDs so it's all about luck.

What luck did you have? You put your CD into the world. I spoke to you in April last year and you said you'd hoped for sales of 10,000 and by then it sold 70,000 and now it's what - five million. I see that as more than a fluke, that says to me a lot of people like it.


Yeah, but that's the fluke. The fluke is that they heard it. A helluvalot of people would like a lot of records that they have probably never heard of. The fluke is that I was lucky enough to get in there and slip through the cracks and people heard it somehow. I don't know how that happened.

Do you think that people were ready for this because they have heard a lot of manufactured pop or manufactured something and your album didn't sound like that.

I think so - and there's nothing wrong with manufactured pop, to a point. It's a lot more manufactured now. It's okay to have some of that and there's a place for it. But it became too mainstream and everything on the radio was like that, except for cool college stations. So I think people were ready for something which was not like that.

I understand what you mean when you say you are sick of the album although I'm sure you will also tell me you are not sick of playing it because you love the songs . . .

Well, we go in and out of liking them and every once in a while we get sick of certain songs. But they always have a circular life, either we change something or one night we play it great and we're not sick of it anymore. So they have all had their moments when we have been sick of them, but we put enough new stuff in the sets so we don't get totally sick of everything.

New things then?

Yeah, we have a few we've been playing since February and we have a lot of different covers. We put different covers in to make it interesting for us.

So there has been some writing going on while you've been on the road.

Yeah finally. In the beginning we were afraid we weren't going to be able to do it. Now we have a few more songs written.

On the way here I was thinking while I love the album it is one you hear so often you forget how much you liked in the first place and the familiarity has diminished it.

That's what I don't like. I would never have signed to a pop label because I was afraid they would have crammed it down everyone's throat and I didn't want that to happen.

So you signed to Blue Note - and then had all those questions about whether you were a jazz musician?

(Laughs) Yeah. I am a jazz musician. I was brought up on jazz and that's all I wanted to play for seven or eight years. This is just the direction I've gone so it's not really a jazz record at all because I got into songwriting and country music while I was making it, and that's kinda like what it ended up being more like. But it's funny because the hard-core jazz community can be very catty with non-jazz which is presented as jazz, so I'm very quick to say, 'This isn't a jazz record'. I just want them to just get over it, because I know how they can be. (Laughs) I used to be one of them, that's how I know!

The interesting things is that Blue Note has had many other artists who have pushed those parameters anyway.

Oh yeah. I signed to Blue Note, they are a jazz label. But I got into this other stuff and knew I didn't want to be another label, I knew I could make the kind of record I wanted to make on Blue Note because of Cassandra Wilson and people like that. I'm a huge Cassandra Wilson fan, she does Hank Williams songs, Neil Diamond songs. She's a little more jazzy in most people's minds but it doesn't matter. It's just about the songs really.

You said the next album is not going to be like this one?

I meant successwise. I don't have any expectations. People are going to hate it or like it. Probably it'll be, 'Well, it's not like the first one'. But who cares? Let them say that. I'm going to make the album I love and I'm not going to put it out unless I love it.

Songwise I'm guessing that because you are introducing new things into your live set that they might turn up on the next album.

Definitely - unless we record them and they stink.

They must fit the tone your current set, so they fit within the orbit of your style.

Yeah, they are in the orbit. Maybe [the next album] will be a little less mellow. We may do one or two of Jesse's songs but he's not playing with us right now so we probably won't do as many of his songs. We did a lot on the last record. Lee and I have a lot more songs to offer that we've co-written which we didn't do before. My current guitarist has a few songs we might do, my drummer and back-up singer have written and we might do some of theirs, and we'll definitely put on a couple of covers.

The success of this album has forced you to write on the road. Lots of songs about hotel rooms?

(Laughs) Oh no. Although I do have a song I started on a plane which is about flying. Yeah, at first it was really hard but the main reason is it's hard is not hearing music and going to hear people live, and not being able to do that because we were on the road meant I was in a rut and didn't have any ideas. I felt really lame.

When was the last time you got out to see live music, in Australia in the past fortnight?

Yeah, we went out to see Jane's Addiction. It was great. It's so good to do that. This past summer we were on the road and we had a day off and we got to see [country singer] Gillian Welch. She was amazing. She's going to tour with us this summer for a few weeks, she's amazing, she rejuvenated us.

And what she does sounds like it was all written a hundred years ago.

Yeah, she is incredible.

And Jane's Addiction?

They are awesome, what's not to like? Also our lighting director was working with them so he got the tickets and asked if we wanted them. Hell yeah we wanted them! It's so fun to go to a rock concert. How much more fun can you get? We saw them the night after the Big Day Out in a small club, maybe 2000 people, that was cool.

You must have become very tired last year with the demands of having to do this sort of thing.

Yeah, in May in Europe. Europe is hard because every country needs their own [interviews], and in every country we were only there two days. So they need all their demands met in two days. So in Europe I went a little mad and wrote a letter saying, 'No more press. These are my rules, I will go insane and quit if these rules are not met. No press, press by extreme consideration'. They took me seriously because I was about to lose my mind. I mean, what's the point of doing this if you can't keep the balance. There's no point for me. I don't need to sell six million albums. It happened and it was amazing, but it's not something I am driven to work myself into the ground to do. It's already done well, so why kill us?

Would you be quite relieved if the pressure came off with the next one and you could live a more normal life?

If there's a way to do it, like right now this is fine. I enjoy talking to people and I'm willing to work. Just do what is necessary. It'd be cool not to have to do it, but its okay and it comes with the territory. It's not a bad thing but it's like anything. Anything that is too much is bad.

A lot of musicians I know have a mentor they can talk to, and I understand that because you live in a unique world best only understood by your peers. Do you have somebody like that?

I don't really have someone who does the same thing, but I have a lot of people who are very supportive. Actually everybody at Blue Note I have become very close with. But I don't really have anybody. I've met a lot of wonderful people I really like, like Willie Nelson and Joni Mitchell, who have been so nice. If I really needed advice I could maybe pick up the phone. I'd be too nervous probably but I think they'd be cool about it. But maybe I don't know them that well, although it was really cool to meet them to watch how they work.

I'm going to embarrass you and ask you about money. You're rich. Do you spend a lot of time talking to lawyers these days and getting investment advice?

Yes. I spent a lot of time with my lawyer this year, not the kind of thing I'd ever thought I'd do. They charge so much! But it's worth it and you've got to cover your butt.

Sure, a lot of people in this business came in and earned a lot of money for other people and nothing for themselves.

Yeah sure. I feel very lucky now. If in 10 years I find I've been swindled then I might think different but I have a good feeling about all the people I work with. My management is honest, the record label is honest . . . Well, record labels, you know. (Laughs)

Oh yeah.

Actually the people I deal with are great. My accountant is great, so I really trust the people I work with.

Has Bruce Lundvall [of Blue Note] come to you lately and said, 'Come on, when's the new album?"

No actually.

No pressure from the record company at all for a new album?

We had a talk about it a few months ago but that was just because he wanted to know what we thought and what to plan for. We decided we really want to have a new album - that's 'we' as in 'me and the band' - and I don't think the label cares, as long as it's not too long.

Well, they could keep pushing this for a while.

Yeah they could but I don't want them to. We could have a new album by September or we could wait until the new year. Either one is fine.

And a producer?

We're just going to go in and record ourselves because the best tracks on the record, or the ones which came out the best, were the ones where we were making demos with no producer. I think that's how I need to record, and that's how we are going to record. I might take it to Arif afterwards to see if he has any ideas or thoughts, to see if we need to go back and add stuff. But as far as recording, it's just going in. Arif would be great but I don't want to put any kind of pressure on.

It struck me that many people made a very big deal about the fact he produced your album whereas to me it sounded very under-produced, exactly what the musicians wanted to do.

Oh it totally was, but he's a famous producer.

So you benefited by his name being on it but he did a lot less than people, critics, were saying.

Definitely. He came into the project at a later time. We did these demos and went in with Craig Street who is a great producer, but we didn't quite get what we wanted and they didn't sound as good as the demos. I sounded way in the background behind the guitars. So what we realised we wanted was something that sounded like the demos, and the demo ended up being the single. And Turn Me On is from the demo, one take recorded live. So when we went back in with Arif - Bruce wanted me to work with Arif and I was really scared, I didn't want it to turn out like it wasn't right - I was stubborn. So he let me use my own musicians and my own engineer and that was cool. He's such a sweet guy and was very sensitive to what I was scared of and added really sensitive small touches.

But if someone suggested Phil Spector to you, you might say maybe not.

Oh, not now. Poor guy.

Do you get much time off before going into the studio, you said you were back in the States for three months.

We're not touring for three months.

What do you do when have time off?

(Laughs) I don't know anymore. We're trying to move so that might take some time. Just seeing my friends will be good.

When was the last time you slept in your apartment?

Actually it was last month, we were home for a few weeks over the holiday period which was the longest we'd been home all year. But I need to get a new apartment, it's too noisy and we want to sleep in in the morning. So we'll just be going out to dinner with friends, see music, see my friends play, that'll be good. I have no self-discipline so when there's nothing I have to do, I sit around. But now will be nice, it's what I am supposed to be doing and I won't feel as guilty.

Well now you know what the opposite is like when you have to do things all the time. You remember one particular day when it all went bad?

Yeah, the whole month of May and the whole two weeks in February when I did the press tour in Europe. Give me an old calendar and I can point to the black days. People were nice and it was exciting but it was too much.

People assume you are public property. Your songs have written themselves into people's autobiographies, they will say in 10 years time they fell in love to Norah Jones and you are part of their lives now.

Yeah, I think it's a date record and I wonder if babies were conceived to it. It's a mellow record.

You'll be seeing the name 'Norah' appearing in the birth notices.

Oh God, I hope not.