Jesse Malin New York Rock Icon
Jesse Malin has been a part of the New York alt rock music scene for just about twenty years beginning as a teenager with the hardcore band Heart Attack. Later he gained widespread notoriety as front man for the glam garage punk metal band D Generation in the 90’s. These days he has a fresh new sound and has just released his third solo album “Glitter in the Gutter” with contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Jakob Dylan, Josh Homme from the band Queens of the Stone Age and of course his good friend Ryan Adams. Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of chatting with Jesse at Niagara,the East Village bar where he is a part owner, we sat in a cozy corner of the bar and for the next hour and a half discussed everything from his new album to New York City to what his hopes are for the future and also why he was wearing a back and neck brace.
AG: The first question I’m going to ask and I’m sure your sick of answering this question, is that you collaborated with Bruce Springsteen on your new song “Broken Radio”. How did that Collaboration come about and what was it like to work with Bruce?
JM: Well I guess when I made “Fine Art of Self Destruction” the first record, I met Bruce at the Stone Pony of all places and he told me he really liked the cover that I had done of “Hungry Heart” and he hadn’t heard my solo record but had read good things about it. So then that was it and then he missed a gig or set and then I got a phone call from my manager saying Bruce is gonna call you up at home and he loves your record and he wants to talk to you about it or something and I was like you’re joking! So he called and he wanted to talk about the record for an hour and then he asked me to do some shows with him down in Asbury, which are benefit holiday shows for the local children’s community. And I was like what Christmas songs are we gonna play and he said we’re gonna play your songs with my band and I’m gonna play my songs and I was like WHAT!? So that went on for about three or four days and it was just an amazing experience, the guy is so passionate…he learned all these songs of mine…it was pretty wild having him as my sideman….. as my Keith Richards! And we stayed in touch over the years and I made the second record and I would see him if he played or had rehearsals, he’d call once in a while and I’d bump into him at his gigs and it was always what are you listening too lately…..what is your scene? I went to see him on the last tour the Pete Seeger sessions, I went to Massachusetts cause he had invited me to his rehearsals and I said man the show was amazing just great and I told him I was starting my next record finally and he said if something comes up I would love to be part of it. I went out to LA and I did the record and I kept thinking what songs and there was a song that I had written about my mom who had passed away when I was in my teens, she was one of these people who was a frustrated singer but ended up becoming a waitress a divorced parent…but if a song came on the radio or in the house, she was a hairbrush singer, singing in her car so I started to think about people and about how music and radio is a force at one time and can be this thing for three or four minutes of liberation and now it’s changed and become this kinda of corporate fucking robot jack me off kinda un radical thing. So I just sent Bruce the lyrics in a letter and I said see what you think and then I’m in LA having a very LA moment with the cell phone and the rental car and he called and said he dug it. And so I went out to Jersey when I got my first chance to go back to the right coast…east and I went to the studio at his house and we had a great afternoon and he’s just very giving and passionate and a real team player and very humble. And suddenly here is a song I wrote in my little crappy Lower East Side apartment with this guy who sang “Thunder Road” that my dad used to listen to! And then we made a video and it’s another song on the record but a very special moment.
AG: You collaborate with a lot of people on the album…besides Bruce. Jakob Dylan being one and Ryan Adams being another and I know you and Ryan Adams are good friends…is this the first time you’ve ever collaborated with him on anything?
JM: Ryan produced the first record and he’s kinda done something on every record of mine since and you never know what is going to show up with….hard day at school, he always brings something different and it’s always radically different but it’s always super creative and wonderful…he’s a great guy…a super force and I’m lucky to have that. I was living in LA and I had just recently met Jakob and was very lonely in LA and he invited me over to his house for a cookout on the fourth of July and I didn’t know anybody and I was staying at motel and
I always liked his voice and it just kinda came naturally….. that is the freedom of being a solo artist is you can have different people show up and not offend the band if it was a band per say.
AG: You talk about being out in LA and getting back to the right coast the east…. you’re so known and associated with the New York music scene, how does New York City inspire you?
JM: I think you walk out your door and you get inspiration..cause one walking places two the mix of different cultures and the energy of all the different kinds of people. Now it’s kinda become a city of the rich and maybe there is less New Yorkers and less neighborhoods and there is a Duane Reed and a subway and I can go into the anti thing, but we still got that thing… where there is an energy and a force of creativity so the sound, the light changing, the smell of the garbage, the look of the women, the people, the book stores, Central Park, Chinatown…the trains rattling along, the bike messengers....there is a pulse a rhythm. To me New York or music in general is very metropolis….is very cosmopolitan and it just has it and I like urban stuff. I still I’m getting into more and more going away and getting breaks from it but it’s a great place to leave and come back too. I love people’s interpretations of New York on film like the way Woody Allen does it in his films or in the way that people like the Rolling Stones and the Clash lamented it or the Pogues in “Fairy Tale of New York” or Sinatra….there is so much of it in different time periods. You can watch channel thirteen (NY’s public television channel- ag) and see that, as it goes under the gentrification of it, it’s still New York!
AG: What was your inspiration for this new album?
Jesse Malin has been a part of the New York alt rock music scene for just about twenty years beginning as a teenager with the hardcore band Heart Attack. Later he gained widespread notoriety as front man for the glam garage punk metal band D Generation in the 90’s. These days he has a fresh new sound and has just released his third solo album “Glitter in the Gutter” with contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Jakob Dylan, Josh Homme from the band Queens of the Stone Age and of course his good friend Ryan Adams. Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of chatting with Jesse at Niagara,the East Village bar where he is a part owner, we sat in a cozy corner of the bar and for the next hour and a half discussed everything from his new album to New York City to what his hopes are for the future and also why he was wearing a back and neck brace.
AG: The first question I’m going to ask and I’m sure your sick of answering this question, is that you collaborated with Bruce Springsteen on your new song “Broken Radio”. How did that Collaboration come about and what was it like to work with Bruce?
JM: Well I guess when I made “Fine Art of Self Destruction” the first record, I met Bruce at the Stone Pony of all places and he told me he really liked the cover that I had done of “Hungry Heart” and he hadn’t heard my solo record but had read good things about it. So then that was it and then he missed a gig or set and then I got a phone call from my manager saying Bruce is gonna call you up at home and he loves your record and he wants to talk to you about it or something and I was like you’re joking! So he called and he wanted to talk about the record for an hour and then he asked me to do some shows with him down in Asbury, which are benefit holiday shows for the local children’s community. And I was like what Christmas songs are we gonna play and he said we’re gonna play your songs with my band and I’m gonna play my songs and I was like WHAT!? So that went on for about three or four days and it was just an amazing experience, the guy is so passionate…he learned all these songs of mine…it was pretty wild having him as my sideman….. as my Keith Richards! And we stayed in touch over the years and I made the second record and I would see him if he played or had rehearsals, he’d call once in a while and I’d bump into him at his gigs and it was always what are you listening too lately…..what is your scene? I went to see him on the last tour the Pete Seeger sessions, I went to Massachusetts cause he had invited me to his rehearsals and I said man the show was amazing just great and I told him I was starting my next record finally and he said if something comes up I would love to be part of it. I went out to LA and I did the record and I kept thinking what songs and there was a song that I had written about my mom who had passed away when I was in my teens, she was one of these people who was a frustrated singer but ended up becoming a waitress a divorced parent…but if a song came on the radio or in the house, she was a hairbrush singer, singing in her car so I started to think about people and about how music and radio is a force at one time and can be this thing for three or four minutes of liberation and now it’s changed and become this kinda of corporate fucking robot jack me off kinda un radical thing. So I just sent Bruce the lyrics in a letter and I said see what you think and then I’m in LA having a very LA moment with the cell phone and the rental car and he called and said he dug it. And so I went out to Jersey when I got my first chance to go back to the right coast…east and I went to the studio at his house and we had a great afternoon and he’s just very giving and passionate and a real team player and very humble. And suddenly here is a song I wrote in my little crappy Lower East Side apartment with this guy who sang “Thunder Road” that my dad used to listen to! And then we made a video and it’s another song on the record but a very special moment.
AG: You collaborate with a lot of people on the album…besides Bruce. Jakob Dylan being one and Ryan Adams being another and I know you and Ryan Adams are good friends…is this the first time you’ve ever collaborated with him on anything?
JM: Ryan produced the first record and he’s kinda done something on every record of mine since and you never know what is going to show up with….hard day at school, he always brings something different and it’s always radically different but it’s always super creative and wonderful…he’s a great guy…a super force and I’m lucky to have that. I was living in LA and I had just recently met Jakob and was very lonely in LA and he invited me over to his house for a cookout on the fourth of July and I didn’t know anybody and I was staying at motel and
I always liked his voice and it just kinda came naturally….. that is the freedom of being a solo artist is you can have different people show up and not offend the band if it was a band per say.
AG: You talk about being out in LA and getting back to the right coast the east…. you’re so known and associated with the New York music scene, how does New York City inspire you?
JM: I think you walk out your door and you get inspiration..cause one walking places two the mix of different cultures and the energy of all the different kinds of people. Now it’s kinda become a city of the rich and maybe there is less New Yorkers and less neighborhoods and there is a Duane Reed and a subway and I can go into the anti thing, but we still got that thing… where there is an energy and a force of creativity so the sound, the light changing, the smell of the garbage, the look of the women, the people, the book stores, Central Park, Chinatown…the trains rattling along, the bike messengers....there is a pulse a rhythm. To me New York or music in general is very metropolis….is very cosmopolitan and it just has it and I like urban stuff. I still I’m getting into more and more going away and getting breaks from it but it’s a great place to leave and come back too. I love people’s interpretations of New York on film like the way Woody Allen does it in his films or in the way that people like the Rolling Stones and the Clash lamented it or the Pogues in “Fairy Tale of New York” or Sinatra….there is so much of it in different time periods. You can watch channel thirteen (NY’s public television channel- ag) and see that, as it goes under the gentrification of it, it’s still New York!
AG: What was your inspiration for this new album?
JM: I had made a lot of records that where break up records, my first record was my first solo record. So I was my own shrink and exploring my demons and my childhood and this and that. And the second record was written on the road it was made at the time when we were going to war with Iraq and Bush…I was learning more about being international and seeing how people viewed my country. Feeling like a New Yorker my whole life I never fully thought I was an American. And then I realized how New York had become like the rest of America after Giuliani and development like I spoke about in the last question. But around the world people really had this weird heavy attitude towards us, because of the war, because of our imperialistic super power pigishness..so I thought of a different look and also being at an age where being away from home and living out of a suitcase in motels, when your friends your age are having kids and settling down and I was still feeling like a boy and a man……
AG: I think rock and roll does that to you.
JM: Yeah well it keeps the youth in you in a lot of ways. So by the third record I wanted to write something that wasn’t a crying in your beer, heart on your sleeve record though that is always gonna be an element to what I do. I wanted a record that was a record of hope and defiance and about surviving…..a positive record! I started to think about a lot of the music I listened to growing up like Bob Marley. The Clash, The Ramones and even John Lennon and things that were like it’s gonna be alright. But also after five or six years of the orange alert and global warming, Katrina, gas prices, record stores closing, Iraq and Bush and I felt that people shouldn’t have mindless disco fun and forget about the world….but try to be present and not fearing…to be able to go out in the present and to me that is the good thing about rock and roll going to shows. You can rent it, you can watch it on youtube …..but to be in there, there is a ritual with strangers, to be in a pit with a lot of people sharing this, I’m not a religious person but going to shows and sharing that feeling with people..that is my church. And I wanted to make a record that was representative of being in the moment and finding the things you need to get by and enjoying life like it’s your last moment, whatever you are if you’re a carpenter, rock and roller or fucking drug dealer or a school teacher or whatever…whatever your passion is to really be passionate about it and feel that!
AG: I noticed you’re wearing a back and neck brace…..explain that!?
JM: It’s my first interview with this question! (laughs) Ummm you know we toured a lot this year, we did fucking…. I don’t know a bazillion gigs! And we were just in the UK and Europe in May did a month came home thought we’d have a week off and when I got home I noticed that I had a little bite mark on the back of my neck. I didn’t know what it was from I scratched it.. I take vitamins…. I do pushups…I wasn’t worried about it, it wasn’t like I was in Africa…I was in Paris and Germany. And this all went on and I didn’t think much of it…went out on the road about a week later I started to have shoulder blade and neck pain and I didn’t think much of it, I thought I did something like talked on the cell phone the wrong way. Things went on and before I knew it after doing TV appearances in California and in the South I started to get bad, bad neck pains, bad shoulder pains, I took some Advil thinking it was the tour bus. Then it got worse I went to the emergency room I kept getting misdiagnosed….about three or four weeks it got worse and worse and I wasn’t sleeping and the pills they gave me weren’t working and I’ve never taken anything but like vitamin c and suddenly I’m on vicodins and percocets and I’m not even sleeping. I had to cancel after Minneapolis, I was doing three weeks on fire cause it was nerve endings, it felt like someone was holding a big lighter to me. Finally got back to New York and did an MRI and this doctor said he’s got an abscess on the upper spine and shoulders and an infection…get him to the emergency room! I was misdiagnosed I think I got a lot of malpractice suits to take care of (laughs)!! I ended up spending eight days in St. Vincent’s Hospital…they found out the name of the infection and I’m on antibiotics to kick it out. And because I was out there so long playing it kinda messed up my neck a bit and I have to lay off playing for a while. And I had to cancel a slew of shows that I was excited about and everything is going to be rescheduled and I’ll be back out in October. And I miss it and I’m trying to make lemonade out of this time, I’m writing for another record. But we’re gonna work “Glitter in the Gutter” for a while, I feel like we’re just ramping up with it.
AG: Last question! What is your hope for the future?
Ummm…. that we can save the planet before it’s too late, so my grandkids and great grandkids and all of ours can get to enjoy Earth. Continue to make lots of records and be healthy and tour all over the world and make lots of money so I can have the freedom to buy good food and find alternative ways to do stuff. And to live outside of society and still be able to come in to try and subvert things when I can.
For more info such as tour dates and tv appearances and to hear some tracks off of “Glitter in the Gutter” check out:
http://www.jessemalin.com/
And here is the official website of Niagara:
http://www.niagarabar.com/
