Personal blessings

Rip It Up, Issue 242, 1 October 1997, Page 10

Personal blessings

Paul Übana Jones

11. WIIIMIII I I l|l IhlllUi I BMWygHMMMKWK;;- - - ■■■ . .■•WW-b™FWT« On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in mid-September, Paul Übana Jones sits in the outside . . .. *. . .. .. .. . • • . . . ... courtyard of the Atomic Cafe on Auckland's Ponsonby Road, sipping a latte. Jones is up • ~ ... .. . , . , . . . - .. . from Dunedin for the weekend for interviews and to perform on TVZ-s Good Morning show, all to promote his recently released fourth album, Blessings and Burdens.

Three weeks earlier, Jones packed the Atomic to overflowing on the final leg of the Blessing and Burdens album tour. And having driven 3500 km to play 13 dates with only one night off, he describes the journey as, “hefty and demanding.” On the upside, Jones was thrilled to witness his audience expanding. “I’m seeing guys and ladies who might not have seen me two years ago ’cause they were too young to get into a venue. Invariably, people at my gigs range from 19/20-ish, up to my age, 45, and people in their early 50s, who have been seeing me for 10 years. I like that, the music seems to transcend those frontiers of age, as music should do if it can, rather than make people too old for this or that, or too young.” Blessings and Burdens was recorded in less than a week, in Auckland, last May. As producer Trevor Reekie notes, “Killing an album from blank tape to mix down in four days and four nights in this day and age is very rare.” Perhaps due to the intensity of the sessions, and certainly because of songs like ‘Looking For Your Love’ and ‘The River in Me’, Blessings seems more personal and reflective than anything Jones has recorded previously. He describes the album as, “a true representation of Paul Übana Jones and you can’t really do more than that.” And where’s he headed on the next one? “Ohh, it’s gonna be really ’eavy eh! [laughter]...

I wanna show Ben Harper I’ve been doing all that stuff for years [laughter]. He’s done well, it must be because he looks 30 kilos lighter than me!” Unintentionally, the man makes a good point. Jones is a magical performer, whose last album, A Change of Season, is available in 13 countries across Europe, where he toured three times last year. After a decade long, four album career in this country, he remains almost a cult figure. Does Jones feel underrated in New Zealand? “I feel unrespected. If appreciation takes a wider step that would be great, if I can retain just what I’m doing. It’s been like this for 23 years for me, in different ways, in France, and Switzerland, and the States. But that’s alright, because I’m still doing what I do with no compromises, and that’s something I cherish.” If you’ve experienced Jones live, you know the drill; a baggy shirt, even baggier trousers, the wild ’fro, and his eyes rolling back when the beautiful music hits. Jones on stage, is utterly spellbinding, and he makes each performance unique. “You might go somewhere and do the same program that you’ve done six months ago, but you can create a totally different atmosphere by the mere fact of playing the songs differently. It’s not format stuff — here’s a song, A to Z, and that’s how you do it every night — I don’t work like that.” Describe the feeling, when you’re totally immersed in a song...

“You actually feel like you’re not in yourself anymore, you’re outside, viewing yourself like the audience are viewing you as the performer. A lot of things come into being, you feel like there’s a whole spiritual background there with you. When I play, I think a lot of my parents in my subconscious, and then it rises and they’re very much with me. It becomes more than the subconscious, it’s something that’s very much alive. All these things come into play, that might not have any dimension or form, and if the plan’s all working it’s almost godlike within one’s self. There’s such a harmonic resonance, it’s incredible.”

That’s a rare gift that few performers have... “It really depends on who you believe you are as the artist, as the songwriter, as the guitarist — it’s where you see your place in the scheme of things. When I was eight I was listening to music, and when I was 11, I was starting to see my first gigs of people of worth, like Dylan, and the Animals, and Muddy Waters, and it was such a powerful, awesome experience. As I grew older, it was very apparent that some things aren’t generated by success or money, some things are generated by completely different things. If one can put that across it’s good, some people don’t want to put that across, they want to put success across, that they’ve sold millions of albums, that’s what they’re after. I’ve known clearly what

I’ve been after all my life in music, and that’s what I’m trying to generate.” Are you getting there? “I’m getting closer [laughter], there’s another 20 odd years of performance. I’ve a lot of different personal projects, places I’d like to take my writing, but the well from which I take my ability to convey remains the same.” Would you like more success? “I’m not trying to achieve success. I’ve been a success for a long time on all those personal levels — the reasons why I wanted to do music, it’s all happened. If by good fortune I become a bigger success and don’t have to change anything and I’m not expected to, then so be it.”

JOHN RUSSELL