By: David Rachac
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| Brian Just |
Brian Just is a local singer/songwriter who is about to release his fourth CD, titled Open Air. In this interview he talks about his musical inspirations, the origins of his band and his recording process.
HowWasTheShow: Tell me about your musical background—when you started playing, early bands, etc.
Brian Just: I grew up with a lot of good records in my house and I learned a lot of songs by listening and playing along. It started with pots and pans and moved onto a black and white Fender Squire Bullet in junior high. The records were an assortment of scratched up ‘70s pop and rock music my parents collected—Black Sabbath, Carol King, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Monkees, Jethro Tull, etc. I heard "Sweet Leaf" off Master of Reality shaking the dishes in the kitchen, waking up to Tull’s “Aqualung” flute solos. We also had a piano that my brothers and I would clunk on. However, my dad was the piano player. He would play songs that his grandmother taught him and would write songs as well. Actually, he claims to have only written one song. If you ask him to play it, he’ll say that he doesn’t remember it. But he does.
Along with the Fender Bullet, I bought a cheap used acoustic guitar when I was 13. I took some guitar lessons, but the note reading never really took. I never learned to read music, but I found a lot of people to play with who didn’t know either, so we taught each other. For a number of years, singer/songwriter acoustic music was put on hold for electric guitar projects in high school and college. They could be described as math rock, emo rock or electric and loud. These bands were made up of friends from the excellent local band Every Bell and Whistle. I wasn’t singing in any of these groups and wanted to start something new filled with more folk-based acoustic instruments and vocal harmonies. I formed a band made up of my own folkie love songs called The Saturday Sun. We put out one album called Take It Slow and played a few shows around Minneapolis. We broke up shortly after. I can’t remember why.
HWTS: Are you originally from Minneapolis? If not, what attracted you to live here?
BJ: I was born and raised in Mankato, Minnesota. It’s a small college town in the southern part of the state. There are a lot of nice places to reflect and hike around. The Minnesota River cuts through downtown and there are a lot of forest and prairies to get lost in. It’s a very nice place to live. There are a number of good bars and coffee shops in Mankato for live music, but cover bands bring in the crowds. I sort of moved to Minneapolis for the endless amount of live and original music scenes and venues. My band, The Saturday Sun, was already started and I was driving back and forth before I moved here. We were playing some shows at that time and it didn’t make sense to be in Mankato anymore. I moved to Minneapolis in September 2001. I’ve lived here for over 6 years now.
HWTS: Talk to me about your writing and recording process.
BJ: The songs for this album took me over two years to write, the recording process a year and a half. I take a lot of time on writing and recording. I’m very critical of what I put together. There are no hasty decisions and no extra songs that I’m not sure about or that were not on the final cut of the album.
In September 2006, I flew out to Portland, Oregon to visit my friend Jesse Stevens. He had recently moved out there from Minneapolis and had recorded my previous album a year prior. We had discussed recording some of my new songs while I was there and so it began. The idea was to have a five-song EP put together in the two weeks I was there. After two weeks of ocean drives, vinyl hunting, hiking in the mountains and drinking beer, we didn’t get as much recording done as we wanted to. However, a good start was made and a lot of inspiration was gained in the mountains.
A year of Jesse mixing and tinkering passed by and I decided to make a second trip to Portland to finish it. This time it was a road trip with a little bit more of the same distractions, but we finally finished it with three additional songs.
HWTS: How did the line-up for The Brian Just Band come about?
BJ: I was playing solo for about three or four years. When I started recording with Jesse Stevens, he started adding some drums, flutes and bass. This made sense to the recording itself to fill out the songs to make them bigger and better on record. I decided to put together a similar feel for my live shows as I was getting lonely on stage, I guess. I wanted to play with people who could follow along with my musical thought patterns. I met Rick Widen at an open mic or two back in 2001. He was playing Dylan and Band songs, but I remember liking his original tunes the best. We crossed paths time and time again. He eventually introduced me to a piano player by the name of Josie Schmitt. She was playing with Rick in his band Tuesdays Robot. I asked her if she would be interested in playing a Gram Parsons tribute with me. We did “Love Hurts,” “Hickory Wind” and “Song For You.”
After that, I thought starting a band with Josie backing me on piano and vocals seemed like the only logical thing to do. Rick and Andrew who make up the rest of Tuesdays Robot joined on soon after. I met Jenny Hanson, a piccolo player for the Como Avenue Jug band, at a show we played together at the Turf Club over a year ago. We’ve been a big happy family ever since. Recently, we added Andre Leroux, a good friend and the bass player of Beight. Now, as a six-piece, things have really come together. Each song can become so big or so full. I’m really happy to be working with such talented and creative musicians.
HWTS: Open Air will be your fourth solo disc. How has your musical style changed over the years?
BJ: I think that I’m still inspired by and write about the same things as I did when I was 18 or 19. I’ve just developed a better way of getting my ideas across. I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve quite often, however, I think the songs are less specific to me personally, but could be seen as an open interpretation to the listener. I try to paint a picture that could mean many different things depending on how the listener hears it. I’m more interested in where my mind will take me positively in one particular moment, place or time. That’s what the songs on my new album are about.
HWTS: Many people are familiar with you through your guitar work in the indie-rock band Beight. How easy is it to go from the noisy pop of a guitar band to the more introspective approach of your solo music?
BJ: Brad and I first met playing acoustic guitar music. We played at open mics, street corners and coffee shops together for a couple years. Beight started as Brad’s project and when he invited me to play, we were an acoustic guitar duo. It didn’t feel noisy or poppy. We were just singing a lot of harmonies and playing folk music. We did want it to be a rock band and it eventually did become that after Andre Leroux and Josh Lemoinjoined. The acoustic music and folk sensibilities were always with Beight and in the songs Brad and I were writing for our separate solo projects. The transition to playing electric guitar was the difficult transition for me. I find both styles of music start with an acoustic guitar and a pen and paper. The only difference for us is how loud we play the songs.
HWTS: Your CD release party for Open Air will be Friday, May 30 at the 331 Club. What are we going to see there?
BJ: The lovely Meg Ashling will be there to sing her cowgirl ballads, bawlers and old standards. She will have a new 7” split with Gabe Barnett for sale, as well as an excellent five-song EP. Then the rhythms, shakers and beats of Switzerlind. I made the best decision one night to have a beer after biking home from work late at night. I stopped in the Acadia and grabbed a Premium and stopped in to listen to the music. Switzerlind was playing. This was over two years ago, and I’ve been a crazy fan of these guys ever since.
BJ: I would like to thank Jennifer Davis (jenniferdavisart.com) and Joel Lueders (joellueders.com) for their help in putting together the artwork for the Open Air album. I’m very fortunate to have such gracious and creative minds to work with and call friends. Thank you.
Artist Info: Brian Just
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