Catching Up With... Amos Lee

Paste: So you're getting ready for your tour... are you excited, you ready to get back on the road?
Lee: There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm definitely looking forward to playing, for sure.

Paste: Do you think you're going to do another round of being out on the road for an extended period of time?
Lee: I mean, if that's what it calls for, yeah. I mean, I'm open to playing as much as possible right now. It's kind of what a lot of people would like to do, so, I mean, I'm into it, I really enjoy playing the music and letting the people hear the music in its most natural form, so that's cool.

Paste: Are any of the fellas from the record going to be playing with you on the road?
Lee: I don't think so. They're all pretty big-name people, and I know that Doyle and Pino are out with Eric Clapton right now, and I think James is pretty busy in Los Angeles and Spooner plays with the Drive By-Truckers, so I don't think they're really available. I would love to, but I don't think they're available.

Paste: Have you ever played in a band with a permanent lineup or have you always kinda been more of a solo artist?
Lee: I mean, I love playing with people, so, all the time, I'm always interested... I got a chance to play with Paul Simon's band recently and that was a real thrill and I've had a band that I've played with in Philly for a long time, a bunch of friends of mine, but I like exploring music with different people and figuring out how different people react to it, y'know?

Paste: So what are some of your current favorite records? What are you listening to these days?
Lee: I've been listening a lot to the Magic Numbers, lately, I really like them a lot, that's one band I got to see when I was doing a festival, and I was really taken by the songwriting and their harmonies and their arrangements and everything. So I've been listening to Those the Brokes, that record, a lot, I've been listening to, let's see... let me open up my computer and see what's happenin'. I'll give you a real honest answer. [Laughs] I've been watching a lot of TV from iTunes. You can buy Arrested Development on there—you know that show Arrested Development? It's one of the funniest shows. I bought all three seasons, I've just been devouring it. I sit up late at night, I'm like, 'Just one more!'

Paste: I know, it's horrible, I wasted like three hours the other day watching it!
Lee: I'm tellin' ya! You know, Entourage, too, which is kinda odd because I never really was into the show but lately I've been watching it. Oh, this Al Anderson record I've been listening to a lot, too. I think it's just called Al Anderson, it's his first solo record he did, it's a cool album, it's really good. Let's see, what else, I'm just gonna peek through and see, I'm not gonna bullshit ya, I'm gonna really tell you. I'm looking at all the music I got on here, because there's another record I've been listening to a lot lately, I'm just trying to remember what it was. Oh, The Isley Brothers' 3 + 3, I've been listening to that a lot, too. I don't have a lot of stuff on this computer, but I have a lot of stuff... y'know, people's actual CDs I listen to, oddly enough, still, and if I had a record player I'd listen to that, too, but I left it at a friend's house, so, gotta get that back. So yeah, that's what I've been listening to, those records.

Paste: So, while you have your iTunes open, what are your most played songs?
Lee: Let's see here, how do you do that?

Paste: There's a little... those options at the top...
Lee: Yeah, most played, let's see. I'm sorry, I'm not all that adept with it, I'm trying. "Be My Woman Tonight," by Al Anderson, a song I really like a lot. And there's a lot of stuff I don't have names for, this is the problem. Because I get my friends' records, I buy my friends' records at these shows and I just put 'em in my computer. I listen to a lot of local music, a lot of my friends from Philadelphia, so I'll buy their albums and a lot of times iTunes doesn't know what those are so it doesn't put it in there. This song called "Only Love" by John Prine that's on Aimless Love, that's a really great one. This song called "Pass Me Over," by Anthony Hamilton, um, a song called "Loving You" by Al Green and "I Can't Write Left Handed" by Bill Withers and "Compared to What" by Roberta Flack. Those are at the top of the list.

Paste: Wow, thanks for doing that ... I think that's something a lot of people are always curious about.
Lee: Yeah, what people are listening to, right?

Paste: Yeah. I don't know about you, but when you're a teenager and you're just starting to figure out how to get into music that's not mainstream music or stuff you hear on the radio, you read an interview with somebody you really like and they talk about some band, and you're like, "Maybe I should pick that up."
Lee: Totally.

Paste: So, speaking of that, you've risen to fame through channels other than radio—how do you feel about that? Do you feel like it's even possible for someone like you, who is kind of a more traditional songsmith, to get famous, to even get on the radio these days? Is that a part of your goal?
Lee: I mean, radio is—I don't really know what's happened. I think it's good. There's a lot of good things that's happening, there's a lot more outlets for people to get their music out right now, there's better ways, so I think that it just depends on if you catch some sort of wave, y'know? I don't really know how to answer that question, really, because I think that the world of music, especially the outlets of music, has changed so much. What radio really means now is different because it's not like the days of old, where it's like, oh, if you have a hit on the radio—although that can still happen—but in the singer-songwriter world, I mean, you can still do it, like there have been some people who are just kinda songwriters who have had some big hits on the radio. Yeah, I think it's possible to do it. I don't necessarily think that's the goal for sure, I mean, I wouldn't put that as my goal, but I'm happy to have the music get out there as long as its, y'know, ah, what do they say... the tail doesn't wag the dog, right?

Paste: That's true! So, what's your favorite thing about being on the road?
Lee: There's a lot of things I like about it. Travellin' is cool, getting to see different parts of this country and different parts of the world is pretty deep, playing the music every night, and gettin' into the music and watching it change right before your eyes and everything, that's cool, too. Connecting with people is fun, hanging out with people, y'know, I mean I like a lot of it, there are parts about it I don't like as much, like the uncertainty of where you're gonna go to sleep every night and things like that, that can be a drag, but it's what I do, so I've kind of just accepted the whole picture.

Paste: Is there anything else that you think people should know about Last Days at the Lodge?
Lee: I'm happy that I got a chance to make the record and it was a great experience to work with those musicians and the engineer and the producer that I worked with and everybody that I was involved with making this record, it was cool. It was a struggle at times, but it was a real enjoyable experience.

Paste: Oh, it was a struggle, what made it difficult?
Lee: Well, you know, when you're being creative, it's just a struggle, y'know. You want to make sure that you're representing the songs as well as you possibly can, so you're always thinking. It's a balance, like Don and I balanced each other out pretty well because I can get to be kinda negative in the studio at times and he was just like, "Yeah man, it's cool, don't worry about it, it's all right" kinda thing, because that's the way it goes. I think it's important in life to have people around you that you help to balance out and that help to balance you out, you know.

Paste: Yes, definitely. Actually, I do have another question. So, where did you end up writing most of these songs?
Lee: Well, some of them had been written before the recording process, like a couple of them were from a long time ago, but a couple of the songs were written at the hotel, at the Sportsmen's Lodge [hotel in L.A.]. I was out there by myself for a couple months, just waiting to start the record, and just sat around a lot writing songs. I mean I wrote a lot of songs at the hotel, I wrote like probably 25 or so. I try to pick the guitar up every day and at least get an idea for a song or work out a verse or refine a chorus or something, almost every day.

Paste: Cool. Well, the album's great, we got it in a couple weeks ago and I believe this interview's going to be going up as an accompaniment to the review in our July issue.
Lee: OK, I'll have to let my pops know. My pops goes into the bookstore to get magazines whenever there's new records. Sometimes he tells me and sometimes he doesn't.

Paste: Does he collect your press?
Lee: I don't know if he does or not; I don't think he's a scrapbook kinda dude, but he definitely goes in and reads them, checks them out.

Paste: Was he a musician, too?
Lee: Yeah, he actually was, he was a saxophone player. He's a real deep guy, he gets into music pretty heavily. I actually bought him a saxophone for his birthday a couple years back, and I'm trying to get him so that he can come on stage with us sometime.