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Interview with J.R. Richards
You’ve been working on your solo CD for some time now; what’s
been the holdup?
Yeah, it keeps having these false deadlines... but it is for sure coming out May 12th... this
Tuesday. (Laughs)
What’s the difference between your
newer material and the stuff you did with Dishwalla?
That’s hard to say, I’m so close to it... I was
the primary songwriter for Dishwalla, my guess is that there will be quite a lot of similarities. I did try to do some
different things, I did play with quite a few different people... I know in the writing process sometimes with Dishwalla there
were certain times when I’d get an idea and think that it wouldn’t fly with the other guys, so I would set that
aside. This time I didn’t do that, if I liked something I would see it through... and many things ended up on
the record.
Have you had any struggles since your solo career
launched? Any more than usual....
Any more than usual... no. The music business is a struggle in general,
we were struggling in Dishwalla even though we had a few hit records. The music industry has changed so much... it’s
difficult to find the best way to make and market your record now days.
Let’s talk about the new record.....
I’ve been working on it for quite a while now, since
about 2005... the record is called A Beautiful End, I think there were a lot of things that were ending for me, a lot of changes
going on in my life... like taking an indefinite break from Dishwalla, that was a huge part of my life because I started that
out of high school... it was an awesome thing, I wouldn’t change a thing... and it’s hard to say if I’ll
do anything with them in the future, but at that point it was an end of one thing and I moved on to something else.
It’s a personal record too, now that I’m getting older family members... friends... people start passing away,
and a few certainly before their time too, I’ve never had to deal with any kind of loss before so a lot of this record
is about dealing with that.
Are you going to follow the
CD release with a national tour?
I actually have a show this coming Friday, but starting the end of this month
I have shows and I’m just going to keep adding dates as I go along, I think I have about a month that is set in stone
right now.
Where will people be able to pick up the album?
It’s primarily a digital only release, it is a world wide digital release... which is cool because Dishwalla had a
lot of fans all around the world so it would be nice to have the record available to them. If you do want to buy an
actual compact disc you can get it through my website... JRMERCH.com. Distributing CD’s is really tough, there’s
so many record stores that are just gone now and there’s only a few left... primarily like Wal-Mart and Target and they
only carry certain artists so it’s really difficult to get on their shelves, it can cost a lot of money so I decided
to bypass it this time around.
Your lyrics are so powerful, do
you have any literary influences?
I read a lot when I was younger and going to school, but I think for the most
part most of the writers that I really got into... other than being science fiction... (laughs) were mostly other song writers.
My father, he influenced me in that he listened to so many singers and song writers growing up. From The Beatles to
James Taylor... Paul Simon... he was a musician himself and a song writer so from an early age I really got into the craft
of writing a lyric. So yeah, I read some poetry but primarily I like to read things that have been put to a melody.
One of my favorite songs of all time is Candleburn, what is that
song about to you?
I can tell you specifically because I wrote it... (laughs) When we were working on the album
Opaline we were working in Burbank in a studio... every morning on the way to the studio we would pass this shrine that was
on the other side of the road that had thousands of candles and a picture of two children out there. It was real close,
almost right across the street from one of the studios... so I asked one of the engineers finally, “what’s the
deal with that?” he said “oh yeah, two children on their way home from school... they got hit by a car... a drunk
driver and the mother put that shrine out”. Every night when we would go home every single candle would be lit.
L.A. is a mess, if you do anything in L.A. somebody will put spray paint on it... or knock it over... it was nice, nobody
messed with this shrine ever so I was surprised that nobody ever messed with the shrine as we went back and forth. Seeing
it night after night... she loved those children so much that she put that effort to be there every day... every night to
light every candle and then to blow them out. I don’t know how late she was doing it because when we were leaving
the studio anywhere between midnight to two or three in the morning the candles were lit. Just the hope that somebody
would care that much for myself, that they would leave a candle burning for me.
What are some of your favorite movies?
Like I said, I’m a big science fiction fan... one
of the first science fiction movies that I ever saw was ‘Forbidden Planet’, I don’t know if you’ve
ever seen it... it’s a real old late 50's, you’d look at it now and the effects, writing and dialogue is pretty
dated, but at the time it was so far ahead of its time. It’s a great story, if you ever get a chance to see it...
see it. Leslie Nielson, he was the captain of the starship... he goes to this planet to see where all these people disappeared
to. It was actually pretty scary as a child, I remember... the creature gets caught inside this electronic fence and
you can see what he looks like for the first time because he was invisible, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen
in my life when I was... I don’t remember how old I was, but I shit my pants basically. But I love Shawshank Redemption
or American History X was very powerful and had great acting in it as well.
Is there anything else happening for you this year?
One other thing that I’ve been working on too,
it’s funny that you mentioned film because I did do some acting when I was with Dishwalla... I signed another deal with
an agent again and I’m trying to get back into that, it’s something that I’m kind of passionate about as
well, so I’m hoping to do some more of that this year. There’s a song on the new record called I Will Give
You Life, it’s the end title track to a horror movie that should be coming out this year called 2:13, I even have a
small quick appearance in it as a CSI tech. But other than that... I’m releasing the record and will be out touring...
I’m hoping to be doing a military tour this Fall.
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