100 Musicians Answer the Same 10 Questions

Part Seventy-Nine: Joel Kraft

instigated by dave heaton

In the interest of journalistic openness or whatever, I should mention that I've known Joel Kraft as a friend for a decade. But while we're being honest, I should also state firmly that he's a fantastic songwriter, with a creative way with words, an awareness of good melodies, and a down-to-earth, sincere approach to music. His two excellent CDs Gold in the Bargain Bin and Big Ideas need to be heard far and wide, well outside the sphere of his hometown Kansas City. (If you'd pin me down on a description of the music, I'd come up with some complicated mathematical equation involving Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, the solar system, fresh air, and sunshine.) Check out Joel's website and MySpace, plus the Blinking Lights Records page, and the MySpace page for the other band he's in, The Popsicles.

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What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?

I’m playing lead guitar in a band called The Popsicles. I’ve wanted to learn how to do this well for a long time now, but never seemed to have the opportunity. There is so much intricacy to what the electric guitar can accomplish. I also started writing songs again after a long period of writer’s block. Part of that is just accepting what is coming out of me rather than trying to shape it on its way out.. to will it, which I think is what I was doing.

What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?

Right now I don’t really feel like playing my own songs very much. Performing them, that is. I’d much rather play covers, but then I haven’t really learned any new covers for awhile, so that’s not quite the thing either. I wish I felt more interested in performing my own material, make a show out of it, especially because people have been asking.

What are you up to right now, music-wise? (Current or upcoming recordings, tours, extravaganzas, experiments, top-secret projects, etc).

I have another album recorded, and it’s going to be mixed this month (December).. we recorded it in a week at the end of the summer. It’s going to be slightly mellower than the last one, with a lot of harmony vocals. A little Beach Boys, a pinch of Tori Amos, a full on Lounge number.

I’ve also begun work on several other things at once. I’m writing songs with the primary songwriter in the Popsicles, and we’re planning an ep with completely virtual instruments.. or at least largely so. This idea came from another project I’m working on, a children’s album, but I realized I’m so low on money right now that I can’t afford to go into the studio again to cut another album with proper musicians. So I’ve been learning a lot more about MIDI and just making an album at home with sampled sounds. The idea is actually very exciting to me, it means producing, which makes it more interesting, so far as I’m concerned.

What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the show/recording?

When I still lived with my parents, my best ideas/moods seemed to come to me when they were sleeping and I couldn’t make any noise. I remember one time going out in my pajamas with a tape recorder and guitar and sitting under a streetlight on the sidewalk outside to record an idea. That’s one of my favorite recordings of myself. There’s something so perfect/dreamy about it.. I don’t know why I use the word perfect, which I usually hate when applied to art (it seems so closed and nostalgic), but it does seem to fit. I listened to that tape over and over, trying to catch that feeling again, which I suppose would be a form of nostalgia.

In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music?

I think I have gotten way more interested in country music than I ever would have had I moved away from Kansas City right after highschool when I still hated it. Going to the Winfield Bluegrass festivals have also shaped me in different directions than I would otherwise have been inclined.

When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it?

I wrote several songs at once about a week ago. I don’t know what happened, exactly. I had been working on some of them for years. Somehow I just started doing it, and it kept rolling. There’s a bit of rigor involved with it. It requires some supply of determination, but really I think it just comes down to grace. It reminds me of the first time I started to really ride my unicycle after a couple of months of going 2 feet and falling down. Something clicked and all of a sudden I felt like I was flying. About the songs themselves, I don’t know if they’re finished or even songs that I would play out ever.. maybe.

As you create more music, do you find yourself getting more or less interested in seeking out and listening to new music made by other people...and why do you think that is?

Generally it has been difficult for me to listen to music while making it. Listening to music alters my consciousness and warps my output. To my mind, it also dilutes it. I do seek out new music and become inspired by it, but I find I have to be a little careful with that.

Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? (Old or new music? Music like yours or different from yours?)

I usually like music that is different than mine. I like female voices. A friend of mine has been getting me into current Swedish pop, primarily Pelle Carlberg. I don’t know that the songs themselves have so much power for me, but the aesthetic is really disarming. Acid House Kings in that respect also. I can’t say I’m a big fan of the Classic Rock sound that seems to be prevalent these days. I like elements of it mixed with other things, though.

Name a musician or band, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this musician/band?

Now that I’m doing more lead work (and not to mention slighting classic rock in the last question), one my all-time favorite bands ever comes to mind: Dire Straits. I feel this band is often overlooked because of the songs that get radio play, like "Walk of Life," "Money For Nothing", which don’t really represent the poetry—linguistic or musical—that this band brings forth. Like every band I can think of, they do seem to get heavy handed and syrupy later on in some of their live recordings especially, but their first 3 albums have all kinds of haunting beauty worked into them. I guess my favorite recording would be on their third album, Making Movies. The song "Tunnel of Love" features some of the loveliest guitar work I’ve heard at the end of it..though the guitarist, Mark Knopfler, also impresses me as a songwriter. Really it’s the first 3 songs off that album, namely: "Tunnel of Love," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Skateaway." I was surprised that they recorded this entire album live in one (maybe 2?) takes.

I know you just asked for one, but another band I love and have heard little about from anyone else is Mojave 3. One of my favorite recordings of this band is a live radio broadcast they did on Morning Becomes Eclectic on LA’s KCRW.

What's the saddest song you've ever heard?

"Puff the Magic Dragon" used to make me cry every time I heard it. It still does when I really think about it. Right about here: “Puff no longer went to play along the Cherry Lane/Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave/so puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave.” That’s pretty intense, especially when you know that dragons live forever.

To check out the rest of the Q&As, click here.