John Grant
HONESTY IN OBSCURITY
An interview with John Grant
It’s the go-to place for expansive music videos, and it’s home to such industry heavy-hitters as Björk, Ben Frost, Sigur Rós and Ásgeir. John Grant, the American-born singer-songwriter and former head of The Czars, has called Reykjavík home since recording his second solo album there in 2012, Pale Green Ghosts. “Luxuriating” in his bed, he sounds like he’s never felt more grounded.
“It’s an unstressful environment to be in,” he says. “The landscape is stunning, the air is crisp and fresh all the time and there’s a thriving music scene here that’s very progressive and modern. And, you know, it’s also a very friendly scene – it’s a pretty happening place. It doesn’t feel as small as it is.”
For Grant, it seems the perfect place to focus on his career without being sidetracked by his gradually increasing profile. Despite the critical successes of his latest album, Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, and his solo career as a whole, he hasn’t seen a great increase in media attention – something he considers fortunate.
“I’m not terribly jealous of the people I see who are constantly in the limelight, you know?” he says. “That doesn’t seem to have a good effect for anybody, because it just seems like their reality gets warped in the public eye. You get all sorts of different types of entities interested in you that weren’t interested in you before, and I don’t feel like I would be terribly comfortable with that much attention.”
Living comfortably out of the spotlight has given Grant the opportunity to focus solely on his craft. Given the personal nature of his songwriting, the freedom and time for introspection are practically vital.
“It seems to me that I’m in a good position, because I’m with a record label that allows me to do whatever the hell I want to do with every album. And the only person that’s putting any input into the music is me. That’s a great position to be in, because I would prefer for my visibility to develop naturally because of people’s reaction to the music.”
If and when the fame monster does rear its head in Grant’s life, he has excellent models to aspire to – the list of artists he has worked with includes such monolithic names as Sinéad O’Connor and Elton John.
“They’re people that have their heads screwed on quite firmly, I would say – I mean, with Elton, it’s a little bit different because he is at the head of a gigantic empire,” Grant laughs. “So when you’re out to dinner with him or when you’re at his house – I’ve never seen things like that before, so it’s quite crazy. “[Sinéad] has a nice house on the coast of Ireland and, you know, it’s a very normal existence. I’m just sort of underground and sort of barely visible, and so I suppose I haven’t really had the need to feel like I needed advice on that.”
Grant’s relationship with visibility is a curious one, as his solo albums have always been marked by a fearless honesty about his own experiences with drug addiction, homophobia, domestic division and living with HIV. The provocative trailer for Grey Tickles, Black Pressure is said to be indicative of what he’d like to do every time someone calls him a ‘faggot’.
“It’s more a phantom of the past,” he says, “leftover rage from having experienced that for several decades. I think the worst thing about it was always that I never really felt or never really was able to stand up for myself, because I felt like I was getting what I deserved, and that was the worst part of it for me.
“That definitely has translated to a lot of rage in me because I allowed people to treat me in a way that I thought I deserved, because I was taught to believe that what I was was a hundred per cent bad and undesirable and sick.”
Fortunately, he’s able to say that at least some progress has been made on this front in the decades since his own traumatic experiences. “I do think that there are a lot more people who are willing to come forward and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, this doesn’t make sense. To treat these people differently than other people…’ My very own father has changed his thinking quite a bit, simply because he wants to have a relationship with his children, because he loves us.”
Grant is the first to admit, however, that his honesty doesn’t necessarily stem from altruistic intentions, and that its therapeutic value to others is a corollary to his reaching out in search of empathy.
“I definitely am seeking connections with people, with my music. I think that I wanted to just be able to speak about myself and not be ashamed about myself, so I think it’s more of a selfish thing than an intention to help other people. I get a lot of letters from people and the music does seem to resonate with a lot of people and, of course, for me that’s very humbling and I feel very good about that.
“I just needed to say things exactly the way they were, without any fantasies attached to it and without the escapism. To just say, ‘This is the way it is, and I don’t give a shit whether you like it or not, it’s just the truth of my particular existence.’ And I don’t think that my existence is more important than your existence – I just wanted to be able to feel like I expressed myself clearly, for once in my life.”
Grey Tickles, Black Pressure is out now through Bella Union. John Grant appears, along with Caitlin Park, at the Metro Theatre, Wednesday March 16.
Post originally printed in The BRAG; available at http://www.thebrag.com/music/john-grant-0
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