InsaneJournal

What was the scariest thing that happened to you? That's an interesting question to ask someone who grew up on a tuna boat. Most of my childhood was spent thirty miles offshore in the San Francisco Bay, and if you've ever seen a movie or TV show about fishermen you can imagine the sorts of things that happen during a storm. Our boat is pretty small; it wasn't designed to weather any of the really rough storms way out at sea so we never ventured too far out, but one weekend my dad and a bunch of his friends decided to go sail down to Monterrey and we got caught in a huge storm...well, I mean, I've seen that George Clooney movie, I know what a huge storm is and this wasn't anything like that, but to me, you know, it might as well have been a hurricane. I was down in the cabin hiding under a bunk and anything that wasn't bolted down was just rolling around the room and my dad comes down covered in seawater with this wild look in his eyes and says, "John, get out here, we need you!" and I'm thinking, this boat is going to tip the fuck over and we're all going to die. So I go upstairs and we're tying off shit and securing the nets but I'm only eight years old, I'm not strong enough to lift much, so my dad puts me behind the wheel, points us toward the nearest harbor and tells me to drive the damn boat, in a storm, out in the middle of nowhere. Obviously we all lived to tell the tale, but yeah, that was pretty scary.

When will we get another album? Before the year ends. For the last year I've really had to buckle down and focus on finishing up my degree so I haven't had as much time to work on a record, but most of the material for this album was already written over the summer when I was touring, so now that I'm finished with school I can start wrapping things up in the studio. I had a chance to see some really beautiful parts of this country and meet some very inspiring people with what is starting to become a very unique way of life on this last tour. It's interesting how you can have people living so differently so close to each other-- people sitting on the porch watching the grass grow and fifty miles away there are people glued to their blackberries freaking out about the stock market. We all live in the city now and we don't understand how to find joy without action films and video games and amusement parks, but there are people living in utter happiness out there with just their families and their music to sustain them. So that's what this album is about. It's about being quiet.

Do you like touring more or being at home? I think that anyone who has traveled will agree that they both have their merits. The great thing about touring is that no matter how many times I do it, it still scares me. A lot of the time I'm playing in bars to people who have never heard me before, and there's always that moment of panic when a song ends and I'm not sure if anyone liked it or if they're even listening, but it's a huge personal and emotional risk to keep doing that night after night and I think that's good for a person. I don't want to ever get too comfortable, at least not until I'm old and I've earned it. I also like the experience of traveling around the country. My childhood was an adventure, that's for sure, but it was also very sheltered in a way. We didn't get out much, we didn't have relatives to visit or family vacations outside of Disneyland and that kind of thing, so until I started playing music I had never seen Times Square, I had never seen the Everglades, I had no idea what Bruce Springsteen was singing about on Nebraska or what factory smoke in Detroit smelled like. I like being home though, I like knowing where everything is and being with my own family too.

What inspires your lyrics? Everything. The things I read about in the news, whatever I'm thinking about, that guy I saw drop his pretzel on Pier 39, being on the road and talking to people about their lives, books I've read, things I've seen on the history channel, labor unions, carpenters, my childhood, wars, the ocean, weird dreams I've had, my parents, my parents' childhoods, old people in general, kids, folk singers, food, sex, air, life.

Are you a good fisherman? Yeah, I guess so. Anyone can learn how the equipment works. After that fishing is just a jerk on one end of the line waiting for a jerk on the other end of the line.

What do you look for in a girl? Well, I don't really have a set of criteria because I have never been able to predict what kind of people will attract me. I think all people attract me, even people I don't necessarily agree with or connect with. I guess the most important thing to look for in a partner is respect. Equality is vital to a relationship, even where important views differ. If you can't be respectfully understanding across the board, you don't have a chance. That said, I like smart girls with freckles.

Are you anti-religious? Short answer: No. I'm not against anything that gives people happiness and a sense of purpose. Long answer: I believe in the power of men before the power of any god. A lot of my songs might seem to have anti-religious themes but I never intended to provoke anyone and I don't mean to judge any certain belief system. I'm certainly not the authority on anything but myself, but I do know what it means to work for yourself and for your family above all, and to live in a way that is personally satisfying instead of adhering to the way someone else thinks you should or must behave in order to have what you want. People are incredibly powerful; they have the capability to make things happen for themselves all on their own, and I don't believe in an abstract force of punishment and reward as a sole means of decision making in a person's life beyond what you reward and punish yourself with.

Who is Geraldine? Geraldine is my ma, and she has been the singular example of love and loyalty in my life since the day I was born. When she met my dad, he was a broke hippie with absolutely nothing to offer her except a life of work and struggle, days at a time spent away from her at sea, but she married him even though her father was a pretty important businessman with a small fortune and never approved of him. She's never told me that I couldn't try something or explore some place or that something I was doing might not work out. When I was growing up and in school I lived with her in the small apartment they kept in San Francisco and I owe more of who I am to her unconditional support than to any one person or thing on this earth. Whatever I could possibly say in a song will never equal the debt I owe my parents for the kind of life they gave me. It was absolute chaos at times, but every family is in its own way. The song 'Symmetry' is also about my parents. I think it's rare to find people that stay together these days; a lot of my friends have parents who are divorced or who hate each other, and I think one of the reasons I haven't really dated much is that I'm always holding relationships up to that sense of partnership I've always felt from my parents.

What is your favorite song to play live? 'California Burritos', only because I think the simplicity of the lyrics is something that everyone can relate to, and that may be why everybody seems to sing along and raise their glasses during the chorus. It's so weird and interesting how the action of raising a glass has such a universal message. It means something different than applause and cheering and pumping your fists. Anyway, I like the energy that happens in a room when I play that song, so I usually end up playing it last.

If you could have lunch with any one person living or dead, who would it be and why? Utah Phillips. If there's someone out there that doesn't know who Utah Phillips is, look him up and listen to everything he has ever recorded. He was able to express what he stood for in a more eloquent, succinct, poetic, and ultimately effective way than I can ever hope to in my lifetime and what he stood for was probably the most laudable thing I can think of: honest work and the power of people.