Description

Simon Joyner is a singer-songwriter living in Omaha, Nebraska. He's released records since 1993 on independent labels, most recently Badabing records.

It's not marketing hype to call Simon Joyner a pillar of the music scene in Omaha, Neb. He has lived there throughout his multiple-decade career as a widely lauded writer and singer of songs that expand the horizons of folk music. He has released literate tunes that like those of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Neil Young carry enormous weight gracefully, whether they're simple recordings of voice and acoustic guitar or songs backed by a twangy country-rock band or orchestrated with rich string arrangements. He's also had a considerable influence on another highly regarded Nebraskan artist: Conor Oberst. Joyner's admirers include a host of well-known musicians and other luminaries spread around the world, including Gillian Welch, Kevin Morby and late BBC radio DJ John Peel.

It's not inconsequential, then, that Joyner left his home base to record Pocket Moon, a follow-up to his acclaimed 2017 album Step Into the Earthquake. The new record wasn't ready for listening ahead of our interview, but it is set to be released later this year (likely in September) via Joyner's own Grapefruit Records. As Joyner tells it, speaking with the Scene via phone, he felt the need to get out of Omaha for the winter. As he worked on the new batch of songs, he made arrangements with his longtime friend and collaborator Michael Krassner to flip their usual method of working together on its head he traveled to Phoenix rather than having Krassner come to Omaha.

I definitely feel like the mood of [Pocket Moon] is distinct, Joyner says. As I realized that, I started thinking about how the recording process would be different. I realized it would be more of a sparse-sounding record from the last one.

Joyner and Krassner, longtime collaborators, camped out in the studio for several days, with Krassner helming production. Adding to the album's sense of experimentation, Joyner asked Krassner to assemble a brand-new band to play on the album, hoping a new group of players would bring fresh life to the songs that would become Pocket Moon.

That definitely affected the process, because I wasn't familiar with the musicians ahead of time, Joyner says. I have total faith in Michael. He and I are always on the same page. I just knew he would come up with a really great band, which he did. So it worked out really well. But it definitely gave it a unique sound from recent records.

As longtime fans know, Joyner frequently toys with his sound. But one thematic throughline in his songwriting is insightful social commentary, which was especially evident on Step Into the Earthquake. His take on our social and political ills adds a keen edge to tracks like I'm Feeling It Today, which chronicles the emotional hangovers wrought by a toxic news cycle, and As Long as We're in Danger, an assessment of systemic racism and classism in American society. In late 2017, the latter song caused some controversy for its use of the N-word.

I know that some disagree about art using offensive words and imagery to expose offensive thoughts and actions, but I think it's necessary and plays a crucial function, Joyner, who is white, wrote in a statement on Facebook. Using less triggering words would not accurately reflect how America as a country behaves toward marginalized people. I understand that my use of inflammatory language, even in this context and with these intentions, will lead some to dismiss my work. I respect that position, we must all decide for ourselves what art is allowed to say and do.

For Pocket Moon's lyrical content, Joyner says he stepped away from the political to make more space for the personal. Having written some parts of Step Into the Earthquake before the 2016 presidential election and some after, he says he felt he'd said his piece on current events for a while, and didn't want to repeat himself on his next release. Not that I'm not just as concerned about the world, he says, laughing.

It was a little bit paralyzing in general, Joyner says of writing Pocket Moon in today's political climate. There's been almost a depression, in general, that can sometimes be debilitating. For me, I don't actually do very much artistically if I'm depressed. I usually can write after recovering and feeling better about things. Then I can reflect on that period. It's been kind of a challenge in general to be energized to write and create things at all. But it's important to keep trying to put things out there that are an antidote to what you're seeing happening.

The political climate isn't Joyner's only creative obstacle he also experiences good old-fashioned writer's block from time to time, particularly after the release of a new album.

I always have a drought in between projects, he says, where I'm like: 'I'm never going to write a song again. That was it. That was the last record. I know it was.' Then months go by, and all of a sudden I start writing again. It's always the same fear.

Luckily for us, Joyner kept writing and recording. And though Pocket Moon won't be out for several more months, you'll get a chance to hear some of those songs when he stops in Nashville on Friday to play a show organized by local arts nonprofit FMRL alongside Ned Collette, State Champion and Styrofoam Winos. Given the depth of Joyner's catalog, he's able to tailor his set lists to individual shows, and he looks forward to slotting in new material with the old.

Joyner is clearly excited that he's still making music. He's most grateful to have engaged listeners, whether they're famous or not.

I guess I've been doing it for so long that maybe it's like, 'Here's someone who's never given up on trying to communicate in this medium, who's still fighting the good fight.'

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32 Mill Lane,

Hounslow,

Greater London,

England,

NW6 1NR.