06 • 2021 |
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living through four years of corruption , dishonesty , greed , ugliness . There ’ s a lot of material in there . Hatred , racism , sexism — it ’ s all out there in the open .
IE : “ Had a Dream ” sounds specifically Trump-inspired . JH : Well , YOU can say that , but I wouldn ’ t say that . I like to leave it open because I think that from the beginning of my songwriting career , I ’ ve been writing songs about doling out justice to the bad people . From the beginning — like , a song like “ Cesspool ” was about people who were polluting the ocean with industrial and medical waste that was washing up on the
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ten and recorded , I realized there was a theme . Almost every song has blood in it — “ Chunks ,” “ Gorgon ,” “ Torture ,” even “ Nightmary ” — “ The whole world is controlled by Fascist bloodsucking thugs ,” Yeah — blood ! My blood was boiling when I wrote these songs . And my blood ’ s been boiling lately .
IE : Well , in “ Mouthful of Blood ,” you ’ re trying not to say anything . But you ’ re biting your tongue until it bleeds . JH : So the blood is metaphorical , in that case . It ’ s all metaphorical , ultimately . And I ’ m trying not to get myself in trouble — we try not to say the wrong thing , so we don ’ t
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get attacked by the mob . You try to control the words that come out of your mouth because it ’ s just safer that way .
IE : I like what Lucinda Williams said at the beginning of the pandemic , how she refused to have a conversation with anyone uninformed or even ill-informed — No more agreeing to disagree . They should get out of her face and fuck off . JH : Yeah , that ’ s how I feel . It ’ s like , I don ’ t want to even start . I don ’ t want to engage in those kinds of conversations because there ’ s no point . There ’ s nothing to be gained at this point because it ’ s clear — you ’ ve already had to pick a side , so we ’ ve all chosen
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sides at this point .
IE : And social media , of course , has been complicit in all this . What ’ s your take on it ? JH : Well , I don ’ t do Facebook — I think it ’ s a horrible place . I do a little bit of social media just to keep the word out that I ’ m still putting out records . I want to inform people that I still exist and that they can share in the music . Otherwise , people would just think I dropped off the face of the Earth . Because I kind of LIVE as if I ’ ve dropped off the face of the Earth . So I ’ m just trying to keep my career going , you know ?
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