Magnolia Electric Co
Jason Molina on touring for all eternity
By Elmo Keep

Is there some great, lost, connection between country music and metal? This is a legitimate question. Two of the genre's most prolific contemporaries – Ryan Adams and Jason Molina of Magnolia Electric Co – both started their most illustrious careers playing in heavy metal bands as young'uns enamoured with Black Flag.

Perhaps it's not such a huge stylistic leap as you might think. Metal. It's immediate, it's angry. Yes. But for all the screaming, cursing, shredding and ear splitting double-kicking on the bass drum, has there ever been anything so truly heavy to rival Johnny Cash: I shot a man in Reno once/ Just to watch him die?

So, young angry men outgrow the appeal of simplistic sloganeering, and horrible, horrible tattoos. But they still play their guitars until their fingers bleed, and find new avenues down which to channel their need to make a racket. They form a band of like-minded souls and criss-cross countries, touring ceaselessly.

Ryan Adams would appear to have suffered – some might argue at his own insistence – the slings and arrows of signing to a major. It is well documented that his unstoppable, prolific outpouring of material is not met with the kind of support he hoped Lost Highway would provide. Cue breakdown, speedball overdose, cold turkey tied to a bed by his girlfriend. Note to self: don't die.

Not so the case for Jason Molina – fiercely independent, he releases limited runs of his highly sought after albums on vinyl on Secretly Canadian (which he is secretly not - Molina was born in Ohio). He tours nearly constantly with his band. He lives part of the year with his wife in London, ("but I'm gone on tour, you know, 200 days in the year.") The rest of the time plays venues across Europe and America, an unending caravan, which conjures scenes of the American West that would do Cormac McCarthy proud. It's scratching out a living, and it's a full time job.

The Magnolia Electric Co is the current incarnation of Jason Molina's band. Essentially a solo artist - with a changing roster of players depending on the material - his releases under various pseudonyms amount to huge back catalogue: over 20 full length albums and EPs since 1997. A lot of these were released in very limited runs, and are traded like wildfire between fans on the web. A box set release, Sojourner – consisting of four albums and a live DVD – has made collecting somewhat easier. In that collection is the Steve Albini produced 2005 record, Nashville Moon. It also comes in lovingly crafted packaging – an actual wooden box, hot iron branded and lovely.

I was able to speak on the phone with Jason, and found him not surprisingly, possessed of that American gift of talking. And talking. And never once in our conversation, being anything other than open and engaged and friendly and willing to share insight into his writing process.

"Sometimes I'll have a week of epic writing, you now, fourteen hours a day. Sometimes, nothing. There'll be a strict 9-5 approach. When you're self employed, sometimes you learn when you break the formula sometimes, lo and behold the best stuff can come.

"There's never a time when I don't write. I try to write everyday and if I feel like I can't, still I force myself to do it. It can be agony, but I try to get something done." I wonder if he feels deserted by a muse, bereft when he does get blocked. And what does he do to combat those times?

"I like to paint, I do a lot of visual art. Sometimes I'll throw it all down, and maybe pick up an instrument I'm not too familiar with and play around. If it's not working on guitar, I'll switch to piano. That kind of thing. Because I've been doing this for so long, I know that to quit is the dangerous thing.

"The minute that I'm back off tour, the clock is ticking until I have to go back out on the road again. So if I want to be productive in songwriting, and have some kind of a normal personal life, it has to be pretty much working all the time."

We talk about the trade-off of creative control versus financial reward. Jason Molina is very definitely in the camp which favours the first. Even if it is at huge cost – being answerable to no man, however, seems to be the thing he values most.

"I have suicidal publicity instincts. I'll say, 'I'm not doing interviews for ah, this year,' (laughs). I'm not really career motivated in that way. I changed the name of the band after 10 years of a sort of success. There's a rotating cast of members in the band. All these things that people warn you off, if you want to make money in this business. It's still very much nickel and dime. But it's a choice that I made. It's a choice I made not going to the majors. I wanted to make the decisions myself. I'd rather make good music, than make good money. I'd rather do anything, than have to do work that I'm not proud of."