"Eaton's endearingly off-note vocals career heavenward as he hits those la-da-da-da's between the choruses, rushing to a moment of honest indie transcendence ... The song unravels over several more minutes from there, as the horns dash out a morse-code melody, led by a fervent gospel tambourine and a lovely violin caught in the eddies of a river baptism. It builds dizzingly and winds down beautifully-- truly something to be joyful about."
That's Pitchfork describing Chris Eaton's mechanical horse anthem, "my children, be joyful." I have very little to add, except LISTEN TO THE SONG. You will be singing the melody in the shower by the end of the week, I promise.
Besides writing storytelling songs for Rock Plaza Central, Eaton recently published The Grammar Architect--a literary tour through modern-day bohemia. When viewed side-by-side, his novel and music produce a multimedia experience that more fledgling writers should emulate.
Welcome to the second installment of my interview with Eaton, part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
Your newest record has been stuck in my head for the last two weeks. How do music and writing interact in your brain? Do you have favorite records you listen to while writing? How does storytelling influence your records? Continue reading...
Chris Eaton:
I listen to a lot of music when I'm writing, and usually the same disc over and over until I hit a rut, and then I switch discs. But last summer I spent the summer in Panama without my CDs (my wife was there working on a community arts project) and got sort of used to no music. I wrote so much. Now my problem is trying to write at home alone because I'm used to a crowded library.
For the most part, I think they're too different ends of a beast. A song can be written so quickly. And because all I write is novels, it's nice to get some immediate gratification periodically.
But this album was written sort of like a novel. There's a story and themes that travel throughout it. And I wanted to do that because, as I like novels more than short stories, I like albums more than songs.
And the album seems to be on the way out because of the iPod and downloads and all that. So the best way we could think of to make people pay attention to the whole record (instead of just single songs) was to make it all linked.
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