Episode 291 - Jim James
Sodajerker On Songwriting
Sodajerker
4.9 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My Morning Jacket's Jim James chats with Simon and Brian about the creation of their latest record, is. The celebrated vocalist and guitarist discusses the band's collaboration with producer Brendan O'Brien, letting go of ego, and the role of dreams in songwriting.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there and welcome to another edition of Sode the Jerker on songwriting. |
| 0:22.4 | This is Simon, accompanied as always by Brian, and joining us for episode 291 is an American |
| 0:27.9 | musician and songwriter, best known for fronting one of the most acclaimed rock bands of |
| 0:32.0 | the last quarter century. |
| 0:33.7 | Outside of his celebrated output with My Morning Jacket, he's recorded or performed with the legs of Brian Wilson, John Prine, Bob Dylan, Brittany Howard, The War on Drugs, Brandy Carlisle and even came at The Frog. |
| 0:45.4 | The band recently dropped their 10th studio effort, The Excellent Is, produced by the great Brendan O'Brien and recorded at L.A.'s Henson Studios. |
| 0:53.3 | We're very excited to welcome the brilliant Jim James to the show. |
| 0:57.4 | Our guest was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1978, to an electrician father and artist mother. |
| 1:03.0 | His earliest exposure to music came via The Muppet Show and the oldies radio stations he'd listened to in the car with his mum. |
| 1:08.7 | By his teens, he'd grown enamoured of metal bands like Queens Queensreich, Motley Crew and Metallica, and grunge acts like |
| 1:13.9 | Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Jim received his first guitar, a Fender Squire Stratocaster, I believe, |
| 1:19.0 | from an uncle when he was around 13, and recalls being hugely inspired by Neil Young's |
| 1:23.3 | celebrated performance of Harvest Moon on Saturday Night Live. While still at high school, |
| 1:27.7 | Jim formed his first serious band, Month of Sundays, with childhood pals Dave Given and Aaron Todovich. |
| 1:34.0 | Around 1998, he conceived of My Morning Jacket, originally as a solo acoustic vehicle, with |
| 1:39.3 | the two projects running concurrently for a period. While studying at the University of Louisville, |
| 1:43.9 | Jim hawked around |
| 1:44.6 | demos for both projects, but it was the My Morning Jacket material that ultimately won favour |
| 1:49.1 | with indie label Dala. Featuring an expanded lineup of Jim's cousin, Johnny Quaid on guitar, bassist |
| 1:55.1 | Tom Blankenship and drummer Jay Glenn, the group's 1999 debut album, The Tennessee Fire, recorded at the Kentucky |
| 2:01.5 | farmstead of Quaid's grandparents, proved a surprise hit in Europe. |
| 2:05.6 | Following the release of 2001's At Dawn, they signed to RCA, making their major label |
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