Luke Zimmerman

[froggie]

yeah, he has a famous uncle bob. i just saw this interview and he mentions that Summerteeth is one of his favourite albums..

 

http://rocknrollcircus.altervista.org/Interviste/LukeZimmermanEngl.htm

 

 

! Not another Zimmerman!: An Interview with Luke Zimmerman

Luke Zimmerman, son of David Zimmerman which is a certain Bob Dylan’s brother, have a solo album out these days, the very good “Twilight Waltz”: you can hear some of his uncle, but mostly he is a songwriter on his own, with some very good tales to tell. Check him out (www.lukezimmerman.com).

Like Jakob Dylan before him, he have a great sense of humour, he dont give a duck if people going to see him becuase of his last name and his musical ability – just like Jakob - show how blessed was the Zimmerman family when is about music…

Can you tell me a little bit about your career before this solo album? I know you were in a band before…

The Crow River Band formed while i was at St. Olaf college in Minnesota, where i was a studio art major, mostly oil painting and metal sculpture. I first got a guitar when i was maybe 14 and just learned enough to cover some cat stevens tunes and thats about it. i brought the guitar to college, because everyone brings a guitar to college, and started to just learn a couple more chords. not much. but i formed a simple band with some friends as the guitar player, and not the songwriter, my freshman year. We practiced at a public space and one day, the power went out all over campus while we were playing. We took that as an omen and never practiced again. my second year, the band reformed without me and became a ska band called the United Pepper Front. Later, my third year, i studied abroad in Florence and London, and my roommate over there brought a guitar and he taught me how to finger pick and a bunch of stuff, and i think i wrote a couple tunes then. my senior year, i started playing with andy hertel, the drummer on Crow River and still with me now, and we rotated some players, but basically formed the Crow River Band with Chris Klamen on bass, Nate Halvorson on lead guitar. Later, we added multiinstrumentalist Braden Snapp and off we went,  playing shows in the years following graduation (i graduated in 1999). We lost Nate as he moved back to Chicago in 2002, and we recorded the record later in that year. we were basically a country-blues based rock outfit with some hints of Lou Reed and 60s europop. i wrote the songs.

Why the band disbanded?

Chris and Braden left the band shortly after the record was released, mainly because they had other things to do, graduate school, work, et al. Part of it could have been the direction of the band, i'm not really sure. But those things happen. Andy and I played some with a guitar/drums duo, and so it seemed really silly to call ourselves a "band", so i just decided to go at it as my own name.

Your dad, David Zimmerman, not only was the main force behind Bob Dylan’s masterpiece Blood on the tracks, but was also involved with the local Minneapolis musical scene, managing some local artists; is he still involved with music? Was he helpful with your career, giving you musical advices etc? Did Bob Dylan himself had a chance to listen to your music and giving you some musical advice? What about Jakob Dylan? How do you like his music?

My dad is retired from the music scene right now. i wouldnt say that he was the main force behind blood on the tracks, as the songs were already there and recorded, but he was certainly a big part of how the record turned out. he assembled the musicians for the minneapolis sessions because he had a lot of knowledge about minneapolis players and studios and such being a manager and advertising producer in town. As far as advice... its not really something that we sit around and talk about as a family- just some generalities here and there. About Jakob...he's great. I think he has a real talent at producing well crafted songs. i like his records a lot.

Did you have had some problems using the name Zimmerman which of course is very well familiar with about any music fan in the world (for some years people went to see the Wallflowers only to see the son of bob dylan) or you dont care at all?

I'd say that as far as it goes, using the Zimmerman name is probably a lot less conspicuous than using a dylan name, though i still get people who come out because i am in certain respects a curiosity. But still those are mostly people who have heard about me. I've done some travelling around and some places will put parentetically (dylan's nephew) on the advertising but i don't think it has the impact that they think it will. its all fine,  though, as there are expectations both good and bad that i have to deal with. truthfully, with the name, i get approached as much in the supermarket by the checkout person as i do at shows.

What is your bob dylan favourite record?

Greewheelin, Highway 61, Blood On The Tracks, John Wesley Harding, Desire, Time out of mind, Oh mercy is great too.

What kind of music were you listen to it while growing up?

A lot of classical, frank sinatra , nat king cole, rockabilly, beatles. my brother was a big fan of early soul asylum, replacements, the police, the jam so i heard a lot of that...in high school i listened to a lot of bob marley, led zeppelin, pink floyd, cat stevens, jim croce.

Twilight Waltz is an auto produced album with, i imagine, a low budget  and few musicians around you: is that a musical decision, to make the album sound more minimal, more intimate, so to give you more musical freedom and to keep the general atmosphere more introspective? If you have the chance to work with a very well know producer in the future who do you like to work with?

i wouldnt necessarily say that it's a musical decision to be low-budget and self-produced, but a pleasant byproduct is that i do have more freedom, and it sounds more intimate. honestly, its not a decision at all. i have no other choice at this point than to be low-budget and self-produced. The fantastic thing about the digital revolution, i think, in not only music but with film and even literature, is that you can be independent and still productive. before, producing an album was rather cost-prohibitive, as well as a film, but now, with a computer in lots of homes, you can do whatever you want for relatively cheap. you can do almost exactly what you want, realize fully your vision. the problem is that you don't have the sort of production values that you might have with a big label record. sure, I would have liked to put a symphony here and there. why not? or bring in a chamberlain for a lick or two, but what is documented here is a slice of time and place. these were the circumstances that i was presented with and this is what i did with it. luckily, i had a few real musicians with me to bail me out and add incredible stuff to the record to fill it out. I would love to have jon brion or michael penn produce one of my records. or jeff tweedy or jay bennet from wilco. whoever produces norah jones or the beastie boys, or stereolab, or portishead, or bright eyes...i'm not sure the names, but i love the production of those records.

I never been to Minnesota neither Minneapolis, but i know that is that kind of solitaire, border zone, far away from the typical America (New York, Los Angeles) that we all know in Europe; do you think that living there in a way influencened your songwriting? Have you seen this new film,North Country with is about your land, i believe?

Well, it's funny, because when i was in Italy, and had a small grasp of the language, i used to say that i was from Minnesota, and i would get a puzzled look. then i would hold my hands up and say Los Angeles for one, and new york for the other. when the person understood that, i would just say, "mezzo." (“in the middle”) a lot of people from LA or New York agree with you, though, and think the only city west of new york is LA and vice versa. I haven't seen "north country" but i know that it's about the mines up in northern Minnesota. that's not really what i know...your next question kind of sums up where i'm from, the mix between urban and country. Minneapolis/St. Paul has about 2.5 million people, and actually has the largest Somali population outside of Somalia in the world. A huge Hmong population as well. but then outside of Minneapolis is cornfields and lakes. i'm from somewhere in the middle. i think the typical America that you see in europe is far different from how most of us live. most of us live in the middle. sometimes it feels like its a long way from anywhere...its like anywhere i guess. 

I hate music labels, but if i have to chose one i should say your music remind me of a crossover between lou reed and neil young, and i mean a crossover between urban and country music, what do you think?

Sounds good. i don't think you could go wrong crossing those two. 

The start of If I were king with that piano and the drums remind me of some old The Band songs… what do you think?

I love The Band. i think its a big compliment to be compared to these sorts of musicians, lou reed, neil young, the band. i think 'if i were king' is a bit more controlled and than the band. oftentimes the band seems like an all out onslaught on the ears, and i love the way they trade off the vocals...each of them has a distinctive and emotive voice and they sound so great together. i heard once the band described as a bunch of canadians who tried to play american music, and they ended up doing it better than anyone else ever has (levon helm was from tennessee? i think but that's what they said anyway). 'the last waltz' is an incredible document of that sound.

Can you tell me a little bit about the lyrics of your songs? Seems to me that you deal mostly about personal relationships

i do deal with relationships, but i’m not sure if they’re mine or someone else's. i try to internalize other people's relationships and add my point of view and out comes what comes out. some writers write incredibly personal "inside of my head" type of lyrics, and work from their audience through that. i try to make what i am saying personal to everyone by setting up universalities.

Into the blue, Amelia and Blind and blue are at the moment my fav songs of the album; how those particoular songs came out and generally how hard (or easy) is for you to write a song: how long it takes, how is the process of writing a song?

i usually fiddle around with bunch of chords for a while, until a theme pops out at me. then i carry it around in my head for another while, figuring it all out before i sit down and write it all down. that's normal for me. I have about twenty songs in my head right now. the trick is to remember them all until i can finally sit down to write it. sometimes, though, like with 'not done knowing you'...the idea was from a conversation i was having with andy hertel (the drummer on the record) and the line came out. i went home and wrote the whole thing pretty much on the spot.

How is the musical scene in Minneapolis these days, some interesting  club scenes and other bands and songwriters?

There's always a ton of bands and singer/songwriters here. lately we've had a couple hip-hop/rap groups (Atmosphere, Hieruspecs) that have been doing well nationally...mason jennings is doing well (he's from Pennsylvania originally, but he was a Minneapolis local for a while)...theres also a great bluegrass scene with Trampled by Turtles, Pert Near Sandstone, and others...overall, its a good scene as far as quality, but easy to get lost.

What kind of contemporary music do you like these days? What do you  think of bands like Wilco (talking about USA) and Radiohead (talking  about UK)?

Wilco's "summer teeth" and Radiohead's "OK computer" are two of the best records that i have heard. i like this record by josh rouse "1972", but i havent heard the rest of his stuff. norah jones' first record is good, coldplay "parachutes", i like some of the stuff from Keane, and i can get into some bright eyes (but not all of it)...mostly i've been listening to antonio carlos jobim, george shearing, beatles, miles davis, maynard ferguson, johnny cash...as a sidenote, i don't know if you like paolo conte, but he's one of my favorites of all time. Thanks for the interest here, paolo. italy is the best place i have ever Been, truthfully. i love it there.