Jim White: The 13th Floor Interview

You probably know him as the drummer for The Dirty Three. You’ve probably heard him playing with PJ Harvey, Cat Power or Marianne Faithfull. These days Jim White has teamed up with Greek musician George Xylouris in the appropriately-named band, Xylouris White. The duo will be performing at Auckland’s Tuning Fork on Wednesday, March 8th.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Jim White recently and asked him to explain what he and Mr Xylouris are up to.

Click here to listen to the interview with Jim White:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: Have you been on the road?

JW: … I’ve been on the road, yeah.

MD: Playing with Giorgos, or other things?

JW: … We went to America, and then we went to Australia – we did our own tour in Australia – and then we did some shows with PJ Harvey. Then we had a bit of a break there, and then… Giorgos went home, and I stuck around and saw my family… went to San Francisco to do some other work, and then got back. We’re heading out again in a week: going to Greece for a couple of shows, and then to Australia and New Zealand again. You’re in Auckland, are you?

MD: I’m in Auckland, yes, but I have an American accent, just to confuse things.

JW: Where are you from?

MD: I’m from upstate New York, from Rochester, near Toronto.

JW: Oh, that’s funny: you’re the second person from Rochester that I’ve spoken to today.

MD: That would be unusual, I guess; Rochester’s not that big. I’ve been in New Zealand for about twenty two years; I just haven’t lost the accent. You said you guys opened for PJ Harvey; is that right?

JW: Yeah. We did a few shows in Australia, in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.

MD: Oh, because I saw her when she was here in Auckland, just around that same time. What did you think of the show?

JW: I thought it was fantastic. I really loved it. Did you?

MD: Yes, I did. I thought it was absolutely stunning. The venue here wasn’t the greatest venue, but it didn’t really matter: she and that band were just incredible.

JW: I thought it was amazing! I’d seen the show in London and in New York earlier, and it was really good, but the ones in Australia… were amazing. It was really great! It was really inspiring… just how… they had their idea, that concept, and they could follow it through so well. It was just great on every level. The sound was disciplined, and sounded great. The songs are sounding better and better as they’ve been going along. Yeah, she’s great!

MD: I immediately went and bought the new album on vinyl. I had a digital version, which doesn’t even count, I don’t think; so, as soon as I heard that the concert I  was like, “Why don’t I have this on vinyl? I need to have this;” great songs.

JW: … Have you listened to it a bunch already?

MD: Yeah. I love it…. Anyway, talking about you and Xylouris… a lot of people will be very aware of you; especially because of The Dirty Three – Dirty Three have played in Auckland quite a bit – but not particularly aware of what you guys are doing together now – even though you’ve had a couple of albums out – and this will be their first, real exposure. Maybe you can explain, for folks, what’s happening with the two of you, and the kind of music that you’re making?

JW: It’s Giorgos – he’s from Crete – and he plays the Cretan Lute and things, and I’ve got a  drum. We play our own compositions, and we play songs from drawn from Crete.

MD: Like traditional songs?

JW: We’ve got this one song that’s really old – like eight hundred years – and there’s a poem that we do little excerpts from. A lot of the songs are based on dance…. Giorgos is a folk musician… from a folk tradition. His father is one of my favourite musicians of all time; he’s a lyre player. They’re folk musicians, but dad seems really radical. I not a Cretan folk musician; so, I don’t know, but it’s really radical, and completely in keeping with the tradition as well. That’s certainly something that Cretan music can do. We’re not a ethno-music band – we’re not a mash up experiment, or anything – we’re just two people whose friendship goes back twenty five years; knowing each other, and our musical relationship, goes back to before Dirty Three started, when Giorgos was in Melbourne; when we met. He’d often come to shows that I was doing, in Venom P Stinger and then Dirty Three, and I’d see him play in

situations where our bands would play together. We always had a good connection. This is a band that started four years ago, when I visited Crete: I said, “I’m going to come visit,” which I did plan to do for over ten years – hadn’t got around to it – “… Let’s go to a studio and play.” We did, and that’s been going on since then. We find that it’s a combination of our two worlds, and it’s just what comes natural. We learn things, and we play naturally…. I’ve always listened to Cretan music, ever since I met Giorgos twenty five years ago. I’ve listened to a lot of it. I’ve listened to it for many years, never considering that I would be anything other than me listening to it for enjoyment; so, it’s something I like. Where that’s coming from, it’s natural to me. It feels very rock to me: it feels like punk rock, and it feels exciting; it feels like it could be primal and sophisticated…. I’m coming from a Melbourne, rock perspective I grew up listening to David Bowie and Lou Reed and The Saints; and to me, where he’s coming from, is immediately appealing, for whatever reason; I don’t know quite how that works out. I don’t know if people know: my playing – whatever I do – is a natural thing for me, and then on the other hand, Giorgos is a dance musician as well….

MD: Do you have to alter your approach to drumming to play the kind of music that he plays, or is what you’re doing a mixture of the two approaches?

JW: That’s what I’m saying: … it just happens to work; it’s a natural thing. It’s very melodic driven, and Giorgos is also a real master of dance rhythm; so, I feel like it’s natural, but also, on the other hand, you learn there are other things that you can do, and that you like to do. And the songs can draw from tradition; they can be our own compositions coming from ideas or improvisations. We record them all around, but the records are produced by Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, because he came into our first show and loved it. We’re close friends now, and we go around and record it at his place – I’m just mentioning that as another context that’s not really going to explain what it is, but somehow might find a way an influence with people. We’re playing in a world music festival, we’re playing WOMAD, one of the first tours we did was when Michael Gira from Swans invited us to go on tour… by half-time, they were telling us that we’re an experimental band. I think we’re a rock band, but we’re also maybe a Cretan band; and that’s fine. I think that’s all fine. I like all that!

MD: When you’re playing live: what is the vibe like there? Because I imagine what you hear on the recordings is probably different than what’s going to actually happen when you’re on stage.

JW: Yeah. I’m really happy with the records that we’ve made, but live is probably our natural environment, in many ways. The shows… feel joyful to me; exciting, and people can stand there, people can dance. Something happens in the room a lot, when the rock audience and the Greeks – in particular, the Cretans – will come every … Particularly with Crete and Greece having such a hard time economically, that people everywhere… they’d come along. I think that relationship is nice, with the audience and the band. I’d say the show is energetic.

MD: I get it that it’s important for you to have a rock base to it, and it’s probably an important thing to get the word out to people who might think that it’s some weird WOMAD thing that they won’t understand.

JW: Yeah…. I guess I started in a punk rock band with our own take on it, and the drumming was my take on trying to do something different from Dirty Three. It all feels like a continuum, for me…

MD: And you play with a lot of people: you’ve played with… PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull, Cat Power, and all these other people. Are you doing other things along those lines, at the same time that you’re working on this, or are you just concentrating on this project?

JW: I’m really making this a priority. We’ve been very busy the last couple of years, and I’m keeping the time for that. I still do things on occasion, when it fits in, but this is what I’m doing.

MD: What’s the status of Dirty Three? Is it on hold? Is it officially split up?

JW: No, it’s not split up. Dirty Three played a few shows last year: we played about five shows. I think we played Melbourne and Sydney and inland and Edinburgh, or something; and they were good, but we’re all living in different cities, very far away from each other, and we all are very busy; so, there’s no shows planned at the moment.

MD: I get the feeling it’s something that you guys have always come back to, when the chance presents itself.

JW:” Yeah. It always feels good when we play.

MD: It sounds good too. I’m always very impressed. I’m excited to see what you guys come up with live, because I have a feeling that this is the kind of thing that could really take off on stage; so, hopefully, people will come down and see you guys when you get down here, and you’re back on the road.

JW: … It’s great that Tiny Ruins is going to play as well.

MD: Oh right! Yes, yes! People should definitely see it; she’s great!

JW: She’s great! I’ve known her for a few years now, and I think she’s fantastic. We’re very excited. I’ve been to New Zealand a bunch of times over the years – mostly with Dirty Three and Cat Power, and some other things – but it’s always been a lot of fun.

Click here for tickets and more info about Xylouris White at The Tuning Fork.