His band, veteran Los Angeles punk rockers X, hasn't released an album of new material for nine years, but John Doe hasn't been at a loss in the downtime. With a recurring role on TV's Roswell and appearances in movies like The Good Girl, Boogie Nights and The Brokedown Palace, Doe has become almost as known for his acting as he has for holding up X's bottom end for twenty-plus years. Doe has also carved out a niche as a solo artist, releasing four albums, including his recent Dim Stars, Bright Sky.

Featuring Aimee Mann, Jakob Dylan, Juliana Hatfield, Jane Wiedlin and Rhett Miller, Doe's latest is also his first acoustic album, in part due to his observation that the first question he was asked by interested fans after finishing each of the first three records was "Is it acoustic?" Finally the answer is yes: Throughout the record, the drums maintain an easy gait, while a piano and pedal steel spike the strummed guitars. Doe talked about it over coffee and eggs at the Flying J, a truck stop about ninety minutes outside of L.A.

How did you come to record this album acoustically?

I guess the songs allowed an acoustic record to happen. I could have made the SpinArt record [2001's Freedom Is . . .] acoustic, but there were too many uptempo songs. I was more interested in rock music at that point. But if you keep doing the same thing, people lose interest and I lose interest, even though I love rock music. There's nothing like a three-piece rock trio. Shit, man, Green Day isn't as popular as they are for nothing.

Where did the album begin for you?

Joe Henry and I had done four songs: "Magic," "This Far," another version of "Still You" and a song that didn't make the record, and I loved the way they were produced. We did all four songs in three days and had Aimee Mann and Jakob Dylan come down and sing, the whole nine yards. But then we did a few others after that. When we did [the more sparse] "Far Away (From the North Country)," I thought, well, that's kind of more what I want, more what we should do.

What kind of things were inspiring you?

The song "Closet of Dreams" came from a book a friend gave me, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by a Japanese writer named Huruki Murakami. It's this weird sort of realism -- surrealism, some people might want to say. It's science fiction but it's not. And a lot of the images in the song are from that book. Like the well -- this guy goes down into a well to do a sort of sensory deprivation thing. He's trying to find his wife who has run away, and he goes through all these bizarre changes.

What about the other songs?

I wrote a lot of songs all at once. "Far Away (From the North Country)" and "Seven Holes" were like that, where I'd write the chord changes melody and lyrics all at once. I had an idea for the song and I just sort of finished it. Which is a great way to write songs. In X it was more intellectual, more piecing things together and fitting puzzles together.

It seemed like there was a political element to some of these songs.

That song "Forever for You" is kind of social commentary, political but within a relationship. The lyric about "no more red white and blue," there's no underground. The saddest thing about the world nowadays is that there isn't a underground you can rely on, underground counter culture, anti-political or politically radical elements you can count on to be there to give you the straight information, straight news, the less spun news. That's sort of what "Forever for You" is about. If you question something then suddenly you're not patriotic. If you don't have an American flag you're a Communist. That's wrong.

How did you pick the guests for the album?

After the songs were done, Joe Henry suggested Aimee Mann sing on one. I've known Jakob Dylan and Aimee Mann for a long time, but he made the calls. So he was the one who was gutsy enough to say, "Come on and sing on a demo and I'm not going to pay you." I just sent the checks out now. A little token of my appreciation. A very little token.

What about Juliana Hatfield's contributions to "Closet of Dreams" and "Still Me"?

The thing with Juliana was like a total tribute to technology. I sent her ProTools files and called her up and said, "Look, you're smart. You sing great. Sing a bunch of stuff on this and send it back to me." She did it in like an afternoon and sent it back. I listened to it and thought, "This is cool. Let's use this stuff, and this stuff and this stuff," and then it was done. It would have been a lot more fun to sort of hang out in the studio, but whatever. She's in Boston and I can't fly her out here.

You've gotten together with X periodically over the last few years to tour. What's it like playing together now?

It's fun. No pressure, no big deal -- rehearse a couple times go out and play. Just make sure you're not sitting on the sofa two weeks before. You got to get in shape a little bit -- DJ [Bonebrake] especially, but I got my work cut out for me too. It's great: I feel like I'm giving it back to the audience. You have to make sure you're really delivering and you take it seriously and don't just blow it off because you could. That's where bands have been touring for a long time they kind of lose it. And it's hard -- especially if you're out for three months, six months, nine months, playing five nights a week.

COLIN DEVENISH
(March 5, 2003)