Inside Joseph Arthur's Studio: A Tour of the Songwriter's Artistic Haven

Rock Daily recently crashed Joseph Arthur's Rolling Stone style shoot at the singer/songwriters Brooklyn, New York art gallery (what he has dubbed the the MOMAR — Museum of Modern Arthur). He gave us a tour of his creative haven, which includes a gallery, painting studio, performance stage and even a self-built recording studio. Arthur is an art producing machine — this year he will release 4 EPs and a full-length album with his band, and has piles of paintings in his joint. "I don't really feel like I work particularly hard," he says. "Making paintings or music is like child's play to me, it's rooted in inspiration, and I think the key for any artist is to keep your inspiration alive and ignore whatever forces try to kill it." While Arthur's songs range from dreamy acoustic ballads to punchy rock songs, his sound tends towards a soft and sweet aesthetic. Not so with his creepily edgy artwork, which borrows from Basquiat-style graffiti and Warhol-like repetitive screen prints, and shows off a darker, more mysterious side. Click above to check out the video to see how he paints while performing music live and the incredible results.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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