Jamie Lidell: More Than "Neo-Soul"

Jamie Lidell released Jim, his third full-length album, in April. Although he began moving away from the experimental electronica sounds of his 2000 Muddlin' Crew debut on 2005's Multiply, Jim's throwback '60s soul sounds are a huge departure. But don't call him "neo-soul." He'd rather be known as the guy with "itchy sonic feet."

ChartAttack: Why switch from the combination of soul and electronica [on Multiply] to the complete soul sound you've got now?
Jamie Lidell: I think it had a lot to do with touring, when I started touring for Multiply, you know? I started to realize the songs I really enjoyed playing the most were the ones that were the most crafted. I decided to concentrate on what that was that made the song all that fun to play and rich and like... Obviously, when I've been playing live and playing solo, I kind of have been mutating the songs in a sense, really like, trying to see what they're made of and obviously, as everyone knows, a good song, you can really pull apart completely and reconstitute and it still works, you know? So I was striving for kind of these bright, really, really air-tight songs. And I guess that's the thing. Putting the emphasis on that kind of made me want to let them breathe, essentially, once I had written them. I'd just go, "Ah..." Once I'd put certain touches on top of them, I realized the musicianship and the stuff that I'd managed to capture was really what I wanted to keep and display.

You've got a full band with you on this tour. I heard you had previously said it was strange to be touring with a band. Do you still feel that way and why? If you don't, what's changed?
Well, I always do find it strange because it positions me as a kind of band leader, which is not a role I really cherish, to be quite honest with you, because I always feel so humble next to all these musicians. I have a very strange sense of music. I definitely appreciate music and I think people find my kind of, enthusiasm for music contagious — the fact that I'm willing to, like, really go there and take risks and jump in is something that I suppose they want to be part of. But at the same time, it's really strange for me not having the musical vocabulary to kind of express myself amongst really established musicians. The kind of players I have with me are all kind of really trained jazz musicians. So there is a frustration there. Group mind is a very strange and interesting and troubling dynamic for me sometimes. Sometimes it's really strong and other times, you kind of feel like you've lost a couple of people along the way, you know? It's very hard to maintain this kind of, like, telepathy, I suppose. But it does happen and it is happening now with this band. I'm kind of one foot on both sides of the fence, really. I'm still kind of itching to play solo and at the same time, the band is kind of like an undeniable force of nature and when we all come together it's something that I could never do alone. I think a lot of it just comes from my fears as a musician. Not being able to communicate properly with people that I respect. It's more of an anxiety that I should learn to get over myself and not so much to do with the music.

I read that someone once told you that Multiply was "not pop enough to be pop, but not weird enough to be weird." What's Jim?
I don't know, really. It seems like it might be falling into a similar bracket to an extent. But you know, I set out to make a pop record. I really love pop and I grew up on pop and I realized after Multiply that it was quite a range of styles and a broad range of styles and I was keen to sort of bracket this one even tighter than Multiply and really give people a slice of my pop world. And I think I've pulled it off. I really, really like the album and I'm really happy with it. I think it's a slab of medallion pop. But that doesn't necessarily make it ultra-pop, you know? There's still something in me that really prevents me from hitting the ball out of the park and making a platinum album. To be honest, that's not really my ambition, anyway. It's kind of like, I don't know, kind of rustic pop. Or, not rustic pop, but a little bit rough around the edges. It's not been polished to the point of being perfect. I don't want it to be called "neo-soul" at the same time.

Do you think it's important for musicians to experiment with different types of music instead of always continually sticking with the same thing?
Certainly, it could be argued that some artists are only making one song again and again and you know, in a way, by doing so, they retain a fan base and are exploring a thing that they do well. A lot of artists, you can trace something in their career and it's a very obvious line in their work, kind of a signature in a way. I respect that. In a way, I'm kind of envious of that. I've said it before and maybe it was a bit of a lazy description of me, but I'm a little bit too schizophrenic to really stay in once place for long enough, or maybe I've just got itchy feet, you know? Itchy sonic feet. I like to move around. My kind of role models at this point in the game are more like Beck and Bowie and Prince — people who've managed to do a lot of different stuff but who just put themselves into it, you know? Sure, it's important for me to stay interested and to keep it fresh.