QUILCENE — Damien Jurado will play 2018’s critically acclaimed “The Horizon Just Laughed” in its entirety in Quilcene tonight.
Jurado’s 13th studio record, the songs are steeped in Washington state imagery and references.
“The Horizon” was Jurado’s last release before moving to southern California from Seattle, where he lived for 33 years.
The concert, presented by the Quilcene Lantern, 7360 Center Road, Quilcene, marks Jurado’s second visit to the Lantern, following his performance last September. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Opener St. Yuma will take the stage at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $20 plus fees if purchased online in advance. They are available until 5 p.m. at https://tinyurl.com/vfv4xxpn. Tickets at the door can be purchased for $30.
“I’ve always referred to it as a meditation record,” Jurado said. “The opening track, ‘Allocate,’ is two chords. It repeats itself like a mantra, right? Like a raga.”
The studio record is 37 minutes of smooth, character-driven scenes, brimming with a density of introspective, dreamlike, transient and sometimes funny lyrics. Playing the record live will take longer than 37 minutes; some of the tracks call for it, Jurado said.
“Some songs, for instance, like ‘Allocate,’ the opening track, it’s like eight minutes long (played live),” Jurado said. “You know, because it’s a groove, right? It’s a feel, it’s a mood, so we tend to stay in that for quite some time.”
Some of Jurado’s more recent records have grown in complexity, but “The Horizon” is pretty simple, he said.
His band knows the songs, but they don’t rehearse, he said.
“This isn’t jazz we’re playing,” he said. “These (songs) are like two or three chords, tops. This is a really easy album for them to play.”
When you’re working with two or three chords, feel is the most important part of playing, Jurado said.
“Its like 10 percent talent and 90 percent feel,” he added.
The four records leading up to “The Horizon” were produced by Richard Swift, a prolific songwriter, producer and touring musician. Swift died in Tacoma at age of 41 in 2019.
“I ended up doing ‘The Horizon Just Laughed’ on my own because Richard Swift was not able to do it,” Jurado said. “He, at the time, was in rehab and trying to get clean. Not just that, but he was also having a lot of family stuff happening in his life.”
Swift told Jurado he could do it himself.
“I said, ‘I could do what?’” Jurado said. “He said, ‘I think you should produce your own album,’ I was like, ‘Richard, I know nothing about production.’ He was like, ‘But you do, you’ve been with me for the last few years. I was like, ‘Whoa, he’s actually right.’ I was with the greatest. I learned from watching him. All I’m doing is applying what I learned from him.”
Swift instilled confidence into Jurado. On the “Visions of Us on the Land,” the last record in the Maraqopa Trilogy produced by Swift, he told Jurado that he should play percussion. Jurado said he didn’t know how to play percussion instruments. Swift told him, nonchalantly, that he believed Jurado could play the parts.
“And I did,” Jurado said. “I played most of the percussion that you hear on that record. Anything that’s a full drum set, for the most part, that’s all Richard, but bongos, shakers, tambourines, you know, single drum takes, you know, that’s all me.”
When Jurado visited Swift in rehab, he brought rough demos of the “The Horizon.” Swift was blown away, Jurado said.
“Man, it was just very special, you know?” Jurado said.
Since then, Jurado has either produced or co-produced all of his many releases.
Currently, he is working with Seattle musician Lacey Brown, who drums in his band and on his recordings. She has engineered and co-produced his most recent work.
“It’s pretty simple, when you surround yourself with very talented, very supportive people who are excited about what you do, nothing beats that, man. I mean, absolutely nothing,” Jurado said.
Also in Jurado’s band is guitarist Stevan Alva, bassist Zach Alva, and keyboardist Aura Ruddell. The whole band sings backup vocals.
“There’s just something about watching a band on stage who you can tell, immediately, loves to be around each other,” Jurado said. “It changes the live show. I’ve seen bands who hate each other. They don’t even look at each other on stage. They’re doing their part, just going through the motions. I would rather watch somebody who was the time of their life, joking around, you know, you don’t hear what they’re saying but they’re laughing with each other on stage.”
A band that enjoys being around each other changes the energy of the room, Jurado said.
“I have that,” he said.
Stevan’s band St. Yuma is opening the show. His brother Zach plays bass with him, and Brown has drummed on some St. Yuma recordings in the past, Jurado said.
Jurado said he and Brown finished mixing his next record last Friday.
“Private Hospital” is the fifth and final record of what Jurado calls the “Reggae Film Star Pentalogy,” five records Jurado has written and recorded since 2020.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Jurado knew he wasn’t going to be touring for a while, so he began writing. He ended up with five records’ worth of songs, which he gave to his wife, artist Robyn O’Neil.
“I remember handing everything to my wife, and I said, ‘Break all these songs up and make them into albums for me,’” he said. “She sequences all of my records for me. I hate sequencing records. She’s really good at it. I handed her all the songs, and what she handed me in return was five albums.”
Jurado named those albums: “Reggae Film Star,” “Sometimes You Hurt The Ones You Hate,” “Motorcycle Madness,” “Passing The Giraffes” and “Private Hospital.”
“As far as sound goes, I’ll let people wait on that one,” he said. “It’s different, it’s very different.”
“Private Hospital” will come out on Jurado’s Maraqopa Records.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah. sussman@sequimgazette.com.
