Interview: Geoff Farina

As the front man for Karate, Geoff Farina added jazz flourishes and nimble fretwork to the often barre chord heavy world of mid-’90s indie rock, touches that earned him and the band both a rabid fanbase and a lot of furrowed brows by the tattooed gents who just want to rock. Since that band’s breakup in 2005, Farina has expanded his musical vocabulary and his exponentially growing discography by delving into the worlds of folk, Americana, blues and improvisation. His current band, Glorytellers, furthers his interest in acoustic-based sounds, creating moody, exotic and spacious songs that emphasize a lightness of touch and a wistfulness amplified beautifully by Farina’s distinctive vocals. The trio released their second album, Atone, last week. The Voice of Energy caught up with Farina at his home in Massachusetts.

MP3: “Concaves”

The music that you’re doing with Glorytellers puts the focus more on acoustic guitar. What inspired this?

It has really been over the past few years that I’ve gotten back into playing acoustic guitar. I worked my way backwards through styles of guitar playing in a lot of ways. As a kid, I was really interested in Jimi Hendrix and through him I found Buddy Guy and then older acoustic blues; just going backwards. So lately a lot of the music I’ve been interested in has been acoustic-based. Really the first guitar I ever played was an acoustic guitar so it is something I was interested in. But with it seemed with the music I was writing and this band that it was a good opportunity to explore acoustic playing again.

The acoustic adds a lot to the nostalgic feeling of the album, particularly a song like “The Coldest War”. Were you aiming for that kind of mood for Atone?

With this record, I was trying to make the songs more narrative and really thinking a lot about stories or a focused idea. In the past, a lot of my songs have been really abstract so I thought it was a good time to be a little more narrative and literal. “Coldest War”, though, is very much a song about Boston. I spent a lot of time thinking about winters in Boston and that was the mood that I really tried to set with that song. Lyrically, the story is about a hybrid of people that I knew.

Does a lot of the stories that you were writing for this album coming from your own life or from fictional scenarios?

A little of both. A lot of it definitely comes from my own experience. The overall picture comes from my own live and things that have happened to me and people that I’m close to. I wouldn’t say it’s autobiographical, but there are some exceptions. There’s a song called “Awake At The Wheel” [from the band's 2008 self-titled album] which is about going on tour with Karate for a month a time and spending so much time on the road. But even then, it’s my own experiences mixed in with different stories and ideas. I’m not really interested in telling my story or something like that.

But does it have to come from something that actually happened to you or someone you know rather than something completely fictional?

I think so. There’s the Bob Dylan quote that you never write a song about something that’s not true. When I use an image or try to paint a picture, I try to have a place in my mind. Everything in those songs is some place that I’ve been or the mood of a place that I try to get across.

Does trying to capture that mood extend to the recording process?

I think so. The acoustic guitar is a really intimate instrument. The volume has to be very low so it can have that sound, like you are sitting in the room with it. The drums and vocals have to be in that same sonic environment. In that regard, the live shows have been very tricky, playing in rock clubs where it isn’t easy to simply play without amplification. But that’s the music that really inspired me over the years, blues and jazz as well. You’re standing right in front of it and hearing those instruments as they are sonically. Nothing has been amplified or made into anything else. I think it’s much harder to make music that way.

You work in some many different styles of music and guitar playing – do you actively seek out these opportunities to play within different genres or do they find you?

I’ve always considering myself simply a guitar player. Most really good musicians are very eclectic. You can’t pretend to be an advocate of one style without learning another style or coming into contact with it. My interest in jazz is coming from my love of acoustic blues, people like Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James. I’m always interested in learning different styles. And if I’m interested in some sort of element or a style that I want to experiment with, I’ll try to write a song using it. The first Glorytellers record has a lot of pretty harmonies that you wouldn’t find anywhere except in be bop. The harmony comes from a totally different place.

I’ve studied with a lot of different really accomplished musicians. I’ve studied with Tony Watt who is a bluegrass improviser. And when I come into contact with a musician that I love, I try to play with them or study with them. For example, I met Roswell Rudd who worked for many years with jazz pioneer Herbie Nichols. We played some Nichols tunes together and it was interesting to get his take on how those songs work.

Another funny point I was just thinking of is that for many years, I really wanted to be a jazz musician and I played a guitar that sounded like a jazz guitar. But my best efforts completely thwarted by rock music. It was only when I gave that up and started played my Fender Telecaster that I started playing with interesting improvisation musicians. So the records that I made with Nathan McBride, I played this really loud rock guitar.

Speaking of that, you have done some recordings with an improv jazz group called Still Life With Commercials. What can you tell me about that?

That’s a really strange project. The bass player [Massimo Pupillo] put the whole thing together. I went to Italy and we ended up playing a bunch of shows and recorded that record. There’s a lot to that record that I didn’t have anything to do with, not like other ones I’ve done. I really, really love being sort of a little bit in the background. A lot of the projects that I’ve done are songs that I wrote and a lot of the focus is on how people perceive me. Projects like this are fun. I can really react and I’m put in a challenging situation and can draw on things don’t get to draw on in my own music.

I’ve noticed you have been playing a lot more in Europe over the last few years. Is that a personal preference or is that simply because that’s where the opportunities are?

Now it’s a little of both. Recently, I’ve had better opportunities over there than I’ve had here. Before I’d play anywhere people want to listen and I’ll follow where there’s interest. Things are different now. There has been more interest there in the last few years. And it’s a lot different environment.  Music over there is less of an entertainment, more of a cerebral thing. Music fans are almost like hobbyists. They’re not going to same indie rock club every Friday night. It’s not like that in the entirety of America. I love playing here too and I really enjoy it when we can go on tour here. But since Karate broke up, there’s not been a lot of interest in this band. It doesn’t fit in with what’s popular but that’s fine.

Are there places in Europe that you really like playing more than others?

Italy definitely because I have family there and I speak some Italian and my wife’s Italian. I’ve always felt really comfortable. And the fans are really vocal. They’ll make a lot of feedback. You play a show and leave with five phone numbers. They’re not afraid to come up and talk to you. Belgium and Germany, I’ve have had some great shows. Met a lot of great people there. I’m going to England soon for some solo shows. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens there.

As a guitar player, were you particularly affected by the death of Les Paul?

I was just talking to some friends about that. The great thing about him is that he played every week in New York up until recently. And he’s an inspiration because he wasn’t just a guitar player. He was really one of the first DIY punk rockers in my book. He revolutionized recording and invented guitars and multi-track tape recording and came up with creative solutions to whatever problems came up in the studio.

What do you make of the popularity of games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band?

All I know is that I’m really bad at it. I’m better at the drums. I don’t think it has that much with playing guitar really. If the guitar now is incredibly popular, that’s not new. Guitar was also popular during the ’20s when it was the cheap, mail order instrument. And in Victorian times, guitar was hugely popular. It has always been a very accessible instrument that everyone can own for not much money. Still, it’s a great thing to have so many people interested in it.