Jesse Harris
SECRET'S OUT Jesse Harris, the Songwriter Behind Norah Jones's Hit, Makes a Stunning Debut
Like most "overnight success" stories, the tale of Jesse Harris stretches back many years. Long before he walked away with a Grammy for writing Norah Jones's smash "Don't Know Why," Harris was steering his band, the Ferdinandos, through New York's underground pop scene with quiet aplomb. He played with a handful of similarly situated singers, including Ms. Jones, who came to be one of his more frequent stage partners -- and who ultimately enlisted him as a guitarist and songwriter for her debut, Come Away with Me, one of the more surprising left-field hits in recent memory. But rather than forge on as a songwriter-for-hire, Harris has opted to focus his energies on the Ferdinandos, who break through into the major-label ranks with The Secret Sun. Harris spilled a few of those secrets for Barnes & Noble.com's David Sprague.
Barnes & Noble.com: Did you approach this record any differently than the ones you'd done independently?
Jesse Harris: Well, we recorded this album before we signed, but my intention was to find a label to help me finish it. But if that didn't happen, I was prepared to put it out myself. We did do some things differently. In the past, we recorded just about everything at Tony Scherr's apartment, and for this one, we went to a recording studio. Musically, there was no difference. We still recorded the performances live in the studio. I don't think it sounds slick, but people have told me it sounds really clean. Still, compared to a lot of records, it's really raw sounding.
B&N.com: Did "Don't Know Why" strike you as a special sort of song right from the beginning?
JH: Actually, when I finished writing that song, I thought it would be a good song for a female singer who played piano. And I knew Norah at the time, but I wasn't thinking specifically of her. I think maybe I came to that conclusion because I used to be in a group called Once Blue that had a female singer, so I was used to writing songs for someone else to sing. When that group broke up, I gave up that kind of thinking, but when I wrote "Don't Know Why," I thought, Okay, this would be good for "her," whoever she was.
B&N.com: The Secret Sun seems a bit darker than the stuff you've done before. How do you account for that, and how did you decide to use that song's title as the album title?
JH: This album is more tilted toward ballads, though I don't know why it ended up that way. Each of our albums has a different feeling to it. The song became the title track because I usually try to pick a song that embodies themes reflected in at least some of the other songs. I wrote all the songs in a certain period, early 2002, and a lot of the things that connect the songs are probably subconscious.
B&N.com: How would you describe those connections?
JH: There's a lot of imagery of loss or something, connected with the setting of the sea, the ocean, the beach. I think it's a compelling place for me. If you've ever seen any of Fellini's movies, they all have a significant scene on the beach. It seems like when he wants something important to happen, the characters go to the ocean. I always liked that.
B&N.com: How did you choose to cover the traditional "Roberta"?
JH: When we do gigs, we tend to do a lot of cover songs, and I found that one on a Furry Lewis album, and I always loved it. We started doing it live and it became sort of a signature tune. When we get into a cover song, it becomes part of the repertoire as if it were an original.
B&N.com: Did you hesitate at all in having Norah sing on the record?
JH: Not at all. She's friends with everyone in the Ferdinandos, and it was really natural and good to have her there. Norah was on our album Crooked Lines, singing and playing piano, and I thought it'd be great to have her be a part of this. That song, "What Makes You," was a song we used to do in her group, and I really loved that version. But I knew because I had the lead vocal and she was the harmony, she couldn't do it on one of her albums.
B&N.com: Have you been doing any other collaborations lately?
JH: Last year, because of the success of Norah's album, I started getting a lot of offers, and since I didn't have my own deal yet, I figured I should follow this road for a while to see how it goes, as long as I don't let it take the place of the group. That's always been my rule -- that I'd do things as long as they didn't take energy away from the Ferdinandos.
B&N.com: So what have you done with your Grammy trophy?
JH: Actually, I don't have the damn thing yet. It's taking forever! [laughs] I guess I'll put it on my shelf, which is what they tell you to do. They send you this letter that you have to sign. It says, "I will not use the Grammy in photos, I won't sell it…" There's all this stuff you can't do, but they say you can display it in your home or office, so that's what's gonna happen.
May 16, 2003
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