INTERVIEW: Janet Gardner, Justin James want no more strings attached
Photo: Janet Gardner and Justin James’ new album is called No Strings. Photo courtesy of the artists / Provided by RSN Entertainment with permission.
When Janet Gardner and Justin James became a duo — both privately and professionally — they seemed to lean into the no-strings-attached lifestyle. They decided to make music for themselves, on their own terms, and although they fondly remember their musical legacies (Gardner as the vocalist of Vixen and James as a guitarist for everyone from Staind to Collective Soul), they were determined to change things up and make music their own way.
Their latest recording effort is appropriately called No Strings, and it’s now available from Pavement Entertainment. The album features such songs as “I’m Livin’ Free,” “Drink” and “She Floats Away.” It’s a follow up to their album from two years ago, Synergy.
Recently Gardner and James jumped on the phone with Hollywood Soapbox to talk about their creative process and the new recording. Here’s what they had to say …
On how long they have been working on No Strings …
JAMES: “I think when we were waiting for Synergy to come out, we had already started working on the first couple songs for this album.”
GARDNER: “We’ll work on a couple songs, and then life gets in the way. We’re doing a million other things, and then we’ll do a couple more songs. Yeah, over the course of a couple years we did that.”
On the inspiration behind the album opener, “I’m Livin’ Free” …
JAMES: “That one took a little bit more time than the other songs on the album. It initially started with that main riff idea, and then originally I had come up with a different verse for it. And we lived with it for a little while, and then Janet started getting vocal ideas in her head and said, ‘That really doesn’t work.’ So we sat down and worked a different arrangement for the verse, and once that happened, all bets were off. That song took off after that.”
On the inspiration behind the new song “She Floats Away” …
GARDNER: “That was one we didn’t know what people would think of it. It was a wild card, but we like it. … It’s different for us, but lyrically it’s really close to our heart because it’s about our daughter. She is definitely making hair go gray early, so it means a lot to use.”
JAMES: “It was an interesting song. I wanted a rootsy, big, open, acoustic-type song, and Janet came up with the lyrics for it and the vocal melody. And when she laid that over that, it was just magic.”
On what it’s like to record together …
GARDNER: “When considering it’s in our basement, it’s pretty natural. We just kind of walk down our stairs in our bathrobe and slippers or sweatpants or whatever, and we’ll spend hours. The time absolutely flies by. We’ll be down there, and I’ll say, ‘Well, we’ve been down here about half an hour,’ and it’s been five hours. It’s crazy how the studio is a weird time bubble.”
JAMES: “You get immersed into it. … [When] we first started doing this, we were nervous and maybe a little tense when we would sit down together and write together. We never wanted the music or anything to come between us or cause any weird problems, and then we quickly learned that it did the opposite. It brought us closer to each other, and we had fun doing it. When we did this album, it was great. We would go into our studio and just block out the rest of the world, and we would just laugh and have fun with each other. Very rarely did it ever become stressful or agitated — maybe at 2 in the morning when we were tired and ready for sleep, — but for the most part, it was a great time.”
GARDNER: “We have a good tag-team thing going. Justin will be over there at the console doing most of the work, and then he’ll go, ‘OK, your turn.’ Then I’ll go sit down, and I’ll do some stuff. Then I’ll be like, ‘OK, your turn. You do this part. I don’t like doing this part.’
JAMES: “It’s like the tag-team wrestling match. If one of us is tired, we tag the other one and force them to jump in and do some work.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Janet Gardner and Justin James’ new album is called No Strings, and it’s now available from Pavement Entertainment. Click here for more information.
