Sean Rowe - A "natural" charisma

It was a long wait that led Sean Rowe to the release of "Magic", which, just a few months after its self-released debut, caught the attention of Anti, the storied American label. A wait that paid off, because it had been a long time since we'd seen a release with the kind of personality Rowe shows, not only as a singer-songwriter, but also as a musician and vocalist.

We asked him to explain what lies behind the unusual career of this American singer-songwriter, unusual at least by today's standards, and his interview confirms the spontaneity of his warmth and the liveliness of his outlook.

Music has been a long-standing family tradition for me. It wouldn't be a lie to say that most of it came from my Italian side! My grandmother Carmela was born and raised in Sicily and brought all her culture with her when she married my grandfather Anthony in the United States. You could say I was immersed in food culture and music from as soon as I was old enough to eat and listen. Uncle Tony would give me a harmonica pretty much every time I came to visit. Of course, he didn't know it at the time, but I usually sold them for candy on the way home. Candy was the only thing that could compete with music when I was eight years old, anyway. Later he bought me my first acoustic guitar, when I was thirteen. The first song I learned to play was "The House Of The Rising Sun".

I then joined several bands, or rather several incarnations of the same band, during high school. From then until now it's a haze of smoky bars, lonely cafés, the occasional salsa music shop or potato chip factory, as well as various rock clubs in and around New York. I had a lot of debts to pay off. I've met the devil twice. I've been performing for quite a while now. It's like I've been living in the woods for a pretty long time... You start seeing strange things, like trees falling for no reason around you. I've had a number of different experiences on stage over the years.

Between "27" and "Magic!" there's a whole world in which my songwriting, my performing and my voice took a different direction. To be honest, I think my early stuff wasn't that great, but it was a milestone for me. I appreciate it for that.

To get to the title of this debut: what "magic" are you talking about?

I was thinking about the feeling we all get in certain random moments when you can look out through the windows of your eyes and suddenly catch a glimpse of what the world really is. Most of the time everything seems like indecipherable confusion, but those hidden moments are... Magic.

Your style, oblique yet vivid, has drawn quite a bit of praise. Are you an impulsive songwriter, or do you take the time to go back over your songs and refine them?

I do both. Being impulsive is good and sometimes it gives you the best, most "true" cut; other times it needs to be polished for maximum impact. And other times still you have to play around with it a bit to get it to fit properly.

It took you a whole year to record "Magic", mostly it seems because of "scheduling" issues. Did you also "tinker" with different versions of the songs?

Yes. "Jonathan" had about nine different versions and I still feel like it could use a better one.

How do you play these songs live? As a solo artist or with a band?

I'm playing solo at the moment, but I have ambitions to bring the right guys on board once I've released the next record. I've got some elements in mind that weave into the sound, I just need to find them attached to actual human beings.

Troy Pohl, who produced the record, was “instrumental” in both the literal and figurative sense in creating the atmosphere of “Magic”. I love the idea of suggesting more with fewer instruments, if you follow me. I like to use sounds to simulate conventional instruments and to use the actual “space” of the room, the sound of a creaking chair and pigeons chattering in the background. That's really all there is to it.

Your music definitely has the touch of the “classic” American singer-songwriter. The whole folk and blues tradition comes through in every plucked string. Is there one figure in particular in American music history that you hold as a reference point?

It's a long list, but if I had to pick a few: Bob Dylan, Tom Waits,

Leonard Cohen, John Lee Hooker,  Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson...

You've praised the Internet a lot, since it gave you the chance to get discovered and so on. Do you ever feel that, in past eras, it would have been easier for you?

Yes and no. In a way it's harder to get noticed now, in a sea of overloaded information that gets thrown into the collective virtual world on a daily basis, but in other ways it's easier now to get opportunities to perform, promote your music, etc.

I don't really know for sure, though. I try to keep technology in perspective so I don't let it take too much hold over my soul.

A lot of music is being made and released these days. That naturally means a wealth of opportunities for emerging artists, which we, as listeners, should be grateful for. At the same time, don't you think we're missing a truly charismatic figure on today's singer-songwriter scene, like we had decades ago?

Yes, that does seem to be the other side of the coin. I think most mainstream music is repetitive, insincere, and only concerned with money. If nothing else, that makes the special things even more special.

“While every body's thinking themselves to death, I just use my hands”: I read that this is your favorite lyric on the album. If I may, I'd add that it could serve as the motto of “Magic”. Several thoughts come to mind with these words, but let me ask: do you ever think of your musical work as a kind of manual labor?

It can be laborious at times, even though it's definitely a mental exercise too, no doubt about it. My idea is not just to create space within the music but also... to leave huge gaps in the words themselves, so that they open the door to many choices, images, or possibilities. I strive to create them, at least. Whether I succeed or not, I think depends on everyone but me.

Your relationship with nature is clearly not just for show, since you love spending long stretches of time in the wild with basic gear. You even teach people how to survive in the woods, what kind of food to expect to find in those areas... Do you consider all this a “normal” activity that you simply take part in from time to time, or do you see it more as a way of distancing yourself from normality, from the world? Do you wander through places you already know, or do you actually explore new environments?

In a not-so-distant past, living in the wild was a reality, not an eccentricity. People lived in much closer contact with the Earth's natural rhythms. Time was marked by landmarks in the landscape, like the stars, the sun, and the surrounding morphological changes. People were pragmatic. They lived by the laws of the land. They hunted, gathered, some of them wandered. They gave back to the earth by recycling their possessions, including their own bodies. Awareness of the process of life and death, and the cycle of renewal, was still fully intact, as is evident from history and mythology. This was true of people all over the globe, before civilized, centralized societies began to emerge.

My culture has, on a collective level, lost this connection with the earth. It's my belief that if we don't restore this connection, humanity won't survive. If, through some kind of scientific trickery, we manage to create a synthetic planet where clean water, nourishing food, adequate shelter, and the love of a community are no longer necessary... then I don't think it would be worth living in a world like that.

For a few thousand years now, the Western way of life has meant the complete subjugation of nature and the declared goal of conquering the Earth, the mind and space. Science, Money and Corporate Interests are our gods. So the choice to hunt and gather my own food, practice outdoor survival skills and cultivate an approach to nature rooted in love and understanding is my way of reclaiming a sense of the sacred. On top of that, there's endless fun and satisfaction to be had.

I really appreciate the fact that in your lyrics you don't dwell on love for nature and that kind of primitivist, communal thinking that crowds the songs of so many new contemporary artists. You let all of it filter through your music instead. Even so, how much does the wild matter in shaping your music?

The energy behind the songs is the wild. My voice comes from wild places. Nothing I write would be the same without them.

You toured Europe in 2009 with Noah And The Whale. Right now you're deep into a long tour across the United States and Canada. What are the plans for Europe? Don't forget about Italy.

Absolutely. I'll be playing Glastonbury this year, so we're trying to line up some European dates around that time. I'd love to visit my motherland, Italy! I hope we'll see each other there.

What do you wish for your career, at this point?

A chat around the campfire and a beer with Tom Waits!

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