How does this album exactly define the word “revolution”?
The Revolution starts now in that it starts as soon as you wake up and realize that it’s been going on with or without you, and that your input is needed. I’m not a believer in violent revolution, but only because a lot of people learned that for me, that came before me. I don’t blame the shape the country’s in on them –I blame it on us. I blame it on people that think like I do that went to sleep, that became less involved. And I think the part of it that people have a hard time getting through their heads is there’s never going to be a time that we can coast. Our brand of democracy just doesn’t –and I’m not sure any brand of democracy- lends itself to that. Ours definitely doesn’t. I don’t really have a problem with conservatives –I don’t agree with them. But these guys that are in power right now aren’t conservatives, you know, they’re neocons, which aren’t conservatives. What scares me more than anything else right now is we’ve got liberals that are afraid to call themselves liberals, and conservatives who won’t say out loud that this guy isn’t a conservative and he’s running the country into the ground, because he’s not [a conservative]. These are not conservative policies. I voted for Bill Clinton twice, the only Republican that I ever voted for. And he was a lot more conservative than Bush ever thought about being, with most of the thing conservatives are normally worried about.
In the liner notes, you used the word “immediate” to describe the atmosphere surrounding the recording of the new album. Is this an album just for these times, or is it meant to reverberate beyond that?
Some of it is just for this second, but some of it is not. I think “The Revolution Starts Now” is for all times. And I think Rich Man’s War could be about any war. It’s about three wars that are going on right now.
It takes an interesting turn with that last verse.
Yeah, well the deal is the people who sit around and decide it’s time for us to go to war very rarely get shot at, and I think that’s part of the problem.
Is it harder for artists to speak out and be heard now than it was, say, during the Vietnam era?
Well, we’re just living through this weird little pocket of time we’re somebody came up with this bizarre idea that it wasn’t appropriate for artists to comment on the society that they live in. That’s a new idea.
Mark Twain said the artists are the true patriots.
That’s it. That’s what Kerry meant when he was speaking before all those artists and said, “you are the heart and soul of America.” It probably wasn’t his best way to phrase it, but that’s what he meant. We’re people, you know, and a lot of us come from pretty humble backgrounds. And I come from a moderately humble background. My dad was an air-traffic controller and a GS-13 when he retired. We were comfortable but there were five kids.
You’ve started to write poetry and prose over the last few years, as well as paint and act. Has working in these mediums had any effect on your development as songwriter?
Oh yeah, I think “Warrior” would have been completely impossible without my involvement in theater. It would never have occurred to me to write a spoken-word piece in iambic pentameter if I had not been heavily involved in theater for the last five years.
Who are you trying to reach with the new album? I think it’s pretty safe to say that the people who have bought your other albums will buy this one as well.
Yeah, they will. I’m trying to reach the people that have been quiet and aren’t O.K. with what’s going on. They know something’s wrong, but haven’t been comfortable with saying something about it. I think that’s happening and that people are starting to look for something. The reaction to this record so far has been so overwhelmingly positive. It’s very early but it’s much different than when Jerusalem came out. I had the usual squawkers [with Jerusalem]–the people I was trying to piss off, and they responded the way that they normally do.
And that was mostly just because of John Walker’s Blues.
Yeah, and with this one I even got a four-star review in the New York Post, which kind of concerns me. My one-star review for Jerusalem [in the N.Y. Post] is one of my prouder moments. It’s been much easier to get [this album] on radio so far. It’s the second day out, we’re number five at Amazon, and that’s a pretty good indicator for me. I’m an adult artist, so I sell records at Barnes & Nobles and Amazon and Borders –those are my biggest retail outlets. I think I’m hoping to reach people that are not necessarily hard-core progressives but are starting to realize they got lied to. It’s regular people that will go and die if we keep pursuing this policy we’re pursuing. And it won’t end in Iraq. It’s not designed to end in Iraq. It’s really insane. They’re talking about us never not having troops in harm’s way. That’s what they want, and it’s not their kids.
Truman said Korea was going to be a police action over the weekend.
Yeah, and we’re still there.
You’ve helped a lot of young bands and artists get their start with E-squared. I’m thinking specifically of Marah and the V-Roys. Was that a way of doing the same kind of thing Townes and Guy did for you?
Yeah, producing records and signing bands like that was a teaching process. I like to teach – I do sometimes. But I try to approach that [producing] as a teacher. And some people are more teachable than others, and sometimes it’s a better experience than others.
Any advice for aspiring young songwriters?
It’s tough nowadays. Always be willing to do the work, but always be suspicious of anything anytime anybody asks you to change the art itself, because probably the people that are asking you have never made art before. Especially if someone who has never made any art before tells you how to make art, you should definitely process that information very, very carefully.
Would this album have come out differently had you spent more time writing songs and recording in the studio, or do you like the sense of urgency it has?
It would have been different and it probably wouldn’t have been as urgent. I think it was made exactly the way it needed to be made and I’m pretty proud of it.
(American Songwriter, 2004)
Caine O'Rear 