Encore:
David Byrne: Trampoline was, to a lot of people, a big change in direction. A re-invention. Was that strange for a lot of people who thought of you one way? Joe Henry: I guess it was. I didn't think of that while I was doing it. Every time you make a record you're trying to re-think what you're doing somehow and I had just gotten bored with the colors on my palette, and I just assumed that everyone does, and everyone expects that you're looking for something else to do. When I grew up, everybody I listened to, their records were always different. I thought that was your job. I didn't realize that people would notice, to the degree they did, until it was out. David Byrne: I thought it had a lot more mood. Joe Henry: Well, I thought it did, too.And the new one goes even further in that direction. David Byrne: The earlier stuff, seems to me,to be written from the words down. And these seem like you work on a musical idea or a loop. Joe Henry: That's exactly right. When I started making Trampoline, I was determined to learn a new way to work. Usually because I didn't have enough money and I didn't know how to work any other way. Just live in the studio. Get a band, circle the wagons, and then just kind of have at it. And it's more like making a documentary film, you get what you get, problems and all. More like live theater. That's what it is. And I wanted to think more like a filmmaker, I wanted to be able to manipulate things more. And work on it in bits and pieces and I started by setting up a little studio at home and exactly that. I came up with a drum loop first, and thought, "Jeez, I've never written, here's a rhythm, I've never operated under this umbrella. Let's do this one." And then make myself write to that. And, I just learned to work backwards. I think it's good to be disoriented to a certain degree. David Byrne: "The Ohio Air Show Plane Crash" Sounds like it was written from something that happened. Joe Henry: No. First of all, I just thought that it was a really funny title. I walked around with that for months. And, I think the idea was just the beginning. The song starts just before the crash and I was trying to think, "You know, what happens before this crash?" I was just trying to place a really small story about two people and using this tragedy as a backdrop. Thinking it was funny to set up this big thing and then not really refer to it. The real story is a smaller thing that's happening in front of it. David Byrne: And that's using something really specific. Using something that somebody can picture in their mind. An air show and a crash, you read about 'em. Joe Henry: Everybody thought that. I can't tell you how many people, when I did an interview, asked me if I had, since the last record, survived or witnessed a terrible crash. David Byrne: (laughs) Yes. Joe Henry: And I'm always startled that people don't assume that if you're a songwriter that you're probably a fiction writer. David Byrne: Yeah, but you're picking out specific and concrete things and then mixing those in with more abstract and ambiguous things. Joe Henry: Yeah. And don't you find if you're writing and you say "I", people think you're talking about you? David Byrne: Yes. Joe Henry: And I guess I should know that by now, but I'm always surprised that people really think that these are just pages of your diary set to music. David Byrne: And sometimes, of course, I think, "Well, I should have gotten another singer to do that." Joe Henry: Yeah. Yeah. David Byrne: Because it's not supposed to be from my point of view.
