Josh Kaufman - Bonny Light Horseman Interview
Born in Paterson, NJ based in New York. What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music and what was it that initially fascinated you about it?
Yep born in Jersey, but then from basically age 7-18 grew up on Long Island, NY. My dad was a rheumatologist at Stony Brook University and an avid music fan and my mom was a freelance journalist who focused a lot on human-interest stories and the arts. This meant that we were frequently sharing experiences of going to museums, concerts and theater together from a young age. I used to listen to my dad’s old LPs starting at like age 4 and 5, or so… Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, etc. I remember vividly the back cover of “Let It Be”. The images kinda scared me and at the same time I couldn’t take my eyes off ‘em. I always loved listening to music and had an early obsession with, “We are the World”, but it wasn’t til my early teens that I really fell hard for the stuff. When I was 14, in the Fall of 1992 my dad took us all to see the 30th anniversary Bob Dylan concert at Madison Square Garden. A murderer’s row of talent backed by Booker T. And The MGs with GE Smith leading the charge as music director. It blew my socks off. Particularly, Neil Young’s performance of, “Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues”. Long guitar passages between verses… that said, the entire concert was really transcendent, stacked with incredibly passionate, multi-generational artists and many of them mid career with still so much to share creatively. I thought, that looks like a great job. How do you get to there?
Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings? What would you and your friends do for growing up? When and where did you see your first concert and what kind of impact did that leave on you?
My grandfather was a painter and our house was filled with his art. A lot of it, portraits, or studies of family members and a lot of it, strange faces and still lifes. His livelihood and commitment to his work was and continues to resonate with me in a deep way. He was always wandering into his side of the apt to touch up a painting no matter the hour of day. I always find myself picking up an instrument, or running over a song in the back of my mind. Dipping out to my studio to move an idea around for a bit, lotta similarities. Yep, I have a younger brother, Adam. He’s an incredibly talented videographer and maker of short documentary pieces. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his family now, but for a long time we lived close to one another in Brooklyn, NY. My brother and I mostly hung around the neighborhood and played with the other kids. At a certain point everyone got good at sports (including my lil bro!), but it never clicked for me. By the time I was a freshman in high-school a friend had taught me guitar and I couldn’t put it down. Still can’t! He would teach me chord progressions and I’d play behind his solos/melodies. Great way to learn for me. Kinda learning on the job right away which has been my way ever since. Beyond the MSG Dylan show I mentioned earlier I went to three concerts when I was 14 that shaped a lot for me. The first was Luther “Guitar” Junior Johnson at the Stephen Talkhouse, the second was Richie Havens at IMAC (no longer) and The Black Crowes with Gutterball opening up at C.W Post College. All different, all wildly entertaining and moving. Oh! Forgot about Albert Collins, him too!
You’ve participated in a few groups prior to Bonny Light Horseman, including Higgins, Rocketship Park and Yellowbirds. Would you mind telling me about some of these groups and some of the highlights from when you played with them?
Oh man, so many bands and projects! I’ll just focus one the few you asked about. Rocketship Park and Higgins were a similar, if not identical, cast of close friends, most of which I went to highschool with on Long Island. Higgins songs are really intricate, special, unique and learning them taught me a lot. They were written by the multi-instrumentalist and singer, Kevin Fish. Rocketship Park was my attempt at kinda more of a classic songwriting project. It coincided with a lot of therapy and exploring my subconscious through songwriting. We made a couple LPs and played live occasionally. It was humbling and taught me that, at least at that moment, it wasn’t for me, but I’d like to think the music holds up. That time in my life (2005-2009) I was beginning to play a lot of side musician gigs, touring, recording/arranging and producing for other artist’s music. Prior to those bands I was mostly recording at home on 4 track cassette and then 8 track 1/4 inch with my wife, bassist and singer, Annie Nero. We had a sweet little music room in our first Brooklyn apartment. Cozy joint. Ya know, not without it’s rodent issues and bizarre-drunken neighbors, but cozy nonetheless. Higgins and RP were becoming less of a regular thing around 2008/2009 and I was introduced to the incredible artist, Sam Cohen by our mutual friend and collaborator, singer songwriter, Dawn Landes. We hit it off right away and Sam asked me and shortly after, Annie as well, to join his new band, Yellowbirds. We toured and recorded as much as we could in between everything else and then by 2014 we all started having kids and Yellowbirds played it’s final (imo free-est and grooviest) show shortly after. Really explorative and special band to be a part of. Very important time for me. Sam continues to be a friend and his work a strong and positive influence on me.
How did Bonny Light Horseman initially come to be? 2019 saw the debut release on 37d03d entitled “Green/Green”. Can you tell me about the process of writing and recording that album and what the overall vision was for that project? That following year in 2020 the band released their full length self/titled album. How did you guys want to approach this project and had the pandemic influenced the music and personal at this point?
Anäis and I used to live near each other in Brooklyn, NY and around 2017/18 became fast friends through our mutual collaborator, Ray Rizzo and found ourselves jamming together and reimagining old folk songs. Mostly English and Irish ones. We were learning open guitar tunings and came up with a cool/natural/unfussy style of picking guitar together in the context of these weird modal tunes. I mentioned what we were up to Eric D. Johnson and he seemed excited about the idea of reconnecting with folk music, which he used to teach at Old Town in Chicago. Coincidentally, the day I was checking in with EDJ, Anäis had called to let me know that she had just discovered Eric’s incredible band, Fruit Bats. It was weirdly meant to be. I had been invited by Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon to be an “artist in residence” at the Eaux Claires festival for summer 2019 and so had Anäis. We decided to combine forces and bring EDJ out to finish working up a set of music (still no band name with mostly unfinished songs, etc). After about 5 days of hanging around each other and rehearsing/writing/arranging everyday we had a stable of some trusty tunes and played our first show. On like, a giant festival stage and felt crazy and thrilling. Anäis had the idea for the name of the band after a trad song we had just arranged called, Bonny Light Horseman. Yep, we actually released both the self titled Bonny Light Horseman LP and the Green/Green seven inch in early 2020. We managed to squeeze a west coast and east coast US run in as well as a few shows in the UK before the world shutdown. From talking to fans of the music now I realize the impact staying at home and getting to know that first record had on folks. Endlessly grateful that it connected with people during that very disconnected time.
What was the writing process for this album and would giving some background to some of the songs featured on the record such as the title song, “Magpie’s Nest” and “The Roving”?
We were/are fascinated by old traditional songs and their humanistic themes of love, sex, death, longing, etc… and found that by writing new melodies and reharmonizing them that they popped in a way that felt both new again and vital. We also added lyrics and took some away as well mashed stories together and muddied the idea of a straight traditional reading to the point that it became hard at times to distinguish our hand from the ancient. “Magpie’s Nest” is a rearranged/re-written version of an old English song of the same name. “The Roving” is a reworking of “Loving Hannah” and a few other trad songs with a table spoon of John Hughes haha.
2022 saw the release of the band’s highly anticipated follow up “Rolling Golden Holy”. You’ve worked with artists such as the great Bob Weir, The War On Drugs, Hiss Golden Messenger and The National. As a musician, do you ever find yourself biting your tongue to want to add something in personally?
RGH feels like it has less trad elements floating through it and with that said it’s not without its healthy dose. But, in general, it’s more of us beginning our co-writing as a three headed monster vibes. A lot of long love and embracing new lives sewn in there. My work as a producer grew pretty organically out of my being a side musician for so many years and working with so many different artists and writers. In other words, it’s always been easier for me to communicate a musical idea using music as opposed to having a conversation about it.
What have been some of your most favorites projects/bands to work with and why? I understand Bonny Light Horseman is about to tour the UK this month! Anything else planned, or in works for 2023?
I’m hoping to release my first instrumental album under my name this year! Hopefully some new BLH music and touring. Also, excited about more collaboration with my other band, Muzz (with Paul Banks and Matt Barrick). In addition to that stuff, my production calendar is looking diverse and full which I’m really thankful for. All these different pieces feed it all for me and I tend to have a pretty big appetite when it comes to sounds and music.
