From out of the wilderness

On Oct. 21, two old friends are teaming up for a couple of unusually intimate performances in Ventura. When they first met, John Doe was fronting seminal Southern California punk band X and Julie Christensen was Leonard Cohen’s backing vocalist of choice. Twenty years down the road, they are both brandishing sublime new albums — Doe with A Year in the Wilderness while Christensen has Where the Fireworks Are — and the two Ventura County residents are heading into town for shows at Buffalo Records and Zoey’s Café. For Doe, who has only previously played Ventura with his bands X and the Knitters, this is a rare opportunity to get intimate and personal.

VCR: You’re a local of sorts — you live up there in the mountains on the outskirts of the county. What’s the attraction of rural Ventura as opposed to somewhere more musically central such as Los Angeles?

JD: I have put in my time in Los Angeles. I was there for 13 or 14 years. The city is alluring at one point, but then it just becomes oppressive. So if you are living somewhere and it’s no longer inspiring, you should try someplace else where you are inspired. That’s how I feel about this place. I don’t need to be in the city anymore, and I could afford to buy something out here, and it has given me peace of mind.

You have a couple of Ventura shows coming up that, while they might not be secret, they do seem to be flying under the usual promotional radar.

These shows are part of our do-it-yourself network. Julie Christensen and I are old friends, and she is releasing a new CD and thought of doing an in-store appearance and a show at Zoey’s and called me. I just put out a record in June and, apart from a couple of times with X and the Knitters, don’t usually play Ventura. So this was an opportunity to come to town and have some fun and see my friend Julie for more than just an afternoon.

You’re previous visits have had you at the Ventura Theater, but this time you’re playing Zoey’s. How do the dynamics differ between venues as extreme as those?

It’s much easier in the smaller places. You just have to remind yourself that, regardless of the size, you are communicating with people and you just try to stay calm. That’s the most important thing. In every situation — and this isn’t being Zen or anything — as long as you stay calm and focus upon what you are doing you will be getting across to somebody and you’ll be fine.

Your music gets channeled through some very different outlets — X, the Knitters and your solo undertakings — are each of these avenues fueled by a different inspiration?

It’s hard to say. I’m just glad that I’m able and interested enough to keep writing and still able to find something that is inspiring enough to write about. I think it does come from the same place, and you just shift the focus. Whether it’s more personal or less personal or louder or quieter, it all comes from some form of creativity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a journal entry or textbook, they are both creative things and you just channel it whichever way it needs to go.

You have a new solo album, A Year in the Wilderness. Have you often found yourself lost within a wilderness?

People are always trying to find their way. And they’re always trying to find a way back to something or even into some new. It’s all some kind of wilderness, whether it’s real or not. And living out in the country certainly adds to those feelings. So the title comes from both the actual and metaphorical wilderness.

Your recent solo releases have featured some amazing collaborations. Do you have specific vocalists in mind when writing or do you try and match the song with someone after the fact?

It is more matching songs to people. Maybe there are people who can have that in the conscious part of their mind when writing but, for most of the people I know, you have to focus all your attention on what you want to say and where you want the melody to go, so you’re too busy to worry about anything else. You’re busy in trying to make sure that the song doesn’t suck.

The contributions have evolved as well. Originally your guests were contributing vocals on the chorus, but recently there have been some gorgeous duets.

I knew the in first collaborations I did with Julian Hatfield, Aimee Mann and Rhett Miller that I didn’t feature these guest vocalist enough. On this one, I really wanted to give Kathleen Edwards something to really hold on to so we therefore had that duet with “Golden State.” And it was the same thing previously with Neko Case and “Highway Five.” I wanted to give them a real reason to be there.

You have certainly worked with an impressive array of artists.

You know, that’s one of the pleasures of having done something that people liked, whether it is now with these current albums or years ago and the stuff I did with X. I can call up people like Neko and Kathleen and ask them if they want to sing on a record and they won’t say, “Who the hell is this?”

Speaking of X and reputation, you guys still inspire the telling of quite a few tales. Does your history come back and bite you very often?

Not really, but it is always a little frightening when someone comes up and recounts how we hung [out] 20 years ago and I start thinking, “Oh my God. What did I say? What did I do? Do I owe you money?” That’s a little frightening, but it hasn’t been too bad. There hasn’t been anyone who has said that I kicked the crap out of them 20 years ago and now they’re finally going to sue me.

Hopefully they would still be too intimidated to come back.

[Laughs.] But anytime you get into a fist fight you are always the loser. Both sides lose every time!

I believe you were invloved in the new Dylan movie.

Yeah, I sang one of the songs in that. I was the voice of Christian Bale — I was his singing voice and sang one of the religious songs.

And what about acting? Have you undertaken much in that vein of late?

I have pretty much been doing this record all summer. There are a couple of independent films that are still being edited, but nothing big. But if there are any of those great film producers out there in Ojai reading the Reporter who need a handsome, talented, mature leading man …

But my girlfriend would kill me if I took on anymore work right now!

[Laughs.] Oh, yeah … of course, for you, too! I guess we could do one of those buddy cop movies together. I will be the hardboiled cop from L.A. and you will be the guy on loan from Scotland Yard.

But I’m Australian.

Ah, well, maybe not.