The story never gets old. The struggling artist who almost all together leaves his passion behind, to suddenly find his name next to signs of fame and fortune. For the anti-rock star Gary Jules, a hit song was never a goal or even part of his musical vision. With an eclectic sound that doesn’t exactly blend with top of the chart pop attention, and a persona of a humble and easy-going existence, perhaps this story of Gary Jules is one we can admire.
Over the past holiday season in Britain, Jules’ and childhood friend, Michael Andrews’ haunting acoustic version of the classic Tears for Fears synth-rock song, “Mad World,” reached number one on the U.K. charts. The single, which originally appeared on the 2002 Donnie Darko score album, was recorded in ninety minutes for $50 in Andrews’ basement. Jules and Andrews became only the sixth American artists in more than thirty years to hit the top of the British pops during the holiday period. Yet despite the song’s sudden success, Jules has no reasoning or motive behind the song’s popularity.
“Mike and I have done tons and tons of music together and if you believe in it, it doesn’t mean that someday it’s not going to be popular,” Jules humbly admits on the phone before a performance at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. “It just means for whatever reason, you can’t be making it just because you want it to be popular and you can’t consider it a failure if it doesn’t go to the charts or go to MTV.”
Jules reserves his reasoning for discussion of the March 2004 release of Trading Snakeoil For Wolftickets, a three years in waiting album that he holds quite fondly. After honing his craft on the Los Angeles singer-songwriter scene, he signed with A & M records and recorded his debut album, Greetings From The Side, in late 1996. Record industry shakiness delayed the album’s release for over a year, until the label dissolved under a corporate merger, leaving Jules’ signed, but also trapped within the inconvenient situation of being unable to make a new record elsewhere.
“I was more or less a victim of bad timing,” reflects Jules. “With the record industry – I never got dropped, my record never had a chance, so it ended up being a very positive thing. I did go back to school, and got a degree in British Lit, and that was probably the greatest thing that I had done in my adult life.”
Turning a positive into a negative, Jules regrouped with Andrews in March of 2001 to record the thirteen songs that would later becomeTrading Snakeoil For Wolftickets, an album that Jules endearingly refers to as his “baby.” Recorded on a twelve-track and mixed on his friend Zeke’s home stereo while living on his couch with no place else to go, Trading Snakeoil For Wolftickets was made on the now famous budget of $100. Even with the success of “Mad World,” which is included on the thirteen-song release, Jules believes the album was “successful before it got successful.” A majority of the album features a tranquil backing band, providing a more roots rock feel that gives the overall sound a diverse musical depth, aside from the atypical singer-songwriter lyrical journeys. The songs can be described as glorious epics about very unheroic people, though Jules describes the characters as “almost real people.” As an observer, watcher, and storyteller, Jules takes a shared imaginary and hands on approach to songwriting, that gives the album an immediate sense of accessibility and solidity.
Jules’ does not hesitate for crediting the album’s producer, Andrews, as a central creative and inspirational figure in both his life and in his musical vision. As a childhood friend of more than 20 years in San Diego, Jules joined Andrews’ band when he was fourteen and has steadily assumed a bonding relationship with him ever since.
“Mike today is the most talented musician I’ve ever met,” claims Jules. “I’ve never been around somebody who is more talented than Mike is at music. And that doesn’t mean Mike is a perfect person, but his talent for music is awe-inspiring.”
As part of the Los Angeles “Largo” scene that also featured Grant Lee Buffalo, Aimee Mann, Tim and Neil Finn, Rufus Wainwright, Michael Penn, and Elliot Smith; Jules honed his craft in a supportive, folky environment, shielded from the big business entertainment industry. Although he found his work to fall into the singer-songwriter realm, he was finding his own voice in that period of the early 90’s alternative movement, as he explains.
“When I was 20 or 21 was the first time I was writing my songs that were the antithesis of what was going on at the time. The least cool thing you could have been into was Cat Stevens or Paul Simon. Although, I feel much more a kinship with someone like Elliott Smith, than I do necessarily with some of the old classic singer-songwriters.”
Along the way Jules has toured endlessly in support of Trading Snakeoil For Wolftickets, while sharing the stage with other singer-songwriters: Jack Johnson, Todd Rundgren, Sheryl Crow and Jason Mraz. It was touring with Johnson, right about the time that his breakthrough album – Brushfire Fairytales – was about to burst big, that Jules was able to learn how to handle fame and the music industry with a sense of restraint and purpose. A quality that the laid back surfer-turned-musician Johnson seamlessly possessed.
” I was excited by the way he did it and took the music to the people, and didn’t worry about videos and major label distribution. He just went out and did it,” Jules recalls. “I believe you just go out, and write, and play good songs for people and that is the essence of what the music business is. And if you lose site of that, you kind of get off into never never land. And Jack was very firmly rooted in that belief.”
In light of his recent success, Jules knows success doesn’t come easily and may be an endless game of finding satisfaction and hope where you least expect it – perhaps a theme of his songs. Offering a bit of artistic guidance for those trying to find the underlying meaning behind their pursuits, he spoke honestly, “as far as advice for struggling artists, I’d say separating your art from struggle is the worst mistake you can make. If you really want to be an artist, expect to be struggling forever. You’ll struggle to get recognition and once you get recognition you’ll have to struggle to change people’s opinion when you want to do something slightly different. You have to love exactly what is your doing. You have to love the work in order to get by. If you do love it, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks, which is the greatest part.”
All struggles aside, Jules is beginning to feel a bit more comfortable with the popularity and fame that comes along with having a hit single. As for a being a one hit wonder, the death word in the music business, he realizes that he’s already been knocked down, and will survive in another fulfilling form.
“I was just joking with somebody the other day, that I’ve been a professional musician for twenty years. Nineteen years and nine months of struggle and three months of working 24 hours a day. If all this craziness goes away, then I’ll go back to a job that I was intimately content with anyways.”
For Gary Jules, who has been there and done that, it sure has been a mad, mad world. Consider him ready for the challenge.
