JB- That must make it difficult to be successful as an artist if you don't sound like what we hear on the radio.

Joel-  This is the eternal conundrum of every artist who is trying to make a living and still do something that's not compromised artistically.  I love the idea of sneaking a great song onto the radio, that's sort of my dream.  Every once in a while you do hear something like that.  Like U2 is a fantastic band and they get lots of radio play.

JB-  Where do the ideas come from for your songs?  Are they personal experiences?

Joel-  Yeah, I tend to write in a very personal way.  That's what moves me.  I don't write a lot of topical sort of songs, I don't know why exactly, maybe because I tend to write about things that are closer to me.  Everything can be inspiring - anything and everything.  I look everywhere.  I try to write every day and so I don't really write just from inspiration.  "I'm gonna write for an hour now", sort of thing.  I try to actually make it a craft.  Every once in a while the inspiration just takes over and you go and it's done. 

JB-  What's one idea that you had that you thought would be great but it just didn't work?

Joel-  Oh, I've had hundreds.  It happens all the time.  That's the thing that every writer is scared of - a false start.  In general, almost every song I start is a false start because you try to make something and it either turns into something else or you just cut it off and quit and start something else.  Anything can be a bad idea really.  But you kind of can't think that way when you're writing.  You can't think, "Oh, this might be a bad idea," you have to be like totally into it.  It's so hard to write anyway.  It's so hard to come up with something out of nothing.  It's magic really.

JB- Oh I know about that…

Joel-  Yeah, you know all about it.  Anybody who writes knows all about - you're sitting down and you're literally making something out of nothing.  It's a kind of magic.

JB-  You're in the process of working on a new album.

Joel-  Yup, that's right. 

JB-  How much work is that?  What step are you at now?

Joel-  Well there's a lot of hidden weird things, you know, work that goes into something like that isn't just working on the album itself.  Right now we're looking for a producer, or basically choosing one.  We've got interest from a number of people but we're trying to figure that whole thing out.  They are people from all over the world so we're trying to figure out where we're going to record it and get the logistics together and "Where are the musicians that we want to use?" and all that.  So that's a lot of work - dealing with everybody's schedules.  And then the writing of the album, that's not a problem for me, I'm writing all the time so I've got a lot of material.  But I am also signed to a record label and I've got to work with them for what's going to be on the album and all that kind of stuff.  Yeah, it is a lot of work.  And then I'm flying to Montreal hopefully in a couple of weeks…to write there…and then I'm going to fly to New York to meet with a producer down there.  And then eventually going down to L.A. to meet with another guy.  That takes a lot of time too, you know, flying all over the place.

JB-  What sort of sound can we expect to hear on the new album?

Joel-  Well I've got a lot of ideas and I'm not sure if they are all going to make it onto the album.  Basically it's somewhere along the lines of my last album, "Melodrama", in terms of instrumentation and all the kind of stuff.  But I think there's going to be a lot more strings on this one.  I've really fallen in love with different kinds of cello sounds and I really like Fiona Apple's new album.  And that is sort of a heavily orchestrated thing.  I really like that so I might go in that direction.  You know, sometimes in the studio things just absolutely change all over the place so you never can predict really where it's going to go.

JB-  And you're music's been described as "evocative", "atmospheric", "eclectic powerful sound", "rootsy", "a poised pop-folk gem", "bittersweet", "melancholy"… should I go on?

Joel-  (laughing)

JB-  Where do these feelings come from?  A lot of it, you said, is personal feelings.  Why that kind of tone to your music?

Joel-  In terms of the personal aspect of it?

JB-  Well these words… I mean, I see a theme in these words.  There's a common thread to some of those.

Joel-  There's no telling really where that stuff comes from.  Because a life is a very complicated thing.  But there's sort of a manic quality to it, in some degree, because I guess most of my stuff… I haven't really been around long enough to have a template-type way of working.  But what happens for me is I'm looking for hope in darkness.  And that's basically what I do.  That's what I think I do best, actually.  So that's the theme that happens in almost everything that I write, whether it's music or visual art even, whatever I do, that tends to be what I do.  When people say things like that (to describe the music), I think it's probably relating to that aspect.  I'm looking for that, sort of, divine moment where something happens in the darkness.

JB-  So these words that people have used to describe it, is that bang on to the feelings you were trying to emote through the music?

Joel-  I don't really think that far ahead, really.  I focus more on one word at a time, one line at a time.  So I'm not really thinking about that.  When I hear people say that, I'm glad they're listening to it.  (laughing)  Hey, if it's moving to people, that's right on track for me.  I love that idea, that people are actually moved.  I mean, what better for an artist than to have what they make moving people?  It's wonderful.

JB-  So what do you start with?  Would you start with a lyric first or a melody or where do you begin?

Joel-  These days I write a lot of words.  I generate words that are meaningful to me and put them in some sort of order that make sense to me.  I never thought I would say this, but I'm actually reading poetry these days too.  So that's kind of inspired me.  But I also write for film and that's mostly stuff without lyrics so I tend to have two different streams that are always going, which is just creating sound that will hopefully be in a film somewhere.  And then I write poetry and then eventually will put these things together and maybe make songs, sort of, for me to sing.  So I'm always generating from every different side - trying to get the lyrics happening, trying to get the music happening and every once in a while I'll write them together.  But that doesn't happen very often.