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Pop Bonus Track - Pokey LaFarge · Pop of Culture

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  Pokey Lafarge blends early jazz, blues, country and swing into a vibrant,
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  distinctly American sound that feels both old timey and fresh.
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  And he is returning to the Muncie Three Trails Music series on July 25th,
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  but we are thrilled to be able to chat with him first.
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  Thank you so much for joining me, Pokey.
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  Appreciate it.
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  Good to be here. Good afternoon everybody.
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  You've become something of a Muncie Three Trails favorite.
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  What do you remember about performing here and what keeps
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  you coming back to communities like ours?
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  Well, I guess I wouldn't be able to come back if they didn't want me back.
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  So I have to give credit where credit is due there.
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  And I guess going in reverse,
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  you know, I often jump at the chance to play in the Midwest.
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  It's it's where I'm from.
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  And get closer to home is always good.
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  You know, my people are just over in Illinois.
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  Yeah. And then.
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  Oh, what do I re- I remember about it.
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  It's really, really hot.
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  By really hot, I mean, really humid.
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  Yes.
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  But then it kind of kind of cools off at nighttime, you know, depending on the day.
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  And I remember there's a lot of people there, and it's outdoors, of course.
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  And so people are usually in a pretty good mood, you know, and nice surroundings.
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  I know you always call out the trains.
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  There's always trains that seem to go by when you're playing here.
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  And it works out really well.
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  Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  You mentioned you are a midwestern guy.
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  What was it about blues and roots music
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  that captured your attention as a teenager in the Midwest?
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  Well,
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  maybe the two things
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  in the foremost part of my mind right now would be
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  I knew
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  what was informing the music that I was listening to
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  at the time, which was a lot of sort of classic rock.
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  That was my springboard into the older music.
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  Yeah.
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  So 60s and 70s music, I guess, you know,
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  CCR and Doobie Brothers
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  and Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead and all those kinds of guys.
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  Yeah.
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  And they would cover a lot of those old cats too.
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  So, you know, that's what got me.
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  I was able to discover a lot of the musicians just before them,
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  the Chicago blues stuff, the New Orleans soul and Memphis sort of soul
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  and R&B stuff because those guys were covering them, you know.
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  And at the same time,
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  it was completely different than what everybody was listening to
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  at the time, which was like grunge and
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  gangster rap and emo and a bunch of sort of
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  top stuff, top 40 stuff, which I had absolutely no interest in.
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  So I found that wherever
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  there's a large collective of people going, I'm almost in every situation going
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  to at least make strong consideration in going the other way.
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  (Laughs) So that leads me to the new album, which is dropping in September.
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  You've been making music for more than two decades.
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  What is different about your approach
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  on this new album that's coming out?
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  Yeah, it's a good question. I
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  would say that
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  I want it to be even more simple, even more minimalist.
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  Just start with just me, my voice and guitar, bass and drums.
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  And then the only thing that would be added
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  on top of those things would be absolutely necessary.
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  So yeah, I mean, I guess in a way, getting back to my roots of the stuff
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  that I really grew up with,
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  but I would say I take that sort of country and bluegrass and hillbilly world
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  to a certain extent into everything that I do, because that's where I got started.
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  That's sort of the first language that I spoke, you know,
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  and I'm realizing more and more of the things that you learn as a kid,
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  you learn them so naturally, so intuitively that you just kind of,
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  I don't know, you sort of
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  master it in a way that you can you can't learn when you get older.
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  Like, I'm not going to go learn how to surf at 42, almost 43 years old.
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  But if I learned when I was ten, my body could handle it.
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  And it's kind of the same thing with like learning a language.
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  They say if you learn a language before the age of 16,
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  you would speak it without an accent from your mother tongue.
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  So I kind of feel like the things that I learned as a kid,
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  I just kind of can do more effortlessly.
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  Yeah. Because.
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  Yeah, it's become a part of your DNA right?
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  After all of this time. It's who you are.
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  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly.
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  So I feel like no matter what kind of musical styles I go and touch,
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  the sort of essence of my voice is always going to be the same.
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  The title track, Rent Money, talks about a time
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  when working hard is no longer enough to pay the bills.
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  (Music) Work nights and days, boy.
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  I know I’ll get ahead, the day that I'm dead.
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  The man got to get his paper.
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  That's what I get for all my labor.
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  What can you do?
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  What can you say?
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  Nothing today (hey).
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  The good Lord giveth, the landlord taketh away.
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  Times are really tough for a lot of people right now.
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  What do you think is the role of music during times like this?
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  Well, I can't speak for everybody else, but
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  I can speak for myself and say that
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  I know
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  there's a lot of reasons to be angry out there in the world.
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  Some of them are justifiable and some of them are not justifiable.
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  We waste a lot of our time being angry when we shouldn't.
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  But again, there's some righteous indignation.
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  I don't find that that's my...
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  I try and take that into my music.
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  Music is
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  not gonna
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  say, it's like a safe space or whatever to away from the anger.
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  But it's it's sort of processed or I should say channeled into
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  maybe some more
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  different emotions overtly.
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  For me, I try to communicate a little bit more of like a good time and enjoy.
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  I also don't think that you need to provide a solution in the music as well,
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  whether there's a solution or not.
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  I always say in this case, a lot of people have different ideas on that.
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  That's why I'm not a politician.
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  Yeah.
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  (laughs) And I think, I think it's it's not so much a solution, although I'm
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  sure there are a lot of artists that that look for that.
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  But I think with you it's more about that kind of deeply human connection.
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  Right.
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  Like communicating
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  those things on a level where, you know, so many people can relate.
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  Yeah, that's a great point.
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  Sort of bearing the burdens
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  with other people and being relatable by just merely talking about it.
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  And then it kind of allows people to hopefully process it in their own way.
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  Again, maybe a solution isn't necessarily needed, but just the fact
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  that we're we're sort of talking about it, the sympathy aspect.
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  You know, it's like you're not providing a fix,
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  but if somebody comes you with an issue, they just want you to listen.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
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  I cannot end this chat without congratulating you.
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  And I know you probably had an amazing Father's Day recently, did you not?
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  (Laughs) Yeah.
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  Good. Yeah. First of.
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  First of many. Godwilling and good on you.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, congratulations on on your first on your daughter with your wife, Addie.
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  That.
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  How is that changing your perspective on life and performing
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  and art and music and all of that stuff?
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  Well, I mean, it's early days.
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  She just turned two months, but.
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  You know, we're not totally in just survival mode anymore.
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  I think I, you know, she's a really good baby.
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  We've been blessed with that.
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  But yeah, I mean, I kind of mentioned it earlier, thinking about those things,
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  thinking about your own childhood, perhaps a little bit more than you
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  than I used to, and how that translates to how we raise her.
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  So I said, like,
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  you know,
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  you learn a language before you're 16,
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  you speak it without the accent of your mother tongue.
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  I think learning languages would be important for her, for us.
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  It's really fun to think about because, you know,
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  you were we're so used to thinking about ourselves
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  all the time, and now I get to think about somebody else.
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  Obviously, you know, my my wife, but this is this is
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  this is a new level of surrender.
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  Absolutely.
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  So are you looking forward to how this is going to come out
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  in your music in the future, these new experiences?
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  Well, sure.
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  I mean, hopefully it does relate to me making more music
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  or it may make me just retire and pick a completely different profession.
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  Then that way I could stay home and have a lot more children.
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  Yeah.
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  We can't end this with you depressing all of our listeners
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  by saying you're gonna retire Pokey, that--you can't say that.
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  So we'll say that we are looking forward to seeing you
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  in July at the Mun- Muncie Three Trails music series.
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  And I'll just say everything's temporary just like our one night in Muncie.
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  So enjoy it while it lasts.
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  There you go.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Appreciate the time, Pokey.
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  Toodaloo, buckaroo.
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  (Music) Well I had everything under my control.
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  But the thing wasn't worth selling my soul.
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  The thing that I got ain’t the thing that I thought that I wanted.
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  The thing that I got ain’t
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  the thing that I thought that I wanted.
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  Pop of Culture is back on August 7th.
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  Until then, toodaloo, buckaroo!