Brooklyn James has just released her new album «Jolie Blond» with the hit song «Damsel In Distress». Ms. James took time from her busy schedule to talk about her latest release. The rest is history.
1. What inspired you to record Jolie Blond?
I always loved the song as a kid. I think the first person I ever heard sing it was Jo-El Sonnier. He has the perfect Cajun voice for the authentic tune. The older I got, the more interested I became in the story behind the song. It really has some rich lore, especially in Louisiana and Cajun culture. It’s hard to explain, but I feel very connected to Cajun culture. I appreciate their resilience. Their love of the music and family. They make their own way in life regardless of what modern society tells them to do. I admire their culture.
After delving off into my Cajun history a bit, I loved the song even more and found out it was public domain, which meant we could do a cover of it, legally. And it just so happened I was drafting the Vigilare prequel about a young blonde girl who grows up in New Orleans, whose childhood friend’s father calls her jolie blonde. It was just a perfect intersection of idea nd inspiration. So we created our own version of the song as the title track off of our soundtrack that coincides with the novel.
2. How long did it take to record Jolie Blond?
The album took us over a year to record and produce at Wonderland Studios, Austin. I wrote a lot of the songs for the album while on hiatus at a secluded lodge in Wyoming over a three month period. We were snowed in. The only way in and out was via snowmobile. That kind of desolation lends itself nicely to one’s creativity and focus.
Upon my return to Austin, we started laying the studio foundations for the songs. Between all of my other projects, it took us a good year to get everything recorded and ready to go.
The song Jolie Blonde came together rather quickly. I knew I wanted to start it off in traditional 3/4 waltz time to pay homage to the original. Then I thought it would be cool to kick it up into 4/4 country-rock time in the middle to homage to Bruce Springsteen’s version (my personal favorite). And of course we bring it back down to end in the traditional waltz.
The lyrics are a hodge-podge of traditional and modern. I actually rewrote verse three completely, naming and honoring the legend of Jolie Blonde and all of those who brought her to fame (i.e. Choates, Springsteen, Sonnier, Rodrigue). It was a very special time for us in studio. We really enjoyed this remake.
We’re about to release the official music video for Jolie Blonde and it is super duper good! I just received the final cut from my videographer and I am so in love and hoping the fans will enjoy it, too.
3. One of your memorable pieces is «Damsel In
Distress». What inspired you to record «Damsel In
Distress»?
Damsel In Distress is a fun, tongue-in-cheek number that explores the roles between men and women. In this modern age, I think it’s fun to explore and poke fun at ourselves while we’re figuring it all out. It’s a new age, for both men and women, and sometimes it’s a challenge figuring out who you are and who you need to be for another in a modern day relationship.
My happily single but dating sister inspired the song, actually. She’s very competent and works in a male dominated field with several male employees under her. She was relaying to me how hard it is sometimes to leave her work personna behind in the relationship department. If she comes off too competent, too self-assured and exhibits many of the more ‘masculine’ type characteristics that are required for her job (i.e. taking charge, directness, etc.) in the dating world, men are often very much intimidated. So she said, «Maybe I just need to be a damsel in distress. Maybe that’s what they want.» Lol! And, there you have, my cogwheels starting spinning and I went home and wrote the chorus for Damsel In Distress.
We had a great time making the video for that one. I talked my hubby into co-starring with me. He’s such a good sport. We had just returned from our wedding/honeymoon in Maui. We flew about nine hours from Maui to Upstate PA and NY for my family’s reception for us. We got off the plane Friday night, had the reception Saturday night and were up early Sunday morning to film the video for Damsel. Talk about a whirlwind! And unbeknowst to ourselves, we were six-and-a-half weeks pregnant at the time. So our baby girl made her film debut in the video. That’s pretty special to us.
4. In your latest production, you combined classical Cajun
music from Louisiana with contemporary country genre. How
were you able to reconcile the two genres?
Great question. For me, everything goes back to three chords, especially in more simplistic genres such as Cajun and Country. If you look at some of the legendary artists (i.e. Johnny Cash, The Rolling Stones, Loretta Lynn), the majority of their songs consisted of three basic chords. And that’s what you have with Jolie Blonde. It’s a basic three chord structured song and it’s simply perfection as such. If you tried to spruce it up, it would just ruin it quite frankly.
So I would say in reconciling the two genres, we kept it simple. I am a firm believer in the KISS motto: Keep It Simple Stupid. Lol! It’s so easy an artists of any type to go all out and try to create this elaborate, never been done before thing, which is all well and good. But in the same breath, some of the most beautiful, memorable and enjoyable things in life are the most simple.
5. The video «Damsel In Distress» is one of the
few country videos that ends with a positive note. Where was
the video recorded and how long did it take to achieve this
work of art?
Well you see, I’m a Sagitarrius. We’re the free spirits, the eternal optimists of the horoscope. Therefore, I just can’t help myself with the HEA (Happily Ever After) endings. Even in my books, most of them are likely to deliver an HEA. Life is full of enough realism. In art, I find it refreshing to be able to deliver positivity.
The video was actually recorded in Upstate PA on my mother’s property. As I said earlier, we had just returned from our honeymoon and needed to crank out this video as my videographer was in town for the day only. We actually recorded it pretty quickly. It took about three hours of filming. But then the editing is the real work as anyone with any film experience knows. My videographer put about 40+ hours into editing that three hours of footage into a four minute video. That’s the real ground pounding there is the editing. Editors are AMAZING, in any right, be it film, books, music, etc.
6. Will you be going on tour with this album?
We’ve peddled it around Austin, PA and NY a bit with its release. However, I am currently 7-1/2 months pregnant, so that has put a bit of a damper on any prolonged touring…lol. We’re hoping to get something going after the start of the year. After we get settled in with baby and have that figured out, we’d love to get something significant set up and take both albums to some venues we haven’t ever played before. For artists, it’s all about exposure. I’ve drummed up quite a resume of work, but I’ve yet to really hone in on all of my avenues of exposure. That is definitely a goal for next year.
7. If you could leave a message to my readers [which
include your fans], what would it be?
I would say thank you from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to see merit in living my dream. As artists, we create. Without someone there to enjoy, partake and support what we create, we wouldn’t have anyone to share it with. That’s all any artist wants, really, to affect someone, move someone with their words, their creativity. I think that makes us human…giving a piece of ourselves in hopes that someone else will relate to it or become inspired by it. Love and light to all.
Thank you so much Roberto! As always, I enjoyed your questions 🙂
Thank you Brooklyn for taking the time with the album and
interview. Before leaving for Puerto Rico, I published
«Damsel In Distress» in my blog.
El Noticiero de Alvarez Galloso 