Sunday night, Jeremy Messersmith, Minnesota-based singer-songwriter, could not have been welcomed by a warmer crowd. Upstairs at DC9 they cheered every first note, sang along with “Virginia” that Jeremy admitted he’d been “waiting all tour to get here and play, and someone yelled it out so I used it as an excuse!” The band crooned and harmonized, while the fans sustained knee-aches from twisting, bopping, and bouncing.
Prior to the performance, Messersmith was kind enough to fill TVD in on his existential-crisis album The Reluctant Graveyard, what makes him a “happy dude,” and his Minnesotan “baptism by snow.”
How’s the tour going (that van full of friends hanging in there?), Midwest then down the Eastern coast and back? Madison, Chicago, and you played with Cave Singers in Cleveland, how was that? (They toured with Fleet Foxes for a bit, pretty interesting sound.)
This tour is by far the best one I’ve done. The band is sounding great, and the van rides are SO much more enjoyable with a group of friends. We haven’t started hurling whiskey bottles at each other yet, so I think we’re okay. We actually didn’t get to hear Cave Singers in Cleveland as one of their members ended up being admitted to the hospital. I hope he’s doing okay.
Most recently, I have been listening to “A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard,” “Organ Donor” and “John the Determinist” from The Reluctant Graveyard. (Alright, repeatedly, and not just those tracks.) From where do all of these ideas stem?
I think those songs are semi-biographical and are the fallout from an existential crisis—basically losing a rigid belief system and asking what the point of it all is. “John the Determinist” is a statement on the futility of determinism I guess. Even if everything we do in our whole lives has been predetermined from the birth of the universe and free will doesn’t exist, it really doesn’t change much. For some reason, I thought that was a funny and reassuring idea.
“I don’t know how I’m s’pose to feel, my body’s cold, my guts are twisted steel” and “All we are is ticks and tocks, seconds in a pocket watch”—I really like that line. And, thank you! It’s refreshing to hear a man sing. You know what I mean, “Troubadours of Folk,” i.e., Donovan, Tim Buckley, Loudon Wainwright III, Kingston Trio. Did that ’50s/’60s singing inspire/influence you?
Absolutely. I’d been listening to a lot of Donovan and Sinatra oddly enough. Oh, Van Morrison too. If you want to learn how to sing, you could do a lot worse than trying to emulate those guys.
I read that you’re a gamer. If you could contribute a song to a video game soundtrack, which game and which song of yours would it be?
I’d be one happy dude if Valve, Blizzard, or Bioware ended up using a song for something. Honestly, I’d love to hear “John the Determinist” as part of a movie or video game trailer. I think my favorite music/video game combo was the Gears of War trailer with “Mad World” in it. Beautiful juxtaposition.
Where do you call home?
Well, I was born in Charleston, grew up in Washington state, but I’ve lived in Minnesota for about ten years. Once you’ve survived a single winter there, you are dubbed a Minnesotan for life no matter where you live. It’s like a baptism by snow, which I think is awesome.
Who are you listening to right now?
Grandaddy, LCD Soundsystem, Air, Caribou and Land of Talk are my current favorites. Literally, as I type this in the tour van, we are listening to advance copies of the new Peter Wolf Crier record and also a record by Greycoats. They are both great bands and friends of mine from Minneapolis.
As the show rolled on, I grew deeply ashamed that I had not heard of Messersmith until recently. (He released The Alcatraz Kid in 2005!—Ugh! Come on!) So, when Messersmith passes through your town with his van full of friends, watch out for whiskey bottles, bubble hearts bursting in midair, and don’t miss the show. And, since you’ve been wondering what album to buy that listens like a collection of gripping short stories, go ahead and pick up The Reluctant Graveyard. But for today, let’s fade out to “Tomorrow.”
“Will I see you again? / Same time tomorrow / Well, I hope so / Let’s watch the midnight sky / I won’t say goodbye / Until tomorrow // Yesterday is gone / Today is almost over / Come on let’s stay up late / We’ll turn our today / Into tomorrow // Today is all we’ve got / A moment here then not / And if tomorrow never comes / I’ll be standing with the one I love // It’s time to say goodnight / And then you kiss me / Sweetly/ Let’s watch the morning break / Some things just can’t wait until tomorrow…”
