A Conversation with Jen Chapin - Five Towns College 3/3/07

PLAY THE SHOW
(Please Note - This conversation was not recorded in a professional studio, so the audio quality is lacking)

There is a casual directness about Jen Chapin that is at once disarming and charming. In conversation, her intense dark eyes betray a serious and straightforward nature, even when she’s relaxed. She easily balances her maternal instincts with a childlike awareness; while discussing her childhood memories of growing up in Huntington, she kept an eye on her son, Maceo, and mentioned that she is actively searching for appropriate child care during her upcoming tour. In concert, it’s her magnificent voice that captivates the audience. Her material is melodic and original, with enough space between the notes to savor the emotional depth of her writing, which usually consists of personal observations. “Hurry Up Sky” laments the loss of a friend on 9/11, but instead of focusing on pain or rage, it rather remarkably conveys a message of hope and optimism. “Goodbye” was written after her mom decided to sell the Chapin family home, and in Jen’s wordless chorus you can hear a mother who is still in touch with her own ‘inner child’.
The band itself is magnificent. Jen’s husband, Stephan Crump, plays bass with a sharpshooter’s accuracy and seething intensity that somehow still allows the rhythm to breathe. Guitarist Jamie Fox has more than a few tricks up his own sleeve as well. For tonight’s show, the band was expanded to include keyboards, saxophone, and drums. Originally, Jen and I made plans for an interview on my program “American Hit Radio” (WHPC, 90.3 FM on Tuesday and Friday 5-6 PM), but she took ill, so we met on the day of her show at Five Towns College. While the band prepared the stage for that night’s performance, Jen and I sat down to discuss her music.

AHN: First of all, how are you?
JC: I’m doing better. I went to the voice doctor and he shot me in the butt with steroids. I was ready for the hard stuff! We had two rehearsals last week, and I guess I was singing too hard.
AHN: Do you perform a lot or is touring something that you want to do sporadically?
JC: It totally varies. January was pretty busy. We did maybe 6 or 7 shows, mostly in the New York area. February we were on a ten-day tour – that was seven gigs. We’re doing tonight and then starting Thursday, we’re doing a 25-day tour.
AHN: You’re touring with your family?
JC: Well, my husband Stephan, my son Maceo, who is a year-and-a-half, and my good friend Jamie Fox playing guitar.
AHN: That’s a tight family unit!
JC: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. In the mini-van. We’ll be playing as a trio.
AHN: Are you bringing along a babysitter?
JC: No, I’m actually in the process of lining people up at every stop. It’s a combination of friends and strangers who’d say ‘I’d love to help out’ and ‘I can give you references’…
AHN: You obviously have a relationship with Long Island. Have you lived here your whole life?
JC: I was born in Rockville Centre, at Mercy Hospital, and when I was about a year and-a-half old, my family moved to Huntington. We had a house there for 33 years. I lived there for eighteen of those, and then I went to college and came back a lot for summers. It was always a great place we could go home to, this house on Long Island Sound.
AHN: Is the house still in the family?
JC: No, my Mom just sold it. Actually, I’m singing a song tonight called “Goodbye,” and that was like my ‘rite of passage,’ a cathartic songwriting experience. In January, I spent a week there and dropped off ten bags at the thrift store and ten bags at the library, and there’s still so much stuff.
AHN: Where are you living now?
JC: I’m in Brooklyn. Technically, still on Long Island. I’m a New Yorker, I’m a Brooklyn-ite and I’m a Long Islander, and Long Island has been kind to still sort of ‘claim’ me, you know?
AHN: As I understand it, your Mom lived in Point Lookout for a while?
JC: That’s where my parents first lived before they moved to Huntington.
AHN: How does politics fit into your music?
JC: Well, I try to be a well-rounded person and have a well-rounded set when I put together a group of tunes. For me, everything is political and I don’t think it’s a game. I don’t think it’s like “Here’s the right, here’s the wrong.” I’m interested in the big picture, the values that we have and the choices that we make, and a lot of that is connected to things like spirituality.
AHN: It seems like that is a Chapin trait. Your dad’s music was very much like that.
JC: Yeah, he was such a political person and he was outspoken about issues, but in his songs he would look at individual personalities and characters and stories, and that was sort of the window into his view of humanity. Even though hunger was his most important issue, he didn’t have a lot of songs about hunger. There was an amazing song that he wrote called “There Only Was One Choice” about believing in the American dream while knowing that we compromised so much.
AHN: I’d imagine that there must have been a lot of music in your house while growing up.
JC: Well, there was, but my dad would be gone more than half the time - touring, and lobbying Congress. It wasn’t like we were so surrounded by tunes. There were soccer games and dollhouses – there were issues that he and my mother cared about in the community, like the Huntington Arts Festival – those things were as much in our consciousness as the music.
AHN: Stephan, your husband, plays bass with you. Do you write together?
JC: The writing I do on my own, but he definitely helps shape and texture the music. We co-produced these last two albums and he plays a big role in arranging the music. We have a great collaboration. We each have our own space musically, but we’re very connected.
AHN: When can people see you perform?
JC: We have a big show on (Saturday) August 11 at Patchogue Theater on Main Street. I did one song there before, for the Long Island Music Hall of Fame induction.
AHN: I understand that you recorded a new version of “Cat’s in the Cradle.” According to your website, your mom, Sandy, wrote the lyrics to that song?
JC: Yeah, a little known fact. It was great to be asked to do it (again).
AHN: How can people find it?
JC: It’s at Target! You can buy it online as well. It’s on a compilation CD called “A Song for My Father” that has Salvador Santana, A.J. Croce, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Chynna Phillips, Louise Goffin, Ben Taylor, Stephen Marley… So yeah, all of us are on it doing a song. I think Salvador does “Evil Ways.”
AHN: I’ve also seen your disks at Amazon.com
JC: Yeah, and my website pretty much has all you need to know (www.jenchapin.com).

Keep August 11, 2007 open, when Jen Chapin returns to Long Island’s Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts. Tom Ryan