“I have been touring quite a bit over the summer, and I have been in and out of the country a lot,” Jackson said.
On August 5, he performed in Coney Island at the Ford Amphitheater with the cast of Nashville. “It was really fun. That was very cool,” he said. “The whole Nashville tour was a lot of fun this year. It was great.”
Regarding his single “Revolution of the Heart,” Jackson said, “It came from a few different places. There’s a historical theme and backdrop to the song. I love reading history and everything. I was reading about the Russian Revolution and I was captivated by all of that, and the idea of a political revolution and what that leads to.”
A special moment for Jackson was performing for the Greek Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios at The Parthenon in Centennial Park, Nashville. “That was an amazing experience. I did a speaking event that same day for the book The Mystery of Art, and we had a whole outdoor rock concert planned and the weather came in and tore the stage apart. We ended up playing an acoustic show, but it was great since it was more intimate and the Archbishop was right there just a few feet away from us. It was a real honor,” he said.
Digital transformation of music
On the impact of technology on the music scene, Jackson said, “I didn’t foresee the whole streaming reality, and how that would affect artists getting paid or not getting paid for how much people are consuming music. People are listening to more music now more than ever, but artists are getting paid less than ever for the music that they make. This is something that evolves. That’s something I really didn’t foresee.”
Jackson concurred that lately there has been a resurgence of vinyl. “It’s very interesting. Coming back to having something tangible to hold on to and experience. For me, music has always been a very immersive experience, where you read the lyrics, the liner notes and the photos and it all becomes this whole picture. Now we live in a day and age, where people cherry pick one song or maybe two from an artist and constancy make play-lists, and we’ve lost the relationship with fans listening to an album from front to back and having an experience. That’s something in the band that regardless where technology is, we still want to make records with a story arc, that people can listen to from front to back.”
“On this record, we went to a studio called 1979 and tracked on analog and on tape, so as much as we are utilizing pro-tools and all of the incredible capabilities that come with that, we also wanted to capture the raw feel of a three-piece playing in a room together, and recording and tracking our own tape was something that we always wanted to do. It was really fun,” he explained.
He shared that recently he watched the film Deep End of the Ocean, which he starred in, with his daughter. “It’s funny. My daughter wanted to watch that with me, and I hadn’t seen it in a very long time. It was fun to see it with new eyes. It was interesting for me since for the first time, I was relating more to Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams’ characters, as parents, especially since I have three kids of my own that are older now. I find myself relating to the film in a completely different way, than I had originally, so that was kind interesting,” he elaborated.
Jackson defined success as “a healthy marriage and family.” “Continuing to not become stagnant as a human being and continuing to grow spiritually. That’s success,” he concluded.
Anthems for the Apocalypse is available on iTunes.
For more information on Jonathan Jackson and Enation, check out their official website.
