The Ritter End
It’s been a tumultuous few years for Josh Ritter. Against the dramatic backdrop of the Swiss Alps, he talks about his number one fan Stephen King, recalls the day he met Bob Dylan and explains why it’s never a good idea to drink before a show
Olaf Tyaransen, 11 Sep 2007
As overblown as its title may be, production-wise this new album is a far less polished affair than The Animal Years. Produced by keyboardist and long-term collaborator Sam Kassirer, at times it sounds like it was recorded in a barn. Not that that’s necessarily a complaint. Besides, it was recorded in a barn...
As her sings on ‘Rumors’: “My orchestra is gigantic/ This thing could sink the Titanic/And the string section’s screaming/Like horses in a barn burning up.”
“Yeah, we recorded this in an old farmhouse up in Maine that was built in 1790,” he explains. “It’s interesting. I’ve done all my recordings in barns. It’s weird. I wanted to record in Berlin, initially. Just because that town has such a crazy vibe to it. But this just turned out to be all the vibe I needed.”
He doesn’t say it, but chances are that the budget for a Berlin recording session wasn’t in the bank either. Despite almost uniformly gushing reviews for The Animal Years (even before Stephen King had plugged it), the album didn’t perform anywhere near as well as expected. Nothing to do with the music. On the night that Ritter performed to an audience of 10 million people on Letterman, his US record label went bust.
“They went bankrupt,” he sighs. “I got a text from my manager when we got offstage at Letterman and boom! That was it. V2 America had fired their whole staff.
“I have a line in one of my songs that goes, “I’d rather be the one who loves than to be loved and never even know.” And my manager sent me a text message that said, “I’d rather be the one who leaves than to be left and never even know.”
“And it happened that I’d seen that the White Stripes had left V2, and I hadn’t been paid in months and months. They owe me lots and lots of money, still, which I will never see, probably. But at the same time I sent over a courier thing saying, “I am terminating my contract with you in breach of trust and breach of agreement,” and that’s all that I’ve heard from them since.”
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