The heat is on

If connections count for anything in the music game these days, Brooklyn native Jesse Malin would appear to have it sewn up.

Counting Crows’ Adam Durvitz is a good friend, his old pal Ryan Adams produced his acclaimed debut, The Fine Art of Self Destruction; Bruce Springsteen was so impressed when he heard it that he asked Malin to join him on his Christmas charity shows last year.
Malin befriended Joe Strummer shortly before he died and regularly performs a version of ‘Death Or Glory’ as a tribute to the late Clash-man. More recently, Shane MacGowan joined Malin on stage in London for a rendition of Elvis Costello’s ‘Oliver’s Army’. Meanwhile Jody Porter from Fountains of Wayne guests on Malin’s latest album The Heat while fellow singer-songwriter Pete Yorn also adds some vocals.
“It’s just people that I’ve met that have become friends,” says Malin on the line from New York before he hits the stage in the Bowery Ballroom. “I got friendly with Joe Strummer after I met him at a show. He was such a great guy and I learned a lot from him in a short time. Shane MacGowan just turned up and joined me onstage; he’s one of my all time heroes – a great writer and a poet.
“And he was pretty coherent too – even though he was drinking beer out of a Pringles can. Bruce Springsteen I bumped into and gave him my record. My manager said, ‘Bruce really liked the record and wants you to do some shows with him in Asbury Park’. I thought it was a joke. But Bruce called me up and said, ‘I want you to do some of your own songs with me and the band backing you up’. So I said ‘I’m in’. He’s been a great supporter. I talked to him just last weekend. He’s a guy who likes to play as opposed to a lot of people at that level who just like to get paid.”
With evocative songs such as ‘Riding In The Subway’, ‘Queen Of The Underworld’ and ‘Wendy’, The Fine Art saw him tagged as a streetwise punk singer songwriter in the Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Springsteen mode. The Heat, meanwhile, comes with more of a full band sound.
“The difference is I had three years to make the first record,” Malin explains. “I was sitting at home with my cats and my broken heart. This time around I was on the road the whole time so the pressure was on. Second albums can be tricky and I didn’t want to hit that sophomore slump. I wanted to keep growing so I wrote a lot – I had 25 songs to make sure I would have 13 or 14 good ones.
“I wanted it to be more sonic, more electric, more with the band. I also wanted it to be about different characters that I’ve witnessed or situations I’ve been in. It was a record written from the point of view of being an American out of my country, which I do love but I don’t love our government and what has been going on.”
While his records have been rightly acclaimed, it’s as a live performer that Malin comes into his own – his show in Dublin’s Village earlier this year was a veritable celebration of the spirit of old fashioned rock’n’roll.
“Making records is the price you pay to be able to go out on the road and play live,” he says. “I don’t really like travelling in planes and staying in dirty hotels but I love to play live - that two hours onstage gives you the fuel to live like a dog and to miss out on your girlfriend and your family and friends.
“I like to keep the shows exciting. I play covers and new songs, things that aren’t on the album. And I tell stories about where I’m coming from and where I got the inspiration for the songs. I like to hang out afterwards and meet the fans and see where they’re coming from and what they thought of the show. That’s why I’m here.”

The Heat is out now on One Little Indian.