Richard Julian was the one who told me to check out Cartola. Telling someone to check out Cartola is like telling someone to check out Tony Bennett, you know. – Jesse Harris
When I started to write a tune, I just wrote the nearest at hand, which was what was happening in my own life. – Jesse Harris
Cartola is an artist from Brazil who didn’t record until much later in his life, but had a big influence on a lot of famous artists down there, like Gilberto Gil. I discovered his music recently when I was in Brazil. – Jesse Harris
I love Neil Young. His songs were the first songs I learned to play, and I recommend anyone who is starting guitar to learn Neil Young songs first. – Jesse Harris
Sometimes a song indicates that it wants to be about a certain thing. And then if you write it, you find that it is about something that you’ve done. – Jesse Harris
Most of the famous love affairs of literature or film were quite short. What was ‘Romeo & Juliet’? How long were they together? A few days. – Jesse Harris
In the past, I’ve been a bit diffident about my own albums, almost excusing them for some reason, even though deep down I felt strongly about them. – Jesse Harris
Have I learned something from making records? Yeah, I’ve learned a lot, because I’ve not only made eleven of my own records, I’ve also probably produced that many records for other artists, and then I’ve probably played on, or been a large part of another eleven records with other people. – Jesse Harris
Neil Young does throw in a major seven chord here and there, so if you’re a new guitar player learning Neil Young songs, you’ll learn some seven chords, and some different positions. Nothing too complicated, just enough to kind of open up your knowledge a little bit. – Jesse Harris
If you write a song, and you go into a restaurant, and there’s a guy with a piano singing and he’s playing piano, singing your song, or you hear it at a wedding or at an airport… it’s fun! – Jesse Harris
If somebody sings a song that I wrote, I feel like it’s a nice point of validation for the song, because it shows that the song is able to stand on its own. I like that. – Jesse Harris
I usually make records very quickly. I usually go in and record them and mix them, and I’m done within a couple of weeks. – Jesse Harris
When you first start singing something after you’ve written it, it has this sort of sparkle to it. And if you capture that, that’s luck. – Jesse Harris
To be honest, making albums is really never easy. It’s always a bit excruciating because there’s always this fight to make it great, and then you hit these stumbling blocks along the way. – Jesse Harris
