ISWM - Gosh, Joel......we just reviewed you in a recent issue of ISWM, you've had a gruelling performance schedule all year and now you've won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. You're a busy man by all accounts. Take us back to that day in January when the winner of the JLSC was announced and you saw your name on the list of Grand Prize Winners. What was your immediate reaction? Who'd you call? What was that day like?
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Joel Cage - Actually, I found out about the JLSC results the night before they officially announced the winners - I was online when the "sixth degree" thing kicked in, and was IM'ed (Instant Messaged for all the non-techies out there) by a friend who heard it from a friend who had been watching the website (www.jlsc.com) for the Winners Posting, and had also won a prize... (run-on sentence)... that I was the Grand Prize Winner in the Folk Category. Needless to say, I immediately surfed over to see for myself. I had to look three times before I could believe that it was actually MY NAME listed there as the winner. Then, I downloaded the page and sat there looking at it on my screen for a few more minutes - yes, a bit of melodrama there, but having been the underdog for most of my career, it was like seing my "name up in lights" so I basqued in the glow for a bit. Then I called my girlfriend, Judith, with the news, being significant in that she was the one who insisted that I enter the song that won - NO PEACE IN DYING - against what I took to be my better judgement. I acquiesce to her higher wisdom. Then I posted the announcement to my email constituency and enjoyed a flurry of congratulory responses from many kind folks, along with the phone call from the JLSC people delivering unto me the good news, thus making it 'official'.

I have alway been a bit of a cynic when it comes to these contests - entering many and expecting little - but the JLSC people have been refreshingly professional in their administration as well as their intent to bring unknown music to new light, and to see their vision through to whatever fruits it may bear for the winning artists. Needless to say it has been an enourmous source of pride and opportunity to have won. As of this writing, there is still an outstanding issue with the JLSC, their "Song Of The Year" Award, which will be announced on April 1st. One song out of the twelve Grand Prize Winners will be chosen by a panel of esteemed judges from all facets of the industry, including some world renown recording artists and executives. The prize is a hefty sum of cash...

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ISWM - Now going back a little bit further into your musical career, your album "Nobody" was quite an accomplishment for you, wasn't it? That whole album was done in your bedroom and it had such a great
sound to it. And another interesting thing was that all the songs had one word titles. What's the whole story behind the album? Why'd you decide to do this album and explain some of the stuff that went into it?
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Joel Cage - I've been producing my own recordings for years now, so by the time I came to record NOBODY, the bedroom scenario was status quo for me. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to invest the money I had saved in recording equipment many moons ago, and have since, thru many trials and errors, developed the experience and know-how to make the most out of the limited technology I have been able to afford. My recording studio is mostly made up of low-end gear I have accumulated from the many musical projects with which I have been involved. The challenge is to push to the limit of this collection of electronic "flotsam and jetsam" to get the best sound possible. It's an enjoyable task trying to make a $200 reverb sound like a $2000 reverb and a $600 mixing board sound like a $6000 mixing board - if not a bit frustrating at times. I recorded my first cd, entitled ""Last Hard Road" in the same manner, constantly comparing the sound to more professionally produced product and making adjustments, a process which will invariably lead one down "many a garden path" until you find "the voice within the music", at which point, hopefully, you'll have developed a sound that's all your own, which for me,(again, hopefully) is a sound with a solid center but perhaps a bit frayed at the edges. I give high credits to my co-producer Mr. Jay Williston for helping me to create the sound of NOBODY.

Regarding the content of NOBODY -- when I recorded LAST HARD ROAD - the first, it was a pastiche of songs I had written over the years, revamped to match the perspective of a "rock 'n roller turned folkie" representing a wide range of perspectives. In contrast, NOBODY is a collection of songs written from a much more narrow frame of reference, over a shorter time period, in an attempt to reflect the anonymity one feels when standing on a precipice preparing to jump from the familiar into the unfamiliar, hence the title. The one-word motif was pretty arbitrary, but I liked the terseness and it looked cool in print.

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ISWM - Knowing how hard it is to succeed in the music business today, what advice would you give to anyone trying to make a name for themselves?
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Joel Cage - If I had any advice to offer I would apply it to myself and thus, be more successful! What I can say is that what truely keeps me going are the fine folks I meet along the way. It is with the sincerest pride that I can lay claim to an incredible bunch of great people, whom I have met at my shows and now have the honor of calling "friends". When they all show up at once, there is a tangible sense of family, something I hope to cultivate to the highest possible level.

This concept carries a bitter-sweet essence - There is a tendency for many music afficianados to put the artist up on a bit of a pedestal, and revel in the austerity attendant with this distance. When you wade down into the treches and get to know the folks in the audience, the distance breaks down and the austerity can be compromised. Where a "fan" may attend show after show out of pure adulation, a "friend" may do the same for different reasons and after a period of time, it is easy to begin taking each other for granted, where both interest and expectation can become gratuitous.

I, personally, would prefer a smaller audience of those whom I know intimately over a larger audience of people I hardly know at all. Were I to have my "druthers", this collection of thos folks I hold close to my heart would grow to substantial numbers and each performance would offer a feeling of home to performer (that's me !) and audience alike. That would be my dream come true.
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Jan Best
Editor/ Radio Show Host
Independent Songwriter Web-Magazine