Introducing...

One of my two obsessions.

Meet Butch Walker.

You probably haven't heard of him, which is perfectly all right. (Unless you read Rolling Stone in 2005, when they named him best producer of the year.)

At least until now.

Now I'm here to tell you how bloody wonderful this musician is.

He's also a producer. You've probably heard of some of the artists...Pink, Bowling for Soup, Weezer, The Academy Is....

But as good as they are, they cannot touch Mr. Walker.

(This is where I would put in a link to youtube, but Turkey blocks it. You won't regret it, though, in the least.)

The man can do just about anything, but, more impressively, his lyrics are on par with Paul Simon and Bob Dylan (and, unlike Dylan, you can actually understand what he's saying).

What makes his lyrics so poetic is that there's so damn real. A number of his songs are about the small things in life, usually pertaining to relationships, usually broken ones. But they're all true. A thing doesn't have to be real to be true.

He's 40 (or 41...or 42), so the end of a relationship isn't the end of his world. That's not to say there isn't any emotion in it, but I have yet to hear a "you-broke-up-with-me-I'm-going-to-go-kill-myself" song. And I don't think he's going to write one (thank goodness).

Within all of his songs, there's something small and very specific he focuses on, which makes them much more potent than a "sad" or "happy" song. For instance:

"Here comes the last time I'll kiss you/The first night sleeping alone"

("Here Comes The...")

"You can't trust a man from a species who captures things just to let them go. [....] There's never a pill strong enough to make me feel the way all your fingers could."

("Passed Your Place, Saw Your Car, Thought of You")

"As I drove into a city painted on the desert/With everything ten miles high/Hard to believe that nobody will see/What I see through my bloodshot eyes./Now I don't mean to sound so young and naive/But think we've found something good/And now I can feel me leaving who I used to be/As we're driving into Hollywood."

("So At Last")

Or his advice to his son in "Be Good Until Then": "Always wash your hands when you wanna eat/Always keep 'em dirty enough to see where you've been."

And if that's not enough to convince you, he did a cover of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me."

Don't judge.

It's better than the original, and he does it with a bloody mandolin.

Yes, you read that right.

I like reading interviews with my favorite people (like Nathan Fillion. Nathan Fillion is funny. He should have his own show. Wait...)

Butch Walker is no exception. I read what he has to say, about being an artist, or a producer, and I think, "that's the kind of person I want to get to know." He's honest. He's not afraid to be honest, or to be himself, and yet at the same time, he's not afraid to reinvent himself.

Sure, there are parts of his personality that are less than perfect (the other common thing to cross my mind when reading/listening is "what an ass"), but that seems to be the case with most of humanity.

I thinks he sums himself up the best, though, so I'll let him do that.

"I like the fact that I'm still an artist and I'm not crushed by frustration. I don't have to agree with those who are overcompensating with their longwinded [nature], talking about how much money they make or about how much shit they have. No matter what, there are plenty of people that will never know that I'm an artist and will never know that I [make] records, and that's fine. 'cause you know what? I have a great life doing this. I'm not bothered by people, I got great fans, and as long as I get to keep being grateful for that, it's my proudest accomplishment. As far as biggest regret goes--every time I'm ever asked that question, I completely draw a blank. I never go 'Oh god I regret this' or 'Oh god I regret that.' I never remember--whenever I'm in an interview--what I regret."

m.

First image courtesy of http://butchwalker.com

Second image courtesy of Veronica Zelina

Third and fourth and fifth images courtesy of Lucia Holm

Lyrics courtesy of and copyrighted by Butch Walker

Interview conduced by Evan Sawdey; http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/116257-the-gospel-according-to-butch-part-3-the-artist/

Plus, the "a thing need not be real to be true" is homage to my other obsession, Neil Gaiman. But more about him later, I'm sure.