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"\nMason Jennings is a folk artist who has gained momentum as a talented singer/songwriter. Hand-picked by Jack Johnson for Brushfire Records, much of Jennings\u2019 music is a laid-back, playful approach to his views on life. Hailing from Minneapolis, his catchy, acoustic style is quickly getting the attention of listeners. Taking a break from his U.S. tour, he shared with RELEVANT some thoughts on his album In the Ever and his unconventional, and perhaps in some ways for Christians fundamentally controversial, approach to understanding spirituality and existence through his music.\n\n\r\n\rHow\u2019s the tour going? Are you enjoying yourself and experimenting with anything new right now?\n\rYeah, it\u2019s been going good. I\u2019ve been working on a lot of new songs, and I\u2019ve just been playing solo with guitar and playing a bunch of different old songs I don\u2019t usually get to play with the band, and then also trying out some of the new stuff and seeing how the crowds like it.\n\r\n\n\n\rYou recorded this album by yourself in a small studio in the woods. Why did you choose to do that, and how did it affect the feel of the record?\n\rI didn\u2019t want the environment to be sterile, because on the last couple records I would go into studios and I\u2019d feel real tense, and you always think about how much money you\u2019re spending and you\u2019re like, \u201CMan, this is costing me so much money every day.\u201D I like to try these different things, but I feel tense and I\u2019m spending cash, and it\u2019s making me nervous. So on this one I thought maybe I would just get a little spot in the woods where I would usually hang out, where I feel totally myself and comfortable and I can have the windows open. Then instead of getting tons of gear, just get a laptop and two microphones and have fun, just see if I can work spontaneously and have a blast and leave things as they are without thinking about them too much. So, that was the approach with this record.\n\r\n\n\n\rIf there was a single theme to the record, what do you think that would be?\n\rMaybe trying to be OK without having the answers, trying to just be alright in the dangling space, where you\u2019re hanging out over the unknown and allowing yourself to be there without having to build up defenses. Sometimes defenses can hurt yourself as well as other people, so trying to be open and free of defenses, but still not have any definitive answers.\n\r\n\n\n\rWhat separates this record from your others?\n\rWell there\u2019s that theme of the spiritual and joyful and spontaneous nature of the recording. A lot of the songs were written and recorded in the same day, and that idea is trying something new or trying something in the spirit of play. I think that\u2019s a big part of spirituality, just trusting that it\u2019s a joyful thing to be here. There\u2019s a joyful thread that goes through the record and playfulness and a childlike quality.\n\r\n\n\n\rI hear that the In the Ever title was actually an original idea by your son. Is that right?\n\rYeah, he didn\u2019t really think about a record with it, he was just saying, \u201CRemember before I was born, when I was in the ever?\u201D and I just thought that was super heavy. I started thinking about it and I was like, well if I\u2019m not subscribing to one religion and I don\u2019t know what I think about heaven and places like that or where I was before I was born, that\u2019s a pretty good place to call home, &amp;quot;in the ever.&amp;quot; The record felt like that was maybe its center.\n\r\n\n\n\rSo you have a wife and two kids right? How does that change your perspective in music or how is that reflected in your record?\n\rWell, it\u2019s awesome. I love it. I feel very grateful for them, and I think it\u2019s just the amount of love you feel. As a parent, the feeling just keeps growing and growing, and I think that if you can be honest with your journey and be open as a parent, you have a lot of stuff to draw from for songs.\n\r\n\n\n\rYou are probably among a handful of artists who really explore spirituality through music. How would you relate those two ideas. Is that something that comes naturally through music?\n\rI guess for me songs always resonate throughout my life if there\u2019s a hard time in my life or a really happy time in my life. I just want to turn on a certain song, or I want to grab a guitar. I always went to people like Johnny Cash\u2019s American Recordings or Lucinda Williams or Beethoven. If ever I was feeling pain or questioning things, that\u2019s the closest answers I\u2019ve ever felt, in the music. And I don\u2019t know, there\u2019s the whole other side of it where it\u2019s the unexplainable thing of what even is music? It\u2019s vibrations and tones and stories. So there\u2019s that whole idea that at its root, it\u2019s a mystery. They\u2019re similar in that way.\n\r\n\n\n\rOne of the interesting songs on the record is \u201CHow Deep is that River.\u201D It seems to be searching for a reason to have faith. If you had to rephrase that question, what do you think another way of asking that would be?\n\rI guess it\u2019s just asking what\u2019s there. For me it came from the idea that you\u2019re going to a bunch of churches and just wondering how deep it goes. Is this something that\u2019s really surfacey, that you have to just close off your thinking and take it at face value? And just specifics, like when you go to a church that talks about rapture, do you have to accept a rapture to accept the teachings of Christ? So it\u2019s those kind of things where I\u2019m like, \u201CHow deep is this, and is it fully real or is it just something that you tell yourself to feel better that day, and then you get through it?\u201D For me it\u2019s that kind of questioning, and it\u2019s about religion specifically for me, but it\u2019s also the deeper question after religion, with God. It\u2019s just a question. Is there anything there? Is this a kind universe or an ambivalent universe?\n\r\n\n\n\rIn your song \u201CI Love You and Buddha Too,\u201D you seem to emphasize the oneness of all religions. What are your thoughts on that?\n\rI think they\u2019re different for sure. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re the same thing or anything, but I think compassion is at the center of them all. My take on it is there are many ways to get to the top of the mountain. That\u2019s one way to say it. It\u2019s just been going on for so long. People come up with different religions all the time. A friend of mine one time said that there are as many different religions as there are people, and I thought that\u2019s really true because I\u2019ve gone to so many different churches and so many different temples of worship. Even the people I\u2019m sitting next to have a totally different view of who Jesus is or who Buddha is or what heaven is or what life is. Even in every single church, in the innermost chamber of your heart, everybody has a different picture of what that is. So that\u2019s kind of true that everybody\u2019s different and there\u2019s a different religion for every person, but at the center of it, we\u2019re all having a human experience. So there\u2019s a tying thread there that\u2019s a unifying thread.\n\r&amp;nbsp;\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/music/features/16960-qaa-with-mason-jennings>