Video Premiere: Jeremy Bass "1,000 Years"

Brooklyn-based artist Jeremy Bass released his latest album, The Greatest Fire, on January 19th.  The ten song project showcases not only the classically trained (in Italy and Spain) guitarist's beautiful arrangements, but his powerful lyrics filled with astute observations, self-awareness, and hope.

Today, TDC is proud to premiere the video for "1,000 Years." A delicate, string filled ballad, "1,000 Years" questions love, it's fragility, it's risk and reward, and it's ability to make you feel both one with another and alone - all of which the video captures perfectly.

Bass relays the story behind the song, "1,000 Yrs is the album's post-apocalyptic love song. Compositionally I wanted to challenge myself to write a song using the fewest amount of building blocks, few (if any) major harmonic changes, all organized around one driving, incessant riff. Thematically I wanted to explore how love manages to coexist in this self-destructing world, even in spite of its own fragility. It might seem incongruous that love continues in the face of destruction and chaos, but it does. It can also seem paradoxical to continue to love, and to want to love, when we know those bonds will eventually (at least in my experience) dissolve or fade. But we do so anyway, and it's that willingness to risk in the face of both literal death and the death of love that makes the feeling of love authentic and necessary to our existence."

Enjoy, and share, the video above then read on as Bass answers his Essential 8 and talks the story behind his album's title, "a-ha" moments, his favorite NYC venue, and more.

With any particular song, was there an “a-ha” moment when you knew the song was completed and perfect?
I don't think I ever reach a moment where I think a song is "perfect." There's the old cliche that a work of art is never finished, only abandoned, and I still think there's some truth to that. There is, however, a sense of geometry to a good song, where all the components are in balance. I found that "a-ha" moment with the first single from the album, "Trees for the Forest," where we cut the band out and dropped the tempo in half for the second rendition of the chorus. It created an energy pitch that drove the rest of the song into an almost frenzied race to the finish. It works in the recording, but it's even better live.

What’s the story behind your album’s title?
I'm a poet as well as a songwriter, and one of my favorite poets is Jack Gilbert. Perhaps his best book is The Great Fires, and though the lyrics to that song and the material on the album in general isn't very much related to his work, that phrase stuck in my head for many years and eventually made its way into the album title.

Where do you draw inspiration from when writing? 
I draw inspiration wherever and whenever I can. I'm not as much a methodical, write-every-day type of writer. I try to log regular hours, but when a song comes it is usually something that needs to be expressed, that needs to work its way out of me. So I draw a lot from my own life, my own thought-patterns and struggles, but I also try to filter it so the music doesn't become a confessional show-and-tell.

Photographed by Skyler Smith

When/where do you do your best writing?
When I have a deadline. Many of the songs from the most recent album were only half-written or conceived leading up to their recording in the studio. I love being in the studio, both the pressure and the opportunity to create fuel the writing process in ways that I couldn't duplicate if I was just sitting at home with my guitar.

What are your “must have” albums for the road?
Half just written just released killer indie music--Fleet Foxes's Crack Up and Grizzly Bear's Painted Ruins have been dominating this field lately, and half time-honored classics: Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection or Led Zeppelin III.

What’s your favorite venue and why?
Rockwood Music Hall on the LES. The sound is always spot-on, and you get the very un-NYC phenomenon of playing to people who didn't come explicitly to see your show. 

Is drinking at gigs a positive or a negative?
Same rule applies to bowling and pool: one or two beers, and you start to do your best work. Any more than that and you start to think you're doing your best work while you're reaping diminishing returns.

Favorite (or first) concert you have ever attended?
First concert I can remember going to was Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie, with the New Black Eagle Jazz Band opening. I was hooked for life.

​www.jeremybassmusic.com
www.facebook.com/jeremybassfanpage
www.twitter.com/jeremybassmusic
www.instagram.com/jeremybassmusic
jeremybass.bandcamp.com

---