The Exquisites release their new album 'Home' this month and Jason Clackley (vocals/guitar) opened up about how the songs explore the concept of home, rather than reminiscing about a particular place. He lost his father and grandmother as a child and the record deals with coming to terms with that.
“It’s about reclaiming a lot of lost things in your life. You can’t reclaim family members,” he begins “I dealt with a lot of childhood deaths in close proximity. Home, for me, is kind of where the heart is; as cheesy as it is. It’s also making peace with yourself and who you are.”
Jason currently lives in Seattle. While ‘Home’ doesn’t dwell on geography, he recognises that his family background has influenced the way he views himself. Despite growing up in the U.S, he’s descended from people who can be traced half way around the world.
“I grew up in Hawaii for part of my life. All my family from my mom’s side are from there; [they descended from] Portuguese and they came over from a little island called Azores. I feel, as a person living in America, sometimes your identity is a lot different to where you came from. Being Portuguese in Hawaii is a lot different to being Portuguese in Seattle. Some people don’t even know where Portugal is!” he chuckles.
In 2015, Jason put out ‘Patience’; a brooding solo EP that was a stripped-down affair of deep soulful vocals and piano. He tells me about his love for Randy Newman and Marvin Gaye’s seminal ‘What’s Goin’ On?’ record. Clearly, he’s got form for experimentation and I ask what new musical ideas have been put into the latest Exquisites album.
“We didn’t really have horns before. My goal was to use horns in a really sonically pleasing way, to fill in the gaps with frequencies we’re not using. The tuba sits somewhere between the bass drum, the bass and guitar. It fits in. I love the grandiose stuff. I really like Rachmaninoff. The Russian composers were grandiose. Everything was dramatic,” he says.
Yet, in Rachmaninoff there’s also a kindred spirit. For the uninitiated: he was a Russian composer of the Romantic period who was highly regarded but had to leave the country when the 1917 revolution kicked in. He eventually found his way to the US where he spent the rest of his life and was buried in New York state.
Jason appreciates the struggle Rachmaninoff faced and how that continued to influence what he composed.
“Rachmaninoff was displaced because of the Bolshevik revolution and he struggled with what ‘home’ was too. I really like that. I don’t think he’s being over-dramatic for no reason. I think he comes off as really digging into his emotions and pulling something out of it,” he says.
It’s also possible to hear some more gutsy, soulful sounds in The Exquisites and Jason admits it’s something that gets mentioned. Yet he’s careful not to tread on toes and lay claim to being a “soul musician”, given that the phrase can be charged with connotations of black struggles.
“The question about whether we’re influenced by soul music comes up. My experience and influence comes from listening to people with a commonality. Some people write from a place of true oppression. I think that’s why it’s hard for people to say they’re a “soul musician” because it’s about the experience of black musicians in the 60s and 70s.
“A lot of musicians that I look up to are black musicians; Nina Simone or John Coltrane but I’m never going to claim I understand what they’re going through. It’s just about paying homage to what came before you. I love soul music but I’m never going to say I’m a soul musician,” he asserts.
Of course, this site being Punktastic, we discuss punk and some of his favourite records. Jason namechecks Rites of Spring’s album as “probably one of [his] favourite of all time”. Yet, the conversation quickly moves onto how the band’s vocalist, Guy Picciotto (who would go on to play in Fugazi) had parents who moved to America from Europe and I spot a pattern forming in the way Jason appreciates musicians.
The front cover for ‘Home’ features a photo of the band’s drummer, Gavin, sitting on his father’s knee when he was a baby. Jason thinks it was taken by Gavin’s mum around 1986 and it was chosen because it ties imagery in with the lyrical themes of the album.
“That picture represents a time when Gavin’s father was just a father. They were new to it and everything was good. They had that home base together. His parents are divorced now and there was a bunch of turmoil. I think what Gavin wanted to demonstrate with the picture was to draw the themes back together.
“Because Gavin and I have been friends for 20 years, he’s the person who understands. We grew up together in single parent homes with single moms,” Jason explains.
‘Home’ is out now on Asian Man Records.