The Life Of A 21st Century Musician: An Interview With Jim Campilongo

Popshifter: I saw a Fender YouTube clip featuring you when the new Fender Princeton reverb reissue came out. I think you called it a “personal, lyrical” kind of approach. How much of that comes from working with singers, like playing with Norah Jones in the Little Willies or with Martha Wainwright? Or did you always approach it that way?

Jim Campilongo: Well, I always approached it that way. Not to say that they haven’t influenced me, they have. But always, in playing an instrumental. . . maybe I learned it from Roy Buchanan or the people that I listened to, like his reading of “Sweet Dreams.” I knew that song was about heartache, some kind of yearning, just by the way he played it. But I always will try to express what the song is trying to say originally.

A song like “Stardust,” or something like that, I’d really think about the lyrics, and that’s a sad song. It’s about someone who is at the end of their life I guess, looking back at a time when their heart was filled with love and hope, and now maybe they experience those feelings by retrospection. I would think about that like an actor approaching a role. What do they call that? “What’s my motivation?” or something like that.

Popshifter: Right, and then you have to go into that with it in mind that no one is going to be singing; you have to get that across with your instrument.

Jim with Norah Jones
Photo © Jim Campilongo

Jim Campilongo: Which to me, I prefer. To me, it’s like I could maybe say more because of that. On Orange, there’s “When You Wish Upon A Star,” and I felt like on that tune, I wanted to play it like the guy didn’t get his wish, to be honest.

I remember hearing it when I was a kid, they used to play it at the beginning of the Disney show that was on Sunday nights or something, and we’d never watch it. I think my parents would watch something else, but now and then I’d hear that song and see Disneyland with the fireworks going off. . . I dunno, this might be before your time. Anyway, I used to hear that song and I remember being really moved by it. It wasn’t like, “All my wishes are gonna come true!” I never really felt that way about that song. I always felt it was just about hope, maybe a hope that might get fulfilled or not. So I played that tune like someone wishing for something, but they’re not gonna get it.

Popshifter: It’s definitely not a rote reading of the melody.

Jim Campilongo: (laughs) Exactly, yeah. . . I’m rarely on autopilot, and I shouldn’t be.

Popshifter: Going back a step, as I said earlier you play with Norah Jones in The Little Willies and also with Martha Wainwright. Do you prefer playing as an instrumentalist and bandleader or as a sideman?

Jim Campilongo: Well, I guess I would prefer being a bandleader or playing my own music but, it’s much easier being a supporting member. It’s really hard to play the head, or play the tune and then you’re supposed to solo. Sometimes I think, do I really wanna hear a solo? I just played for a minute and 20 seconds and how am I gonna make this solo? Do I wanna hear anything? And I’ve learned how to do that playing in different registers of the guitar.

On “The Prettiest Girl in New York” off Heaven Is Creepy, I play a solo in the upper register, and I never really did that until I started doing my own thing. It’s a lot different than playing a song. It’s going along, and you think, “Geez, in about ten seconds I’m gonna play, I’m gonna turn up to ten and I’m gonna play a solo. . . 10-9-8-7-6. . . “(laughs) Okay!

You know, to me it seems a lot easier, and it’s easier in that one could just complement the main player, and it’s also easier in that when the gig’s over, you just get out. Everybody wants to talk to Norah, or everybody wants to talk to Martha.

I’m not trying to sound like I hate talking to people because I don’t, but it’s much easier. All that said, and never taking the easy path, I would prefer playing my own music, having the satisfaction of composing something and hearing it. But I really do like both, I wish I would get even more sideman calls than I do. I know I have a strong voice, sometimes people might think it might be a bit much. They don’t want Rod Steiger or Keanu Reeves or whoever, they want someone who’s maybe a little less attention-grabbing. Me, I’m not trying to beat my chest or sound bitter, because I’m not, but I miss that sometimes, where if someone had a unique voice as a soloist, that used to be an asset. To some degree, that’s not as important anymore. A lot of the music I hear, it doesn’t make many waves.

Click to read more from Jim Campilongo on. . .

New Record Details and The New York Sound
Making The Songs Work Together
Guitar vs. Singing
Sideman vs. Frontman
The Life Of A 21st Century Musician
Jim Campilongo In 3D?

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