Jamie Randolph Interview Plus Stream "Villain"

What do vampires and Ryan Adams have in common? Memphis singer-songwriter Jamie Randolph is a huge fan of both.

Randolph's debut solo record, Villain, reflects this unexpected tangle of influences: It's a mix of Goth fetish and indie rock, blended with a delicate smattering of violin, piano and cello. The full spectrum of Randolph's theatrics were on display when he was joined by his new band, The Bloodsuckers, for his CD release show at the Hi-Tone Cafe.

Randolph was watching "The Wonder Years" when he decided to become a guitar player: "After I saw the episode when Kevin Arnold got one, I turned to my parents and told them I had to have a guitar. I was so excited when I got it, but it was a Gremlin and my girlfriend at the time made fun of it because it was small."

Randolph, 24, quickly recovered from the slight and his father, a music minister for Second Baptist Church in Cordova, began teaching him how to play. Randolph also spent a lot of time after church learning to play the piano and singing in the choir, even acting in a few church musicals.

"They were cheesy youth group musicals. If anyone has videotape of that stuff, I'm dead."

He started his first band, jokingly called Brouhaha, at 16 when he was at White Station High School. It was a jam band -- he and his band-mates from Houston High attempting to imitate Phish. Then during a short stint at the University of Memphis, he was asked to play guitar and sing with local band Retrospect. Soon after, Ardent Records offered the band a development deal. They released a six-song extended-play album, The Art of the Following, and their songs began getting regular airplay on Memphis' 94.1 The Buzz and regional college stations. Then they headed to New York to play several major label showcases.

"Jody Stephens (Ardent studio manager) took us up there and we played for Sony, Warner Bros. and Virgin, but we went there at the worst time possible," Randolph says. "It was around the winter of 2000, and no one was signing bands. We drove all the way there, and everyone was like 'thanks but no thanks.'"

Depressed but not defeated, the band returned to Memphis and continued writing the music that would end up on their Ross Rice-produced, self-titled debut album. The recording process was their first foray into being "handled."

"We didn't have any artistic control, and we didn't know that we could have spoken up," says Randolph. "So we just got led around and before we knew it, we had no money."

By the time the record was released, the band thought they had been put on the backburner by Ardent, and inter-band turmoil caused the musicians to decide to take a hiatus.

"I had already started writing my own songs towards the end," says Randolph. "I just sort of exploded. I think I wrote 12 or 15 songs in two or three months."

Randolph was heartbroken over more than just the loss of his band. A failed relationship coincided with the demise of Retrospect and echoes of the loss can be heard on the new album. He entered the studio last September with producer Matt Martone and proceeded to pour his anguish into the music.

The release of the album has coincided with a new love affair and most recently, a wedding. "My wife has to hear these songs all the time. It's very honest, so it's been kind of hard, but I just reassure her that now they are just songs," says Randolph.

While Randolph and friend Josh Horton formed their own record company, called Marauder Records, to release the new record, he still has a fan in Jody Stephens:

"Jamie and Matt Martone produced a record that's pretty fresh sonically and melodically, that reveals, like any great record, a little part of the artist."

Stream the new album Villain in my radio blog (link in header!)

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