Jem Doulton plays drums with Thurston Moore and until recently for Róisín Murphy. Jem is on Thurston’s singles Cease Fire and MX Liberty, and the albums Spirit Counsel and By The Fire. He toured live with Róisín’s band for 7 years, and he is involved in a lot of psych-rock, free improvised stuff in London too. All that means Jem Doulton has met very distinctive and powerful musicians. So he made an album featuring all of them. It’s called Perfect Picture – he has been releasing it song by song over the course of a year as a sort of serialisation and journey that slowly reveals itself: who's playing what where, imagery, social media kookiness.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Jem Doulton, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Hi Kamil, glad to be here. I’m not entirely sure if I’m honest, I was very young; my mum says I pretty much immediately sought out the pots and pans and made a racket hitting them with wooden spoons which would eventually break. I did this at my grandparents’ house too; it was definitely more about the sounds generated though and not for the wholesale destruction of all wooden spoons worldwide.
Describe your favorite and least favorite part about being a musician.
Music itself is (or can be) the best thing in the world. It can also be terrible but when you’re in the zone playing stuff you care about, the feeling there is a pretty inexplicable high one. The least favourite part is keeping your nerve pursuing it, it's quite a fragile existence but I can't really see myself doing anything else so I think I'm slowly getting used to its lack of stability or at least I try to think that that's the case :)
How do you differ from most other artists?
I'd say it's very hard to answer this objectively and I'd say it's up to other people to decide really. What do you think?
Where are you from and do you have a stable home or do you prefer travelling?
I'm a Londoner born and bred. A lot of people outside of it would only see the instability here but I get confused as to whether music or London is the more unstable aspect of my life. I do like to travel and to play music whilst travelling but I also like to play music and be in London too :)
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
All sorts really. I have a long lasting guitar and drum duo called Dead Days Beyond Help which is heavy, complicated and puts us both at the edge of our abilities. I've been in many projects over time and I wouldn't say there's one single genre I do. My songs date back as well to when I had an alter ego called Mr. Ron Jetson, I killed him at some point but I guess if he were to answer the question he'd say he wrote messed up things of a wonky pop nature. It's not this anymore as me, myself and I but I'm aware that could be a misperception.
How do you nurture your own creativity?
Keep going mostly and/or living on the edge... And practising those things :)
If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
I was jealous of Kris Kross when they opened for Michael Jackson at Wembley Stadium in 1992.
Who's your ideal musician to collaborate with and why?
All of my friends who play music.
What are your plans for the future?
Find a European wife, get a European passport and a German Shepherd.