Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith likens his latest album, “11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele,” to eating at Joe’s Crab Shack where patrons wear bibs: “The bib to me says, ‘It’s OK to just abandon dignity. Rules of eating do not apply here,’ ” Messersmith told the Emerald in a phone interview. “I feel the same way about labeling songs as obscenely optimistic and giving people permission to like it.”
Though Messersmith considers himself more of a glass-half-empty type of person and maybe even a pessimist, he feels that it’s important to indulge in campiness like Joe’s Crab Shack or ukulele songs about kittens every once in awhile. The normally morbid musician (his third album, “The Reluctant Graveyard,” was inspired by a cemetery) found himself amid a “barrage of negative news stuff” this past winter and ended up writing an album to counter some of those feelings.
The result: a 15-minute “micro-folk” album about kittens, stars and the boundless opportunities that this world sometimes holds.
“It seems like it’s way more remedial than political. I’m not talking about health care policies or wealth redistribution,” Messersmith said. “I felt like I had to take even a step back and try to just encode what the basic values of a modern society are; how I can express those in a way that’s so simple that everybody can like them and not really feel defensive about it.”
A native to Washington state, Messersmith moved to the Twin Cities, Minnesota, to attend bible college. He grew up in a religious family and was homeschooled until he was a teen. His 2009 sophomore album, “The Silver City,” is a concept album about Minneapolis, his home city.
“11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele” came as a surprise to Messersmith’s loyal fans. After his 2014 Glassnote Records release, “Heart Murmurs,” he began working on a new album. He hinted at releasing new music in 2017, but no one knew exactly when it was due.
“Obviously, I went to my happy place with the ukulele record, but I felt like I really did that too in the run up to the election with this other record,” he said. “I had to go to my musical happy place and that was ‘60s pop music.”
Messersmith first released “Obscenely Optimistic” as a songbook, similar to Beck’s “Song Reader,” encouraging fans to share their renditions of the songs. He recently returned from a tour of “micro shows” to support the release. Audience members brought their ukuleles and other instruments to sing along to the 15-minute album in whole.
These micro shows took place at various monuments, statues and other odd places around the country, including an abandoned observatory in Cleveland and the ruins of the First Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana. He also played a show outside of the White House.
This tour provided new challenges for Messersmith to address, including trying to engage passersby and figuring out how to amplify his sound without actual amps.“Sometimes when you are playing in clubs it can get a little boring or predictable. I like things to be fresh and new and a little bit unpredictable,” he said.
He is no newcomer to playing odd or offbeat venues, though. In recent years, Messersmith has thrown potluck party shows at fans’ homes around the country as part of his extended Supper Club Tour. In September 2016, he played on a riverboat on the Mississippi River, even pausing his show to watch deer swim across the river.
While “The Silver City” and most of his other albums start out light, Messersmith’s lyrical content often turns dark. “You’re really hurting in the last tracks if you’re listening to it,” he said about “The Silver City.” His musical influences range from ‘60s pop to more classical genres from different eras. In concert, he features Minneapolis’s Laurel String Quartet as part of his full band. The Laurel String Quartet is heavily featured on his 2010 album, “The Reluctant Graveyard,” which features rollicking guitars and his signature light vocal style.
Father John Misty’s “Pure Comedy” has been a staple of Messersmith’s listening habits recently. He said he and Misty share a background in shaking off religious upbringings. The former Fleet Foxes drummer and Messersmith also share a pessimistic worldview, but approach it differently. While Messersmith considers himself an artist who views the world moment by moment, he thinks Father John Misty has a sprawling approach: “It’s like he’s playing ‘Sim City’ and I’m playing ‘Sim Ants,’” he said.
Messersmith’s non-musical influences often include film. When he goes on writing retreats, he likes to bring one director’s full filmography. On a recent writing retreat, he brought the Coen Brothers’ movies and watched one of their movies per day. He’s also watched Hayao Miyazaki’s films while writing. “I find that to be a great way to explore ideas in a compact way,” he said. “I love films for that.”
“11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs for Ukulele” is as compact as Messersmith’s music gets. It explores something that has always been hidden in his discography. Underneath that pessimism (or realism, as he calls it), there’s a sense of sad hope. In the “Obscenely Optimistic” track “We All Do Better When We All Do Better,” he approaches being political in quoting late Minnesota politician Paul Wellstone: “We all do better when we all do better / That means everyone,” he sings.
While his guitar may have the word “resist” painted on it and his ukulele reads, “This machine also kills fascists,” Messersmith argues that “Obscenely Optimistic” isn’t political. Instead, it’s Messersmith distancing himself from his mentality of realism for a bit.
The ukulele album was released in April, but Messersmith considers it more of a palate cleanser between albums than a typical release. He will release another album in September, also on Glassnote Records. Messersmith compared the upcoming release’s sound to “The Reluctant Graveyard.”
While he said his upcoming album will sound similar to “The Reluctant Graveyard,” he wrote the lyrics in a happier headspace.
“I need to have a musical, mental happy place and it felt like writing those songs was a way for me to get there,” Messersmith said. “I think a lot of people needed that as well, just a ray of sunshine. It can’t be all doom and gloom all the time.”
Watch Jeremy Messersmith’s Tiny Desk concert below:
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