EDITOR on EDITOR

Introducing a series in which The OA's chief editor questions the modus operandi of other editors.

Phil Alexander, left, the editor of MOJO, with the Big O.

The best American music magazine is published in England. That the Brits seem to know more, and care more, about American music shouldn’t be all that surprising. To use handy examples, what were The Beatles and Rolling Stones, at heart, but neighborhood clubhouses for American-music lovers? (Which isn’t to say that the monthly compendium in question, MOJO, neglects the music from their own homeland and other countries (it doesn’t). It is only to say that the editors of MOJO know precisely where all this messy pop music that they love comes from; it is also to say that I wouldn’t bet money on beating the MOJO men and women in a trivia contest about American pop music.)

And it's not only that the Brits do well the job of covering the history of American pop music, but many American music magazines (with a few glorious exceptions) idolize only the newest or most controversial and photogenic—(or hippest, which really is just another kind of popularity contest).

In truth, the music of many (overly) popular acts is forgettable fluff. Yes, music magazines shouldn’t fall for forgettable fluff. But in spotlighting and giving pages to only the most ephemeral of superstars (or most ephemeral of hipsters), these publications commit the double-sin of neglecting the worthiest of all.

In the intro to THE OXFORD AMERICAN’s 2008 collection of music writing, I named some of the artists who have yet to make the cover of Rolling Stone (widely considered the best music magazine in our country):

The Kinks, Allen Toussaint, Big Star, The Sex Pistols, King Sunny Ade, Charles Wright, Candi Staton, Greg Brown, Karen Dalton, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin’ Wolf, Van Dyke Parks, Moondog, Daniel Johnston, Joanna Newsom, Little Richard, Wilco….

(Being a snarkster I also mentioned a few artists who HAD made the unfortunately coveted cover slot: the cast of FRIENDS, Pamela Anderson, David Spade, Jar Jar Binks, Orlando Bloom, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Laura Dern, Dana Carvey, Matt LeBlanc (solo), Jennifer Aniston (solo), Katie Holmes, the Olsen twins….)

So what I love about MOJO is how it operates far away from easy celebrity worship and is willing to “challenge” its readership by discussing older artists we’ve never heard of. And why the hell not? Why shouldn’t a magazine be about surprising and challenging its readers?

(You can see the interview for precise examples of how they go about their business.)

Each issue of MOJO is fairly expensive ($9.99), but I continue to champion the magazine not only for the monthly treasure of insightful music writing but for the accompanying MOJO CD (every month there’s a new one), which itself is worth more than a tenner. Your typical MOJO CD will take on a theme (“fifteen songs from the scene that spawned Pink Floyd,” “fifteen lost British hard rock gems 1968–1973,” etc.). The vast majority of their selections delight and enthrall—and surprise. If you are familiar with more than five songs of a given MOJO CD, you probably should be working for them.

I was pleased to be able to conduct the following interview with MOJO’s most capable editor, PHIL ALEXANDER.

—MARC SMIRNOFF

Hear This! "Ride The Donkey" by The Tennors

THE OXFORD AMERICAN: How is MOJO different from other magazines?
PHIL ALEXANDER: I’m not sure I’m the man to ask about how different we are because I view what we do as the norm. I suppose if I think about it then we go in a little deeper than most. I think we’re the only music magazine with cover features that run to twelve pages minimum. We also take a lot of care in terms of editing our writers’ work and in terms of our picture research. As an example, Greil Marcus wrote a piece about Buddy Holly for us a few years ago and we ran an opening picture to accompany it that hadn’t ever been printed and hadn’t been seen since 1957. For some reason, that made us all feel incredibly proud. As if we’d achieved something thanks to the use of one unseen Buddy Holly photo! I guess, that’s how odd we are sometimes in terms of what we do.

THE OA: What would you like to change about MOJO?
PA: I would like to increase the pagination, double the size of the issue and blow everyone’s minds with a vast array of musical munificence contained within the pages. Failing that, I’d like to create a vinyl edition of the magazine—i.e., a free twelve-inch vinyl record version of our cover mount CD.

THE OA: What do you love best about MOJO?
PA: I love the fact that we have the freedom to write about any kind of artist that we so choose and that a lot of musicians will actually give up proper quality time to do a piece with us.

THE OA: What single skill do you rely on most of all as editor of MOJO?
PA: Instinct. I think you have to know when something feels right for the magazine and for that to happen you need to be passionate about what you do and understand why you’re doing it. In that respect, on MOJO we have a very simple rule of thumb in terms of the artists that we cover: Do we like them? If we do, we write about them and we feel that other people will probably feel the same way about said artists. It’s not too complicated in that respect, but then we also have to know when we’ve got something wrong. Usually we can tell when we get a new issue in from the printers. Your initial excitement of seeing the finished magazine can quickly turn to disappointment when you feel you’ve got things wrong.

THE OA: What is the hardest part of your job?
PA: Balancing the commercial with the creative. I believe that if you put the creative first then the rest will follow. I’ve found that that always works but in this day and age, at times, it’s hard to get other people to agree….

THE OA: The easiest?
PA: The easiest part of my job is working with the MOJO team—all hugely talented. When I talk about the MOJO team, I also include our freelance gang, who are incredibly important to what we do.

THE OA: What is MOJO’s English circulation and its American circulation?
PA: MOJO sells close to 100,000 copies per month and—by complete accident—we’re now the biggest-selling British music magazine. Our circulation in the U.S. is around 25,000 but it does vary depending on what we believe may work stateside.

THE OA: Do you know if MOJO was immediately available in America when the magazine was launched in 1993?
PA: MOJO was definitely not available in the U.S. when it was launched largely because the aim of the magazine was to appeal to a small audience of intensely committed music fans that had outgrown the existing music press. The initial ambition was for the magazine to sell 30,000 copies and to do so primarily in the U.K. Since then, we have grown and realized that the magazine’s appeal is international.

THE OA: When did your association with MOJO begin and how did you arrive at the editor’s job?
PA: Funnily enough, I was commissioned to write a review of the late, great Johnnie Johnson for the first issue. The then-editor Paul Du Noyer eventually ran it in the second issue because he’d had to edit out my over-enthusiastic hyperbole!

Down the years, I ended up writing a few things for the magazine while editing weekly hard rock magazine Kerrang! which was owned by the same company. Then, in the summer of 2003, I became editor-in-chief of MOJO. It’s kind of weird because there are only two magazines which I had read since the first issue: MOJO and Kerrang!. I’ve had the pleasure of editing them both, which is a real honor.

THE OA: It’s hard to find info on MOJO. Scary Wikipedia lists four people who preceded you as editor. If this is true, why have there been so many MOJO editors?
PA: There have been five editors of MOJO in total: Paul Du Noyer, Mat Snow, Paul Trynka, Pat Gilbert, and myself. In the magazine’s seventeen years, I don't think five editors is that many. I think each of us brought different qualities to the magazine, but I’m really delighted that Mat, Paul T., and Pat have continued to make invaluable contributions to the magazine down the years. In fact, Mat wrote our last cover feature (Peter Gabriel) and Pat wrote the cover piece prior to that (Syd Barrett).

THE OA: Some quarters complain that MOJO gives too much coverage (and cover space) to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, and other familiar giants. Since the vast majority of your magazine is devoted to artists not on the cover, this criticism doesn’t really strike me as penetrating, but how do you respond to this criticism?
PA: I have no problem with dealing with that criticism. We do major classic acts, but then again, as far as I’m concerned MOJO is equally defined by acts that aren’t on the cover but that are covered in the magazine. Somehow MOJO manages to surf the somewhat non-existent wave between the mainstream and the underground. For instance, the current issue may have Peter Gabriel on the cover but we’re equally proud to have run a piece on the 13^th Floor Elevators. Roky and company may not be The Beatles but their story and their music is just as absorbing.

THE OA: Speaking of The Beatles, I love your series of CDs featuring both new and old covers of Beatles songs. Only truly great songs can be covered so frequently by so many different kinds of artists and still sound fresh and compelling. What is your single favorite Beatles cover that you all have released? (I choose Liz Green’s version of “Back In The U.S.S.R.”)
PA: It’s hard to pinpoint my favorite version of MOJO’s Beatles covers. There are loads. I do love Liz Green’s version of “Back in the U.S.S.R.” but I also find Vashti Bunyan and Max Richter’s version of “Martha My Dear” utterly bewitching. Then there’s Rachel Unthank and The Winterset’s version of “Sexy Sadie.” There are more, too….

Hear This! "Back in the U.S.S.R." by Liz Green

THE OA: Speaking of CDs, since the MOJO experience is dependent on the CD that comes with each issue, do you ever fear that the CD medium will become so obsolete (in this age of downloads and who knows what next) as to be a hindrance or turn-off?
PA: I do think that the CD is part of the MOJO experience. We try and compile the CDs as if we were making one for our mates. But I think that the CD format still has a way to go before it becomes obsolete. I do also know, though, that certain people are bored of cover mount CDs so we have to see whether there is anything out there that would be able to replace the CD. I don’t think downloads are it, though. The jury’s still out on what would be a good replacement.

THE OA: Do your editors also select the music for MOJO CDs? Or is there a different committee for that?
PA: The CD cover mounts are compiled and conceived by the MOJO magazine editorial team. We take compiling the CDs quite seriously. Our view is that if we don’t like our CDs then no one else will, so they have to be good, and we handpick the tracks. In that respect they are just as editorialized as the magazine.

THE OA: Please tell us a little bit of the process that goes into compiling your CDs. How do songs make it on or get rejected (do you have final say about which songs make the CD)?
PA: Quite often I’ll come up with the concept, road test it with the team, and try and compile a rough tracklisting. Then I get in touch with our creative director, Dave Henderson, and we agree on the tracklisting. Then he clears the tracks for us and possibly adds a few tracks to the mix if some become unavailable. Because the tracks are handpicked, very few are rejected. Having said that, when we do get artists to re-cover albums, we have had to turn a few covers away. That can be embarrassing.

THE OA: What is the most common misperception people have about MOJO?
PA: The most common misconception about MOJO is the magazine lives in the past. We don’t. Our musical policy is simple: We cover music that’s built to last, be it old or new. And, as such, we believe music is a continuum.

THE OA: Are there any plans to make MOJO different in the future?
PA: We would like to add more to what we do and to look at how to evolve the reviews section to incorporate digital aspects, but as far as wholesale changes are concerned, no. We are a music magazine and we’re happy being just that.

THE OA: I understand that the world of copyrights is different in England. Don’t the rights of a song become public domain in England after fifty years?
PA: Yes, the rights of songs do become public domain after fifty years. It’s a bone of contention among artists and labels, of course.

THE OA: Do you all pay royalties on the songs you use or do artists donate them to you?
PA: We pay all mechanicals on the tracks so artists and publishers get paid. It costs us a fortune every single month as a result.

THE OA: What is the most memorable piece that you’ve ever run in MOJO?
PA: I think the most memorable piece that we’ve run in the magazine is possibly “Bob Dylan: 100 Greatest Songs” as selected by a panel of fellow musicians that ranged from Paul McCartney to Bono.

The piece was thirty pages long and delivered Dylan’s entire career in one issue with genuine passion and insight from fellow songwriters and—as immodest as it may be to say so—it proved that you could do a list that has genuine value. I say this as someone who has also been involved with lists of very little worth…(I give you “100 Most Miserable Songs!”). I also compiled the “Dylan 100” and it provides you with an entirely different way of listening to the man’s work. “Blind Willie McTell” sits alongside “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” alongside “Gotta Serve Somebody.”

THE OA: I still can’t stop thinking about a Captain Beefheart piece you ran in the last year that made him sound like a mad despot, somebody who (if you believe the accusations) went so far as to hold his band hostage in a way…. What is the most memorable discovery you’ve made about music or musicians by reading something in MOJO?
PA: There are loads of discoveries I’ve made in terms of music that MOJO has turned me on to. I remember, when I started as editor, I was a folk skeptic. I used to have a particularly unhealthy disregard to The Incredible String Band. Now, though, I consider THE 5000 SPIRITS OR THE LAYERS OF THE ONION to be a work of consummate genius.

In terms of discoveries about music, I think that, at its best, MOJO allows the human values in music to shine through. It really is a case of show me the person and I’ll care about their music. The interesting thing is that when you speak to a musician about music, it unlocks a whole world of emotion and they talk to you about themselves more openly.

In terms of recent revelations, Peter Gabriel’s confession that he likes a good flutter, the fact that Danger Mouse is a music-school reject, that Ginger Baker got off smack by getting into tending olive trees, and that Shane MacGowan’s cure for baldness is to pour Guinness over his head, collect the pourage in a bucket, and drink it—all these stick in the mind from recent issues.

THE OA: What music magazines do you read with pleasure?
PA: I have a look at most music magazines that are out there and I do read them. Then I moan about them. I am not sure that there’s pleasure involved, as I get shamefully competitive....

THE OA: Are there any old artists that before MOJO championed them were unpopular or nearly unknown in England and are now beloved?
PA: Yes. I think Nick Drake is a classic example. He was on the cover of MOJO issue thirty-nine…. It was a piece, and a cover that genuinely changed the perception of Nick in the wider world, and transformed him from a cult-folk hero into a tragic-mythic figure. Since then, his legend has grown even further, and from being Island’s black sheep, he’s now one of their most acclaimed, and influential artists.

THE OA: You’ve interviewed a slew of larger-than-life talents. Most recently, Jimmy Page. (I find it very cool that you spend even more pages talking to him about his favorite songs from other artists than you do about his own music. So, yeah, I’ve heard of Jimmy Page but the artists he talks about—Om Kalsoum, Billy Boy Arnold, and the Missa Luba—are new to me.) What artist whom you’ve interviewed affected you the most by what he or she had to say?
PA: I’m not sure who has really affected me the most but I do have firm favorites. Jimmy is one of them, for sure, because he has such a deep love and understanding of music. Conversely, Ozzy is the polar opposite. He loves The Beatles and that’s about it. But I don’t think I have met someone capable of making me laugh quite as much as Ozzy in my whole entire life. In fact, if you spend time with all four members of Black Sabbath these days, you realize that none of them have actually changed. When they reformed, the band dynamic remains the same as it was in the old days and their sense of humor is totally unique. They find it hard to be serious so as soon as one of them says something that could be construed as serious, the other three pile in and mercilessly take the piss.

I suppose, if I really had to pick one artist that I really enjoyed speaking to and sparring with it’s probably Frank Zappa. I interviewed him a short while before he died and I was quite unsure about how to approach the interview. I found him to be intense but gentlemanly, his view of the world was well-rounded as was his view of culture in all its disposable glory. He told me that he wanted to run for president. I don’t think he was joking.

THE OA: The best concert you ever went to?
PA: I really can’t pick one but in recent times Led Zeppelin at the 02 Arena were monumental. It made me realize how they’ve been so blamed for the sins of others who appropriated what they did and got it all wrong. They nailed it completely because they actually served up a reminder that even when you play an arena, you don’t have to lose the human aspects of what you do. In fact, while loads of big rock shows have become something of a disembodied video spectacle, their performance was supremely human. What I saw was four people communicating and playing the way few others can play. It was inspiring, and moving, but somehow I didn’t feel it was nostalgic. Instead it felt timeless.

THE OA: What music are you currently grooving to?
PA: Okay. There’s a lot of new stuff. Here goes the list: The Archie Bronson Outfit’s new album, Coconut; Phosphorescent’s Here’s To Taking It Easy; Tunng’s …And Then We Saw Land; Pete Molinari’s A Train Bound For Glory; MGMT’s Congratulations; Polar Bear’s Peepers; John Grant’s Queen Of Denmark; Konono No. 1’s Assume Crash Position; Cate Le Bon’s Me Oh My; Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s Come And Get It; Vieux Farka Touré Fondo; Rolo Tomassi’s Cosmology; Christian Scott’s Yesterday You Said Tomorrow; and the first Pearly Gates Music album.

And some older stuff too: Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken; Cluster & Eno; The Adverts’s Cast Of Thousands; AC/DC’s Highway To Hell; Judy Collins’s Golden Apples Of The Sun; King Crimson’s Red; Smokey Robinson’s A Quiet Storm; Suicide’s THE Second Album; Syd Barrett’s Barrett; Lindsey Buckingham’s Under The Skin; Hawkwind’s Levitation; Galaxie 500 This Is Our Music; and a compilation of country music that Liam Watson did for me which, for reasons better known to himself, he has entitled The Roots Of Metal Volume 4….

THE OA: What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favorite album?
PA: I know we ask this question in the magazine every month, but I find it utterly impossible to answer! You almost have to ask me what my favorite album is on an hourly basis, as it tends to change fairly frequently. Having said that, there are certain albums that I never grow tired of. Those include the first Velvet Underground albums; the first six Led Zeppelin records; The Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed; Motörhead Bomber; Thin Lizzy’s Live And Dangerous and Bad Reputation; The Clash’s London Calling; The Adverts’ Cast of Thousands; Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque; Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes; Terry Reid’s River; Little Richard’s GET DOWN WITH IT: THE OKEH SESSIONS; Hawkwind’s Doremi Fasol Latido; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà vu; The Meters’ RejuvEnation and the self-titled debut, and Black Sabbath’s Master Of Reality. There are more, believe me….

Hear This! "Sympathy for the Devil" by Sandie Shaw