Shaking Through: Hezekiah Jones

Since January 2010, Weathervane Music and WXPN have collaborated on a music and video web series, Shaking Through. Led by Brian McTear of Miner Street Recording studios, they provide opportunities to rising, independent artists. The series has included several Philly bands, including Party Photographers and Reading Rainbow.

The latest installment stars the local indie-folk band Hezekiah Jones. We spoke to the band’s frontman, Raphael Cutrufello, by phone yesterday as he was driving to the Midwest where the band will tour for the next two weeks.

How was the experience working with the Weathervane folks?

It was amazing. Brian’s studio is definitely one of the best in the city as far as gear and just the space itself. And Brian is a legend when it comes to Philadelphia producers.

You’ve worked with legends over the years. You recorded with Phil Nicolo a few years back, right?

We’ve been really lucky to work with some excellent people. Brian was somebody we hadn’t had a chance to work with before. We had done some stuff in that studio a couple of years ago but he wasn’t there for it. It was nice to have him there for this one.

What stood out to you about this experience?

The day before we went into the studio we were kind of rushing to finish the song that we wrote for this project. So, we did not have a terribly clear idea of what we wanted production-wise. That was kind of interesting to give Brian the reins with that. We’re used to putting together the songs and how the recording sounds, so to pass that off to someone you can trust is a really interesting thing.

How much notice did you have to get a song ready for the project?

We had about a month. I demoed a bunch of ideas for Brian and sent them over to him. I asked him which song I should finish. I was having trouble with some of the lyrics and making things make sense. That was the kind of stuff I was reining in at the very end, some of the verses. We had Andrew Lipke on board for it too. He wrote some of the music.

The last album we put out in March was produced by Andrew. And that was recorded that with Phil.

Over the years, the band has had a number of different members. How did Hezekiah Jones come together?

In the past few years, we’ve had a pretty steady line-up of players. It still revolves around what we are doing. If we’re doing a bigger show and we want to bring in horn sections, we’ll bring in different groups of people. A lot of people I play with play in a number of other bands. Sometimes you just can’t get everybody. Sometimes you have to mix and match, or work to the venue or the time frame that you have.

Is that a Philadelphia thing … everybody being in a few bands at once?

Everybody does triple, quadruple duty in bands in Philadelphia. It’s just part of how it is right now.

There seems to be a growing movement of this indie-folk sound.

Yeah. It’s definitely having a bit or a revival in the city. I think we’re also seeing a lot of people who want to move to the East Coast but New York is too expensive. So we’re seeing a lot of bands move to the area, bringing their sounds and influences.

What was your inspiration for your sound?

I don’t know. Sci-fi movies? Kurt Vonnegut? I’m not sure where that comes from. I was in a jam-bandy kind of band before where I played piano. So, a lot of this was me moving to guitar and developing another sound than I had been working on.

Whose lyrics inspire you?

I would say lyrically, I’m really turned on by Leonard Cohen. I like things that are more lyrically dense. Not too fluffy. I guess I tend toward the darker, like Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, I don’t know.

Hezekiah Jones will play the TLA on June 5th as part of a yet-to-be-announced Mad Dragon Showcase. (Band image courtesy of Yer Bird Records).