Interview with Mike Doughty

On November 12 at The Columbus Theatre, prepare for something a tad out of the ordinary. Mike Doughty (who you might know from his days as the frontman of ’90s alt-rock act Soul Coughing) will be putting on a show dictated by answering questions out of a jar along with performing music with his acoustic guitar and cellist Andrew Livingston. Along with that, he has a couple new albums out this year and a few things in the works. I had a chat with Mike about all this madness that’s bound to ensue.

Rob Duguay: On November 12, the World- Renowned Award-Winning Question Jar Show will be hitting up The Columbus Theatre in Providence. It looks like it’ll be a very unique experience as you and cellist Andrew Livingston will be answering questions between songs. What made you come up with this concept?

Mike Doughty: There’s a lot of speaking with the crowd in the shows. After a few months on the road, I would find that I was saying the same stuff nightly. So this was mainly an idea to force myself to mix it up. It’s also a great way to showcase the intensely delightful oddballness of Andrew “Scrap” Livingston.

RD: This past September you released your seventh studio album Stellar Motel; it’s your second straight release funded through PledgeMusic featuring special guests MC Frontalot, Moon Hooch and many others. What made you want to use PledgeMusic to fund the release your past two albums and how do you feel when independent artists are doing the same thing?

MD: I entered into it experimentally, with ideas about strange rewards for pledging. Things like private shows and songs recorded on ancient micro-cassette recorders. Recorder included! It turned out to be a fascinatingly rewarding experience, both as a source of funding, as well as its own kind of meta artistic piece.

Other artists on my level are doing great with crowd-funding. It’s a real innovation. But things are still tough for young artists looking for funding to get their careers started.

RD: Along with Stellar Motel you released a live album this year titled Live at Ken’s House, which was the end result from a tour you did last fall in support of Circles, Super Bon Bon and The Very Best Of Soul Coughing. What do you like most about touring and what do you like the least?

MD: Occasionally you have to move a bunch of boxes, which I don’t like a whole lot. But for the most part I enjoy the life. I enjoy being in motion, I love playing shows, and I have a 20-year-long intimate acquaintance with every big city, and most small cities, in North America.

RD: Being a musician that started out in the ’90s, in your opinion what is the biggest thing that has changed the music industry from then until now in 2014?

MD: It’s so easy to make records. You can start working on them on your laptop, and months later you’ll have a real, finished recording. You don’t have to plan so intensely, in terms of where to record, who to work with. There is a level of great spontaneity that’s possible.

RD: Speaking of 2014, the year is slowly but surely coming to a close. What can fans expect from you in 2015?

MD: I’m working on a rock opera based on the Book of Revelation. I’m working on a lot of drum machine stuff and I’m already starting to poke around with demos of new songs with my producer, Good Goose.

You can check out the World-Renowned Award-Winning Question Jar Show featuring Mike Doughty & Andrew Livingston at The Columbus Theatre. It should be a pretty cool interactive experience for everyone involved so don’t be a square and I’ll see you there.

Mike Doughty’s Website: mikedoughty.com