Joyner's album is about life's daily struggles

He's an internationally known songwriter. He's from Omaha. And he's a friend of Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst. In fact, he's one of Oberst's biggest influences.

He's Simon Joyner, and he has yet another album, “Out Into the Snow.”

Joyner released the record in September on Oberst's Team Love label, but he's celebrating the release Friday with a performance at Slowdown.

In anticipation of the show, Joyner answered some questions about Team Love, the album and his lack of touring.

Q. This is your first release on Team Love. What's that been like?

A. It's been fantastic. I've released a lot of records on indie labels over the years, and Team Love has been the most accommodating and energized of them all. I was worried that because they were friends of mine, it would be difficult to get things done, but they are totally professional.

Q. Where did you record “Out Into the Snow”? What other musicians are on the record with you?

A. We recorded at ARC Studios in Omaha. My longtime producer/collaborator, Michael Krassner, flew in to engineer. The core band on the album is made up of Alex McManus — from Lambchop, the Bruces, Bright Eyes — on guitar and keyboards, Chris Deden on drums and Ryan Kennedy on bass and piano.

Michael Krassner played some additional organ, Mike Friedman played pedal-steel on a few songs, and then we brought in the angel voices of Sarah Gleason and Pearl Lovejoy Boyd to sing backup vocals on a few songs. We also had Laraine Kaizer add string arrangements to a couple songs.

Q. Why the title “Out Into The Snow”?

A. There's a song on the album called “Out Into the Snow.” That song is literally about getting a call in the middle of the night during winter from a friend in need and having to get bundled up to go rescue them from a bad situation.

But metaphorically, it also works for the characters throughout the album. Stepping out into the snow is a figurative way to say engaged in the struggle of daily life. My characters are usually moving away from something or toward something else and so they're conflicted.

I don't write about complacent or satisfied characters because that idea seems like a lie to me. There is always some struggle going on, even in otherwise happy people. How a person handles problems is how you measure his or her humanity. Not all my characters rise to the occasion; not all of them succumb, either. Some characters struggle and get nowhere. As far as my writing is concerned, everyone is out in the snow, or as Bob Dylan said, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”

Q. Lots of Omaha musicians and many others outside of Omaha credit you as a big influence. What's that like for you?

A. It's always nice to be appreciated by other artists, especially songwriters. It's an honor to be accepted into that community.

Q. You still don't play a ton of shows or tour. Why?

A. Well, to be honest, it's basically an all-in or all-out proposition. You have to decide if you're going to be a professional touring musician or not. If you make that choice, it requires being on the road several months out of the year in order for it to be fruitful.

I could live off my music alone if I was willing to tour all the time but it's too much of a personal sacrifice, in my opinion. I decided that I'd rather have a family and be around most of the time.

So I still tour but only for a couple weeks here and there. My children have swim meets and recitals and bad jokes to tell me, and that daily life stuff is infinitely more interesting and fulfilling than sleeping in hotels, eating from supermarket deli trays and waiting around in windowless rooms for a theoretical sound guy to arrive and test the snare drum for half an hour.

I'm exaggerating. Touring is a lot of fun, too, but the scale definitely falls more to the monotonous side and you can feel like you're in the movie “Groundhog Day,” living the same day over and over again. I have a separate business that pays the bills and I'm still able to write and make albums and perform on my own terms. It's a perfect arrangement for me.

I'm very lucky that there are enough people out in the world who want to buy my records that I'm able to keep convincing labels like Team Love to let me do another. And I find that because I don't tour all the time, I'm able to enjoy it much more when I do go out and perform.

Contact the writer:

444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com