Although James Taylor has been clean and secluded for thirty years in the woods of Massachusetts, his time as a junkie, Beatles protege and member of the Laurel Canyon scene also catches up with him on his comeback album. Luckily
eclipsed: "October Road", your last studio work, was released in 2002. Why the long break?
James Taylor: (laughs) Very simple: I got married, moved to an old farm that I had to renovate, and I had children. A full-time job where there was no time to write. This did not change until 2013, when the children started school.
eclipsed: Your studio is called The Barn. That sounds very rural..
Taylor: It is. My house is located in the woods of Massachusetts, with few neighbors, but a lot of wilderness. I've always dreamed of that. And the barn is the studio.
eclipsed: How can you write songs about your drug use in the seventies in this tranquil environment, and why do you still thematize it?
Taylor: Because it's still an important part of my life. I've been clean a long time, but it still won't let me go. And the challenge for every ex-junkie is to a) come to terms with the past and b) do it better in the future.
eclipsed: And the title of your comeback album "Before This World"? Is that James Taylor looking at the modern world, or does the title refer to you coming from a different time?
Taylor: Both. It means I present my work to the world. But I also come from another epoch, from a generation before this one.
