Portrait of the busy artist

BY GLENN GAMBOA | Newsday Staff Writer

September 21, 2006

Talk about mutlitasking: Arthur - singer, songwriter, painter - has a new album, "Nuclear Daydream."

Joseph Arthur is twirling a cigarette rapidly in his right hand and a lighter at a slower pace in his left, as he talks about his future.

Sure, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter could just be jonesing for a smoke, which, of course, is verboten inside the little East Village breakfast spot where he is crammed into the corner. But it's also another sign of his well-documented multitasking - an ability to finish gallery-worthy paintings and critically praised albums such as "Come to Where I'm From" (RealWorld/Virgin) and "Redemption's Son" (Vector) simultaneously, or, more famously, build songs onstage, by recording loops of guitar sounds and his voice and then playing them back layered on top of each other as he continues to perform.

With Arthur's new album, "Nuclear Daydream," he adds another task to his duties, releasing it on his own label, Lonely Astronaut Records. But he's also giving a few up, going out on the road to support the album with a full band - which includes Golden Smog's Kraig Jarret Johnson, Furslide's Jen Turner and Telescope's Greg Wiz - for the first time.

"Sometimes, I don't even play guitar at all, I just sing," said Arthur, who has played those personally hand-painted acoustic guitars onstage for his entire career. "It's going in a totally different direction: Do nothing but sing. It's so great. Everybody in my band sings - sings really well - so the harmonies are really kicking and that's a big deal to me.

"Going out with a full band, compared to going out there and doing it solo, is like not even trying," he said, joking. "It's like taking candy from a baby every night."

Arthur is excited about how people react to songs from "Nuclear Daydream." "I feel like it's not reaching as much as my other records," he said. "It's just real song-based. I think it's a cool next step for me."

He said the album came together quickly and has a warm, welcoming feel. "I kind of made it that way on purpose," he said. "I was kind of like, 'Let's make something really user-friendly,' not in any sort of sellout way, but just like when I was picking out the songs I was looking for a certain style of song and I thought, 'Let's make a record out of this.' It's the first time I just put the thing together in my head, like I was making a mixtape for a friend."

The first single, "Enough to Get Away," has a sunny sound that masks a darker theme. "I think it's like an attack on the American Dream," said Arthur. "It sounds happy, but there is no 'enough to get away.' When you're writing, you never really know what you're talking about and then you interpret it later. I could never try to write something like that. It just comes out and it's like, 'Whoa, what's this?'"

After a recent trip to northern Uganda, where he brought art supplies and taught painting as a comfort to children left orphaned in the ongoing war between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan government, Arthur said he feels the songs he is writing now are on an even higher level.

Though his latest album hit stores Tuesday - following the release of "The Invisible Parade" CD, which accompanied his book of paintings "We Almost Made It" in May - Arthur's already working on a new CD. "I don't really know how to vacation," he said. "It doesn't come natural to me."

WWHEN&WHERE Joseph Arthur plays Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., Manhattan, 212-533-2111. Tickets are $18 through TicketWeb, 866-468-7619