Apart from his long-running band, North Elementary, Chapel Hill songwriter and artist John Harrison indulges his stream of consciousness with the more experimental and fluidly structured sounds he produces as Jphono1. In February, Living Is Easy, the first album from Harrison’s “soloish” project will be released via Potluck Records, as a CD with accompanying photo book. (For the impatient, Living Is Easy is available digitally right now, via Bandcamp.)

Shuffle’s Bryan C. Reed spoke to Harrison about the project via e-mail.

Shuffle: Tell me a little bit about Jphono1. How did this project get started? How do you separate it from your work with North Elementary?

John Harrison: Jphono1 is the name I use as a solo project. I’ve been recording and playing songs like the ones on Living is Easy for a while and just felt it would be a good time to put something together and see how it turned out. Even with NorthE, I start writing songs mostly on the acoustic so that part felt natural. I got a six string banjo a few years back and had been writing and recording with it a bunch. I’d been thinking about doing something for a few years and it just seemed to work itself out. I’d also been doing more solo touring and enjoyed the freedom of that process both musically and logistically. For those shows I’d play acoustic versions of NorthE songs as well as some songs I wasn’t quite sure what I would do with. And a few of those songs are on the album and some of the others were written specifically for Jphono1.

At this point North Elementary is a rock band and I love that. One of my favorite things to do is get with the guys in NorthE to play music and I’m lucky I get to do that. I sorta just don’t want to mess with that at this point. Jphono1 really enables me to try things and do stuff that might not make quite as much sense to me and the band in NorthE.

Shuffle: While Jphono1 seems to be a less restrained project than North Elementary, there are some clear sonic similarities. Why make Jphono1 a separate entity?

JH: Well, I guess it just makes sense to me. I’m not sure what it seems like from the outside looking in but you sorta get it right off the bat with your question. It’s less restrained due to time and the amount of people involved. I’m sure there are some things I can’t escape due to the fact I’m the songwriter for both, but a band is more complicated than a soloish type project. It’s important for me to play with other musicians weekly and there is a feeling and creative energy that cannot be duplicated from bands — I need that — but it takes time, coordinating and effort like any relationship that is worthwhile. With Jphono1 I can do anything at anytime and no other factor is required. I have learned I like both situations and need them to both coexist. I have made the decision not to perform songs in Jphono1 that are NorthE songs and vice versa, but I’m not sure how that works out in the songwriting stage. It’s just a feeling I have, I suppose.

Shuffle: You’re selling Living Is Easy as a book-plus-CD combo. How does the book complement the music?

JH: I wanted to have a physical product of the record and putting together a book seemed like an interesting idea. I got an iPhone last year and have become addicted to taking pictures with it. The pictures in the book were taken on the road and around the time of the writing and recording of the album. For me the book complements the music as it reminds me of this past year and the times I had making the record, playing shows and hanging out with friends. I’m not sure how it will come across other than that. To me it’s a total package but one can certainly exist without the other — although the book might make even less sense on its own. I know I like looking at the covers and liner note photos in my LP’s sometimes as I listen to them. It’s like that but with more pictures.

Shuffle: Tell me a little bit about the collaborators you worked with on Living Is Easy, Corey Pallon and Regina McCoy. How did you come to work with these folks?

JH: NorthE used to tour with an Atlanta band call Pistolero. He [Corey Pallon] was the songwriter/producer in that band and I think he is an amazing musican. Pistolero broke up but I kept in touch with Corey. He released an album, Born in a Shadow, that I love. I called him up one day to ask if he’d record this group of songs I had and make it sound like his record. He said yes. In July I went down to Atlanta and recorded the basic tracks and as much other stuff as I could in four days. Over the next few months he (and Tom Pollard, who also was in Pistolero) added some strings, bass, percussion and mixed the record.

I’m not sure what I’d do without Regina; I’ve worked with her for over a decade. She is my go-to person for graphic design. Chances are if you’ve seen any NorthE album cover, sticker, poster, or button you’ve seen her work. I worked with Regina on putting the Minus Sound Research book together and had asked if she would help me with the Living is Easy book. She designed the book. All I did was send her the photos — many more photos than where actually used. I think she is an amazing artist and really great person.

Shuffle: You’ve done a good bit of visual art, too, and co-founded Minus Sound Research with Maria Albani (Schooner, Organos). How does your music inform your visual art, and vice versa?

JH: I’m sure they inform each other in ways I’m not aware of. The core of both come from the same place. It’s another way to express or explore thoughts, feelings and ideas. At times I need to take breaks from playing music but still need to create. Making visual art enables me to shift gears on one level but still keeps me being creative and being open to the situations when a song or idea comes my way. I enjoy both processes and it’s nice to have options when you feel like pulling something into existence out of thin air.

Shuffle: With North Elementary, your paintings, and now Living Is Easy, you’ve come back to this image of an astronaut riding a horse. Where did that come from?

JH: I honestly don’t know but it’s really come full circle. Perhaps it has something to do with loving space and playing cowboys as a kid. I’d been sketching astronauts doing non astronaut type things for a long time. They first appeared in paintings around 2005 and on the NorthE album cover for Berandals in 2007. Since then I became that drawing in a video for the NorthE song “Sharp Ghost Minds.” I got a tattoo of it last year.

Shuffle: What about that image keeps you coming back to it?

JH: I like it.