Interview : Less Than Jake
December 1st 2010 10:25
Less Than Jake have spent the last 18 years playing infectious ska blended with crunching punk rock to their ever growing legion of fans worldwide. The band, a fan favourite in Australia are returning to the country for 2011’s Soundwave festival, their second appearance. But beforehand, the group have released their new concept EP titled “TV/EP”, a collection of TV theme songs and commercial tunes. I spent some time chatting to Roger about the EP and their previous Soundwave experience.
less than jake have been running the race for years
Hey man how are you doing?
Yeah man I’m doing alright.
What are you up to at the moment?
Oh actually right now I am so lucky cause I’m sitting here on my own couch of my own living room of my house. I was working on some demos earlier on today.
What’s been going on lately for Less Than Jake?
Well lately with been rehearsing a lot and working on some new songs. We really haven’t been doing any full on touring this year but we’ve been pretty much playing every weekend this year, getting on a plane a flying to some college and playing a couple of shows here and there. This weekend we’re playing two shows in our home Gainesville, but we’ve just been working on some songs. We’ve just recorded this thing called the TV/EP a couple of months ago and it’s coming out pretty soon.
How did the TV/EP concept about?
We were hanging out in our rehearsal space writing some new songs and reminiscing about the old days when we used to play bit and pieces from TV theme songs, so we thought it would be a cool idea if there were some kind of release, where you know, your sitting on your couch flipping through the TV and all those theme songs and commercial jingles... with Less Than Jake playing them.
Cool!
Yeah well thats the idea. It’s just us not taking ourselves too seriously. And you know it’s cool to songs from shows that we love and having people figure them out.
What are some of the theme songs you’ve recorded for the EP?
Well the Animaniacs theme song is up online so we let the cat out of the bag on that one. But we;re really not telling people whats on there. It’s kind of a whole experience to be listened. It only goes for 13 minutes and it’s kind of disjointed (laughs) I don’t know man, it’s got some old stuff and some new stuff and some in between, totally made up stuff!!
Less Than Jake are heading this way next year for the Soundwave festival, you played Soundwave a couple of years ago, what are your memories of that tour in 2008?
Oh man it was a really good time. It seems like everyone there had a good time. Actually at that festival I was also playing bass for Face To Face, so I was on the double duty and it was kind of crazy. Less Than Jake played earlier in the day on the main stage and Face To Face was playing later in the day so I kind of had to be there all day, every day so it felt like I working all that tour, it was awful!!
Now if I remember there was also a few issues with getting some of the members to the first show in Brisbane right?
That was first show right?
Yeah
Yeah, a couple of the guys were on a totally different flight and then it got delayed in the States and it was nothing we could do about it and I think the time we were supposed to go onstage, they were landing at the airport.
Have you seen the line up for next years Soundwave?
I’ve heard a couple of things about the festival, I know our friends New Found Glory are on there so that should be cool. I heard Iron Maiden is headlining the thing which is AMAZING! They are like one of my favourite bands growing up, so thats unbelievable. I heard Slayer and Slash are playing, it sounds like it will be huge.
It is a massive line up, obviously with festivals it’s chance to catch up with bans you haven’t seen in a while, is there anyone you’re looking forward to seeing and having a beer with?
Well I see the New Found guys all the time cause they’re from Florida so i don;t care about seeing those guys, whatever!! We just saw them last week at a show it was like ‘yeah we’ll see you in Australia, whatever no big deal’ (laughs) I heard Pennywise will be there and they have a new singer so that should be cool, we haven’t seen those guys in a while. I always like to see our good friends Jay and The Doctor from Frenzal Rhomb, our old Australian tour buddies so I’m sure I’ll get to see them at some point. And we have a lot of friends that are behind the scenes that are working on the tour and tour managers so it’s always good to see those folks.
You guys virtually tour Australia every year, what is it about Australian fans that bring you back each time?
Well, honestly, you know, Australians know how to have a good time. You know in the States you play a show in major city, say you play Los Angeles or you play New York or something, it seems like those people go to so many shows that sometimes they don’t seem as excited about it as you would hope. Where as in Australia, it’s just different, they go to the show, have a few fucking beers and have a really good time. The overall attitude is about having a good time and getting along with everyone. We’ve always had a really great time and we share the same sense of humour and we’re lucky to get come down there as often as we do.
A few years back Less Than Jake performed 6 albums (pezcore, losing streak, hello rockview, borders and boundaries, anthem and in with the out crowd)in their entirety over 6 nights. How difficult was that to put together and perform?
You know it was weird. Some of the songs are automatic, we can play them with our eyes closed and its no big deal. And then there is always some song with some part thats not quite as natural to some people. I think we rehearsed for about 5 or 6 weeks leading up to those shows.
Do you think it is something you guys would try again?
I don’t see why not. Lately when we’ve been figuring out what to play at some of these random shows we go ‘let’s just play all of hello rockview tonight’ so we still have a lot of those songs in our back pocket. I wouldn’t be surprised of we did that again. You know after we did that it seems like a lot of bands are doing that so maybe not.
Is something that has become a trend, I believe at Soundwave Millencolin are performing ‘Pennybridge Pioneer’ album for the whole festival.
oh really, well thats kinda cool. I mean it’s fun and fans seem to like it.
Would you ever go back to something like the Greased EP?
Well the TV/EP is sort of like that. A cover Less Than Jake style. I wouldn’t be surprised if we did another like that in the future.
One thing that has always impressed me with Less Than Jake, despite a few horn players, you’ve kept the same line since ’92. What is it that’s kept you guys together so long?
Luck, alcohol, amphetamines (laughs) I don’t know, we are all really good friends, honestly the one thing I’m surprised other bands don’t do is talk about their problems. Over the years if something comes up and one of us has an issue we TALK ABOUT IT!!! That’s honestly why we’re still together. We’re not egomaniacs and we’re not scared to speak our minds to each other and talk it out.
Would you say being in a band is like being in a marriage?
Yeah it’s kind of like that, maybe more of a brother/family thing for us. But yeah it is like a life long, kinda stuck with everyone forever kind of thing (laughs)
If you were to make a mix tape, what would be the first song you’d put on there?
Thats easy for me and it’s amazing that you’ve asked that cause I’ve recently decided on what my favourite song is and it’s a song called ‘Lead In Front’ by Archer Loaf. I don’t know what it is about that song man. I look at my iTunes and it has 80 something plays, I think I really like this song.
Thanks so much for having a chat today Roger.
All right man thank you.
See you guys in February.
Sounds good, I’ll see you there brother.
Less Than Jake will play Soundwave in February 2011. TV/EP is available now.
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