Eddie Jacobson: Butterfingers and beyond
» MS Fest 2007 - Inveresk, Tas - March 11, 2007
» Handpicked Festival 2006 - Loxton Oval, SA - October 14, 2006
» Butterfingers - Mah Nah, Mah Nah - October 29, 2007
» Butterfingers - buttering up da beats - July 10, 2006
» Butterfingers - Republic Bar and Cafe, Tas - August 19, 2005
» Butterfingers - Saloon Bar, The, Tas - August 18, 2005
You may know 'Evil' Eddie Jacobson better as silver-tongued frontman of Brisbane smart-arses Butterfingers. But there is much more on the plate of the lyricist/axeman. Or is there?
“I’ve been travelling; I went overseas, just wasting time. I’m not joking about that, I’ve been literally doing nothing!”
Well, that’s you then. But what have the rest of Butterfingers been up to?
“We are all at work! We were supported by the band for a while, but we’re not touring at the moment, so we’re getting money from other means”
Butterfingers began circa 2003 when, legend has it, Eddie booked himself in as a solo act at Brisbane venue The Zoo. With no intentions of performing alone, he threw together an assemblage of like-minded musos in two weeks and the cunning linguist had a band.
You would know Butterfingers best for their Triple J- approved singles like Everytime ("Everytime I brush my teeth, I find another cavity, Everytime I try to fly, I discover gravity..."), I Love Work and FIGJAM from their hit albums Breakfast at Fatboy's and The Deeper You Dig which seamlessly blended rap, rock and a dab of ska.
The pockets may be slim but the creativity is rich; “Things are really good at the moment...I have a solo project, another punk band called Spitfire Liar, which is going well, we’ll have an album out shortly. Butterfingers have been jamming, it’s coming out more guitar orientated...”
The band to which Eddie refers is Spitfire Liar [http://www.myspace.com/spitfireliar ]. He explains the evolution of joining the thrash rockers.
“They had been around for about two years; I’ve only joined in the past six months. I’m just playing guitar, I’m not singing. Mouldy [Spitfire Liar current vocalist] has a much better screaming voice than I do. I need to preserve my vocals chords. I’m delicate (laughs)”
So, why the creative jump?
“Butterfingers had always been about not adhering to any kind of rules; in the way that we did lots of different genres, hip-hop, rock. In terms of songwriting...I know the first album was pretty crass; it’s what we wanted to do at the time. I pretty much try and approach every song as an entity unto itself, once I get the hook ad stuff going, what’s the best story I can get out of it, follow that lead”
Where to from here?
“To be honest, I’m really gonna focus on the solo thing as much as possible, the other things are all collaborative; the solo thing is gonna be similar to what Butterfingers has previously sounded like. I was submitting a lot of the music for Butterfingers, I haven’t finished it all yet”
Photo by Alana Featherstone (www.shootingstarphotography.net/)
