Less Than Jake - Ska punk heroes of the out crowd
Less Than Jake, punk veterans, as influential on the modern punk scene as Bad Religion, Pennywise, NOFX and the like. 12 years, countless releases and 4 ‘official’ albums on from their debut release Pezcore, they could have hung up the guitars and horns by now, satisfied with the fact they’ve been as bigger part as anyone for bringing ska and punk to the dominant force it is in the music industry today. But no, making a return to the major label environment (were previously on major label Capitol from 1996-1998 and released Losing Streak and Hello Rockview’, then released Borders and Boundaries with famed punk indie label Fat Wreck Chords in 2000) with their signing to Sire/Warner in 2003, and a new album, In With The Out Crowd’to tour the world with, Chris, Roger, Vinnie, JR and Buddy couldn’t be more fresh and enthusiastic. I spoke to sax player JR, asking him about their new album and what it’s like, as a punk band, being signed to a major label.
"Its not that much different from being on an indie label, just the amount of people you deal with on a day to day basis, everything’s on a much bigger scale."
Understandable, you just have to compare the artist register between Warner and their most recent previous label, Fat Mike’s (NOFX), Fat Wreck Chords, to really appreciate just how much more of a bigger scale it’s on. While they were rubbing shoulders with the likes of No Use For A Name, NOFX and ska comrades The Mad Caddies on Fat Wreck, they are now being promoted by a label that also promotes The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, Maroon 5 and countless other chart toppers. So does a punk band still have their artistic freedom when their signed to a major label?
"Its pretty much the same process as the indie labels you know, the producers will make criticisms, ask you to maybe try something different and we’ll just keep trying different things till everyone’s happy."
It’s a big step for a group of ska punks, hailing from the humble beginnings of selling their 1st album, Dill Record’s Pezcore, for $1 at shows at home in Gainesville, Florida, to end up being signed to a major label such as Sire/Warner. One has to wonder, how this comes about and if the thought of signing to a major label had ever crossed their mind.
"Wasn’t really a thought….the opportunity just came along… We had been signed to Capitol previously and people we knew from there asked if we were interested in signing to Warner…. So we said yeah… When you’re a band, it’s all about getting your music heard, you’re trying to get the most maximum exposure possible and we could do this with Warner," JR explains.
In With The Out Crowd, is their 3rd release on Warner, it’s an album filled with the familiar, infectious, ska punk melodies Less Than Jake are renowned for. Lyrically though, the album has taken a different focus. While previous releases were mostly lyrically reminiscent with comedic elements, talking of old friends and times they’d had, the new album has focused on this uninspired, sorrowful and self destructive character. A character which has come up in earlier albums on tracks like 'Hello Rockviews' (1998) 'Boring Town and Anthems' (2003) ‘The Science of Selling Yourself Short' but never to the extent it has on this album.
"Well you know people grow up. When we wrote the previous albums we were in our early to late 20s, but yeah people grow up we’re in our 30s now and life throws curve balls your way. When writing the new album we had deaths and we had divorce. You know motherfucker’s have been saying we’ve gone all ‘emo’ and are just trying to be ‘emo’ and we’re like fuck you man! You don’t know whats goin on in our lives. Vinnie’s (Vinnie, the bands drummer writes the majority of their lyrics) just written about his own experiences and our experiences and that’s how it’s been."
Emo seems to be a term that’s being thrown around everywhere in the industry at the moment. While it was the Blink 182 brand of punk that dominated the kids CD players of the late nineties, it’s the emotionally charged wailings of bands like The Used, My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday that are dominating the kids ipods and hard drives at the current time. It’s always easy to question the longevity of a scene that becomes so popular so quickly and easy to pass this sort of thing off as just another fad.
"Well I’ll be interested to see," JR muses, "I hope for their sake it does last. We know the kids in My Chem and we know the kids in Taking Back Sunday and they're cool guys. But I dont really know. You know when I first heard Nirvana I never thought that their fame would last and look at them."
An interesting track on their new album is their latest single, ‘The Rest Of My Life’, a mellower track for the band with almost a ballad like feel to it. The most interesting part about it is the synthesizer track at the conclusion of the song, something which hasn’t been used in this way on a Less Than Jake track before. Where does the inspiration come from for a ska punk band to include a synthesizer on their track?
"I think it started out as horns there, but it just sounded really weird, so we tried the synthesizer and it sounded kinda cool."
Less Than Jake will no doubt be show casing this track when they return to Australia next month. No strangers to our shores, they have an extremely loyal Australian fan base and do love touring here. Their last visit was only just over a year ago in December last year. What makes the Aussie fans such a favourite audience to play to?
"I think it’s mostly just because everyone gets really wasted. We did a show in Bunbury last year and that was awesome. Everyone was just really drunk and having a great time."
It was funny he mentioned Bunbury, as I was at that show and it stuck out in my mind also as one of the more fun gigs of that year. This is one of the qualities of Less Than Jake that has ensured people keep coming to their shows, time and time again. While they’ve rocked crowds at massive festivals, they still play these smaller gigs with just as much energy as if there were up on a Warped Tour stage.
"It's really fun to play those big gigs, but whether your playing to 80 000 people or 200 people its still the same show. And we have a lot of fun at those smaller shows."
While on the subject of drunken Australians, I had to ask JR about the incident with Frenzal Rhomb’s Jay Whalley damaging their tour bus one year. This inspired the track ‘Jay Frenzal’ on last years ‘B for B Sides’ and was curious if they’d buried the hatchet.
"(laughs) Oh that was ages ago, (laughs) no we could never stay angry at Jay, he’s one of our good friends. We pretty much wrote that song as a joke, I think he like apoligised the next day or something, no he’s a really good friend of ours."
No doubt there’ll be more fun times for Less Than Jake, with drunk or ‘wasted’ Aussies when they tour here next month. Playing a number of shows at most major centres around the country. They are a good old fashioned live punk band to jump around, skank or sing along with, so be sure to catch them and their newest material when they tour near you.
