INTERVIEW: Jimmy Eat World
- Tracey Bleile
The band Jimmy Eat World is more than three-quarters through their tour of duty criss-crossing the Midwest, and as they make their way to the Foxfire Coffee Lounge in downtown Minneapolis, they had that road-trip glaze that only comes from too many close-quartered days in a van filled with six people and all their gear. Fresh from a video game and cradling a giant cup of hot tea, bassist Rick Burch graciously took some time to talk about their new album, Clarity.
The excitement being generated ahead them of in every town, and growing with every date, is due to the single "Lucky Denver Mint," which is also included on the soundtrack to the new Drew Barrymore movie Never Been Kissed. The band also made a video for "Lucky Denver Mint" that was directed by Darren Doane (who retains the hyper moves and humorous story line that made Blink 182's "Dammit" a hoot).
"A lot of people have been coming up to us saying, 'Yeah, we heard you on the radio, and we wanted to check you out live,'" Burch says. "And we filmed a video for "Lucky Denver Mint.' We had done a video before, but it was mostly live performance shots. There was actually some set-ups for this video. There's some Frisbee and basketball; it was really fun."
When Clarity finally made it out after being in limbo with their label - due in no small part to the single's success - the band's first priority was hitting the road. They were already well-rehearsed from the break between recording and the actual release of the album. Preparation for the tour consisted of playing a couple of live shows for the hometown crowd at the new venue The Green Room in Tempe, and then they were off. They also had a couple of notable appearances at the increasingly overwhelming SXSW music conference. Burch noted with humor that the band played an in-store where people actually came to hear the band play instead of being pissed off by loud music while attempting to shop, and then played to an overflow crowd at The Electric Lounge.
As for how they survived their sophomore effort with a major, well, that's a bit tricky. Most of their energy was dedicated to the music, as the band thought it should be. With regards to recording Clarity, Burch credits the focus and maturity of their sound to working a second time with Mark Trombino, who also produced Static Prevails. He credits the expansion of their sound with a band's best friend and sometimes worst enemy: time. "We had a lot more time in the studio and we had worked with Mark Trombino on the first record, so we already had a strong relationship with him, no getting to know each other, and so we got together and boom, we took off, and it was just awesome," Burch says.
One of the results of all that time was the shift in direction. From the rawer, punkier energy emerged more moody, thoughtful moments, and more varied instrumentation, which Burch said came after the original melodies had already been written. Also, some sounds that turned up later (mellotron, keyboards, bells) originally existed as alternate guitar lines that had already been written. This enables the band to re-translate the songs live, without any additional musicians, or the bane of the live show, tape loops. "We got into the studio," Burch says, "and there were all these toys and it was like, 'Let's try it on the Hammond B-3.' We just went crazy with it.
"We were trying to pay a little bit more attention to detail," Burch continues. "We wanted to get as much into the songs as we could, make it a little more interesting than just the basic verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge that's normally out there." Burch gave high praise to violinist Suzie Katayama, who he says they "turned loose" on the album, and with Jim Adkins and Trombino, Katayama added many beautiful string arrangements to songs like "Just Watch The Fireworks" and "A Sunday."
"Eventually, on our next tour," says Burch in his next breath, "I think we're going to have a couple extra musicians with us -- an extra guitar player, a vocalist, a keyboard player, and also a second percussionist." At a later point in this tour they will be hooking up with the San Diego band No Knife, who will be aiding and abetting with some of the above noted duties.
As for that worst enemy -- time spent waiting after the work is done: the band had decided to go back into the studio very shortly after they came home from touring for over two years on Static, and Burch said they knew they were ready to move on, "We couldn't tour on that anymore, and we were ready to go back into the studio, but Capitol wasn't ready." So they recorded Clarity and bided their time. In the interim after completing the album, they also recorded an EP featuring two of the songs from the album, and a demo version of a third, an exceptionally quiet and plaintive version of "Your New Aesthetic" which gave way to version on the full-length that was a head kick of a re-write. Rick laughs and says that it was *the* antidote to the softer, gentler turn the album was taking. "It's a really rockin' song," he understates.
There are also two completely new songs ("Softer" and "Rollerqueen") that were completed after the Clarity recording sessions ended. Capitol already had the full-length on hold, and were not interested in releasing the EP, so the band asked permission to go elsewhere. They eventually hooked up with Fueled by Ramen, an independent label in Gainesville, FL. "He offered to do it, we took him up on it, and it just went really well." A DJ at KROQ in Los Angeles got a copy of the EP and started playing "Lucky Denver Mint," and finally Capitol relented and brought Clarity out at the end of February. Burch's last comment on the subject was that Clarity would have been released regardless, and what ever the future holds, they will continue to make records. A future project being considered is compiling the early Jimmy Eat World 7-inch singles and split singles, and re-releasing them on one CD, perhaps on the band's own label, An Industry For Outer Space.
When posed with the million-dollar question, "Where do you go from here?" the road strain reappears on Rick's face, and you can tell it's an incredibly overwhelming thought when all you can think about is putting on a good show that night. "I don't know, it's kind of scary. What do we do now? We have come a long way from our first record, but we did have about three years between recordings. That's a long time, and there's a lot of evolution in that time." He shifts in his chair, and sums it up the only way you can without talking for another hour. "You get bored playing the same songs, and you want to keep moving somewhere instead of just getting somewhere and stopping." Given the way Jimmy Eat World has sustained and perpetuated itself thus far, they have that law of physics down, and remain a body in motion.
For the latest 100% accurate dirt, information and upcoming tour dates, see the band's website at http://www.jimmyeatworld.net , which is generated and maintained by the band themselves - drummer Zach Lind serves as webmaster and updates info from the road whenever possible with his trusty laptop.
