Just JEW and Me!
Just JEW and Me!
Topics: Jimmy Eat World, Paramore, Dear and The headlights, Bakersfield, Bakotopia, Chase Brockett, April, 2008, Rabobank, LIVE
Posted by Chase Tue Mar 25, 2008 18:26:47 PDT
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0 responses 1 comment Location: 1001 Truxtun Ave., Bakersfield, CA 93301
Just JEW and Me!
Interview with Zach Lind of Jimmy Eat World. Appearing live at Rabobank Arena, April 6th with Paramore!
By Chase Brockett, Bakotopia Staff
Jimmy may have eaten world, but he’s still hungry for more.
Although they may not be directly in the public eye, they are at least sitting in the peripheral, keeping the music honest.
Formed in Mesa, Arizona in 1993, most bands that have been around this long have died out completely, stayed so far below the radar that their teeth are chipping the pavement, or opted to don eyeliner and flat-iron their new screamer’s hair.
Not these guys.
Despite the fact much of the music scene has shifted preference toward themes of ‘death and romance’, the quartet of Jim Adkins - load vocals, Rick Burch - bass, Zach Lind - drums, and Tom Linton – guitar have remained solid with genuine and unapologetically heartfelt music.
Returning to Bakersfield’s Rabobank Arena on April 6th at 7:30pm for the first time since opening for Blink-182 and Green Day in 2002 - this is at least one tour in recent memory not chosen to use Bakersfield as its kick-off ‘practice show’.
Fans of emo music will no doubt include Jimmy Eat World's Clarity on their list of favorites. Although if Clarity was considered “emo”, 2001’s self titled release saw more flirting with the style than actual lovemaking, hitting old and new fans alike with more aggression and energy.
Fresh off a successful European tour, Bakotopia spent some time with Jimmy Eat World drummer Zach Lind via telephone to discuss drumming, politics, and the upcoming U.S. tour.
Bakotopia: Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Lind: No problem.
B: So how is the tour in Europe going so far?
Lind: It’s going good actually, we just got home last week so we’re home now but it went really well, and its definitely the best tour we’ve have in Europe so far to date, and we just feel lucky that you know, we have fans over there that we can play to.
B: Yeah. I actually hear a lot of bands mention that European crowds give more support than American ones, is that the same for you guys, or do you see a difference there?
Lind: I think that’s probably the case. I think what they do is they kind of give more of a tangible… they have more of like a physical response to your music, you know? They tend to move around a little bit more and show their enthusiasm. I don’t know if the support is any greater, but they definitely express it more implicitly I guess. Intent on having a good time, and really letting loose, whereas in the U.S. the crowds are a little bit more reserved and self-conscious.
B: So, as far as the songwriting process goes, being a drummer, do you find yourself being a critical part of writing the songs, or do the songs come to you after they’ve hammered them out?
Lind: You know, it kind of depends. Everyone in the band is really involved in coming up with the final product. I think that there’s certainly an element where Jim is the primary guy who will bring us ideas and bring us kind of things that he's done but, ultimately it’s a process where everyone's involved and everyone can put in their two cents, not only with instrumentation or, you know, parts, but also arrangement and song length and stuff like that, so I think it’s a pretty collaborative process, but there is certainly a lot of… Jim really brings a lot to the table when it comes to that kind of stuff. With vocal melodies and lyrics and chord progressions and um... there's some times where he brings in a song and it doesn’t change a lot, and it kind of remains in its original state, and then there's songs where it comes to the band and then it changes a ton. And then there are times when the song just starts with a drum beat and then you know we go from there and we try and then we add some more stuff, it just kind of builds that way. So I think there's multiple ways that songs come together. We've always tried to, as a band and everything, you know, whether its song writing or playing live, or what our T-shirt design look like, you know, everyone has a part in it.
B: Is that kind of how, and I know this is an older song, but is that how Lucky Denver Mint started? Did it start with the drum beat?
Lind: You know, I don’t even, I don’t remember.
B: Yeah, I know that was a while ago. Haha.
Lind: Yeah, you know I think it started with a loop - a drum loop - and we just stuck with that. We used it as a loop and then it went to... I think Jim had the basic idea for the song, we added a drum loop and I don’t know… I can’t really remember.
B: Yeah, it was a while ago, so that’s understandable. So, as far as recording your drums, are there any special processes you go through, or is it just typically set up play?
Lind: Typically it’s just set up and play and you put up the mics, and on this last record I would record the drums without the cymbals and then I would go back and record the cymbals later. It's just kind of a trick to get a particular kind of drum sound and I did that a few times. But for the most part it's not too tricky, you just get your drums sounding good, you put up the mics and you play.
B: Do you have any, or rather, who are your all time favorites as far as drumming goes?
Lind: You know, I love guys like, Stan Lynch (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) drummer, I’m a big fan of Glen Kotche who's from... he's a drummer of Wilco, he's really great. You know, obviously guys like Stewart Copeland (The Police) and guys like that are great. There's a lot of drumming legends that you can't go wrong trying to emulate and learn from.
B: So being part of the music industry for over a decade now, have you seen much change in the way things operate and the way things happen? Because there's been a shift from CDs - you’ve got the downloading coming into play - is that having a big effect on everything?
Lind: Yeah, it's having a massive effect on the way people get music and music is distributed. And it's pretty substantial how different the music industry is now from when we started in the mid 90's and it's interesting. I think we’ve, as artists tried to adapt and, you know, kind of figure out ways to where we can continue to be relevant with our audience and our fans. But it's certainly a difficult time. It’s not easy, in some regards, you know, especially in regards to selling records. But I think the good thing is that there's no shortage of music fans out there and people love music and ultimately, if bands are making good records and delivering a good live show, I think that they won't have anything to worry about. It's certainly changing the way that the music business is done and people are hearing music and I think we try to keep tabs with that.
B: Yeah. So you guys have definitely seen the effect of that. Because a lot of people, they get into the downloading thing and it's kind of this faceless thing. They just think it's up for grabs and they don’t realize that musicians are actually affected by it. So you guys have actually seen first hand how this goes down.
Lind: Yeah its funny, you know, quick story, we were in Italy and we were asking our label rep “How many records have we sold in Italy?” and they were like, “Well, we shipped 500 records in Italy,” and that’s like nothing, you know, haha! We were really bummed! But the funny thing was we played that night in a venue that was sold out and it was 700 people...and all these people were singing along to the words. And so, we haven’t even sold 500 records in the whole country of Italy, but then in one city we have over 700 people there singing every word. And it's hard because to go buy our records in Italy it's like 20 Euros which is almost like 35 dollars so you can't really expect people to buy the record when it's so freaking expensive! So we can certainly sympathize with the fans perspective in certain instances and, you know, we tend not to lose too much sleep over it. We're focused on being the best band possible and we feel like if we continue to progress and to, I don’t know, connect with our fans and do things that our fans really appreciate, than I think that we’ll be ok.
B: Awesome! So you guys are going to be in Irvine coming up in April right before you hit Bakersfield, and you guys are doing the Bamboozle Left Fest?
Lind: Yeah.
B: How are the big shows for you guys - the festival types?
Lind: Festivals are great! I think there's obviously a benefit and a downside to festivals, and also small club gigs, and I think with festivals we try to focus on sort of the mass of people rather than, you know, the more intimate crowd and we typically play a more rockin' set in the festival atmosphere. But yeah, it’s a great experience and we definitely enjoy the festival vibe and we’re looking forward to that.
B: Well, just shifting gears a little bit; we’ve got the election coming up, this historical thing going on. Do you have a preference, do you guys follow that much?
Lind: Yes, I follow it very closely! I’m a political junkie I guess. I'm rooting for Obama, I think he's by far the best candidate in the field from both parties and I’m certainly hoping he can hold on to his lead here.
B: He seems to be getting the support from a lot of musicians and a lot of, obviously the youth vote.
Lind: Yeah definitely, and I think that’s important and I think that’s something that... I think, with kids and the younger types, I feel like they really are thirsty for a different kind of language and a different kind of approach to politics in general. And I think that Obama has done a good job communicating that that’s what he is for and that’s what he wants to work toward. And it will certainly be interesting if he does end up winning. It will be interesting to see how successful he is in changing the political discourse and I think everyone wants to, or at least his supporters are hoping that, it's better to try than to just give in and say “things are just the way they are” and to be realistic about things and I think that people are wanting to take that risk and work toward a different kind of political discourse in general.
B: Definitely! So have you guys been a part of any sort of Rock the Vote-esque effort, any sort of political movement?
Lind: The only time we actually got directly involved in a campaign, we supported a state representative here in the Phoenix area, he's a guy named Harry Mitchell. He's a representative from the Tempe area, and he was running up against a guy name JD Hayworth, who was a real conservative kind of, you know, just a very brash - I would call him like a Rush Limbaugh conservative. And Harry ended up winning, and that was the first time we actually played a show where... it was a fundraiser for him and he ended up winning, and last time we played in DC he invited us to his office and we went to the floor of the House of Representatives and watched them vote on stuff. So it was pretty cool. It's cool being involved in a campaign and actually be able to hang out and catch what's going on in DC.
B: You guys have any plans to do anything like that for Obama?
Lind: Um... you know, I’m not sure. We haven’t talked about it specifically. I’m not completely... I would certainly be for it and I think it's just a matter of if everyone in the band is comfortable with it. Because we’re essentially a democracy. But I think it would be fun and I think that it will be a really important election and I hope that we get a chance to help out in some way.
B: So back to the music industry itself: A lot of people criticize the industry for being oversaturated and stale and because of that you have a lot of bands that are just trying to overhaul their image. But you guys have seemed pretty consistent in the way you present yourself, you're not reaching out into areas that don’t fit you, is that something intentional or does it just come naturally?
B: So I think the last time you guys came through Bakersfield was with the Pop disaster tour is that right?
Lind: Yeah that might be true actually.
B: Because I remember seeing you guys with Green Day and blink 182 back in 2001 or 2002 - early in my high school career. So you guys are coming back this time headlining with Paramore. Have you guys done arena tours as headliners before?
Lind: No. We did a co-headlining tour with Taking Back Sunday that was in some arenas but we haven’t necessarily done a lot of arena stuff headlining. But we’ve done a ton of it opening up for bands like Green Day and the Foo Fighters, the Pop Disaster tour, like you talked about, so we feel pretty comfortable with the set up. I think we’ve done it a lot and I think we’ll be pretty much at home doing it just because we have a lot of experience opening up.
B: What can people expect this time around?
Lind: This time around you can expect a lot of old and new songs. We’ll definitely play a lot of songs from the new record but we’ll definitely play a lot of old old songs, that any old school fans would love to hear. So I think, we try to make a good mix and we’re looking forward to it I think its going to be an exciting show.
B: I know a lot of people are going to be wondering, are you guys going to be getting into Clarity at all?
Lind: Yeah, no we’ll play a few clarity songs, some Bleed American songs, some Futures songs, and maybe some rarities here and there but yeah, we definitely work in the clarity stuff.
B: Awesome. Well I appreciate you doing this for me
Lind: No problem man, thank you, thanks for writing us up
On the web: www.jimmyeatworld.com
Jimmy Eat World with Paramore, and Dear and The Headlights LIVE!
-Sunday, April 6th
-Rabobank Arena
-7:30pm
-Tickets: $30
-www.ticketmaster.com
Story originally printed in Bakotopia magazine, issue 25, 4-3-08
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