Less Than Jake

Bobby: Okay, starting with the basics, this is your third date on your Canadian tour with Reel Big Fish, The Real Deal and the Flatliners, are you excited to see how it turns out?

Chris: Oh yeah. It’s been good so far. Two shows so far, this is the third one.

Bobby: Right after this you’re doing a European and UK tour. Vinnie had commented that after the European tour you guys were going to be working on an EP for release early next year. Have you set any plans to write or record the EP yet?

Chris: No plans to record it but we are in the process of writing songs for it. We just don’t know when we’re going to record it.

Bobby: Do you think now that you have your own label, Sleep It Off, you guys are going to be releasing more random EPs and seven inches and stuff? After all, you’ve always been a fan of making the collectors sweats.

Chris: I would say more so now because we have our own label so we want to do more things. When we were on the major labels, we could still put out stuff like that but it seems like it’s a little but more fun now to be on our own.

Bobby: What made you start putting out all the little collectors stuff like the squirt gun promos for Pezcore, some xeroxed covers, some none Xeroxed. What made you decide to start putting out all the collectable items?

Chris: Because we were fans of bands that did that when we were growing up. They always released a bunch of cool stuff. And you know, it’s kind of like giving back to the fans that like you and keep it interesting for them instead of “here’s another cd” every four years.

Bobby: Speaking about upcoming releases, last year you did a series of six shows in Florida where each night you played a complete CD in its entirety. I’ve read that the Florida shows were filmed for an upcoming DVD release; is that true?

Chris: Yeah. Actually, a couple of then are already out. If you buy our Pezcore CD on Sleep It Off, it comes with a DVD of that show. The other ones will be released with those subsequent albums.

Bobby: Oh yeah, because you guys are trying to get right to all your stuff right?

Chris: The rights to all our stuff, yeah.

Bobby: I wanted to go a little deeper into you guys having your own label with Sleep It Off. Lately a lot of bands have been going that way and releasing stuff themselves. Most notably is Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails but there’s also smaller bands like And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead, Punchline, Reel Big Fish did it with their last two releases. Why do you think so many bands are starting to go off and release their material on their own label?

Chris: Well, just because you can now. A band like Radiohead can do that and they can take all the money. Why would they want to give some label the money? The label is doing nothing for them. People aren’t going to stores and buying albums; they’re just sitting at home and clicking a mouse, purchasing the album. So it’s easy to put it out on your own label and they’re controlling the life of their songs, they’re controlling everything. Most importantly, they control the money. They’re not giving it to some label who’s doing nothing.

Bobby: Do you think it’s important for bands to have complete control of their image? The promotion, the marketing, everything? Particularly when you think back to when you guys were having problems with Capitol over the releases Bootleg a Bootleg and Goodbye White and Blue. Is it better for bands to have complete control and not have to deal with the record label at all?

Chris: Well, the Capitol thing, from the very first day we made it to clear to them that “look, we’ll put out records with you guys obviously but we want to be able to do the fun things for our bands.” For the most part, they were pretty cool about it because ultimately it was going to help sell the records and they were records they were putting out on their label so…

Bobby: At the same time that more and more bands are starting to self release stuff and doing it by themselves, there’s also another trend that’s the complete opposite as more bands are doing these 360 deals. Which has them signing away everything, even tours and merch sales. What do you think of those deals?

Chris: Well, I mean those deals are no good for a band like ours. If you’re twenty years old and you’re a pop sensation and someone comes along and says “here’s a million dollars, sign with us.” AKA, give us some of the rights to your merchandise and your likelihood and everything else. You know what, maybe take that gamble at twenty but if you want a career in this industry, if you take a deal like that, it just doesn’t make any sense for a band like ours. In the long run, we’re gonna make more money and have a longer longevity as a band.

Bobby: Now that you’re doing it all yourselves, the marketing, the promotion, all that; how much time do you spend working on Less Than Jake now then when you did have Warner Music supporting you?

Chris: Nothing’s really changed. The only thing is that we had to go out and hire a publicist to contact people like yourself. To go out and get us press and get us different magazines and things like that. We had to go outside because we don’t have the label; we are the label, so we had to get a person to do that. So it takes a lot of coordination but it’s actually a lot easier because you don’t have to go through all the red tape of being on a big label. Talking to this person then talking to this person. We just have an idea now and just do it.

Bobby: Kids often like to blame the record labels, saying that the record labels are no good and its better when people are self releasing it. Do you think that sometimes people do forget the importance that a record label can offer? Particularly with a starting band, to create that buzz and get the band’s name out there. So do you think labels are still an important factor?

Chris: It can be an important factor. It can be, if all those things you just said in a perfect world line up. But you have to hit a home run; it’s like winning the lottery. Kind of like the short and steady versus fast and hard. That’s exactly what it’s like. We took the short and steady route and here we are.

Bobby: In one of those self-made interviews you guys put out before GNV FLA came out, Roger was talking about recording the two records for Warner – Anthem and In With The Out Crowd. He said that while they didn’t explicably say “write the song this way” they did heavily hint “you should push the record in this direction, if you kept it in the fast punk rock sound that would be bad.” How did that effect the writing of the record?

Chris: Well, we write a lot of songs. So there’s a ton of stuff that we have that no ones ever heard, we just didn’t record it or this and that. The producer we were working with on the last record, he wanted the record to be a bit more rock, and he wanted a particular sound. We had worked with him before on the Hello Rockview album. People have different ideas about different things, the way that they want to do it, so the producer had different ideas than the band did.

Bobby: Your record, GNV FLA was finished being recorded on April 20th and was released just two months later on June 24th. First, it isn’t a lot of time in between to get it all ready – to get all the paperwork, get the promotion out there, make people aware that the release was coming out. So why did you decide to release the record so quickly? And most importantly, how were you able to get it out so quickly? Because a lot of bands have to wait six or seven months from the time they recorded it to when it comes out.

Chris: We knew what date we wanted it to be released and we pushed for it. The turnaround is what you make of it. A lot of bands want the hype, especially the labels. They have a lot of setup time to get the right press and everything, we were like fuck it. Get the record out, the press will follow. Once you get a band like ours, what the hell is six months of prepping going to do? We have our fans, we know who they are and to go beyond that kind of familiarity seems kind of ludicrous. Just get the record out and then tour behind it.

Bobby: Especially in this day and age, when people hold the record for six months the fans are like “well, it’s done. Let’s get it off the internet.”

Chris: Exactly.

Bobby: On the track, Malachi Richter’s Liquor is Quicker, you have Morse code playing that says “we may lose hope, but there’s always hope.” First off, whose idea was it to put the Morse code hidden into the song?

Chris: I think that the Morse code was there with the sample that we found off the internet. Wherever we found that sample, it was already on there.

Bobby: Do you guys have any other hidden gems in there, like the Morse code, that we may not have noticed?

Chris: No, I don’t think so. There’s a girl talking in the middle of one of the songs, called Summon Monsters. She’s a friend of ours. Other than that, there’s nothing weird.

Bobby: The song Handshake Meet Pokerface was written about Vinnie’s mom working fourty hours a week to support two kids. But Vinnie also explained that the theme was you were going into work fourty hours a week, you have to shake hands, smile, put on a face and you never really know what’s going on behind the person that you’re meeting. That’s your pokerface. Do you think that kind of transfers over to you guys too, as musicians? You have to go around and meet press like me, meet promoters, meet fans. Do you ever have to put on a pokerface?

Chris: No, because if I didn’t want to do the interview, I wouldn’t have done it. There’s other guys, “I don’t feel good right now” and someone else would’ve done it; unless they specifically request me. But it’s a couple minutes out of my day, it’s not like it’s a big deal you know? It’s all good.

Bobby: Before GNV FLA, you guys released a series of self-made interviews with all of you guys doing a little mini interview. How important do you think viral marketing is now to promoting a CD? Like putting out those little videos, do you think that’s important in promoting a CD these days?

Chris: Well yeah, that’s the best way because kids are staring at the internet all day and those are the people that are buying our records, so definitely. It’s easy and it’s free.

Bobby: It’s kind of sad to think of it this way, but do you think now for a band to be moderately successful they have to have at least somewhat of an understanding of the internet? With things like viral marketing, youtube, protools, MySpace – do you think you need that now?

Chris: I don’t necessarily think you need it, I just think that’s the way it is. Like everything else in life, the effort to make something is much more important than the end results. We learned to record on tape and there’s something to be said about that because you can’t fix your mistakes there – you have to play it correctly. In terms of song writing and marketing and everything else, a good song’s a good song and a smart kid’s gonna figure out a way to get it on the internet so it does go hand in hand.

Bobby: I was reading an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal two or three weeks ago and it had a whole bunch of artists complaining about iTunes and how it kind of ruined the idea of a complete album by letting the kids, the fans, pick and choose songs one at a time instead of taking the complete album at once. Do you agree with that?

Chris: Yeah, I agree with that but that doesn’t make my opinion any better than anyone else. I hate it. As much as I love it, I hate it because I do agree with that argument. A lot of times you’ll get the songs and they’ll be sequenced differently. When you set out to make an album, here’s song one and here’s song thirteen, listen to them in that order. I wanted to do something in regards to that last record but the guys wouldn’t have it, they were like “that’s fucking crazy, that’s so lame.”I wanted to make the new album one track of thirty three minutes or however long the record is – one fucking track. *laughs* You’d have to download the whole record. It’s just one fucking thing, you can’t pick songs. “I just want that song.” Tough shit, buy the whole thing. But my band thought I was crazy, which I probably was.

Bobby: Actually, Paul Westerberg – the guy from the Replacements – he just did that. It was called 49:05 or something; so was 49 minutes and five seconds, the whole album on one song for 99 cents. He put it out there.

Chris: That’s cool.

Bobby: One last question, I was talking to Jay Bentley of Bad Religion on Wednesday and he was talking about how some bands get somewhat egotistical as their career grows. They start saying “oh, I deserve this because I’ve done this” and “me, me,me” and all that stuff. Basically, he said, if you don’t have good self awareness, you’re going to end up ruining you’re career. Have you guys ever ran into that problem and if so, how did you overcome it? What is your secret to your longevity?

Chris: The secret is we’re still friends and we still like making music. In terms of the ego thing, none of us have ever had ego in the band because that’s how you burn bridges. People have said that I come of as egotistical as the other guys in my band do, but that’s someone’s opinions. I like to think that when I talk to somebody, I give them the time of day. I guess really, you try and enjoy yourself. It’s just a couple minutes out of the day; it’s not like it’s that big of a deal. You treat people how you want to be treated. I don’t know, if I were to go upstairs and the people here had dinner for us and there were a bunch of people up there ahead of me, I wouldn’t walk in the front of the fucking line. I would stand in back and wait. Shit like that, common sense stuff. I don’t care who you are, you shouldn’t feel like you have the right to do stuff like that.

Bobby: Okay, I guess that’s about it. Thanks a lot. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

Chris: Nope, that’s about it. Thanks for coming out.