With a demolishing dose of horn-heavy chug metal, Jerseyband stands as the logical result of loose forerunners such as John Zorn’s Naked City, Mr. Bungle, and Estradasphere. The seven-piece band’s progressive fusion touches on jazz, groove, big-band flair, and math rock, making a sonic concoction as wild as its live shows.
- Photo credit: Theo Wargo
With a demolishing dose of horn-heavy chug metal, Jerseyband stands as the logical result of loose forerunners such as John Zorn’s Naked City, Mr. Bungle, and Estradasphere. The seven-piece band’s progressive fusion touches on jazz, groove, big-band flair, and math rock, making a sonic concoction as wild as its live shows.
Unfortunately, groups that are inventive and unwilling to compromise their musical ambitions often find themselves without much publicity, and ALARM caught up with saxophonist Alex Hamlin to discuss this plight of imaginative independent musicians.
We also caught news of Jerseyband’s new full-length album, hopefully due in spring of 2009. Here is an exclusive unreleased track — “The Glad Hand” — for your listening pleasure.
Jerseyband: “The Glad Hand”
Jerseyband: \”The Glad Hand\”
What drives your musical amalgamation?
Our concept is driven by the individual composers of the group. Ed RosenBerg, Brent Madsen, Matt Blanchard, Ted Poor, and myself are the contributing composers. Overall, the pervading tone throughout the bulk of our repertoire is that of subtle humor or not-so-subtle humor.
Granted, there is a bit of blood-curdling screaming involved, but if you examine the words — i.e. “Chewah wah may amo, Chee wah wah key largo” — you find that there is an element of playfulness involved with that as well.
Within this group of composers, there is a unspoken consensus on the importance of rhythm and rhythmic patterns, that the horns be the leading voice of the ensemble, and that there are two teams on stage: the horns and the rhythm section. What has been discussed is the influence of bands like Meshuggah, Pig Destroyer, etc., and how we should allow our composition to harken to that stream of music.
Do you find that having such a unique sound makes it harder to find someone to release your albums?
Indeed, we have not found a record label or organization that is interested in supporting our endeavors to create recordings. Instead we have to release the material (soon to be six records in all) at our shows and online through www.jerseyband.com and cdbaby.com.
Back in 2000, I just made up a record label name, Rangletorian Records, and we released our CDs under that record label name because I thought it would increase our chances in getting booked at rock clubs to play shows. It didn’t. What it really took was me bugging the bookers 5 million times until they would give us a show.
Can you speak more about the struggles of being an independent band without much in the way of publicity?
The greatest struggles that Jerseyband faces as a do-it-yourself independent band is securing radio play, news and magazine articles, and getting promoters/venue owners interested in taking a chance with our music. The hardest thing to convey via the phone, e-mail, or telepathy is that this band is ridiculously tight and awesome live.
We surpass the majority of DIY bands out there in terms of musicianship and excellence at what we do. How do you get that across to someone that you don’t know? They have take a leap of faith on your word or just go to the show and witness. If they come to a Jerseyband show, they will understand fully.
What types of crowds fit best for a Jerseyband show? Metal dudes? Jazz regulars? Weirdo hipsters?
All of the above and then some. We’ve had octogenarians, gays, lesbians, drunks, hippies, all races, a lot of musicians, composers, pharmaceutical entrepreneurs, prog heads, university students, high-school students, snake-oil salesmen, baby boomers, etc. — basically, anyone who actually listens to music. I mean really listens.
Any audience that reacts to what the music is doing and not to what the guy next to them is doing. You can tell that an audience is really listening when during those brief moments of silence in the midst of a song, no one is blabbering. It is a totally awesome feeling for me.
Don’t get me wrong…I like people to party and enjoy themselves at Jerseyband shows, but when that silence happens, it is a form of a compliment to us straight from the audience. And there is nothing quite like that in the world of humans relating to humans.
The same goes for when people scream at us too, like when something totally bombastic happens in the music and the audience takes a big collective dump in their collective pants and they say, “AAAAAAHHHHHWWWWGGGGG!!!!” That’s the kind of audience you find at Jerseyband shows.
I’ve never seen you play in person. If I went to a Jerseyband show, what might I expect in the way of performance, wacky costumes, and cross-dressing?
Yes to wacky costumes and cross-dressing. Our performance wardrobe philosophy runs along the lines of this: we are performing for the listeners, who are supposed to wear normal clothes. Therefore there should be some sort of visual demarcation that sends a message that we have dressed up for you, the audience.
In a sense, it is our way of thanking the audience for being here to listen to our music and showing respect. It says that we took the time to think about what we were going to wear for you. In addition to this ridiculous music, you get some ridiculous garb. Awesome.
– Scott Morrow
Jerseyband: www.myspace.com/jerseyband