JEFF the Brotherhood are of a rare breed: they are extremely unconventional, yet not for its own sake. Fortunately, the focus is still on making good music and having fun, which seems beautifully simple. Their entirely genuine nature and musical focus stands somewhat in the face of oppressive record labels and the self-contradicting pressure created by social media either to fit in completely, or to stick out like socks and sandals in a tumblr feed of Adidas and Nike SB.
Having set up their own record label, Infinity Cat, in their early teens, they found themselves in boring day jobs a few years later. Solution? Up stakes, buy a van, and start touring with a revamped JEFF – louder and more energetic than ever. In their early years, they kept to the bare bones (arguably for the sake of fitting into a van more easily) – a couple of drums, a hi-hat, a big guitar amp, and a three-stringed guitar was the recipe they used to create their sound. Finding themselves stuck in a rut, they assembled their current four-piece (two guitars, bass, and drums), employing musicians from Jack White’s former band, The Raconteurs, and from Jethro Tull, to record their eighth studio album, Wasted on the Dream.
I saw their show at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen on 15.9.15, at the end of their European tour, and afterwards was invited into a backstage dressing room the size of a child’s playhouse. I felt as though a conventional interview would not do them justice – after all, they have a Wikipedia page and a website to discuss issues of record sales and their musical influences. What followed was an entirely spontaneous and open conversation, ranging from Kanye West, to politics, to Jamin’s bicycle repair shop, and then some more Kanye West… This is a reflection of what the band are really like: passionate, rambling, and transgressive.
THE INDIEPENDENT: I’ve read a few of your interviews and you’ve said that you’re proudest of your last album, Wasted On The Dream.
Jake (guitar/vocals): Yeah we put the most work into it.
THE INDIEPENDENT: How come? That was after your departure from Warner Brothers, right?
Jake: No no, we recorded it about a year ago now, with Warner Brothers’ money, and Warner Brothers’ time, to their specifications. They dropped us two weeks before it came out.
Jamin (drums): We don’t know why.
THE INDIEPENDENT: How did the experience of being on a big label differ from being on your own, Infinity Cat?
Jake: It was pretty shit. Everything was a mess, they didn’t seem like they knew what they were doing, they weren’t organised.
THE INDIEPENDENT: You’ve got lots of side projects too, like The Sex?
Jake: Oh yeah, many, many!
THE INDIEPENDENT: What do you find the musical purpose of that is?
Jamin: Fun.
THE INDIEPENDENT: But why not have it all under one name?
Jake: Aah, JEFF the Brotherhood is kind of like our day job. It’s like the band that makes us money, it’s the band that we tour the world with, all the rest of our projects are simply for our own pleasure.
Jamin: We already do so many different kinds of music under one name; if you abuse that privilege, I feel like you can lose people’s attention.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Do you feel like you have an obligation to your fans?
Jamin: Sort of. But we have other bands because we want to do other kinds of music and try other things, we don’t wanna bore people that might not be interested in weird folk music or y’know, harsh metal.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Do you try to be political with your music? Because there are some songs, like ‘Prairie Song’, the last song on Wasted On The Dream, where you’re talking about not needing credit cards, or a job, etc.?
Jake: I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily political. It is kind of, but it doesn’t have anything to do with government. That song’s just about wanting to not be part of what people would normally think of as society.
Jamin: Yeah, we’re very politically opinionated. But people don’t like it when you bring it out into your music too much.
THE INDIEPENDENT: What’s your thought on the rise of Donald Trump in American politics?
Jamin: Nice! It’s interesting.
Jake: It’s pretty hilarious.
Jake: It’s definitely a commentary on the American people. It says a lot.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Have you heard that Kanye West has announced that he’s going to run for President in 2020?
Jamin: No, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
THE INDIEPENDENT: How come?
(Jake, leaning out of the fire escape with his acid-wash camouflage Levis suspiciously lowered: My piss smells like malt: it stinks! I must be very unhealthy.)
Jamin: Well, y’know he’s pretty strange.
THE INDIEPENDENT: What do you think of him as a character?
Jamin: I think he’s great.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Do you think he’s great as a publicity guy, or great in what sense?
Jamin: Just great as as an artist and as a famous person.
Jake: He’s really good at being famous. At staying in the spotlight, y’know?
Jamin: Put it this way: back in the day, famous artists didn’t really give a fuck about what people thought about them, and were a lot more outspoken and a lot weirder, and just a lot less concerned with media and with publicists and all this stuff, and nowadays no one will do anything. You can’t! Everything has rules – we’ve been through it. When you’re dealing with major press shit, there are so many rules, so many people telling you what not to do.
THE INDIEPENDENT: So, do you feel like you really have to watch your image?
Jamin: We don’t.
Jake: No, not us.
Jamin: We don’t give a shit.
Jake: But like, when we signed with Warner Bros. they tried to put us through press training.
Jamin: I think that there’s so much pressure now to watch your image if you’re successful.
Jake: Partly because of social media.
Jamin: And all these famous people are just caving to that and they’re so safe and it’s so boring, and I think that Kanye is… either he’s being himself and doesn’t give a fuck, or he’s tryna stir shit up. I don’t know what it is but I like that he’s actually doing something exciting and different and like, causing a controversy because it doesn’t happen very often.
THE INDIEPENDENT: But you guys are quite influenced by ‘90s music and the Grunge scene, right? They made huge attempts to create controversy, like Thurston Moore saying that he was going to kick his vomit into the crowd and set them on fire.
Jake: They could. They could because they were having millions of dollars thrown at them. That doesn’t happen any more.
Jamin: It was the hot thing at the moment: they had major labels just starting fucking bidding wars. Now you don’t get paid shit.
Jake: To be in the position where people wanted you enough that you could piss on the floor of a radio station and get away with it. We were really looking forward to that with Warner Brothers: being really sweet until everybody wants us on their talk show and then wreaking havoc.
Jamin: We’ve done weird shit on talk shows, like Jake wearing a dress, or some dude just standing on the edge of the stage. Even if you do shit like that, which is not a big deal, you have to argue with people and get approval and beg them to let you do these stupid things. And if you do something fucked up, they can just be like, “yeah we’re not going to show it.”
Jake: So boring. The world’s so boring. *Jake leaves mysteriously*
THE INDIEPENDENT: What is your daily life like when you’re not touring?
Jamin: Well I have a girlfriend so I hang out with her a lot. I’m a bicycle mechanic at home, so I fix bikes to make some money and help my friends. I also ride motorcycles and work on them too, but mostly bicycles. Uh, and I have a little over an acre of land with a few of my mates: we have a huge garden and a cat. I hang out with my friends the whole time, I read a lot, draw, make puppets… It’s sweet.
You can read The Indiependent’s review of JEFF the Brotherhood’s show here and see the photos from the gig here
Interview conducted by Benjamin Caven-Roberts