Jawbox came to town July 27th to promote their latest release
"For Your Own Special Sweetheart" which was released earlier this
year on Atlantic Records, an affiliate of the mighty Warner Bros.
conglomerate, WEA. In doing so, Jawbox have put out their best
record yet, having released two previous records (Grippe, Novelty)
for the independent label Dischord (Fugazi, Minor Threat,
Shudder To Think). The weird thing is that it might seem that
their fans would be happy for them now that they can focus on the
band full-time, instead of having to rely on day-jobs for income,
Jawbox has actually gotten a lot of shit for signing to Atlantic. One
disenchanted fan actually sent them a letter berating them for
signing to a major label and said that he hoped they would be killed
in a fiery van accident while they are on tour.
Whatever.
I interviewed Jay and Bill after their show at the El Dorado
Saloon with Knapsack and Versus. Their set was evidence that
they truly love what they do. If more people in bands were as sincere
as Jawbox are towards their music and their fans (unlike those
pompous fucks in Afghan Whigs) the rock music world (Uh, I mean,
ALTERNATIVE rock music world) would be a beautiful place, devoid
of assholes and rock star attitudes (see this issues Evan Dando article).
Heckler (Sean Schroeder): You're starting a tour with Stone
Temple Pilots in three days, how did this come about? Was
there any question as to whether you should do the tour, or was it
like "We're going to do this major label thing and we're going to
give it 100%"?
Jay: No. Part of our approach to having signed to a major label, and
now being on a major label is to try and do it in as much of our
way as possible. To not just give everything up that we've worked
so hard on. The idea was, if we're going to sign to a major label,
we won't want to have to turn the reins over to somebody else.We
wanted to get on a bigger tour at some point and it just so
happens that this seems like a really good time to be going out on
a bigger tour ,and STP asked us. Nobody else that is on tour right
now asked us to do it. So we thought about it and figured we
might as well do it. It's a lot different than any other tour we've
done before because it's so much bigger and up until now we've
always toured with bands we were friends with and its been a
really egalitarian type of thing. This is going to be our first brush
with the "Big Rock" biz as it applies to playing shows because
Atlantic really hasn't exercised any influence over what shows
we play at all.
H: So they give you freedom to do whatever you want or because...
J: It's because it's not their thing to be involved in, necessarily. We
have a really good relationship with them, it's very cool. They've
been really supportive of things that we want to do, and they've
helped us do a lot of stuff that we want to do, and they haven't
told us that we have to do anything. They've just been really cool.
H: They give you full rein over what you want to do with artwork and
all that stuff?
J: I did the artwork myself with my friend Steve.
H: What was the idea behind the art on the album?
J: It was just me and Steve brainstorming, really. We know this guy,
Dave Behrman, from D.C. who has a big collection of snow
globes. We knew we wanted to do something photographic, we
wanted to do something like a sculpture that we could photograph
for the record cover.
H: So that's what that is on the cover, a sculpture?
J: Well, the back cover is a diorama that I made and the centerpiece
is this snow globe with the mermaid. Since a lot of the lyrics are
about objectification, the ways in which people turn other people
into objects in their minds I thought this sort of fucked up
looking plastic woman was a cool symbol. But that's the only
thematic idea in it. The rest of it is just kind of cool looking junk
I just threw together.
H: How did the typewriter fit in there?
J: Well, first I thought it would be cool to take a typewriter apart
and reassemble it as a different kind of machine, but I am not a
machinist at all. I wound up with a bunch of broken typewriter
parts. And I was like, "Uhhh...what a mess" but I kept putting the
shit together to make it look kind of cool. I wanted it to be a
piece about language and then I was like" To try and make
something and call it art is a little bit beyond me", so I'd rather
just put something together that looks cool.
H: Have you received anymore hate mail like you did with that fiery
van letter?
J: Maybe like one every three weeks to the effect that we betrayed
some kind of faith that someone placed in us, and "how dare we?".
It's fair enough in a way, you know , but in the end it's really just
us who are going to have to live with the decision. We chewed it
over a million times to try to make sure we could do it in a way
that we could still be true to ourselves. So it's a shame if
someone is upset about it. On the other hand, tough break.
H: Do you answer all of the letters you receive?
J: Yes, we answer every letter we get.
Bill: Except for the occasional venomous freak who doesn't leave an
address or is just so bileful that it's pointless to argue.
J: I would rather have a dialogue with people, too. You know, if
someone says "You stood for something, in my eyes, your band
meant something to me, and now that you're on Atlantic records it
doesn't mean something to me". I would rather have a dialogue
about that because I can kind of understand it. But I'm of the
opinion that every case is different, and I don't want my band to
be accidentally waving a flag for major labels where people go
"Oh look, Jawbox, they were on Dischord Records, and then they
thought it was o.k. to go to a major label, so it must be just
fine,major labels must be just plain cool", because, the truth is,
no matter what you do you have to take it with a grain of salt, and
be skeptical about it. Multi-national corporations are basically
not cool, but our decision was a practical one and I think we are
just really lucky. So in our case we are really happy with it. It
was a decision based upon the desire for our band to thrive and it
was a decision that we made with the intent of keeping control
over what we do, but also be able to sustain ourselves. It's very
weird but I think it's important to have a dialogue about it. If
somebody writes to us with this black and white Maximum Rock
and Roll perspective that says "You guys are evil now", or with
the perspective that "I can't believe people are giving you so much
shit, It doesn't matter what label your records are on, then at
least you can talk about it and say, "Well, why do you think this,
why do you that?" Think about a band that wants to tour all the
time, they love what they're doing, and now they're in a position
to sustain themselves from it. And adversely, think about the fact
that, yes, major labels are part of multi-national corporations,
and multi-nationals do a lot of bad things and don't forget it,
because it is essentially a compromised world. I think people
want to forget the grey areas and just look at it in black and
white, so it's always better if you get a letter like that to write
back to somebody and get a dialogue going.
B: I think there's a widespread perception that once you sign to
major label, there's one path you can take or maybe two - you get
dropped or, suddenly, you turn into a giant rockstar, suddenly you
are Winger. We don't try and play ourselves like groundbreakers
or anything, but I think there is space within the framework of a
major label to handle our band in a responsible manner and put out
good music. If nothing else, we'd like to show other bands that
this is a choice you can make, you can do it and still put out good
records and still have control over what you're doing and still do
things they way you want to do them. Thus far, it's been that way
for us.
J: It's something that Atlantic deserves a lot of credit for because
the people that we've been working with there have been really
cool. They're really great people just to deal with on a personal
level. I feel like we are getting respect from them and we have
respect for them, too. I mean, they're helping us do what we want
to do.
B: They're adapting the way that they are used to doing business to
our situation.
J: We have to kind of talk out of both sides of our mouth because
we're having a really great experience but at the same time every
situation is different.
H: Do you think that there is any validity to the argument that there
actually are only one or two paths to take once you do sign to a
major label?
B: I think there is, historically, a precedent for seeing a band either
succeeding or being dropped. That's kind of the model for a major
label deal. Either you make a lot of money for your record
company and they are happy with you or you don't and you're out of
there before you can release a second record. That's something
that we were really worried about. What if we don't make enough
money back for them to cover what we spent? We could be out on
the street, the band could break up. And so far we haven't made
them any money, we've lost them a lot of money, but I feel
confident now that they're still looking at our band and saying
"This is a good band that deserves our support regardless of the
fact that they're losing us hundreds of thousands of dollars".
J: I don't know if that's true, but I think those are all bridges that
you have to cross when you come to them. There is a lot of
precedent for a band to get signed then suddenly get dropped
because it's not making any money, or for a band to get signed and
suddenly suck because someone is telling them what to play. But I
think we all think that every situation is different. You have to
think that way, if you don't think that way you run the risk of
being an idiot, of being so doctrinaire that you don't have your
eyes open. I mean, literally, all you can say is so far, so good.
Compared to the kind of horror stories people like Steve Albini
want to tell, we're having a fucking bitchin' time!
-Sean Schroeder plays in a band on an indie label.
