The Static Jacks are currently recording their third EP, which will hopefully see a release this fall. I am absolutely addicted to their first two EPs, a collection of eight brilliant songs to satisfy anyone's thirst for unbridled garage rock.
I had a chance to ask the band a few questions, so read on below:
Where did the band name “The Static Jacks” come from?
Henry: We wanted to be classified as something… like a Velvet, a Ramone, a Stroke, a Jack. We just thought Static Jacks sounded cool. It’s just a name. Plus, there are plenty of letters in there to make a good design out of.
What inspired you all to make a band? Did you set out to make music for yourselves or did you always want to share the music with a larger audience?
Ian: We started such a long time ago that we never really spoke about where we would go with our music… I know that all of us dreamed of being big rockstars but I don’t know how many of us thought we would actually become musicians.
The musicianship is surprisingly advanced for how young you guys are. Were any of you in band in school or did you just pick up guitars one day and decide to learn how to play?
Henry: When I was younger I took piano lessons privately for eight years and then I played trumpet for about five years through school. I had always really wanted to play guitar since I was young but for some reason never had the courage until I turned thirteen to ask for one. I think I just didn’t feel like I was ready. Mmm.
Michael: I developed a solid ear for rhythm and structure playing percussion in elementary school all the way through to my high school years in the drum line. I picked up an electric guitar and learned how to play when the desire to express myself through melody had struck me!
Nick: Literally, in 4th grade they assigned me drums and I was never given a lesson. I just listened to a lot of music and mimicked it. Green Day, The Strokes, The Who, The Killers, I just listened to these styles until I had my own.
You guys have played Bowery. Do you prefer playing for smaller audiences? Is intimacy lost when a band plays for thousands of fans?
Michael: I prefer playing sold out stadiums.
The first EP is much more varied sonically. “The Waltz” sounds like something from the fifties. Where do you draw inspiration for your music?
Henry: I had always really wanted to write a waltz and at the time I was listening to Abbey Road a lot which has a few of George Harrison’s waltz on there! Besides that everything else is just a strong combination of different things. We draw inspiration from our 19 years of life experiences whether they’re exaggerated at all or the straight truth. I like things to feel pretty cinematic. Usually a good sign for us if a song is good or not is if we can picture it in a movie trailer.
A lot of the lyrics seem a little too dramatic to be real. Where do you draw the line between fact and fiction? Is music better if it is based on something that’s already happened, or if it draws from the imagination?
Henry: Well both Ian and Nick handle a majority of the words. Ian has a very dramatic style where everything feels like it is some epic wasteland scene in the big apocalyptic blockbuster of the summer…and Nick has a very straightforward style where he claims how much he likes a girl and then claims how much the girl sucks. We’re still only 19-years-old so of course everything is going to be an exaggeration of what actually happened and of course it’s all going to be related towards girls.
Nick: Dramatic is good, when you attempt to tap into a feeling or mood that you think is important enough to acknowledge. And it works…that is the ultimate goal. Too many indie bands out there write about obscure, ridiculous things that I don’t relate to at all.
Ian: Most of our lyrics ought to be considered fact, at least at their core. We occasionally blow things out of proportion, but I think it’s the job of teenagers to blow things out of proportion.
Michael: I think creative lyrics are a rare gem to come by these days and I’m glad to be part of a band with such creative/imaginative minds!
The band is still in its early stages. Are you guys working, going to school, what?
Spencer: A few of us have part-time jobs. Nick’s working at Crumbs Bakery, I’m working at Pier One, Mike’s always starting a new job, Ian’s always trying to work at Rockn Joe’s Café and Henry’s always trying to do freelance graphic design work through Craigslist.
Ian’s singing reminds me a lot of Joe Strummer. Are you guys fans of The Clash? What bands do The Static Jacks love?
Nick: We do love the Clash. We do love The Strokes. We love Sam Cooke. The Pixies. The Replacements, The Buzzcocks. Bruce Springsteen. Punk is great, but it has to have pop sensibility.
You guys have two really great EPs so far, eight songs in total. Have you had to scrap a lot more than that? How does the refining process work?
Michael: We have had to scrap a decent number of songs, but we usually realize this within a few weeks of writing them. It’s hard because sometimes you can get really excited just by the fact that you wrote a song and it worked out. You have to give it time to listen to it and realize that it actually sucks.
Henry: We recycle a lot though too. A lot of times we’ll take parts from these scrapped songs and combine them to make one ultimate song.
I usually don’t like remixes of songs, but I am digging the RAC Maury remix of “Fire on the Bridge and in the Tunnel below”. How did that come about?
Henry: I’ve always loved RAC remixes and only heard about them because of the work they do with bands we’ve played with like Tokyo Police Club and such. So one day I contacted them just to let them know I was a big fan and how someday I would love to work with them on a remix for one of my band’s songs. André from the group emailed me back immediately saying how much he liked our stuff and then passed us along to Andrew Maury who also works there. Andrew did the remix for us and we all hit it off right away. And now he’s currently producing our next EP, which should hopefully be out in the fall!
Is there a song that you guys love to play more than the others? Maybe a song that you’ve realized really grabs people’s attention?
Ian: We very much like playing our new songs, just because we are so excited about them. In terms of the songs that are out already, I really enjoy playing “Stay A Lover,” because it is probably one of our wildest songs live. We all go pretty crazy by the end of it, and its really fun.
Michael: I enjoy Parties and Friends (and Bullshit)- which will be available on our upcoming EP! - because the guitar parts make me move in strange ways. People seem to enjoy that.
If you could tour with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be?
Michael: ZIGGY STARDUST.
Henry: A young Elvis Costello.
Nick: I’m going to say The Clash. They would bring guns and shit, it would be insane.
Ian: Joy Division
Spencer: Lil’ Wayne
visit the band on MYSPACE where you can listen to all 8 songs in their entirety, as well as the RAC remix of "Fire on the Bridge". my favourite is "The Waltz"--a song with such sugary guitar licks you might just get reprimanded by your dentist for indulging in it
visit their OFFICIAL WEBSITE
and buy their stuff HERE
I really recommend both EPs, even though I slightly prefer the first, Sonny Halliday.
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