PropertyOfZack had the honor of interviewing JR from Less Than Jake not too long ago. I can say with ease that interviewing JR was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had speaking with a band and it certainly will go down as one of the site’s best. So definitely read up on the band’s new EP, thoughts on labels, and their New Year’s tour!

For the record, could you state your name and role in Less Than Jake?
My name is JR and for the record I’m still not sure what my role is in Less Than Jake. I guess my role would be the new guy, but the new guy’s been in the band for ten years, so that’s what I do best. When they want me to actually work I play saxophone.

Not too long ago the band announced their upcoming TV/EP. Did fans seem stoked for it right off the back?
75%/25%. 75% of the fans are super excited. 25% of the fans are total haters. I just let the haters hate.
POZ: You can’t always win.
JR: Yeah. Look, if we spent all of our time worrying 100% about what all of the people who listen to our band think, we would over think so much that our songs would be shittier than they end up turning out anyway. We just write our songs and we just do our things and this TV/EP  is a joke. I shouldn’t say a joke, that’s wrong.
POZ: It was for fun.
JR: It was fun for us to do.
POZ: It’s a relaxing kind of fun.
JR: Yeah, it’s supposed to be fun. Music is supposed to be fun. I think people forget about that sometimes so we figured we’d do something that’s a little bit different, but really kind of challenging. It was a lot of fun too. It was like, how do you take these old TV show themes and some commercials we used to watch when we were kids, and it actually kind of spans over three decades I suppose, and make it Less Than Jake. We’re pretty happy with how it came out. The only thin that people have heard so far is our “Animaniacs” cover, so I guess they’d have to hear the whole thing and then they can like it or hate it as much as they want.

When did you guys decide to put the plan into motion to actually do this?
We’ve been talking about it for years, but we had just decided to take this year off of touring, we did one-offs and stuff, but basically we had taken this year off and we weren’t going to write a proper studio record, but we wanted to put out a release or two. We wanted to do something new and this is something we’d been talking about doing for years. So the opportunity arose, everybody went and watched a bunch of television and picked songs we liked and that was it.

What are a few of your favorite track off of it?
To be honest with you, we’re not really saying too much about what’s on it. We’d rather people just go listen to it. The only song right now that’s been released is “Animaniacs.” There’s a loss of anticipation in music these days, I think, so I don’t really want to talk about it that much, I just want to say that the entire thing is about eleven minutes long, which is pretty much like one track off of the last Green Day record. So you can listen pretty much listen to this whole record in ten minutes and move on with your day I suppose. It’s just supposed to be fun, and maybe for some people it’ll be nostalgic. We figured when we did this people were either gonna totally love it or totally hate. Either way, we’re stoked.

Besides the haters, how has the reception been towards “Animaniacs?”
It was released on PunkNews and that’s notoriously, it should be called HateNews. Like I said, 75% of the people were like, “Wow, this is really cool.” Some of the responses I saw were like, “I didn’t think I was going to be into this until I heard this song and now I’m curious to see what the rest of it sounds like.” I think the response to that has been good, and is it gonna sell anymore or less? Probably not, because music isn’t about selling music, it’s just about people hearing it. If they’re interested enough to go listen to it, whether they buy it or they download it, that’s cool. We’re actually really stoked with how it came out. We’re pretty proud of it. I’m just curious to see what other people will think. Like I said, it’ll be 75/25.

Not too long ago rumors started flying that Less Than Jake will be playing Losing Streak at Riot Fest. Can you confirm that?
I can confirm that we have talked about it. I can confirm that I read it on PunkNews the other day, but we haven’t practiced anything, so I guess I’ll find out come Monday where we go to rehearsals this weekend. It sounds like something we would do. I know that that’s probably our most popular record. The idea that we’re trying to approach for a band now is to kind of create moments and do special things that people will remember and I think that doing something like that would create a special thing. So, hopefully we’ll do it. You’ll see it on YouTube I’m sure if you can’t make it out to Chicago. I’m 95% sure that’s what’s going to happen unless something changes.

Are you stoked for that festival in general? Lot of great bands alongside you.
Oh yeah, to play with the Bosstones and Pennywise and Bad Religion. These are guys that I guess, when I was a kid, I looked up to, and now they’re my friends. So to be able to play a big show like that with friends is awesome. It just makes you feel good. It makes you want to go do it. It’s not like we’re playing with like younger bands that maybe don’t fit in with our kind of music. Not that that’s bad, it’s just a different thing. But something like this I think is awesome.
POZ: Yeah, this is with some of your greatest friends and influences.
JR: Yeah, it’s an old guy thing. That’s what I call it.

After Riot you’ll be heading over to Japan for a short tour. How are your fans over there?
Surprisingly they’re all really Japanese.
POZ: I can’t imagine.
JR: [Laughs] Yeah, I thought it would be a little different. It’s great. I’ve had that question asked numerous times. When there is band on stage, fans in crowd, energy transfer, music, it’s always awesome. The only thing that’s different in Japan is that after you play a song they go “Yeah!” and then it’s dead silent because they want to hear what you say. And it’s really trippy. I’ve told friends of mine that had never been there before in the past that and they’re like, “Really? Get out of here.” and then they come back and they’re like, “You were totally right!” Japan’s always fun. It’s a beautiful country. Wonderful people. That’s probably my favorite place in the world to tour.

Is it a crazy experience to be able to play to such a diverse audience than normal?
The first time you go anywhere it’s like, “Fuck, this is crazy.” I grew up in the suburbs of Connecticut, nobody. The fact that I’m able to go and do stuff like this, I’m 34, and to be able to still sit here 18 years after the fact from when I started playing in the garage with my friend and then I’m going and visiting places that I never thought I would see other than in like a book, but not only once, but multiple times, it trips me out. The fact that people are excited that we go there, that’s even more of a trip. I think a lot of the time people take that for granted, whether they have some success, a little success, or no success. I think that they just forget that you should feel blessed and lucky that these kids want to see you play your shitty songs. Maybe it’s just because we’ve been around longer and we’ve seen the trends come and die. It’s weird because we’re still a band and bands that we’ve taken out on tour have broken up and gotten back together in the time that we’ve still been a fucking band. I try not to think too much about it and I just appreciate it every time we get to go somewhere again. It’s kind of like doing it all over again new each time we go. It’s great. It’s really the best part about it.

The band will be heading out on quite a long European tour right after Japan. Do the long and out of country tours ever take toll on your body at this point?
Of course. When you’re in your 20’s and doing it, it’s one thing, but when you’re in your 30’s and doing it, it’s a completely different thing. You have to kind of stay in shape a little bit and you have to watch what you eat and you can’t get drunk every night, because the hangovers are much, much more brutal as you get older. You have to be a little more…
POZ: Cautious with yourself.
JR: Cautious with your physicality, because I mean, we play an hour and fifteen to an hour and a half on any given night and then we do that six nights a week. We’re pretty physical in our show and it’s pretty intense. When I was younger it was easy; you’d just go jump of drum risers, fuck yourself up, go out, get wasted, pass out, wake up for sound check the next day. Now it’s a little bit different because the music industry is different, so we’re not on a label anymore, label people aren’t working for us; we work for ourselves. So in order for us to continue to be a band and to run our operations we have to be a little more on top of things. So when we go out and we tour for four and a half weeks in the winter in the Europe, yes it takes a toll and I think it would take a toll on any band, but if they told you that it doesn’t, they’re probably lying.

Moving away from touring, the band will obviously be releasing the new EP next week, but it has been two years since your last full-length. Can we expect one in 2011?
Yes. We’re writing songs right now. We’ve looked at a lot of our contemporaries and we’ve seen how long that they’ve waiting in between records, so we’ve been pretty good. We’ve been trying to put one out between every two to two and a half years. We’re pretty much right on schedule. We’ve been writing songs. Because the industry has changed so much, our next release may not be a traditional record so to speak, but it’s hard to say what we’re going to do. We’ve been doing a lot of internal discussions. We’ve been doing a lot of research. We’ve been trying to sort out where Less Than Jake stands in this new era of what the music industry is turning into and I think a lot of people don’t see beyond that. When kids ask me now a days “How do I get signed to a major label?” my response is “don’t.” That’s how you get signed, don’t try. If you just do your thing people will come and do it. For us, we want to release something, but we know it needs to be something different. Not maybe so much a traditional 12 song or 10 song record with two rockers and a ballad because we’re not on a major label anymore, so we’re not going for radio or MTV. Even if we were on a major label, they only take like six bands a year. So with the 100,000 releases that come out so far in 2010, I think maybe we’ve got to figure out something because something’s totally fucked. It’s a good figuring out year for our band, but I will say that the five of us are the strongest we’ve ever been as friends and I feel like we’re working on some good songs and I feel like we’re just beginning too.

If there is an option for you to have it released on an indie label, is that an option you guys would be willing to…
If they were going to pay us a billion dollars, maybe. Why? Seriously, why? I guess it depends on who the label was and I guess it depends on the situation and how it was presented to us. We’re kind of at the point now where we like having control of our own career and our own destiny. I see how labels work. Now a days it’s like, if you’re signed to a label they’re going to take a portion of your viral marketing pages, your Facebook or whatever, and they want to be able to promote their other acts on your Facebook and your Twitter. I say fuck that. I’d rather promote the bands that I like, or that we like. I know that iTunes has this new Ping thing that just came out and we’re stoked that we have a thing and we’re able to tell people about bands that we like because I’m sick of hearing about all these other bands that I think suck. I’m not going to mention names because why would I give them press? But it would be cool to be able to read more about bands like We Are The Union and it would be cool to be able to read more about bands like The Flatliners and like Cobra Skulls and bands in the punk and ska genre that are coming up. They’re working just as hard as anybody else who has bigger major label money. The underground continues to live and thrive, so I would rather have it continue being that. I know Brett at Epitaph pretty well. He’s a really good guy. If he approached us I’m not saying that we would say no, but we’re pretty content having control of our own destiny. We don’t really need anybody else on us with what to do or to make a phone call for us. I kind of like it that way. It’s better for us.
POZ: You’re at that point in the band’s career where it’s your thing now.
JR: Dude, you know what, when I’m older than the managers in these other bands when I’m trying to go on tour with us by years, I’m like, “Well why would I want to hire him?” Why would I hire somebody that’s 22 years old? Not that the 22-year-old kid is a moron, but we’re a different band. Like I said, we’re never going to be on MTV or the radio. Even some of these bigger indies, Epitaph is like signing to a major label, same thing. And that’s great because Brett’s kept that label going. Now if it was something like signing to Paper + Plastick, which is Vinnie’s label, that’s a completely different subject. That’s like signing to your brother’s label. That’s something we would consider, but I don’t think it’d be a full on Paper + Plastick release. It’d probably be a co-release between our label and his label. Who knows, that may happen. Things are getting really interesting when it comes to the music industry. Everybody’s trying to fight something that can’t be fought. It’s like fighting a ghost. You can’t fight a ghost. The internet, you can’t fight it. It just is. But whatever, I’m happy. I think the revolution is awesome. And watching all these rats scurry is even awesome-er.

Less Than Jake will be playing Soundwave 2011 down in Australia in January, but other than that should we expect any other tour announcements?
Yes. We’re going to be touring the US in January with The Supervillains. We don’t have any dates booked, but if people go to LessThanJake.com, or to our Facebook, or our Twitter, I’m certain that they can find out tour dates there. We’ll be announcing those, I assume, by sometime in the next two weeks we’ll be announcing where all the tour dates are and who else is going to on the bill with us. Right now it’s us and The Supervillains as the direct support band.

Thanks so much for your time!
No problem!