jojo interviews *JASON LOEWENSTEIN*

july 13, 2002

via telephone

 

 

 

 

jason loewenstein is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. why, you ask?

 

 

there are a lot more reasons to love jake, but i sense that this is getting on yr nerves. unfortunately i had to edit a lot of this interview 'cuz we talked for nearly two hours! yr missing out on the story of the banjo!

his solo effort, "at sixes and sevens", was released earlier this month. if you haven't picked it up already, what are you waiting for? my personal favorites: jake's vocals & guitar riff on "circles". "roswell to jerusalem" is my other favorite. the whole album is good. long live jason loewenstein!

jojo: “at sixes and sevens” is all you. when did you begin working on it and how long did it take you to complete?

jason: it depends on what you call the beginning. some of those songs i've had - riffs, lyrics - i've had for a couple of years. the day that lawrence from domino called me and said "hey, wanna do a solo record?" was the day i started working on it. from the time of that phone call to turning in the tapes is almost a year and a half to two years. my wife & i kept moving around and i really didn't have a place to record. the actual recording part of it lasted about two weeks. i did do some drum tracks when we were living in washington state. i took about 5 days to mix it with my friend kevin.

jojo: you recorded this by yourself?

jason: yeah - after we did the last sebadoh record, i was befuddled by the whole communication gap between musicians and engineers. we were working in the studio, and i had none of the lingo. when you’re sitting in the studio, you try to come up with the best metaphor for a sound or for a feel; the engineers had a set of metaphors and the musicians have another set. plus, the technical side of it – i knew something about it from using a four track, but a four track to a twenty-four track is a very big jump. i bought this eight track machine that’s somewhere in between. setting it up and using it has really helped me to learn what the hell they were talking about. things would’ve been a lot less frustrating if i spoke the language of the engineers. i bought all this stuff and then by the time i got to feel like i was using it correctly, i was like, “man, there’s really no reason to go into a studio” unless someone complains when i turn in the record and says, “this sounds like crap!” then i would entertain the possibility of recording some of it in the studio. i don’t like being on someone else’s clock. you’re paying out the wazoo no matter how cheap the studio is. it’s cool, y’know - these guys have to make a living.

jojo: i believe that scott from preston school recorded his album on a four track.

jason: it’s funny – our generation, the recording devices that you could buy to bring home with you sound pretty amazing now. the digital things – i know people who own those, and it would be really difficult to say, “wow, you recorded this at home, didn’t you?!?” it used to be a lot easier ‘cuz it was all on cassette and you could kinda tell ‘cuz it was hissy – which i kind of like, but it was a lot easier to tell. now, there’s less and less of a reason to deal with studios, less and less of a reason to deal with record labels and that kind of thing. everyone’s got CD burners…you could really do yr own pressing of a record. i like the way thing are going. it’s interesting ‘cuz i did all the preliminary stuff, but i could never have done the kind of things sub pop does as far as promotions and this and that. that’s the whole other side of it. it’s not necessary, but it really helps to get people to listen. the record came out this week, and it’s on the CMJ chart. it probably would’ve never got there without their help. that side of things is more important than i really realized.

jojo: why’d you pick campbellsville, KY to do the recording?

jason: are you familiar with campbellsville?

jojo: i’ve driven through kentucky a few times and have passed through!

jason: well, number one, it’s the site of the old fruit of the loom factory, and i love underpants. my mom used to go out with a man named marty hogan for a few years, and after they broke up we kept in touch with the family. he eventually moved down here ‘cuz his mom lived in bargetown, which is between louisville and campbellsville. his mom has this summer house that’s down by the green river lake that’s used a few weeks out of the year. whenever i’d talk to marty, i’d tell him “i’m trying to get this record done, and i don’t know where…i can’t do it in the basement ‘cuz there’s too many people around” blah, blah, blah. he’d say, “just go use the cabin” so many times and i said, “okay!” sebadoh used that cabin 3 or 4 years ago when we first got russ into the band and we were trying to figure out what to do. it was the same situation i was in – i brought all my eight tracks down there, and we just jammed. that cabin’s crazy – it’s a real house, not a lot of insulation so the sound just flies right out the wall! when you’re playing drums, the sounds go down into the valley and you know yr pissing people off. there’s no phone, there’s no television reception; it’s very secluded and nine miles away from town. it’s funny ‘cuz the way you said “why campbellsville?” – it’s in the middle of nowhere! the town is relatively small, and the downtown as it used to be is no more ‘cuz they built a walmart so all these businesses are gone. i really like small town kentucky. it’s so different from growing up on the east coast.

jojo: did you actually bring a bible to the taco bell out there to get ten percent off?

jason: no, i didn’t, but i almost thought of it ‘cuz there’s a bible in the house, and it’s the best taco bell i’ve ever been to. i think they fear god enough to make the burritos really good! it’s the kind of place where i walk into the gas station to pay for gas, and the guy goes, “so, what you say?” stuff like that! where are you gonna hear sayings like that anymore?!? it’s only a generation away from being a hundred years ago, and the less that they see on TV the less they succumb to the world changing around them; you get some cool, old time sayings!

jojo: where are you currently residing? are you still in washington?

jason: no, we’re outside of louisville in this town called prospect.

jojo: what’s with all the moving?

jason: well, we moved to brooklyn about two years ago and lived there – kelly had just gotten her masters and was thinking about going into teaching, so we went out to washington state to get her PhD. she sold her house in kentucky, and then we debated over where to go next. she really wants to go back to new york, and i’m coming to the conclusion that she may be right about that. we also have the consideration of a pot bellied pig. it’s really hard to find an apartment that will accept a pig. he’s low maintenance – he’s like a dog. i really like brooklyn; it’s more neighborhoody.

jojo: with all that distance, it must be hard to even consider making another sebadoh record. you are making another sebadoh record, no? do you just meet up in california?

jason: even back in the days when eric was in the band, i was in it for about two years before lou & kathleen moved to boston. that began the legacy of nobody living in the same town. the distances have just gotten further and further. lou eventually moved out to california, and russ moved to california right after. we figure out a location and go to it. it was a huge effort for the last record – everyone went down to campbellsville and jammed for three weeks. we really didn’t do anything – we just drank beer and jammed! we played cards all night!

jojo: what have you been up to since the last sebadoh record? can you live off of being a musician?

jason: i haven’t had a real job since ’92. in that whole period, for almost ten years i survived off of music. during the post-nirvana money boom, we were getting paid quite a bit for shows. i’m actually figuring out what people get paid now and we didn’t get paid that much, but to us, it was a million dollars. it was really easy to survive on that. after the last sebadoh tour, two years went by, and we hadn’t made any plans.  i was living in new york for the first part of it, and i was like, “holy shit, i’ve gotta figure out how to make some money!” i did some office temp jobs while i was in new york. i was without a job for a long time. i had the record in the works and i got a little bit of an advance for it. when i was in the home stretch of getting the record done, i was like, “you gotta buckle down and figure what yr time is worth”, so i went and got a job with ear ecstasy here in louisville. i worked there for three or four months.

jojo: i admire people who put their life first before their job and do what they really wanna do. it's really inspiring. more people need to think like that as opposed to worrying all the time (not that i'm not a worry wart myself...)

jason: you get worn out by the day to day stuff, and you realize that your time is more and more valuable. for awhile there, when i was living in new york especially, i was like, “holy cow, i have to figure out something to do” and i didn’t know if i was going to get by playing music. i was thinking about getting a web design job or some crazy thing like that; switching gears altogether. luckily, my wife talked me out of that, ‘cuz it’s been my whole life up to that point. i’d spent my whole life since i got out of school playing music and doing that stuff. i didn’t know what the hell to do after sebadoh took that long break. i really didn’t have much to do on the administration side of it, if you wanna call it that – securing the gigs, securing the record deal - everyone talks to lou. eventually we had management, so i was further shielded from being in contact with people and being responsible! when sebadoh was on that long hiatus, i really didn’t know where to start. i was lucky that lawrence from domino called ‘cuz it set all the gears in motion. i might’ve given up and decided to be a web designer or something like that! there’s nothing wrong with that – i really enjoy doing that, but it’s not nearly as fulfilling as this.

jojo: have you done any freelance work with yr photography? or is that just a hobby?

jason: i know nothing about photography at all. i know what i like to shoot, but i have no idea to develop, i have no idea about the technical aspects of the camera or film. most of the pictures i’ve taken in the last five years are on digital camera. i love doing it, but in the real world, the want people to shoot film of course, ‘cuz it’s just so much better than digital. i have no idea about that stuff and couldn’t yank anybody’s chain. i respect the fact that i don’t know anything about it. now and then, i get a disposable camera. i used to get those all the time when we were on tour. i have a friend named aaron that takes a lot of rockin’ nature photos; his whole thing is, “i’m a photographer!” i was practicing with my band, and he was like, “we’ve gotta take some shots of you guys since it’s the first time you’ve got together” before practice a couple of weeks ago. we were not allowing him to take it seriously. it was really frustrating him. we were like, "no, we're gonna hang out and be really goofy and just shoot it". after that, he was like, "okay! we're gonna have to go to this lab..." i went to downtown manhattan with him and it was one of those film labs where everybody works for a magazine, eveybody's got five cameras on them! the developing itself cost about twenty bucks. he was like, "you guys do dip and dunk, right? you guys don't do machine?" and i was like, "aaron, no offense, but even if this is going as a promo shot i wouldn't care that much". it's probably gonna end up on my website! if it was going to be some huge print, i could see that.

jojo: i think i'm going to use the phrase "dip and dunk" in every conversation i have this week! that phrase is amazing!

jason: i've only heard it once and i haven't fogotten it!

jojo: are you gonna be touring anytime soon?

jason: hopefully. i got a booking agent that works out of san francisco. we have a tour scheduled for october. we’re hoping he can get us out by the end of august for a two week thing.

jojo: who’s in yr band?

jason: these two fellows. i met kevin about three years ago in new york. he was introduced to me by that photographer! he’s a terrific guitar player – a really nice guy, really intuitive. he was in a band called blue green. i asked him to play bass. he’s been working really hard and sounds really good on the bass now. the drummer is also from his band – his name is bob dimiko. their passion in life is playing, and it has nothing to do with making money.

jojo: what is yr instrument of choice?

jason: my favorite thing to play is the banjo. even after three years i feel like i’m just figuring out how it works. my van broke down when i was on my way to new york. i had to leave my banjo in the van, so i was totally jonesing to play. yesterday i went to this music store to go to the practice room and play for a little while. so i start playing banjo, and one of the guys in the store as soon as i start playing goes, “that’s the devil’s instrument you know!” second thing would be guitar. i love the bass – i like them all, really.

jojo: are there records you can’t live without that you would like to mention?

jason: “historia de la musica rock” – i listened to that non-stop for a long time. there’s this one song at the end of the album that’s the spookiest blues sorta song i’ve ever heard. i’m always going back to my captain beefheart collection. i love the first punk rock records i’ve bought like all those s.s.t. stuff – i throw that on pretty often. there’s so much stuff that i’ve missed. i have better luck putting together pieces of the past than i do finding new stuff that’s great.

jojo: do you have any fun 90’s gossip that probably wouldn’t mean much to anyone but would be fun to share? One of my favorite stories is courtney love yelling at you guys at reading fest.

jason: we played the reading fest, and we were just like, “holy shit!” we weren’t even on the main stage – it was on one of the side tents. the tent fit about two or three thousand people inside then there were people spilling out. we were pretty well hyped at that point so there were a lot of people standing around. things fell apart immediately when we hit the stage. we were completely nervous and lou broke two strings in the first song. we were too retarded to have our shit together to have another guitar ready. guys from other bands were giving us guitars but we were tuned a half step down. lou would start to play and it would be completely out of tune. we already wasted ten minutes, so bob and i just started playing. we played anything, and lou was making up words. and courtney – i think it was the first time she appeared in concert since kurt had died – she kind of announced a few days before reading fest that she was gonna play it. she just called the organizer and said, “i’m coming. you’ve gotta make room for me, i’m courtney love!” of course they did, ‘cuz it was a huge deal. so she was pretty wasted – everyone was wasted. she was on the side of the stage screaming at us! i remember at one point it had quieted down enough on stage that so that even i could hear her on the other side and she goes, “lou, don’t disrespect kurt like that!” i was like, “what in the fucking bejesus are you talking about?” in hindsight, it’s a good story, but at the time, it was like, “what are you talking about, woman?”

jojo: why was she screaming at you guys?

jason: i think she was into the band so she came over to the stage to watch. she was just like, “don’t disrespect kurt!” i don’t know where that came from! kurt was apparently a fan of lou’s – they met once. beyond that, i can’t see where she'd get that from.

jojo: on the nirvana “live! tonight! sold out!” video, he’s wearing a sebadoh shirt.

jason: yeah! as terrible as goofy as it sounds, that was really exciting to me, ‘cuz i liked nirvana and they were the biggest band in the world. the year before, he was being really difficult going around the reading festival the year before wearing a sebadoh shirt! people were so wrapped in who likes what that it helped us out. actually, the next tour nirvana was going to do before he decided to do himself in – we were going to open for them in europe. we were really nervous and excited; we were like, “oh shit, we get to play with a band we really like, and they’re the biggest band in the world right now!”

jojo: what advice do you have for the kids that wanna put out a record?

jason: just grab the technology we have and do it at home. this may not be the same for everybody, but for me being self-sufficient is really important. it may come from some negative personality traits that i have about not working well with others, not being able to ask for help when i need it or being impatient. in the studio, if i didn’t have my ideas completely together when i was recording with sebadoh, i felt like i was wasting everyone’s time. it seemed like other people i worked with would take the time to finish what they were doing. meanwhile, i’m like, “holy shit, everybody’s watching! i’m sorry! i should’ve got my shit together before i got in here!” the way to go is to learn how to do everything.

jake put me on hold for a minute after this, and i felt like a bastard 'cuz he informed me that his wife kelly had been waiting the entire time to go to a movie. kelly, if yr reading this, i'm sorry. you must have us cancers apologizing to you all the time.

jakerock

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