Less Than Jake

Like many ska fans, Less Than Jake are one of my favourite bands, and I’ve been going to see them at their UK shows for more years than I’d like to admit. So when I got an opportunity to interview them, I jumped at the chance. I met up with Chris at the Birmingham O2 Academy a couple of hours before their (as usual, brilliant) gig with Allbright, We Are the Union and Zebrahead, and we got talking about curries, snakebite and strippers (as well as some actual questions about their music). 

RP: So, you’ve been to the UK quite a lot, how do you actually find it over here? Obviously you’re from Florida, does the difference in weather, for example, hinder your travelling or put a downer on your touring? 

Chris: By the end of a four week European tour in the Winter, it’s a little taxing near the end, you want to see some sun. But for the most part I think we’ve been doing this long enough where we’re used to it, and I kind of knew what I was going into. I left 30 degree weather in Florida, but I’m prepared you know? Well, (gestures to the shorts he’s wearing and his bare legs) you wouldn’t think so...! 

RP: You could wear some tights? 

Chris: You wouldn’t want to see me in tights! 

RP: Do you have a favourite place in the UK to visit? 

Chris: Birmingham is one of my favourite places, also Manchester is awesome. I love Leeds too. London is what it is, it’s your New York, it’s crazy and it’s fun but it’s not my favourite place. I like some of the smaller little towns as well, we’ve been to places like Leicester too. 

RP: Do you get to travel around much or is it literally the cities you play in? Do you have a pretty tight schedule? 

Chris: We’ve got time during the day if we’re already at the venue, so I’ll have a walk around the town. We’ve been to enough of these places now that I actually know where I’m at. Your city centres in most of these places aren’t that big. 

RP: Obviously you’ve got so many years of songs to choose from...when you come to choose your set lists, how do you even start picking which tracks to play? Especially when so many of your fans know pretty much all of your songs? 

Chris: Yeah, you kind of have to play the songs you know you have to play. There are songs over here that get played in the rock clubs and stuff, we know which ones those are and people want to hear those. So that’s always our starting point, then the rest of it is trying to pick a little bit from every point of our career, a song here, a song there, it tends to usually work out. Of course, you’re always gonna have people...I mean it happened last night, it happens every night, you get people after the show who are like, “fuck man! Why didn’t you play this song?!” You can’t really please everybody. 

RP: So is this an active thing you do, sit down with the band each night to choose the set list or does it carry on from the previous nights? 

Chris: Yeah we just did it on the bus a couple of minutes ago. I don’t really get involved with it...well, I do sometimes but I haven’t been lately. I’m just like, “whatever, you guys pick!” Because then also at the end of the night I can be like, “it’s not my fault!” I don’t even see what’s on it until our stage guy tapes it down.

RP: A few years ago you did 6 gigs/6 nights in London where you played an album a night. Why did you choose to do that? 

Chris: Well, we did it in the States and it went over really well. We did three sets of two shows in Florida; in Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa. So all three of those got two shows each, equalling the six. We wanted to do that here but logistically it would just cost way too much money to travel and get hotels in different places, so staying in London just made more sense. We also knew that being in London, it’s very easy to get to throughout the UK and people would come from all over, and they did. 

RP: Would you ever consider doing it again? 

Chris: I’d never say never...it was cool but it was an undertaking. They’re all actually getting released; our States shows have been documented and re-released as DVDs which are coming out soon. 

RP: Why do you think more bands don’t do similar gigs? It seems like an obvious fan-pleasing thing to do... 

Chris: Some bands in the States do, we’re definitely not the first band to do it. Maybe some British band has to do it and then suddenly everyone else will start doing it! I think you have goals in your career as a band, things like playing the Main Stage at Reading, which we did. I’d love to do it again but if we never do it again, it’s already checked off the list. So it’s kind of the same thing with the album shows. It was an undertaking, it was a lot of work, we rehearsed really hard for it, made sure all the songs were perfect and that was that. 

At this point JR walks in, looking for news of the curry they ordered ‘four hours ago’. The interview inevitably turns to the wonders of curry. 

RP: We’ve seen on some of your twitter feeds that you’re excited about getting a curry in Birmingham, are you a big curry fan? 

Chris: The last time I had a curry was...I’ll tell you the last time I had a curry, it was in January 2005! JR and I came to Birmingham to DJ at the old Academy and we did their ska punk night. So they flew us over here to plug in our fucking ipod, it was really weird, but the promoter took us out for a wonderful curry! 

RP: Along with a lot of your fans, we’ve been coming to see your band for a good few years now. What do you think it is about Less than Jake that keeps making people come back to your gigs every time you’re over here? 

Chris: I think people over here have the perception that we were bigger in the States, but we were never bigger anywhere except the United Kingdom per capita. At the height of it, 2001/2002, we did 3 nights at the London Astoria, that’s 2500 people a night, and we’re not getting those numbers anymore but we’re still getting a lot of people come out, it’s still great. 

RP: Do you think fans over here are more loyal? 

Chris: Yeah, I think a lot of it too is that British people have a wacky sense of humour. Benny Hill was one of my favourite shows when I was growing up as a kid because it was just so weird; you didn’t see that in America, that kind of slapstick comedy, it was really unique. It was foreign to me because it was British, I was like, “what words are they using?” You guys would be talking English but I wouldn’t understand any of it! And we (the band) have an incredible sense of humour, as you guys know, and we get up there and we just throw a fucking party, and I think that’s why people here just get it. Last night I had the best compliment ever from this guy, he was about 24/25 years old, he came up to me after the show and he said, “Man, my friends brought me tonight, I’ve never even heard of your band before, never heard your music before, but that was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life, you guys are fucking hilarious.” We had this other guy last night, I don’t know how many stone it would be...(he holds his arms out as wide as they’ll go), he was obese, he was huge. He gets up on stage and we say “what’s up dude, we’ll give you a shot, but only if you stage dive”. And he did the stage dive! The crowd were passing him around...well, trying. So that kind of shit, every night something like that happens. I’ve never played a contrived show; I’ve never gotten onstage and been like, “Hi! How are you? Good to see you!” Then play a song and stare at my shoes. Every night’s different, it’s unique, it’s its own thing. If you come see us tonight and come see us tomorrow, it’s a completely different show. I learned a long time ago, that no matter what’s going on with my personal life, or with my equipment, or if my guitar’s fucked up or if I don’t feel good, you just do this, (pretends to be playing the guitar with a big smile on his face) the whole fucking time. Poker face, just don’t let anybody know if something’s going on. Then at the end of the night you know you’ve done your job. Like, I tried my best, shit was fucked up but I had a smile on my face, instead of “grrrrrr!” Nobody’s having fun then. 
 

RP: Ok we wanted to ask you about your most recent album, ‘GNV FLA’, or as we always feel inclined to pronounce it, ‘Gnv Fla!’... 

Chris: Yeah, well we were picking album titles and Vinnie, our drummer, he proposed it and I was like, “what the fuck is that?!” It’s the airport code for Gainesville, Florida. It’s only really printed on the airline tickets, it’s called Gainesville Regional Airport. No one ever really goes, “I’m flying into GNV FLA”...the album’s basically called Gainesville, Florida. 

RP: So with ‘GNV FLA’, you go back to more of a ‘ska’ type sound, compared to ‘In With the Outcrowd’. Was that because you missed the old sound or was it more commercially driven? Do you actively sit down with the band and decide what direction each album is going to take? 

Chris: I think we just wanted to write an album of songs of what we do best, ska punk. And besides a handful of bands, not many bands are doing that kind of music now, at least in the States. And we’d branched out and tried some different songs and some different records but this time we were going to do what we do best: straight-up fast ska punk with catchy melodies. 

RP: Do you have an album that you’re personally most proud of? 

Chris: Probably ‘In With the Outcrowd’, which is weird because that’s probably our fan’s least favourite album. There are really personal songs for me on that record, I was going through a divorce, so if you read the lyrics to some of those songs... 

RP: So do you write the lyrics as well as Vinnie? 

Chris: No, Vinnie our drummer writes the lyrics. But we have an input, like he’ll write the words and we’ll change them round or we’ll be like, “hey, instead of saying this word, this would probably sing better”, things like that. But for the most part he writes all the lyrics. 

RP: I was wondering about that. Vinnie writes the lyrics but obviously it’s you and Roger that have to sing them, do you change a lot of it because it’s easier to sing live? 

Chris: Yeah, there’s a lot of that stuff. When we do demos, we’ll record practice runs of songs. Sometimes Roger will sing the song for 3 months while we’re working on it and then we go to record it and I’ll end up singing it. I do harmonies on the record too, I sing with myself and so does Roger. There are times when I listen to our records and I don’t know if it’s me singing or him singing, I can’t tell! 
 

RP: Last time we saw you over here, you didn’t play many songs off ‘GNV FLA’, is that because you know your fans like a lot of your older material? 

Chris: Yeah, I think we’re only doing two songs from it tonight, but last night we did four songs from it. It just depends on the night. 

RP: I wanted to ask you about Twitter and Facebook. I follow the main Less Than Jake twitter page and JR and Vinnie are on there too, are you signed up? 

Chris: I’m signed up for it, but I’ve never used it. The thing about Twitter for me is it’s really no different from Facebook. I’d just be writing “hey I’m in Oxford tonight...” “hey I’m going to take a shit right now”. I think it’s a little too much, that’s why I’m not on it. Maybe someday I’ll do it. I do Facebook though of course, it’s like gossip central. But I don’t twitter because I think facebook already does that. 

RP: Obviously, when Less than Jake started, Twitter and everything wasn’t around... 

Chris: The internet wasn’t around! It was being worked on. 

RP: So now it’s completely different. Do you think the whole social network thing has changed who follows your band and what kind of fans you get? 

Chris: Yeah. For instance, we played a city called Portland, Oregon in America, and something happened and the show got cancelled, they couldn’t do it in this place. And we learned of it the day before and were like, fuck! So we found a venue, a little bar, and we got on Facebook and Myspace and told our fans that the show got cancelled here but if they wanted to come see us at this bar we’re doing a low ticket price, a $10 show. So we had probably 250 people turn up, and that never would have happened without technology. We would have been cancelled, that would have been it. But we knew that we’d be able to make some money, sell some t-shirts, it wouldn’t just be a day off, and that we’d please the 250 people who showed up. 

RP: Along those lines, a lot of bands get some psycho fans...do you think the internet increases the chances of that happening?! 

Chris: At least for me, I think it’s worked the opposite way. Only because I think people before they really knew what you looked like, it was like a mystique. Like, “Less Than Jake...ooh! You’re Chris! I’m gonna stalk you!!” Now, if you wanna see what I look like or see what I’m doing, just do a google search and in two seconds you’ve got everything. 

RP: Do you miss that, then? The stalkers?! 

Chris: There’s been some fucking crazy people that follow us around. Where do I start?! There were two strippers from Colorado that followed us around the WHOLE tour. 

RP: I don’t think many people would say that’s a bad thing! 

Chris: Yeah, well they weren’t very attractive! They were just crazy. I don’t know how they afforded it...well, we have our theories as to how they afforded it! I’m not talking like 5 or 6 shows, they drove to all 33 days of our tour. They missed a couple of shows in the Midwest of America, because they said they had to go and find a stripping gig to be able to continue! 

RP: You’ve played Japan, and those fans are notoriously quite ‘enthusiastic’, did you find that when you were over there? 

Chris: Yeah, as a song is playing, they go crazy, but as soon as the song ends, it’s complete silence. You could hear a pin drop. They’re a very polite people but you have to talk slow. They can understand English but you have to talk slow because they want to hear what you’re saying. So that’s why they’re quiet. 

RP: So does that change the way you are on stage? 

Chris: Absolutely not. I learned some Japanese phrases but I don’t learn stuff like, “hello! How are you? Good to see you Japan!” No, I have this kind of shit translated. They have noodle bowls over there, like ramen noodles, and I’ll translate something like, “I had three noodle bowls today but I’ve only shit twice.” 

RP: One random question...do you drink snake bite in America? 

Chris: No... 

RP: Do you drink them when you’re over here? 

Chris: (shrugs his shoulders), Come on! Of course. Lager, cider, blackcurrant, right? I love ‘em! They don’t really have them in America because of the blackcurrant. You can find blackcurrant juice but people usually drink grape juice or cranberry juice. I’d never heard of blackcurrant until I came to the UK. 
 

RP: On a similar British note, this weekend it’s Guy Fawkes weekend. As an American, do you know what we’re going on about? 

Chris: No I don’t. I have seen fireworks going off the past few days...I saw them when we first got into Oxford. 

RP: It’s pretty much when we celebrate people attempting to blow up our Houses of Parliament! (this may not be 100% historically accurate – ed). 

Chris: Oh! I know exactly what you’re talking about now. Do a lot of people in the States know about that? No. But I do know what you’re talking about. 

RP: Do you have any similar weird ritual type celebrations in Florida/America? 

Chris: I’m sure there are a million things, but one thing that does come to mind wasn’t in Florida. We were in a place called Champaign, Illinois. Or was it Indiana? Anyway, we went to a Bacon Fry. So we get out to the woods, there’s this huge bonfire, and everybody there brought packages of bacon! There was a huge frying pan and people were just throwing the bacon in, over the fire, and there were just plates of bacon getting passed around. Salty bacon when you’re drinking beer? Oh my god, I must have eaten pounds of bacon. 

JR walks in at this moment, unfortunately there’s still no sign of the curry. 

RP: One more random question...if you could remake any film to star in, what would it be and who would you play? 

Chris: Have you ever seen the movie called, ‘Planes, trains and automobiles?’ It’s a late 80’s movie, it’s pretty funny. It’s my favourite movie. And I would be John Candy in that movie, and you would understand when you watch the movie why I’d be him. 

RP: I also just wanted to ask randomly, would you ever make a Beatles-esque Less Than Jake film? 

Chris: We kind of have before, have you seen our DVD? There are little skits and stuff that we do on there. You ever heard of the term Avant Garde? It’s like experimental filming. Well, ours is called Avant Tarde, because the shit we do in there is retarded. You should check it out. 

I’d like to say a big thanks to Chris for his time and to JR for putting up with us in the dressing room, I hope you both eventually got your curry. For more info on the band check out their site atwww.lessthanjake.com!