Interview: Jimmy Eat World

Original English version below:

Hey Rick! How’s it going? Where are you at?

It’s going great, I’m here in London and from here we’re going over to Bush Hall and do our soundcheck for the first gig for this album.

Very first gig? Sounds great! Do you have big expectations for this gig?

I do! I’m very excited about it. We’re playing a couple new tunes from Integrity Blues and it’ll be the first time we’ve performed them live so I’m really excited about seeing the audience’s reaction. That’s one of my favourite things. There’s one thing about playing music for someone after recording but there’s something about the live atmosphere that just kind of intensifies everything, so I’m really looking forward to that.

I got the chance to listen to the album this morning, actually – and I quite liked it! But I was wondering, what are your personal top three songs from the album?

Oh, top three. You’re asking me what are my three favourite children, haha! But, I love them all, obviously, but I think right now – and it changes from day to day – right now I’m really liking – it’s kind of diverse – I’m liking “Get Right”, because of the rock energy of that song, and I’m also liking “Pass The Baby”, because it’s something that’s totally new for us and that was so much fun to make, and we didn’t know what was gonna happen and we’re just thrilled with how that ended up. And then also the title track, “Integrity Blues”. It’s very different. The orchestra ensemble is a little bit haunting and I find that really interesting.

Your single “Get Right”, it sounded very old school, like the old school Jimmy Eat World.

Yeah, that song… it is, it’s very much us. It’s very familiar, and it was a lot of fun bringing that song together. Very comfortable. It just feels good and solid. Solid Jimmy Eat World.

Most bands when they’re at their, like, third or fourth album, they start evolving, but you’re on your ninth album right now, do you feel like you’re still evolving as a band?

Yeah, we do! And that was part of – before making this album – that was one of our goals that we set for ourselves. We wanted to not make an album just for making another album’s sake. We wanted to make sure we’re still continuing to grow as musicians and songwriters and so we started working with the producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, or JMJ, as he’s known, quite early in the process, which is new for us. Normally, we have quite developed songs and then we bring in the producer, but this time, we started working when a lot of the material was just some notepad sketches. Very, very raw and undeveloped. We kind of really relied upon him and allowed him to kind of out-direct us in where to focus our energy on; which ideas that he felt were the most exciting. We sat down and we agreed on the songs, or some of them were just riffs, like a small clip of a 7-second guitar riff, but something about them had some energy to them, and some had potential for a strong live [experience] and we really focused on those and developed them into the songs, it was a really fun process, and challenging. He helped us get out of our comfort zone and find solutions to musical problems that were different from our normal solutions. So having done eight albums previously, we have presented with musical problems or a puzzle, we have our go-to solutions that are kind of just reflects reactions that are almost involuntary Jimmy Eat World approaches to solving a problem. This album we wanted to be aware of those and consciously find a solution that was different from our normal reaction, so we challenged ourselves in that. Being advanced and aged a little, we’re not quite as flexible as we were when we were young boys, haha! It was challenging sometimes and Justin was great because he was encouraging and motivating and patient. He never told us what to do, but he always gave us inspiration and drive to continue hunting and finding that solution ourselves, so I don’t think we could’ve chosen a better person.

I know that he’s on the last Paramore record, actually, and I know that there are bands like Paramore and other bands that are heavily influenced by your sound – and some of those bands, like Paramore, are so big right now, how does it feel to have this kind of legacy behind you?

It’s immensely flattering, being a creative group of guys. We’re kind of selfish when we’re making music, and we make something that excites us and is pleasing to us and we hope that other people feel the same way when they hear it – that they will like it as much as we do. At the same time we don’t have control over how someone is going to hear our music. When someone does embrace it and finds something in that they can identify with and make their own, it’s really flattering to me. Having other bands that have been influenced by us is a great thing. It’s reassuring that we’re doing something right.

Even Taylor Swift is using your songs in commercials and stuff.

Yeah.

How is that for you? Like, that specific commercial, did that really change things for you?

You know, something that happened recently was that Taylor Swift – she’s a big star – and she chose to… uhm… I don’t know how it totally came about but she was to do some ads for Apple and in these ads it’s all about lip-syncing along to your favourite song. And I’m sure there was some more contemporary music that they would’ve liked her to choose but I guess she was very adamant about it, she wanted to do “The Middle”, which is a song from 2001 that we did, and it’s something personal in her life that grasped onto that song. It’s very special to her. So it was important for her to do able to do that song and, again, it’s just flattering. It’s just kind of awesome.

“The Middle” is one of your most well-known songs. Definitely one of the most popular ones. But in your own eyes, what do you consider your own biggest hit?

Oh wow. You know what, there’s a song “Sweetness”, and that song – I’ll always remember the first time that we came to Europe, our first gig was in Germany and this was in 1999, which is before that song was even on an album. But this is also the time when Napster was starting out and was starting to do its thing and become popular, so the person-to-person sharing of files when it was at its infancy. So we came to Germany, and we had no records released in Europe, or anywhere outside the US, so we had not many expectations. It was a punk rock tour that one of our friends helped us book and we didn’t know what we were going to find, and we had a gig in Cologne and at this gig we played “Sweetness” and the audience was singing the song back to us as we’re performing it. It was surreal, because how did they know this? And that’s when we learned the value of sharing with your friends – songs. Whether it’s through the internet or you hand them a mixtape. I think it’s a good thing, you know? That personal recommendation from a friend, it’s valuable. So that song will always be special to me because of that. It was just very surprising, and just like “wow, this is so cool”.

You’ve been active for about 20 years now, do you still have things on your bucket list that you would like to do in the future?

Sure! Yeah, so one thing that’s a driving force for us is to see new places and meet people in different territories that we haven’t been to yet, so hopefully with this album we’ll be able to tour in some new territories. One of those being South America. We haven’t been to South America yet.

Never!?

No, we never have, surprisingly! And it’s not far from our home in Arizona, so… I mean it is kinda far, but we’ve been to Singapore, we’ve been in Jakarta, you know, we’ve been to Australia, so these places are so far away from home. But you know, somewhere that’s on the same hemisphere that we haven’t been to yet so hopefully maybe some Argentina, maybe some Brazil. Anywhere. We just want to see new places and expand that map of territory that we have been to.

That’s so nice, you’ve been active for so long and you can still do new things, you know?

Absolutely, absolutely, it’s not gone boring and every day is a new day and we’re fortunate and very appreciative of all the little things. That’s one thing about being a band for so long and playing music for so long. It’s easier for us now to appreciate all the small things that go our way. Before, you may not realize how special it is. When someone sees you on the street and shakes your hand and says “hey, I loved this song or this album” and shows you that appreciation, it’s really cool and we don’t take that lightly, we really appreciate that and respect that ourselves.

You unfortunately don’t have a Dutch date on your upcoming tour, but do you still have a message that you would like to say directly to your Dutch fans?

I do! I would like to say that I’m excited to perform live in your country. I don’t know exactly when that’s gonna be, but I’m really looking forward to it and I’m hoping it will be not too far in the future, maybe next summer. Maybe a festival, maybe some club gigs, that would be great.

Last question, in your music, do you have a special message that you’re trying to tell the listener?

Not a general message, but just… There’s not a specific thing that we want to tell the listener to get from our music. About the only thing is to listen to the music and to form your own ideas as to what the song is about. It can be different for everyone, there’s no wrong way or wrong message to get out of the music. Just make it your own.

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Integrity Blues is out on October 21st. Order the album at Kings Road Merch or iTunes.

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