jason garcia | household names
AUTO10 spring 2000
So I start by asking
“how did it all start? What’s the deal?”
Well, I was born in a crossfire hurricane. Actually, I was more like a daydream
believer, if you want to know the truth. Since I was 14, I’ve been fantasizing
about being a rockstar. My parents have been very supportive. Most would be
like, “Jason, you’re 25. It’s time to stop fantasizing about
being a rockstar. Get your med school on.” But my parents were children
of the 60s, so they know what it means to rock, just like Bill Clinton. I
loved the Monkees. My dad had all the Beatles records, but I had never REALLY
listened to them. My friend Jeff Waller kept telling me to listen to this
song “A Day in the Life.” “Yeah yeah, I’ll get around
to it,” I’d say.
Your musical influences:
who, when and why?
Jeff got me really into the Beatles. I just started buying all their records.
And they were records, too, since we were both vinyl freaks. Early R.E.M.,
the Smiths, all that 80s college rock, was through him. He became my bassist/partner
in crime, and we formed a band called The Hometown Freaks, the meat of which
was my attempts at jangly guitar pop. A lot of it was horrible, but some of
the songs were really good. There are like, 6,000 tapes of that stuff in my
mom’s attic somewhere. Around the end of high school, I saw a video on
MTV that I actually sort of liked. The song was “The Ballad of Peter
Pumpkinhead”; the group, XTC. “Who’s this new band?” I
thought. By my sophomore year in college I owned all their albums (now on
CD, since there was no room for my turntable in the dorms). XTC, and in particular
Andy Partridge, taught me to add dissonance to the music. There’s something
about their songs, on first listen, that makes you NOT want to listen to them.
But then, once you get past your initial shock, they’re quite rewarding.
I like that they challenge you.
Tell us about your
new CD, buddy buddy buddy boy boy boy boy.
THE TROUBLE WITH BEING NICE. It’s my first true release, and I’m
quite proud of it. I wouldn’t have been musically ready to do this album
even 2 years ago. Lars Goransson, who did The Cardigans’ GRAN TURISMO
was the engineer, so it’s pretty professional, but not slick. It’s
just a big pop record. I wrote all twelve songs and played all the instruments,
except for drums. We got Matt Shultz to hit the skins for this. As for the
recording, it’s a mix of analog and digital, in that we recorded the
basic tracks on 2-inch tape, then mixed them to ProTools so we could have
the widest range of toys to play with. And toys are quite in evidence- there’s
even a vocal that I sing through a cell phone. It sounds like a digital delay
but we actually used a cell phone to get that effect. It had to go to a satellite
first.
What’s in the
Jason Garcia Jukebox circa right about now?
German beer songs, mostly. If you want to be a rockstar, you have to be soused,
haven’t you? But I have been known to spin some Guided By Voices lately.
And I really got into the Cardigans’ last record through Lars. My girlfriend’s
the real music freak these days. I swear, she’s got a mix tape that’s
like the coolest mix tape ever. If I wasn’t dating her, and I saw that
tape, I’d probably pull an OJ. David Bowie, Pulp, Beck, the Beatles,
GBV, Tori Amos, Bjork, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel, R.E.M., you know, all the
GOOD stuff. Sure, it’s all big names, but I’m on there too so she’s
got indie sense as well.
How has the internet
affected the way you get down?
Well, it’s the difference between being heard by 3 people you know and
being heard by 3 people you DON’T know. And I’d rather have the
latter. Because people you KNOW are going to listen to you just because they
know you. And RockStar 101 dictates that people should want to know you through
hearing the music. And, you’ll know more people. And some of them will
be record labels. You know, it just expands your audience.
So do you do a lot
on the web?
I’m a website whore. You can probably find Household Names on most of
the “free music” sites around. I’m not too excited about giving
stuff away, but I’d probably be more concerned about it if I were getting
thousands of downloads a day. But since it’s more like 12, I’m not
too worried.
Now the tough one:
What’s your favorite XTC album?
You know, I’d have to say ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. Although the quality of
the CD sucks, unless they’ve remastered it, which is doubtful. I think
that was when Partridge and Moulding were at their peak as lyricists. Songs
like “All Of A Sudden (It’s Too Late)” and “Fly on the
Wall” are fabulous. And there’s an economy of musical language as
well. Textured, yet simple.
Sorry chief, the correct
answer is SKYLARKING. But, uh, do you play live?
I am JUST starting to get it together. I’ve got fellow mp3.com artist
Byron Westbrook on guitar/organ, Mitch Clark on bass, and John Robinette on
drums. All of these guys have extensive live experience, to make up for my
relative lack of it, and having a finished CD to work from expedites the process
considerably. Basically we just want to rock and get famous.
How do you get down
at home? Your setup is probably pretty technical.
You don’t want to know what my setup is like. I’ve never been what
you’d call a gear-head. All these other guys are like “yeah I just
bought a new DX7000 and I’ve got the Tascam mixer with the thing and
the other thing” and I’m like, “that says ‘line out’,
so I connect that to the ‘line in’ over here.” I never got
into it. But I do have one of those Sony MiniDisc 4-tracks. I upgraded 2 years
ago when my old analog 4-track started to die. It’s a lot easier to work
with, but you can’t get the cool distortion that you can get with the
analog ones.
Okay Jason, I’m
thinking one of two things about you. Now here’s a trick question: What
are your feelings on Dr Pepper?
I know this is a trick question...so I’m gonna say I LOVE IT! You can
quote me on that. I only drink it diet these days, though.
Pussy. Diet soda is
for pussies. What kind of shit did you use when you recorded the CD?
A lot of stuff. I played a B3 organ, a Gretsch, a Tele, and a 1966 Fender
bass I borrowed from Lars. Actually, everything except the acoustic 12-string
and the Casio Rapman organ intro to “Secrecy” I borrowed from the
studio. There’s a lot of piano/fake mellotron going on. Texture. The
biggest difference is that there’s texture. And I love it. Suffice it
to say it’s one of my favorite albums.
Rapman! Yes! Casio
Power!!! So what up with the cover of the CD, man? I see, like, an apple.
And then some words.
Dude, it’s like the apple, man, it like symbolizes the plight of man,
dude. Like when Eve6 tricked that dude into eating it, but it was rotten,
man. It’s like you gotta be careful because things are not what they
seem. Dude, The Trouble With Being Nice, man! Like, if I was all nice and
stuff, like I might be a serial killer and you’d never know it! Well,
until I killed you. See, that’s the eternal conundrum dude! You never
know when shit’s bad until you try it. Whoa, that sucks. Dude.
Yeah, but if you were
a serial killer you would never say “eternal conundrum.” You’d
just hack people up with a rusty hammer and stuff them in your trunk. Or so
I’ve been told. Ahem. Welp, I’m sold. How can I buy some of this
fabulous bullshit you keep talking about?
You can find all my current stuff at http://www.mp3.com/householdnames. Believe
me, it’s well worth it.