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 PRESS COVERAGE |
| JUNE 15 2006: HOUMARADIO.COM (HOUMA, LA) INTERVIEW BY DJ TROLL Troll: I am here with Jak Locke from New Orleans. How you guys doing? Jak: Doing all right. Saint (Josh St. Amant): Pretty good. Troll: So what have you guys been up to today? Jak: Practice. Troll: Practice. Jak: Yeah, it's very difficult to hear. Troll: Haha, yeah that's how you keep the music... Jak: Keep it honed and fresh and all that, yeah. Practice helps. Troll: All right, so how long have you been making music? Jak: Goodness. About ten years trying to do it on somewhat of a professional level. I don't know if you're counting banging on the piano when I was three or what but, yeah, about ten years. Troll: Cool, so how many instruments do you play now? Jak: I have no idea. Troll: You have no idea. That many? Jak: I play a lot. It's, it comes with having a lot of free time. Saint: You give him an instrument and within two weeks he'll learn it. Troll: Cool, does that have something to do with the fact that you've been into music for so long that it's easier for you to pick up on an instrument? Jak: Well I had a lot of training in theory with different classes I took throughout school and things like that. Plus I just like playing and I'll keep at it until I get the sound out of it that I want. And that's really all there is to it, just like anything else. You work at it enough, you'll get it. Troll: So would you say your music's a bit experimental in that way? Jak: Probably so, that way, yeah. Troll: Cool. And what are some of the things that inspire you when you're making music, writing lyrics? Jak: Oh man, what a question. Saint: Yeah, that's a really good question. Jak: That's a broad question. Ah..I don't know, different things, the way that I feel about certain things, experiences that I've had. Saint: Really just life in general kind of how life's going now, things that happened in life in the past. Jak: Right, I find that my stuff is usually a little more personally oriented than most other musicians or a lot of other musicians. I tend to write on more of a level of things that matter to me, not so much Iraq war or taxes or death or anything like that. It's more personal events, or whatever. Troll: And your friend that you brought with you he is, you are the guitarist for the live shows, right? Saint: That's correct. Troll: Cool, so how do you like playing with Jak here? Saint: Oh, I love playing with Jak. I've been playing with him... Jak: 2003, yeah, the "train wreck" band. Saint: Hahaha Jak: The "let's get a bunch of friends together and make some noise in some dives in New Orleans". Troll: Hey, that's how a lot of good projects get started. Jak: Oh yeah. A lot of bad ones too. Hahaha Troll: Hahaha Saint: Hahaha yeah. Jak: But no, we had a great time. Troll: That's cool. Now you have a really awesome website. Jak: Oh thanks. Troll: And you design it yourself, right? Jak: Right. Troll: Now how do you do that? Jak: Ummm. Just...ha, put it together just like any other website. No, I just get an idea of what I want the pages to look like, certain themes or whatever..it's basically the same as, writing a song, designing a website, you know, drawing a comic or painting a picture, it's all the same to me. It's all sort of creative aspects, some sort of creative outlet, and I look at that the same way as something as mundane as a website design. Troll: It looks quite complicated like do you use, I know it's not just simple HTML. Jak: Right, no, couldn't do that. Troll: Javascript and Flash and Jak: It IS just straight HTML but it's COMPILED with different software. Which is, is now boring all of our listeners to death hearing me talk about this. Troll: Hahaha, well let's go to a different subject then. What music do you listen to whenever you're listening to music? Jak: Really out of, out of left field kind of stuff. Merzbow, Masonna, which are Japanese noise artists, I'm really getting into that lately. And when I say "noise" I'm not talking about heavy metal, this is beyond metal. This is just strictly noise. Troll: Like electronic type of... Jak: Electronic without a beat. It's total chaos. Complete and utter chaos. It's very different and it's interesting the sort of different avenues of expression you can have with that. When I'm not in so much of a "let me make my head ache" sort of mood, I'll listen to, you know, Beck, Tom Waits...Fiona Apple which may come as a surprise. Troll: You like things like the art of noise, Blue Man Group. Jak: Never really listened to too much of the Blue Man Group, I'll be honest. Never really got into that. Troll: Or, um, I don't know, maybe Stomp. Jak: Stomp is cool. Yeah. Troll: Cool. Now can you tell us how you mix and record your music? I know you do this at a home studio, right? Jak: Right. Right, stuff that I've just picked up over the years and that's why if you listen to the progression of albums, all five of them, you can tell what order I recorded them in because they go from crappy to...not quite so crappy. Troll: Hahaha Jak: To almost at par. Haha which is where I think I'm at now. But I just consider it basement tech recording. It's just a bunch of software that I found for free, different things. Like Battery Acid, the latest album, I recorded all of that plugged directly into the sound card from a Marshall amp, a 90 watt. Gives it sort of a distinct lo-fi sound and I guess I can SAY that that was the intention and y'all will all believe me, but uh, I'm not gonna do that. Troll: Over the years you probably collected some more sophisticated equipment and software. Jak: Well, relatively speaking more sophisticated, yeah. I'm not running 24 channel Korg mixers or anything like that. It's still within the one hundred dollar price range. But, you know. Troll: Okay, wow, that's pretty awesome then. So, you're from New Orleans. Jak: Right. Troll: How was all of your band equipment after the storm hit? Jak: It was all fine. I was very lucky, living on the west bank. Which, that's the ONLY lucky thing about living on the west bank from what everybody tells me. The storm doesn't bother you that much. You still suck if you're from the west bank. And I can say that, because I'm from the west bank. Nobody else can. Troll: Yeah, it's okay for you to say that. Jak: It's okay for me to say it. Ah no, but actually the shed in the backyard was the only casualty. It was kind of funny because there's all sorts of stuff just loose in this shed. Every single wall and roof of the shed got blown into the neighbor's yard. And so they called me at the hotel room in Houston and told me "Hey, your shed is in our backyard." I said, "Well, that sucks." Troll: Hahaha Jak: "What about everything inside of it?" So they walked outside, this was after the storm obviously, they're not going to be going out while the storm is raging. They go out there and say "You're not going to believe this but every single thing..." and I mean everything was in there, little toys that I had when I was five or something like that, Troll: Wow. Jak: very loose and light things that should have been scattered all across the Mississippi. They said "everything is still exactly where it was when the shed," so it just blew the walls into the neighbor's yard and everything inside stayed right where it was. Troll: Now that's amazing. Jak: That is. Hahaha. But all the equipment was fine. Nothing got hurt. Thankfully. Troll: That's great. Glad to hear it. So what would you say is the message of your music or what is it that you want to accomplish in your musical career? Jak: I'll take those one at a time. Sort of two different questions. What's the message. Uh, I tend to write about things that are sort of ugly. Ugly part of life, not everything's beautiful...maybe sort of a melancholy, you know, every first hello begins the countdown to the goodbye sort of thing. But, I like to think that I put a spin on it to where...I guess the best way I could put it succintly would be that everything sucks but you should have a good time of it anyway. Don't let it get you down because there's nothing you can really do about it. Troll: That's really in a weird way an uplifting message. Jak: Right. Right, an uplifting message while, I guess, punching you in the face or something. Troll: Hahaha, you get into a lot of bar brawls and smashing bottles over people's faces and things like that. Jak: Was that a question? Did I? Have I? Hahaha Troll: Haha I was just kidding. I don't know. Jak: What was the other part of that? Troll: What is it that you want to accomplish in your musical career? Jak: A lot of people want, you know, the obvious answer, oh I want to be a star, I want to be worldwide, international stuff like that. I'd just be content with, you know, having a dumpy apartment on the west side of New Orleans and having a three-tone hoopty car. If I'm paying my bills on that just playing music, I'd be fine. Of course, if I was to go international, that'd be great but that's not really why I'm doing this. I just have some I guess things I want to say and what better way to say it to a lot of people than by going on a stage and putting some music behind it. Troll: So at this point you guys have really acquired an audience that consists of the southern states, mostly Louisiana and you've toured outside of Louisiana. Jak: Right, we've toured outside, Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula. Starting to slowly spread that out. Just recently started playing out there in April. Troll: So when is your next show around here? When's the next show that you guys are putting on? Jak: June...24th? Saint: Yeah. Jak: June 24th, that's next Saturday, that's at North Gate Tavern in Baton Rouge. We'll be opening-- Troll: Oh, that's a good one, that one's right there next to LSU. Jak: Yeah. You're right. Troll: Have you played that venue before? Jak: No we haven't played there before. Actually we haven't been to Baton Rouge in about two years. Last show we played out there was at Rotolo's which I think they just started doing music again, all ages shows. Troll: So what bands are you guys playing with? Jak: We're playing with...what's their name...Subject Optional. It's a, they describe themselves as "indie emo" on their Myspace. And they've got a good sound and they've got plenty of friends on their thing so it seems like they're a real popular band around that area. That's where they're from and they said they're supposed to be starting a tour on June 16th. Which is tomorrow actually. So I guess they'll be coming back around through there by then. I'm looking forward to meeting them. Troll: We'll go to a quick musical break and we'll come back with some last words from Jak Locke. Right now, well this is one of your songs, we'll see if you can name it. Haha Jak: I hope so! Haha Troll: Hahahaha I mean I don't know how tired you were when you recorded it but yeah, this is music from Jak Locke on your number one station for late night local music, HoumaRadio.Com. (Wrecking Ball plays) Troll: We're back on the air with Jak Locke and that was Jak Locke with Wrecking Ball. What's up, Jak Locke? Jak: Oh nothing. Troll: Hahaha, we were having a fun conversation earlier. Do you have any closing words for our audience or BS on the air for a little while before you head out? Jak: Um. I don't know. Troll: Don't know? Jak: Rock me like a mountain. Troll: You heard it here on HoumaRadio.Com. What about you, guitarist Josh? Saint: ......nope. Don't think I have anything. Jak: He's a man of few words. Troll: Haha, man, we had this interview really going and then... Jak: It just derailed. Saint: I guess let people know about our shows. June 24th at North Gate Tavern in Baton Rouge. I don't remember the exact address but it's on West Chimes, it's right near the LSU campus. And we have a show July 1st in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Jak: At the Government Street Grocery. Troll: Hey, everywhere you go you tell them about us here at HoumaRadio.Com because we have the potential to reach an audience from anywhere in the world. You could have people in Japan...you could be gaining a following in Japan for your music-- Jak: Oh if Japan is listening, I AM gaining a following. They LOVE anything from America. Troll: Hahaha, wow Americans are narcissistic! Well, what kind of bands do you like on the local scene? I've got a few Jak: What you got? Troll: I've got a FEW here, that's what we do. Jak: What you got, start naming names. Troll: You want me to name all of the musicians I have. Jak: Every single one. Troll: Ok, well, we have Acid Bath, Adam's Attic, Agents Of Oblivion, Atomic Pilot, Brick, Chuck Pitre-- Jak: Y-you're really gonna name all of them! Hahahahaha Saint: Hahahahaha Troll: I'm up to "C" already! Edge Set Mary, Deadboy And The Elephantmen, Fatter Than Albert...um, Goatwhore-- Jak: You need to play some Troll: Dude, I forgot to play my disclaimer. Jak: You need to play some Goatwhore. Troll: Hahaha I usually don't play them this early in the day, I wait til the freaks come out at night but uh...how do you like "Blood Guilt Eucharist"? Jak: That'll work! Troll: Going to play some Goatwhore, special request from Jak Locke. Jak: Yeah, imagine that. Saint: Hahaha Troll: Hahaha, on your number one station for late night local music, HoumaRadio.Com. Thank you guys for coming on the show, it was a lot of fun. Jak: Thanks for having us. Saint: No problem. Troll: And we'll get you back on the show one of these days. Jak: Sounds good. Troll: Maybe before you kick off your national tour. Jak: Right. I think you've got plenty of time. Troll: Hahaha |