Music Appreciation Art, ignorance and most importantly, an interview with the LA Based Band, Jettison Babies.     By Sarah Haufrect Technically, I can claim to know nothing about art. I have never taken an art history class. I have never studied painting, sculpture, or drawing. I don't know much about artists, even those whose paintings I have found time to look at and like. The topic has always been overshadowed by other priorities, some respectable (studying literature, traveling, spending time with friends) and others not (frequently updating my myspace profile, E Hollywood TV, Etc.). This is important because a couple months ago I was in Paris and decided to visit the Louvre. Art enthusiasts and know-nothing tourists alike would agree that the Louvre is unquestionably the most famous museum in the world, a museum which people constantly revisit in their lifetimes (If they are lucky enough to be in Paris more than once) because people always feel as if they have not seen everything there is to see; it has been described by everyone I know, as impossible to see in its entirety in only one visit. However… At 3:45 on Saturday May 20th I entered the Louvre and went into every gallery, and into what I believe was every room, and finished by 6 pm - DONE. I accomplished this by walking at a steady pace, and with the exception of a few brief stops at a few mega-famous pieces, I didn't stop walking. I didn't need or want to, I just wanted to see everything. Well, okay, that's not entirely true - I did stop walking once in front of several paintings I found quite striking. I took a minute to look at their details, their delicate renderings of sky and boats and old Venetian cityscapes, and briefly glanced down at the name of the artist, Francesco Guardi. I thought to myself - "How nice. I like that". And away I went to the next room to see what else there was to see . You might be thinking, why bother with museums at all? But really, I enjoy them even at a hasty clip, I love the two hours I spend in most of them, whipping through the galleries and exhibitions, because I love art in its essence- creativity, craftsmanship, inspiriation, but I just don't "know" anything about it. This brings me to rock music, another subject about which I know practically nothing. No music theory classes, been to five concerts in my whole life, never played an instrument, I can hold my own in a surface conversation about what I like and the names of select bands in even more select categories. There are bands that I like and bands that I don't, and I can kinda tell you why, but I sound like I'm grasping for words. So, as with many areas about which I take little time to explore the depth of knowledge to which my mind could hypothetically go, I am content throwing myself briefly into creative subjects without much prior knowledge, background research, or skill - which brings me to the main topic of this article: an interview with the Los Angeles based, Twixter-friendly band, Jettison Babies. I caught my first glimpse of JB at a small bar called Good Hurt on the outer outskirts of LA's ever shabby chic Venice Beach. I didn't intend to review or interview them. I was there to see an old friend play in another band and was there alone, and I brought a notepad and pen to give myself something to do in case I felt like a loser showing up drinking a beer by myself while everyone else was gallivanting around with friends, which was inevitably the case. JB started to play and as I sat alone by the bar, I pulled out my notebook to look busy and started writing. Writing dumb things like, "crowd was respectable at best. Music really metal-ish, smells kinda funny in here." As I started writing, I started finding more things to write about, and as I started finding more things to write about, I started realizing just how much was going on within the music that there was to write about- the abrupt changes in tone and pace, the country twangs, the long meandering guitar riffs, the person running across the stage in a band-name emblazoned apron. Before I knew it I had filled up 20 pages of notes and the Jettison Babies set was over. I had brought along business cards so I went up to the lead singer while the band was clearing the stage and gave him my card and skittered back to my bar stool perch to wait out the rest of the evening, note pad in hand. The next day I had a message on my phone from the lead singer, following up on an interview prospect. Before I knew it, I was sitting in the back of one of my favorite little eateries, laughing and eating soft-baked pretzels, surrounded by five young and talented musicians. This band interviewing stuff isn't so bad! Before I continue, I should let you know that several weeks passed between my first listen to Jettison Babies and the above mentioned interview, weeks filled with scheduling difficulties, my trip to Paris, and research on their website, listening to their music and studying how they represent themselves. So I did my homework, and I listened to their music a lot. Just so you know. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do when you're a full-fledged serious music interviewer. Right? * * * Accompanied by their Press Manager, four of the five band members of Jettison babies sat and spoke with me for almost two hours. Ranging in age from 19 to 25, this tightly knit group had no problem opening up about why they formed, where they find inspiration and why they've chosen to devote their lives to music, when they aren't working their day jobs, that is. The Official JB start date was somewhere around the beginning of 2005, with a big swirl of old friends and new associations. While members Novak and Mikey had known each other forever and were playing together before JB, their drummer and bass player, were acquired less than a week before their very first show at Hollywood's famed Key Club, and the addition of their lead singer Kenny took place somewhere in between. After Novak listened to one of Kenny's songs it was a simple decision, "That's it!" and as Novak said "It all just came together." JB is a band of guys who knew each other in a few round about ways and who just happened to be passionate about the same thing, making music that they love. "We feed off of each other. And we have the same pictures in our minds. One of the rules that we made when we started was that there would be no rules. That we would play anything and anything that would come to our hearts," remarks Novak, whose calm and poised demeanor radiates the commitment and passion he has for his band. Both the instinctual union of this motley bunch and their mutual respect for lawless music-making shine through so clearly in not only the way the band plays but the way the band is. In songs like "piracy" and "she tastes just like wine" JB's sound runs the gamut from soft and cooing guitar strums to blasting heavy metal and then on to hearty polka beats - Did I mention that they're funny? As in funny - campy and playful, with silly jingle-ish intro's, or crafty comic endings. Their sound is surprising, it's jarring, and, well, just cool. JB doesn't shy away from playing any type of music, except bad music: ""You go into a show and pretty much these days you know what you're gonna hear 30 seconds into it. That 4th song, isn't that the same as the first song???" says Kenny, the band's lead singer. When JB plays they are looking for drama and contrast, as Kenny explains, JB wants to play music that is "Boom! To the gut, [songs] that are different and you hear the third song, and it's like a punch in the face, you think, who played the second song? Y'know, I think we're that type of band." I have to admit, I agree. Their music has a drastic and at times, disorienting range, even within one single song; you can't help but be perplexed. I'm sure it is what both attracts fans and discourages them. Their sound might be a bit too raw, a bit too complicated for many mainstream music listeners, but their talent and versatility is hard to deny. Be that as it may, their fans are very dedicated (even flying in from out of state to catch their shows) and loyal, many of them friends and fellow musicians. The support they receive, they welcome, from all the normal fan mail to the unconventional tokens of affection- "There's people all the time that write us random stuff [but] it feels good when it actually hits someone and they can actually do something with it." explains Kenny. So far the most memorable fan moment arrived in the sincerest form of flattery - imitation. Mikey, one of JB's esteemed guitarists explains: "This guy wrote us saying, 'I'm trying to learn this chord progression for 'Pretty Little bird' and then the same guy posted this up on some music site, so I decided to write him back and he writes back this page long letter about how he was in love with this girl and they were listening to our music and the girl said, 'Why don't you write stuff like that for me?' . . . and he wanted to play the song for her and then propose to her. And I was like, WOW'." The band obviously inspires its fans, but where does JB get its own inspiration? "Landscapes, Love, Bullshit," Kenny concludes lightly (though, not completely joking), all the basics of any ponderous tortured soul, but when they aren't just pulling my guitar strings, what they all agree on is that great music and great musicians are what drive them to make music: "Other music, when I hear something I've never heard before, I go right to my guitar." Novak even chimes in for a cheesy contemplative moment saying, "These guys maaaaaan," meaning his fellow band members, " truly inspire me." They certainly inspire one another during conversation. Responses to every question resemble a domino line of emphatic discussion with each person, one after the other practically finishing the next person's thought as if it were his own. If this is how JB is in the recording studio, I can see why everything flows and comes together so well… and really, things have been going very well. JB has achieved increasing success over the past year, playing shows at some of the oldest and most respected venues across Los Angeles. And especially considereing that their first show, which, as told by their lead singer Kenny, went a little something like this: "We got our drummer and our bass player two nights before our first show. We booked the headlining slot at the Key club with two guys on an acoustic guitar and one guy singing. We had 4 songs that were all a minute and a half long singing about killing your girlfriend. So we jammed on it all night the night before and all day of the show and we just wrapped up, unplugged and went to the Key Club, saying all right let's do it while it's still in our heads." So they've come a long way from acoustic, 90 second song, meet-and-greet show, but what exactly is success for JB? Any trepidation about being famous? The answer is a resounding "Um. NO!" Novak- "I wanna play to millions of people. We wanna play to millions of people." When it comes down to it success is pretty simple - "To conquer the world, to play the best music that we can play, to be our own favorite band." * * * The following Monday I went to Hollywood's Key Club, the site of their very first show over a year ago, to see Jettison Babies open for the inimitable hair band, Metal Skool, which is a tough act to follow, but an even tougher act to open (Metal Skool's motto is: Rock Your Balls Off). I arrived way too on time and felt like an idiot (again) standing by myself at the bar while the hubbub continued to grow and exclude me. About ten minutes before JB took the stage I pulled out my notebook to make myself feel busy and look professional again. But when the lights went down and the show started rockin, I felt a lot different listening to JB play. It wasn't that I enjoyed the show more or less than I enjoyed the first one, but I certainly did "appreciate" this one more. The abrupt changes in tone, the sudden switches from Metalica Metal to Bouncy Beatles, the things that I suddenly felt so clued in on because I was under JB tutelage for a few hours on a Sunday over beer and pretzels. I didn't really know more about "MUSIC," this vast category of knowledge, but I did know a lot more about the music that was being played right in front of me at that moment, and I felt really privileged to have taken the time out to learn about a little band with a lot of heart (though they may not be so little for long). Watching them perform, knowing how they feel about being on stage with one another, seeing how much happiness they brought to the audience and from the smiles on the band members' faces (hard core, rock out smiles of course), up on stage they really did look like their own favorite band. So I'm thinking about doing a little research on this fella who painted Venician Street scenes named Guardi—I can't take him out for a beer and pretzels and pick his brain, but who knows? I'm not really into "ART," but who cares? Maybe there's a little bit of space in all of us to be an expert on what turns our head and catches our eye, what causes us to stop and smell the flowers of a different garden variety, and what gives us a glimpse into something unknown. For more information on Jettison Babies, please visit www.jettisonbabies.com or www.myspace.com/jettisonbabies