CLASSICS OF LOVE
Interview with vocalist/guitarist Jesse Michaels
By Janelle Jones
Photo by Imelda Michalczyk
Castle In The Sky by ampmagazine
Best known for his stint in the innovative late-‘80s ska-punk band OPERATION IVY, and later COMMON RIDER, Jesse Michaels’ latest endeavor is CLASSICS OF LOVE, a throwback to the great ‘80s hardcore-punk sound. Also featuring members of THE HARD GIRLS – Mike Huguenor (guitar), Morgan Herrell (bass), and Max Feshbach (drums), the band’s self-titled debut full-length comes out on February 14 on Asian Man Records. So instead of getting your punk-loving sweetheart the typical, banal candy or flowers (or god forbid something from Jared’s or Kay’s!) for Valentine’s Day, how about getting him/her something he/she will really enjoy? This record! Because, well, it rules…
I got to hear the record. Mike [Park of Asian Man] sent me the download and it sounds awesome.
Thanks!
It definitely has a melodic sound but then you throw in a bunch of total hardcore songs. I just wonder about sometimes people’s experiences when they put records together, like if it’s hard to get the sequence “right.”
Yeah, actually, I started agonizing over the sequence. We drew up several sequences and with a diverse variety of songs, there’s all these questions of trying to break them up so they don’t form clumps on the record. And then you have to deal with all the different opinions. They’re all wrong, so that’s a problem. But it worked out in the end. I think we got a good sequence.
I haven’t heard it but you put out an EP on Asian Man, too. I was just wondering how even this whole project got started in the first place.
Well, I was writing some songs and I wanted to do a demo tape. Mike had a friend at Asian Man who records. I went out there and recorded a couple of songs and we were listening to them and I was like, “Are there any bands around here that are any good?” So then he played me a band called THE HARD GIRLS. And I was like, “These guys are really good, do you think they might want to redo the demo songs with me as a full band?” ‘Cause the songs I recorded were just acoustic. So we ended up jamming and we really had very good chemistry right away, which is not always the case. So I thought it would be foolish to pass up the chance to play with those guys because we had a good musical mix and we sort of understood each other and it was fun and it was good so we just decided to keep going from there.
I was looking up some info to see who the whole band was and I saw everyone else came from one other band and was like, how did that happen?
Yeah, that’s the best way to do it. If you’re a songwriter really, just hijack another band. [Laughter] Because it’s hard to put together groups of likeminded people, but when people are playing together you know they already have a connection so it works out well.
Have you guys toured?
Yeah, we’ve played a fair amount of shows in the U.S. We did five or six shows on the East Coast and we actually went to England with Mike. Mike does an acoustic thing and he’d gone to the UK several times. We went with him on one of his tours and did that. Twelve shows in the UK.
What do you have in the works for when this one comes out?
We’re going to do a couple sporadic shows. Our guitar player is going to Chicago, he’s a very good writer and he’s studying English, so that’s part of his life. So when the record comes out we’re going to do a couple of shows, no major plans until next year, until after the summer. We’ll do a couple of things, maybe a brief East Coast tour and shows out here, but nothing major for a while.
With OP IVY, and everything, had you toured Europe before?
No, this was the first time I had played music in Europe.
How was the reaction?
It was pretty good. I mean, this band has gotten modest enthusiastic turnouts everywhere. It was pretty much the same as it was in the United States. We had a couple incredible shows, I’d say out of about 13 shows we had about four of them were incredible, four of them were really good, two of them were average and two of them were terrible.
So when you say terrible, what does that exactly mean?
That means no one gives a shit, heckling us and there’s no one in the room. Yeah, it happens.
But anyway that whole experience must’ve been fun?
Like I said most of the shows were really good and I love English people, they’re so funny and smart and polite it’s great. Scotland especially.
Why?
Because in Scotland they’re super-smart and they’ll give you a lot of shit, they’re always busting each other’s balls and they’re hilarious and you can’t understand what the hell they’re saying and I just love ‘em! I don’t know why. They’re real tough. Scotland people are always stabbing each other, so everybody’s a little bit tough. It’s like Trainspotting. Good people over there.
I know you do artwork. I obviously don’t have a copy of the record and just the download, but did you do the artwork for this record?
Yeah, in the past five years I’ve started oil painting so I did oil painting for the covers of records.
But for this one did you do that?
Yeah, I’m going to have a painting on there.
On this record did you write all the lyrics?
Yeah, I write all the lyrics. And in fact I write a lot of the music. I bring the songs in and the band basically makes them good. I write the songs. If it wasn’t for the band, they would basically suck, you know what I mean? ‘Cause they’re such good players. I’m not a great musician. And they have good arrangement ideas.
Sometimes I wonder how you put certain lyrics with particular songs when you’re writing…
Well, what I do, I start with, I write a guitar riff and then I put out a vocal pattern without actual words. I know how the rhythm and the melody is gonna go and I just sort of hum along with it. And then I fill in the words, the basic sound has already been written. And with that basic sound I get an idea or a feeling of what I want the lyrics to be about.
You seem to be more political lyrically, and one song that seems to be more of a contrast is “Bandstand.” What particular bands are you talking about?
It’s a metaphor. What it’s talking about is major media. “Bandstand” doesn’t really have anything to do with music; it’s just like an analogy. It’s like one conceptual thing where all the sounds you hear come from. And so it’s an analogy. Major media organizations try to control all the information and make it the way they want it and then feed it to everybody else.
So are you putting lyrics in the album?
Yeah, the lyrics will be in there.
Yeah, I always like when bands do that. Just for me, sometimes reading it you get more [of an impact] than just hearing it.
Yeah, definitely, because [sometimes] you can’t really hear what I’m saying a lot of the times, so it’s important.
[Laughs]
I always like lyrics myself.
Yeah! Some people don’t even care, but I always like reading/hearing what a band’s talking about. I mean I like some bands that don’t really have anything to say sometimes, but a lot of times I’m into the lyrics. Like before I was asking how it was to sequence the record and you said it was kinda hard, but I think you ended on a really strong note with “We Need A Change.” Do you wanna talk about that song?
Sure, that song is basically, if you set the whole Occupy movement to a soundtrack, the ideas, I mean the song was written before the whole Occupy movement, my say is sort of similar ideas – the world is controlled by an extremely wealthy power structure that basically runs the show and makes life difficult for everyone else and the change we need is, put very simply, take from the super-wealthy and more power for the average person.
Yeah, but it kinda stinks when both parties are funded – you think about how much these campaigns cost nowadays?! It’s sick.
Yeah, I don’t have any faith in the Democratic party. […] The real players are a lot of time corporate cronies that are around in all the administrations, you got the same people working for Clinton who worked for Reagan, so, the president to me is just a figurehead. And then it’s Coke or Pepsi, you know? […] That’s the way it is. I don’t think I’m gonna change the world by writing songs, it’s more a desire to tell the truth as I see it because that’s what makes interesting music to me.
Even from a young age it seems you were into politics. What got you into that?
Well, I’m not really into politics, it’s just that when I’m writing songs, the songs that feel the most powerful are the ones that touch on political issues. If I was writing songs and the best songs were love songs, then I would just write love songs. It just so happens that the music I grew up with and the stuff that moved me is often – not always, but often – political stuff. Especially for punk, a lot of the punk bands I grew up with always had some kind of social commentary so I just sorta got used to it as a way of creating.
A lot of times when I talk to people who’ve been in it for a while, I like to ask how you first got into punk and hardcore. What was your initiation?
I first got into it, I was at a bookstore with my dad when I was very young, like I think 10 or 11 years old, and I saw this book that was about punk and it had pictures of punk rockers and I just thought it was so fascinating. So he bought it for me. And then I got really into new wave, like THE B-52s, that was the first band I really got into, so then from there I went to DEVO and DEVO’s a little bit harder than THE B-52s and then from DEVO I went to THE RAMONES. Then from THE RAMONES to BLACK FLAG, and then after that it was all over.
[Laughs] “And after that it was all over…!”
I was never normal again. [Laughter]
How old were you when you actually started playing, singing?
I was making primitive music when I was 12 years old, so pretty young. We just had a guitar and a tape recorder but we were writing songs. So I’ve always written lyrics, I’ve always been into it. It’s always been a natural thing for me. I really don’t think I’m a great musician, but I’m definitely a natural musician; it wasn’t like I thought about it, “Maybe I’ll try this,” it just happened.
What do you do in the meantime when you’re not doing music?
The last couple of years I’ve been going to school full time, so I’m doing a lot of school. I’m also a painter; that’s one of my hobbies that I try to do every day. I’m also a writer.
Are you working on anything major?
Yeah, I’ve got a novel coming out.
How long have you been working on that?
I’ve worked on it for a couple years and I finally finished it up. It should be coming out next month.
Who’s publishing it?
I’m self-publishing it for now just on Amazon, they have this platform where you can publish your own book. But if something comes up where there’s an opportunity to put it on a real imprint I probably will.
What did you focus on, if I may?
The story is kind of funny, it’s basically humorous, and it’s a weird mystery.
I just love it, so you’ve always been into the whole – you know, music, art, writing. You’ve always been more artistic leaning?
Yeah, I’m definitely the artistic type and it’s kind of a mixed bag because it’s not always practical. I definitely am just wired that way.
CASTLE IN THE SKY – Lyrics
everyone has power
i wish i had some
but you would kill the prophets
for your place in the sun
now it’s up to us
to keep you well heeled
and all you care about is what it yieldswho’s telling lies in the corner?
laughing while the house burns downi wanna know: did you get what you came for/
did you leave satisfied/tell me who’s the one
to blame for selling you the castle in the skyeveryone likes dollars
i wish i had a few
but you think they’re
misplaced if they
don’t end up with you
you want feudalism
for the world at large
socialism for the ones in chargewho’s making laws in the senate?
laughing while the house burns down.
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