How did you know that you should do an album together?
JEFF AMENT: When the pandemic hit, I started going in the studio, writing a bunch of songs. And the weakest part of the songs I was putting together was the drums, and also just [wanting] a partner to take the songs stylistically in some different areas. I’d done a couple songs with John in the past – he just lived across town – so I reached out to him in April of 2020. I sent him some songs and I said, “Hey, have at it. I’m not precious about any of this stuff. Pull them apart however you want.” It started with a few months of us passing songs back and forth, and every couple of weeks, we’d get together outside and sit at a picnic table and talk about where we were at and where we wanted to go with the songs, with no real idea to have it to be a band or a record. But I think it was a way for us to stay creative during the pandemic, and cracking each other up, and it felt good. At that time, I think everybody needed a little bit of that. It was really important in 2020 to be able to hook up with John and make these songs.
How did you know you had it in you to become a songwriter and aspire to that kind of writing?
JEFF AMENT: I think it’s coming out of punk rock and skateboarding, which had a really big do-it-yourself mentality. And the other thing is, I grew up in a small town, so it was easy to be good at it in your town because you might be the only one doing it. Like, I was a skateboarder and there wasn’t any other skateboarders, so I was the best skateboarder in town. Once I decided to go out in the real world, I just thought, “I can do anything.” There was nobody during my entire childhood that told me I couldn’t do something, and I think that’s probably kind of rare. And I wasn’t looking at social media every day, telling me that I wasn’t handsome enough or I wasn’t talented enough or I couldn’t play the guitar fast enough. I was just doing it at my own pace. And all my heroes were doing that exact same thing. Like, all the early hardcore bands, the bands made the artwork and booked the tours and made the T-shirts. So as soon as I was in a band, that was how we did it. Forty years later, we still try to make sure that every aspect of what the band is doing passes through our hands and that we’ve touched it and it’s come from us. Again, that came from all that early punk rock.
How do you maintain that attitude and resist getting jaded or something like that?
JEFF AMENT: I
still feel like it’s almost like a miracle when you make something.
Like, if you start painting, it might not happen the first day, it might
not happen the second day – but at some point, you’ll do something and
you’ll be like, “Wow! When I started this this morning it was nothing,
and now it’s something that I actually have a feeling about.” I still
have never lost that feeling of wonder that you have about where it
comes from, and that you got to be the conduit for making this stuff. I
really do still love what feels like magic to me. Not to sound hokey,
but if there’s a God or if there’s a spirit or whatever, it feels like
it exists in songs. When I listen to records, there’s a certain magic
that I feel when I listen to the music that I really love. It just feels
sort of otherworldly to me. Singers can sing about things that I’ve
always been thinking. You’ve had a feeling that you could never put to
words, and then somebody writes a song, and you’re like, “That’s exactly
what I’ve been feeling for my whole life!” I think that it’s amazing
that I get to do that, that I get to do the same things that all my
heroes did from when I was a kid. I get to be in a rock band and make
music with amazing musicians, and I also have the time to just sit down
and write. I feel lucky.
Comments
How did you know that you should do an album together?
JEFF AMENT: When the pandemic hit, I started going in the studio, writing a bunch of songs. And the weakest part of the songs I was putting together was the drums, and also just [wanting] a partner to take the songs stylistically in some different areas. I’d done a couple songs with John in the past – he just lived across town – so I reached out to him in April of 2020. I sent him some songs and I said, “Hey, have at it. I’m not precious about any of this stuff. Pull them apart however you want.” It started with a few months of us passing songs back and forth, and every couple of weeks, we’d get together outside and sit at a picnic table and talk about where we were at and where we wanted to go with the songs, with no real idea to have it to be a band or a record. But I think it was a way for us to stay creative during the pandemic, and cracking each other up, and it felt good. At that time, I think everybody needed a little bit of that. It was really important in 2020 to be able to hook up with John and make these songs.
How did you know you had it in you to become a songwriter and aspire to that kind of writing?
JEFF AMENT: I think it’s coming out of punk rock and skateboarding, which had a really big do-it-yourself mentality. And the other thing is, I grew up in a small town, so it was easy to be good at it in your town because you might be the only one doing it. Like, I was a skateboarder and there wasn’t any other skateboarders, so I was the best skateboarder in town. Once I decided to go out in the real world, I just thought, “I can do anything.” There was nobody during my entire childhood that told me I couldn’t do something, and I think that’s probably kind of rare. And I wasn’t looking at social media every day, telling me that I wasn’t handsome enough or I wasn’t talented enough or I couldn’t play the guitar fast enough. I was just doing it at my own pace. And all my heroes were doing that exact same thing. Like, all the early hardcore bands, the bands made the artwork and booked the tours and made the T-shirts. So as soon as I was in a band, that was how we did it. Forty years later, we still try to make sure that every aspect of what the band is doing passes through our hands and that we’ve touched it and it’s come from us. Again, that came from all that early punk rock.
How do you maintain that attitude and resist getting jaded or something like that?
JEFF AMENT: I still feel like it’s almost like a miracle when you make something. Like, if you start painting, it might not happen the first day, it might not happen the second day – but at some point, you’ll do something and you’ll be like, “Wow! When I started this this morning it was nothing, and now it’s something that I actually have a feeling about.” I still have never lost that feeling of wonder that you have about where it comes from, and that you got to be the conduit for making this stuff. I really do still love what feels like magic to me. Not to sound hokey, but if there’s a God or if there’s a spirit or whatever, it feels like it exists in songs. When I listen to records, there’s a certain magic that I feel when I listen to the music that I really love. It just feels sort of otherworldly to me. Singers can sing about things that I’ve always been thinking. You’ve had a feeling that you could never put to words, and then somebody writes a song, and you’re like, “That’s exactly what I’ve been feeling for my whole life!” I think that it’s amazing that I get to do that, that I get to do the same things that all my heroes did from when I was a kid. I get to be in a rock band and make music with amazing musicians, and I also have the time to just sit down and write. I feel lucky.