In an ironic way to warm up before SXSW, the Jezebels found themselves in London, Ontario, fighting a snowstorm. Yet North America is warming up to these Australians, and they have been getting strong reviews on their latest EP Dark Storm. Bringing some flurries to Boston, guitarist Samuel Lockwood spoke to us about his non-music career aspirations and a reading list that puts most people to shame.
Ian Doreian for melophobe:
What a busy day in Boston: interviews, live studio set at WERS, and the show tonight at T.T. The Bears! How can you keep track?
Sam Lockwood :
We have a guy named Adam who’s at the Planetary Group and he does a great job. With us there’s a black book that lists all the tour information. I really only see a day ahead for the schedule. You know for a radio thing you got to mentally prepare. But you want to get a drink the night before, but need to do a radio thing in the morning, so just one drink. That sort of thing is the thing with keeping the schedule.
melophobe:
It was WERS, the Emerson College radio station, that first introduced me to the Jezabels. How has it been for you with Australian radio?
Sam:
WERS seems like a really well run place. The studio looks out onto the street, and doesn’t feel like college radio at all. In comparison, I did a college show at Sydney Uni. It was the worst thing; we broadcast from a caravan. Across Australia, in each city, there’s the national broadcaster ABC. For us in Sydney, we have two SER, and FBI community based radio stations, and Triple J, which is national programming. Once we got onto Triple J, it let us tour into regional areas because of the exposure.
melophobe:
Aren’t the touring distances crazy?
Sam:
Yeah, on the east coast there’s Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and that makes 20 hours of driving for a three-city tour. Everyone tells us about the ability to sustain a tour in America for two months; that’s an incredible thing. We are doing a really extensive tour in Australia this September, pretty much going everywhere, and it will be three weeks. It’s so different over here.
melophobe:
Was it a huge challenge to get recognized as a band in Sydney?
Sam:
We grew up on the northern coast of New South Wales, this coastal town Byron Bay. It’s a cultural center with lots of music festivals; people often move there for the arts scene. Sydney is a weird scene; I think I can say that having been there for the last five years. The impression is that Melbourne is more fostering of difference than Sydney, and we found it tough to get though the cliques at first. A hard crowd, but we seem to have made it all right.
melophobe:
This is the second set of shows for the Jezebels in the US; are you able to cope with the time change?
Sam:
For CMJ in October, it was a blur. We did maybe six shows in three days, nothing outside of New York. No real time for sightseeing, but I reckon you’d feel out of place if you weren’t doing anything there. With jetlag, I feel I’m the worst in the band. That Jackson Brown song “Running on Empty,” is caught in my head. I have a constant feeling on the edge of being broken down.
melophobe:
Since the Jezebels formed during your time at college, do you see any influence from your studies on the music?
Sam:
I don’t do any lyric writing, but the sentiment maybe. Cause all you do with the guitar is loud/quiet or in tune/out of tune. There is a bit self-awareness, the technical construct.
melophobe:
What did you study?
Sam:
I did a literature degree, and might one day be an English teacher. That means I need to go back to take an education degree. My focus was on critical theory and contemporary Australian literature.
melophobe:
My knowledge only goes as far as Peter Carey. Who are your favorites?
Sam:
How about Tim Winton, Judith Wright, and Patrick White, our only nobel laureate; that’s a good place to start. On tour, I picked up Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of American Cities to read. I wanted to learn about the cities we are visiting: Boston, Chicago, and New York. It helps me to read books from the places where we end up playing. Jacobs had no history in architectural town planning, and just wrote what she see saw and heard. I’ve flipped through it, but have not had time to read it. But I did just finish that Dave Eggers book on Hurricane Katrina, Zeitoun. Eggers is such a good writer. Last week I caught a documentary on him and was impressed by the way he does it. He has an idea of capturing oral stories that need to be told, and then he places the money back into writing centers. It’s great.
melophobe:
Can your guitar playing be described in literary terms?
Sam:
While I hate post modernism, there’s a direction to keep up in modern music, something that flows from Schoenberg’s deconstructions. I like this contemporary composer named Arvo Pärt who goes back to harmonic music; he calls it a “holy tintabulism” because it should be classified as religious.
melophobe:
Like it takes you out of the ordinary?
Sam:
That’s the thing to be aware of in music. I don’t think the Jezebels touch on the sublime at all, but we try to. We’re much a part of some return to make nice music, like lots of indie music. Beach House or Fleet Foxes - they have harmonies in almost a Beach Boys way. For us, every night we try to provide the audience with a nice sounding theme
melophobe:
At melophobe, we never want people to fear music. Go to concerts, go buy music! Is there anything for you or the band that causes fear?
Sam:
We’re in a stage of making big decisions in our career, and there’s a fear of making a wrong decision. That’s a central concern. I fear making the wrong choice, since this is a big time. But I guess there are always books to fall back into.
Official Site: http://www.thejezabels.com/