You have to give Less Than Jake a lot of credit for longevity. The band, which formed at the University of Florida in 1992, has grown beyond its power-pop roots, outlasted the ska revival, and even found a nice little niche covering TV theme songs. Their catalog is still growing, but fan favorites include "All My Best Friends are Metalheads" and "The Science of Selling Yourself Short."
Lead singer Chris Demakes has been the band's frontman since the beginning, and he somehow managed to get both Spongebob and Phil Collins into this interview. Among other things, we learned why he thinks the older metal still rules and what happens when he tries to kill time in a mall. Here's a little more about Less Than Jake from our talk on the Warped Tour.
Lead singer Chris Demakes has been the band's frontman since the beginning, and he somehow managed to get both Spongebob and Phil Collins into this interview. Among other things, we learned why he thinks the older metal still rules and what happens when he tries to kill time in a mall. Here's a little more about Less Than Jake from our talk on the Warped Tour.
Dan MacIntosh (Songfacts): I was watching the video for "Dopeman," and I imagine you get a lot of reactions from that. Is that based upon what you see in other people? I mean, have you had any experience in selling dope?
Chris Demakes: (laughing) No, I've had no experience in selling it. When we were riding around in our van in our early days, we got hooked on the rap band NWA and their album Straight Outta Compton. We listened to that record and they had a song called "Dopeman," and the bass line of that song we kind of lifted, sampled a rap band so to speak. And we wrote this song around it. It was really a tribute to NWA, which sounds really weird, because I wouldn't say they're an influence of ours except for that song. That's how that song came about.
Demakes: Not really. I mean, the video mix that you heard actually sounded more like a rap song, because that was a remix. But if you listen to the original track on the record, it's still pretty Less Than Jake ska funky. But that was kind of a weird period, too, because that song was not really indicative of what we do. It was kind of a different tune.
Songfacts: Let's talk about the song "History of a Boring Town." What's the most boring town you've ever been in?
Demakes: Wow. You could be in a big place and it's boring. Other times you'll be in a town up in the North Carolina foothills in some cabin and there's 93 people, the population of this whole town, but it's not boring because there's streams and creeks and crap to do. So there's a lot of boring towns I've been in. Like Spokane, Washington - pretty boring place.
Songfacts: What are your tips for people that find themselves in a boring town?
Demakes: You'll end up waking up, you'll go into your hotel and realize it's just as disgusting as the last hotel room you were in. Then you'll wander over to a mall. You'll walk the mall six or eight times and realize that you're in your 30s and it's not cool to walk a mall all day, because you're not old enough to walk the mall like the old people do, and you're not young like the kids, so you're in the middle where you're screwed.
Songfacts: Let me give you a chance to talk about more current stuff. What are some of the new songs that you've been either working on or playing that you're really excited about?
Demakes: Well, we just released an EP, it was five songs and we released it in conjunction with the Warped Tour. And we're playing one of those songs live. It's called "Goodbye Mr. Personality." It's a really slow ska - it's like a summer song. So that'd be the one.
Demakes: Yeah, ultimately. We knew we were going to be going on the Warped Tour and we wanted to have a song that when you walk by our stage and we're playing it, it's palatable to anybody. It's like, Oh, yeah, I could listen to this. We're not screaming at you or anything like that.
Songfacts: Do you do any covers in your set?
Demakes: Yes. We do a cover of the Animaniacs theme, and we do a cover of the Spongebob Squarepants video.
Songfacts: I think I see a theme there - do you like the kids animated shows?
Demakes: Well, we recorded an 11 minute EP of TV theme songs. We have it for sale out here. So that's what inspired that.
Songfacts: Who's your favorite Spongebob Squarepants character?
Demakes: I'll really be honest with you, this is going to sound really lame, I have never watched the show once.
Songfacts: Chris!
Demakes: I know. I don't even know a Spongebob character. I just know Spongebob. That's it.
Songfacts: I'm really ashamed.
Demakes: I know, it's horrible.
Songfacts: I'm a dad. My son, he's 18.
Demakes: Well, you have to bring him to watch the set today.
Songfacts: I will. But, I mean, I had to learn Spongebob, because it's like being a parent. Are you a parent?
Demakes: I'm not a parent.
Songfacts: Then that kind of absolves you of that.
Demakes: I missed Spongebob in the '90s because I was on tour. I missed that. And you know what? We didn't have Internet then. We couldn't afford hotel rooms, we were sleeping on people's floors. I missed a lot of TV shows and a lot of '90s crap that I rediscovered through reruns and stuff as I've gotten older. But I missed Spongebob and I don't have kids.
Songfacts: So that's one of the regrets, maybe, of being in a band and being on the road, is that sometimes you miss things in real time.
Demakes: Oh, absolutely. But you know, that's the give and take of it.
Songfacts: Do you have any other regrets?
Demakes: (laughing) How much tape you got? Christ. We could be here all day long. Regrets. Nah, you know, I think everyone has things that they probably would have done differently, but I think at some point you make peace with it and you realize you can't change the past - ever. So what's done is done and you move on.
Songfacts: Let's talk about songwriting as far as Less Than Jake. Do you have a process of writing songs where you write as a group, or do you write as individuals and bring them to the group?
Demakes: All of the above. Yeah, we each have our own little home studio, we mail demos to each other. Sometimes we'll get in a room and create music. Our bass player and I write the songs. Our drummer writes the lyrics, which is a little different.
Songfacts: That is interesting.
Demakes: Yeah, he's the Phil Collins of our band.
Songfacts: Would he appreciate you saying that?
Demakes: Probably. Yeah. Well, maybe. I don't know. But our horn players write their parts, and we all kind of put it in a big melting pot and stir it together and songs start coming out.
Songfacts: Do you think you're a better songwriter now than when you started?
Demakes: Well, I do. I know we are better songwriters. But better songwriters doesn't mean that the songs are better. The early stuff, you can never recreate that kinetic energy of being young, and that's why people hold onto those records of all their favorites: "all their early stuff was the best." Yeah, it's because they didn't have money, they weren't married, they weren't pissed off, they weren't jaded, they didn't go through life yet. And there's a lot of that. And I think that's what makes those records special. So I think we're better songwriters, but it doesn't necessarily mean our songs are better now, though.
Songfacts: Are there songs that you cannot take the stage without playing?
Demakes: Yeah, there's a couple. We have a song called "Look What Happened," and another song called "All My Best Friends Are Metalheads." We play those songs pretty consistently. Songfacts: And if you didn't play them, would you get people yelling at you?
Demakes: Possibly. But my retort to that is, I'm not a jukebox. Next.
Songfacts: You know, my son really likes the metal, and I like old-school metal. But some of the new stuff I have trouble with. How do you feel about it?
Demakes: I can appreciate some of the players and some of the songs. My issue with it is that I'm old enough - I'm 37 - I'm old enough to have witnessed bands in the '80s doing that better. I've already experienced something that was new and refreshing to me at that age, that when I hear it now it just sounds regurgitated and not as good. This, in fact, might be better than what it used to be. But I've already heard this song and dance before.
Songfacts: Right. And one of the problems with guys like us is it stops being new after a while, right?
Demakes: Right. I'm not saying I'm jaded or I'm aggravated. There are some newer bands that I think, Wow, that's a great band. But for the most part a lot of it to me does sound regurgitated. It sounds hoarse - the recordings of these bands sound ProTooled and just stale. And you go see them live and a lot of them can't cut it. You used to be a great band - you had to be a great band to make a great record. Now you can be a shit band and you can go out and you can't cut it live. And that's just the worst. If you can't cut it live, just stop. Stop making records if it don't sound like you.
Songfacts: So what keeps you from being jaded, what keeps you excited about making music?
Demakes: This is what we do. We've been doing this, it's going to be 20 years next year. This is all I've known. I worked the odd jobs out of high school and college, but as far as anything else, music is my life. It's how I make a living, everything about my life is music now. So to think of anything else, that keeps me not jaded right there. I need this. Without this I would spiritually die.
Songfacts: Is there a reason why you never started a family?
Demakes: No. I'm married to music.
We spoke with Chris on August 11, 2011
Get more at lessthanjake.com
photos: Jodi Cunningham
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