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Interview: JEFF The Brotherhood’s Jake Orrall on the hype of Nashville, family chemistry, and new record ‘Wasted On The Dream’


Nashville badasses JEFF The Brotherhood have been tearing up the garage rock circuit since the early 2000s, along the way doing split releases with the likes of Ty Segall, Best Coast, and Screaming Females all while gaining a reputation as one of the best live rock and roll acts around today. Currently on tour supporting March’s Wasted On The Dream LP, they’ll be tearing the roof of The Sinclair in Cambridge tonight, so frontman and guitarist Jake Orrall and I had a chat about what it’s like being a punk rock duo based in a country music haven like Nashville, the hype surrounding the city, making music with his brother Jamin, being involved in the infamous 2012 collaboration that Jack White and the Insane Clown Posse, and being produced by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach that same year.

Rob Duguay: Everyone knows Nashville as being the home of country music, so what’s it like for being in a punk band that hails from the Music City? Do ever encounter a mixed fan base when you play shows in Nashville?

Jake Orrall: The whole country music scene is sort of separate from the rock scene here. It’s more of the business side of country that Nashville is known for, I guess a lot of the country music acts come from here but you don’t just go to country shows when you can go to any bar in the city and there’s country music playing. It’s a totally different scene altogether.

I’ve heard a lot lately from people that Nashville has become kind of corporatized to some extent over the past few years. Is there any truth to that?

I wouldn’t use the word corporatized, there’s definitely a lot of hype and there are a lot of people moving here because of it. It’s a great city so I can’t really blame them, it’s cheap to live here but there is a lot of gentrification happening because of the influx of people. At the same time, there are also a lot of cool independently owned businesses popping up everywhere so there are good sides and bad sides to it.

You can definitely see that happening in a lot of small cities with all these people moving to new places that are more affordable to live in. These small businesses start up and improve neighborhoods while at the same time certain areas are being gentrified and the people who used to live there can’t anymore and they’re forced to the outskirts of town. As you said, there are good and bad sides.

Definitely.



JEFF The Brotherhood released their latest album Wasted On The Dream this past March. I find it to be a great progression of the fuzzy garage punk sound that people have come to love the band by. What’s the best way to describe making music with your brother Jamin on drums in the studio?

Very natural.

Do you ever have disagreements over songs or do you both usually agree on everything?

It all just kind of comes together, we don’t really argue much. If one of us is more passionate about something than the other than usually the passionate one gets their way.

A few years ago back in 2012, you and Jamin were involved with this crazy collaboration between Jack White and the Insane Clown Posse. How was the experience and did you get any free Faygo out of the deal?

We were the session musicians on the track. We didn’t get any free Faygo but those guys were great, they were super, super nice. It was the first time ICP ever worked with live musicians in the studio so we felt pretty honored by it. It was cool, super sweet dudes.

You also got to work with Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys on the album Hypnotic Nights that year. How was he as a producer?

We co-produced it together so it was pretty much just hanging out, talking about cool sounds and stuff like that. Dan’s a laid back guy so he was easy to work with.

We’re in the middle of summer and we’re halfway through 2015, so what’s the plan for JEFF The Brotherhood for the rest of the year?

A lot of shows and a lot of touring. We’re playing Forecastle in Louisville, Kentucky, next month and we have a pretty long tour of Europe coming up, there are so many festivals we’re playing over there I can’t keep track.

JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD + NICE GUYS + IAN :: Thursday, June 11 @ the Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge, MA :: 8 p.m., 18-plus, $15 day of show :: Advance tickets :: Facebook event page