Interview with Andrew Jackson Jihad - Podcast 70

Yo, this is the Sound Scene Revolution. Sound Scene Revolution. Sound Scene, what, what? Andrew Jackson, Jihad. Not Defiance, Ohio.

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We just had possibly the weirdest discussion ever on the website Two Girls, One Cup, which I just found out what it is, and oh my God, don't, like, I'm not going to be like, don't see it, it's totally good. Like, seriously, don't. Like, unless you're into watching, like, shit, and chicks shitting, and cups, and just dog, God. Alright, so that's that. On a related note, we have an interview this week with Andrew Jackson, Jihad, out of Arizona. They're a two-people, two-or-more-person group, and they're pretty good guys. One's kind of short, one's kind of tall, they both have beards, one has glasses. They play sometimes with more people, sometimes with less, so check it out. Yeah, we did this interview at the Fest in Florida, and I was really unprepared, and I think it comes through in the video, or the video, the audio.

It's a shining example of the level of professionalism we keep here at Sound Scene Revolution. Um, yeah, there's a song that we're going to play. We want to give away some stuff, but I don't know if we're going to, so send us an email, title it, Andrew Jackson Jihad Contest, and maybe you'll win something. I don't know, maybe. We'll see. We're going to play the track Rejoice off of their latest album, which you can hear me holding up right now. It's called People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World. And, uh, I got the vinyl record, so it's got a B on the cover. Large B. So enjoy that, and, uh, enjoy the interview, and we'll be back.

Go. One, two, three, four.

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We are at 2nd Street Bakery at the Fest with Andrew Jackson Jihad. If you guys would like to say hello. Hello. Hi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you guys, too. Um, do you guys just want to say your names and all that so we can differentiate with the audio? Sure. I am, uh, Sean Bonnet, and for the purpose of the interview, I will talk like this. No, I won't, actually, but... Make sure everybody can tell the difference. My name is Benjamin Gallaty, and, uh, yeah, that's all. Ha, you're not, no, this is going to be fantastic, I promise. Uber awkward. If it sucks, it's nothing to do with you, it's that we're just terribly mediocre. So, alright. It's a good match. Yeah, there we go. So, I guess the first thing I want to ask is the general, like, how did you guys get started with Andrew Jackson Jihad?

How did the whole thing come about? Um, I started writing songs around the same time that Ben, who's a very, very good electric bass player, acquired an upright bass. And, um, in Phoenix at the time, like, electropop was the big thing, like, uh, electroclash, they called it. I can see why you guys went the direction you did, and that's very, very electropop influenced. I like electropop. I liked it at the time, at least, but I was too broke and too stupid to figure out how to use computers or have one. So, I ended up getting an acoustic guitar, like, I bought it from my friend Joel Hazleton for 50 bucks, and he taught me how to play the C chord and the A minor chord and Disarm by Smashing Pumpkins. And, uh, this was, this was like four years ago.

Was that all, yeah, is that all in one shot? He's like, here's the A chord, here's the C chord, and now you can play Disarm. Pretty much, yeah. And we're done. It's actually, oh, uh, E minor, too. E minor. But, um, then Ben got, uh, an upright bass and we started, um, playing together. I, I got a job at the same place he worked at, um, and, yeah, we just started playing music together and then eventually it kind of, it was like, oh, we should, we should be in a band. Should get a, get the official title behind that. You mean the, the story of the band name? Um, fuck. And I know you guys get asked that and I know, I'm sure to you it's not interesting. Did you piece letters together? To all of the punk news empire, the name really means nothing.

We thought, we thought, we think Andrew Jackson was a pretty, uh, pretty interesting president. Like, he did a lot of good things, like, uh, he leveled the national debt. He was one of two presidents in the history of the country to do that. Um, he was the first working man's president, the first president born in the, in the actual union. Um, and then he was an orphan, like really, you know, he rose from, from shit, from the gutter, you know, straight from the streets. You know what I'm saying? Much like our current president. Yeah, totally. He's got cred, like Texas cred. Small dirt farmer out of Texas. But, um, so Ben and I were at work one day just, you know, fucking around, talking about that and then Ben was like, oh, we should have a band called Andrew Jackson Jihad.

So the name really means nothing at all. It just sounded good. There's no significance to the two words. They don't relate whatsoever unless you want to make something up and then we will. That's all right. We'll read it.

Yeah. We've made, it could mean a lot of different things I've come to realize. And at certain points in time, I'll come up with like really long winded reasons behind it. Like the, you know, the clashing of like, you know, the West versus the East, things like that, you know, it can be like kind of symbolic if you really want it to be. But then again, it was just a bullshit name that we came up with. And like, we've actually, it was probably like a month and a half ago. We were sitting in front of the coffee shop lamenting the fact that our band was named Andrew Jackson Jihad. And like, we'd never had any intentions of, you know, making a CD or like going on tour or getting signed to a label or playing at the fest or anything like that.

So, you know, it was just kind of like, we needed a band name because we were playing shows for flyers. And then now we're stuck with it. Total bummer. Totally fucking stuck with it. So I'm sorry to anyone. If you want to find your own meaning, email it to us. And like, that could, that could possibly be the new official meaning. That'll mean the answer you use from now on. Yeah. We need a good answer, like a good solid answer that we can just like have on hand and like our back pocket and like read it off to people. Well, it originated. A long time ago. Preferably like something really deep and like meaningful as opposed to like the real reason behind it. And it must be political. It has to be. It has to be.

Totally. We're all about that shit. It can be personal. It has to be some serious significance. All right. Well, moving on from that. So you guys recently, you guys have released a bunch of different craft through like a bunch of different, and they're like, how much do you imagine you have? Because I know the biggest thing is you just did the release with Asian man. But how many different like splits and all that? Do you have any idea? Yeah, actually. Um, we did our first, we, we started being a band when bands didn't put out CD-Rs. The CD-Rs weren't really legitimate yet. So we put out these things called demos. Um, and so we put out demo number one and then demo number two and then demo number three that all had at least one of the same recording on it.

Um, we would kind of add or take away songs. Then we recorded this album called Candy Cigarettes and Cap Guns, um, that we released ourself and, you know, put the packaging together. But they're actual CDs this time and not, not CD-Rs. Not CD-Rs. You had them done somewhere? Yeah, it was, it was pretty neat. Wow. We, uh, we got them halfway through our tour because, uh, ACD Manufacturing Company messed up. Um. Interesting. So you didn't have anything for like the first half of your tour? You're like, we're introducing these, uh, Jihad. If you go to the back, we'll have, uh. We'll have hugs and, you know. You can give us money. You can, you can. Do you have t-shirts? Yeah. We can creep you out and stuff. Like free creep outs.

Free. Um. That's hard to come by. Then we recorded this thing called Issue Problems that, uh, like a lot of the Planet X kids really liked that. And like we, we recorded it in about 10 minutes on our first take at our friend Ken Erickson's studio in his house. Like a lot of those songs are now on the, the Asian Man release. So we did Issue Problems, then a split with Flass Bar from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Golden Boots from Tucson, Arizona. Night Pass Records in LA put that out. Our friend John Thill runs that. Um. Uh, then, let's see. Oh, we, uh, we, yeah, we did, made our, we made a little live CD-R for a tour once. Um, that's, it's all free, pretty much all of our shit's free on the internet at our website now.

Everything's free on the internet now. Yep. It's very true. My friend emailed me, or no, my friend called me, he's like, hey, I just illegally downloaded your CD, like the day after it came out. He's like, it's cool, I ordered it too. Well, I guess that pans out. The music industry's fucking weird now. Yeah. This is not, that's the, yeah. Nice. That's how we make, that's how we make our money. Oh, yeah. No one's gonna pay us shit. Yeah. Oh. And then we just, um, put out a seven inch that we did ourselves, and it's gonna have zero distribution whatsoever, so like, if people want it, they, I think a dog just peed on my leg. Oh. But, um. That's, yeah, we just. You're his now. We just, we totally wasted a bunch of money.

I mean, not wasted, like, we're really excited about it, but like seven inches, or seven inches are fucking insanely expensive. Are they? But we did it with our really good friends in Prescott, Arizona, partners in 818, and we made them all with our own hands, and that's why they're so poorly. So you have those with you now, or? Yes, we have them with us now, and it's all, and we've actually sold out finally, and it's electric guitars, and electric bass, and drums. You wanna say hi? We have, Justin from Punk News just decided to come in and fuck up my interview. It was so good, and then you fucked it up. It was not so good. It was. He's lying to you. The yodeling in the background. Yeah. I really appreciate that they're still here, honestly.

I thought they would have walked away like five or six minutes ago. Yeah, grow some tits, dude. What? Yeah. That's, that's an inaccurate statement, I have to say. But, um, alright. So, you did the live CD, and you got the 7-inch coming out now. Then we, we met Ghost Mice, and they were super cool to us. Yeah. And they asked us to do a split, and we were like, well, we'll think about it. And, but no, we actually didn't really think about it too much. We were just like, fuck yeah, sure. It wasn't a lot of that. You're like, let me, yeah. And it was, it was before that, actually, that we met Skylar in Oakland at a show with Readyville and Vision of a Dying World and the speakers, a bunch of good bands. But Skylar wanted a free CD, so he like, he bought one, but then he name-dropped Asian Man.

Like, we had a Toys That Kill, uh, 7-inch in our, in our merch box from earlier that tour. And like, he's like, oh, we put out one of their, uh, one of their 7-inches. And I was like, oh, really? Did I mention Asian Man? Why don't you just give me a record? We'll take it in. Yeah, we, we folded, like, chairs, man. We just gave him all of our shit. And then he sent us an email, and we were just like, if Asian, if you need any help from Asian Man, just let us know. And we didn't know what that meant. Yeah, we're like, does that mean you'll put a record out? Yeah, eventually, like, I was talking to him on the phone about, uh, the plea for peace comp. We did a song for that, and I was like, cool, we're going to record right now anyway.

He's like, who's putting it out? I don't know. You guys. It's probably going to be us, but he's like, Asian Man will do it. Nice. It's actually, it was really easy and awesome, and I love that label a lot. Yeah. They don't demand anything of you. Like, they don't make you go on tour. Yeah, that's the interesting thing I've always heard, Mike Park's just kind of like, we'll do it, and whatever you feel like doing on your own, sorry. Mike Park doesn't give a fuck, dude. It's great. And his daughter is adorable. That, everyone, ah. Cutest little kid, man. Dude. We posed for a picture with her once. It was awesome. That's karma paying off for Mike Park and his adorable child. Dude, Maggie Park, beautiful girl.

I agree. That was worth it. That was worth the handoff. I'm going to add. Thank you.

That's part of your, that's the only thing he does require, is that you say how cute his kid is. That's in the, it's, it's a weird contractual agreement, but, all right, so.

In that big contract we had to sign, that was definitely one of the, one of the loop, like, one of the, like, it was number one A. Number one A initial here. Talk about Maggie Park's daughter. Say Maggie Park is adorable. Yeah, makes sense. That song guy never even embarrasses me so often. All right, so, uh, we're going to take a quick break from the interview, bring you more music from Andrew Jackson, Jihad, and more things. Um, like I said, listen, maybe we'll give away something. Send us an email, AndrewJacksonJihadContest at SoundSceneRevolution.com. Uh, we're going to play another track off of this. This one is called People 2, The Reckoning. It's off of their latest album, People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World.

Uh, and we'll wrap it up right after this, so check that out and enjoy.

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So, now when you guys did the album for H-Man, you had a lot more band members, obviously, than you normally were. How, was that just something you wanted to do, or was it like, figure pump it up? Well, ideally, we would have all those people play with us all the time. But those people have, you know, important things to do with their lives, and they don't like hanging out with us because we smell bad and we're really mean.

So, whenever we get the opportunity, like, when we have, like, studio time, like, we coax them in. We tell them that we're going to have pizza parties and stuff. And then they come by. Bring your instruments. It'll be great. And then they come by, and they do amazing things on our CD, and we really appreciate it. And, you know, we probably had, there's probably been, like, 40 people in Andrew Jackson Jihad, and they're all welcome to play our live shows with us, but I don't think they really want to. Yeah. They don't take you up on that. So, every once in a while, like, we typically have Steven Steinberg of French Quarter. He is part of the band. He just coincidentally isn't here right now. So, for recording, we usually, we take the Marvin Gaye approach, like, when he recorded Hear My Dear, he just invited a bunch of really rad musicians over to, like, hang out and play basketball, and then he's like, come on, guys, let's go jam.

And then they went to the studio and, like, recorded an album, and he didn't give them credit at all. He was just like, Marvin Gaye. I don't imagine Stevie Wonder played a lot of basketball. No.

Yeah. Great shot, Stevie. He made it again. Oh, triple-double. That is amazing. We are going to hell.

When I die, I'm giving my eyes to Stevie Wonder. Yeah, the person I have, like, no issues with in the entire world, I just made fun of.

Anyhow. So, that's cool. Now, you had almost a full band set when you played the Asian Maniversary. Yeah. Now, you had more people, though. Yeah, we had Dylan Cook. He was in Partners in 818. God, I don't know who you are at all. Wait, I think you were thinking of Defiance Ohio. Yeah, are you guys Defiance Ohio? Oh, Jesus. No. Oh, God. This interview is over. Give me the mic back. I'm sorry. I got my C game going today. But, uh, he's throwing you cigarettes.

Unfortunately, according to the prison law, that is in effect at the fest. He owns you now, though. So, take that into consideration when accepting gifts. Yes, I should. The fest is much like a prison. It is. Mostly the unshowered men and the tattoos that get done. Lifting weights in the yard. That's what I do. Stabbing people. I was outside of common grounds. Yeah, race wars. And I just had an axle. Car axle. I was just bench pressing it. That's how I go. Oh, hell yeah, dude. But, uh. All right. I traded a lock for this wicked sick back piece. Because you can turn locks into, like, tattoo guns and knives and radios and stuff. I like that Nerman agreed. You're like, yes. Yes, you can. I've done that a couple of times myself.

I've got a sweet Aztec calendar on my chest for it. Like my friend James in Phoenix. Does your buddy and James have the Aztec calendar tattoo? He does. Wow. He traded it for a lock. For a lock. He's a badass. Uh, prison tattoos. Hell yeah. All right. So, what are you guys. Yeah, I know you came down here specifically to play the best. It's not part of, like, a tour schedule. So, what do you guys. You got anything planned up for the future other than you got the 7-inch you're doing yourself. Um, well, the 7-inch. We're trying to trick Asian Man or maybe Planet X into putting out, like, a quadruple Arizona split. That'd be really rad. Like four bands aren't? Yeah, yeah. CDs have a lot of time on them. They do. Phoenix, Arizona and Tucson and Prescott, they all have really amazing bands that, like, are on the verge of blowing up mad and saying, like, going on tour all the time.

Very cool. But, um, and we're going to tour in, uh, from December to January, from the middle of the month to the other middle of the month. We're going to try and, like, loop around the U.S. Yeah? You guys got dates. Oh, my God, my voice is cracking. You guys got, I'm, like, going through puberty, I'm sorry. But, uh, you guys got dates, like, nowhere going on that yet or are you still working that all out? Yeah, we're going to do the West Coast first and then go up through the Midwest to New York. Mm-hmm. Then down East Coast and then through the South. All right, cool. All in the course of a month. Yeah. Not going to have a lot of days off, are you? No, no days off. It's going to be pretty fucked. I think if we, uh, if we figure out a way to, like, fly over Texas or completely circumvent Texas.

It's a good idea. Yeah. We had a hard time. No, I wouldn't. I think there's a shortcut through Mexico. The trip on the way here was, like, our fall training because we drove 35 hours straight to get here to Gainesville. It was the most fucked up experience of my life. And we're going to do it again tonight. To get home. You're going at night? So this is our fall training, and if we can do that, we can fucking bust the United States out and, like, nothing, dude. We piss the United States, dude. If you can drive through Texas, you've got my respect. I don't like to fly over Texas. I'm like, oh, God, because if the plane crashes, I'm fucking dead. I'm in Texas. I'm fucking in Texas. I hope I die on impact. If you don't have, like, a vehicle and you're in Texas, you'll never get out.

Oh, God, dude. It's not possible. It's just a huge expanse. Ben called 800-pound gorilla. Get us straight, dude. Either way. 200-mile gorilla. 200-mile, 800-pound gorilla. Sure. All right. Well. This is the funnest interview I've ever done, by the way. Really? Maybe. Not the best. Is this guy Ben Leatherman? No, maybe. It's either you guys or Ben Leatherman from the Phoenix New Times. Well. It was fun talking shit with him, too. He's dead as of tomorrow, so that doesn't matter anymore. Good. Understand that. That motherfucker called our guitarist Chubby. Ben Leatherman of the Arizona Phoenix Times. I'm killed. Justin asked me a question. Because he's on par with our interviews. Not fucking okay. All right. Anyhow. That's on your head now.

You get to live with that guilt. But, um. Sure. Thanks. You got. All right. I'm going to wrap this up before it gets better.

You guys, obviously, you got the tour coming up. Anything you guys want to shout out? Websites? Anything? Do you have a fucking website? Yeah. www.andrewjacksonjihad.com. That wasn't taken already? Really? Yeah. I'm surprised. Oh, God. Like, we're driving through all these towns. There's, like, Andrew Jackson Jihad bagels. Like. Andrew Jackson Jihad, the room store. The delicatessen. You're like, really? Totally. Dude. Oh, word up to Jeff's Deli in Gainesville. That guy is all about deli. Go and read the menu. It's awesome. Jeff's Deli. Where's that on? Um. I'm not sure. Oh. I can find it. He's, like, this. He's, like, a really bad writer, but he's kind of a genius for doing so. Like, the things he comes up with without intentionally doing them, it's awesome.

And it's all on the menu. Yep. He kind of writes like Mike Park does. Like, really, like, don't you know about deli? Deli is way of life. I have got to. This is not New York. I love New York. I'm from there. Deli. I have to see this now. It's good. I will check that out. Your website. Ben Walton. Oh, much love to, you know, Chris Johnston for letting us stay in his bus for the weekend. It's fucking amazing. And also, all the English people and Irish people. Dylan. Dude. And Dauntless Elite, who just, like, entertained us. Offshore radio. Offshore radio. Man. Those accents are so entertaining. They're amazing guys. They're amazing guys. Garrett and Elsa? Yeah, Garrett and Elsa. Shit. It's been a really good weekend. And thanks to you guys for, you know, giving us the mic.

Yeah. Thanks for allowing us to do this. We're sorry. We forgive you. All right. Well, thank you guys again. Thank you so much. Hi. Thanks for tuning in to this week in Vagina Monologues. Today I'll be talking about my vagina.

Anyhow. So that wraps up the interview with Andrew Jackson Jihad. Really good guys. Really, really good guys. Go check them out if you get the chance. Listen to their music. Buy them beer or cigarettes or heroin or whatever those guys do. I don't know. They're fucking weird. But check them out. And if you want, send us an email. Andrew Jackson Jihad Contest at soundscenerevolution.com. Maybe you'll win something. I don't know. I have all sorts of weird shit that I've been collecting that I want to give away. So maybe I'll give it to you. You never know. We're going to wrap the song up with the last track off of Andrew Jackson Jihad's latest album. People who can eat people are the luckiest people in the world.

And we're going to play the last track called People. That's like eight peoples in two sentences. That's a lot of people eye. Enjoy that. We'll see you guys next week. And next week we may have... Oh, we should have another Contest next week. I don't know for sure what the interview is going to be. But there should be more free shit. Which I know you guys like. Because you're cheap bastards. Alright. Have a good one.

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