Could you tell us about the release of your latest CD - Do you still enjoy playing together after all of these years?
Our latest CD came out of nowhere, as far as I can tell. The guys at Ripple Music somehow found us and made contact a year or so back with the idea of a double Vinyl /CD project using a lot of unreleased music. Some of it was really old stuff and a couple were really new, like it's Not My Fault and I've Been Waiting, (the song is old but the version is from 2001). Todd and John put together a really cool album with really psych swirling yellow/green vinyl. It is quite psychedelic.. Great job Ripplers! The three of us would play together more regularly I'm sure if Jeff lived closer but whenever we have the chance we are playing and recording whatever comes out. As long as we have new ideas I suspect we will continue to have fun playing music together.
Could you name some of the bands that have influenced the sound of JPT Scare? Who are some of your favorite blues artists?
Vanilla Fudge, John Mayall, the Blues Breakers, Yardbirds, Clapton, Winwood, Canned Heat, just to name a few of my favorite blues bands. I think Led Zeppelin pushed me over the edge though. Jimmy Page and the gang put out some of the best music ever. Totally blues based heavy ass kicking rock and roll.
"JamVapour ' is an example of the band's freeform nature, sometimes-do you enjoy experimenting with a progressive sound?
Progressive? Man, I am not tuned into the label thing; we just play whatever we are into at that moment. Not sure of how I would categorize it but it surprises me to hear us described as a proto metal band too. I just thought we were playing rock and roll as hard as we could play it.
What guitars do you guys play?
I have 1972, 4001 Rickenbacker bass. I bought it new with a left hand body and a right hand neck since I usually turn a right handed bass over with the big string on the bottom. I played this on all the old stuff and on Rumdum Daddy. I have a chopped up headless Ibanez with some EMG humbuckers and a bunch of active EQ stuff on it. I use this one on a lot of our stuff like Jamm Vapour and at our live gig at Crosstown Station. I also have a nice SG Gibson short scale bass that sounds very cool too. I also have a Hoffner but it tends to feed back really bad when I turn it up loud.
What has kept the band going for so long?
We're brothers from another mother and we love playing music together. The stuff we do doesn't come out unless we play with us three. And that is a fact, Jack.
Do you find that the audiences have changed from the 1970's onward?
No, not really. Popular music has changed but back in the 70s when disco reared its ugly head we kept rocking, just like we continue to do now, regardless of what the popular norm may be.
One of your songs is called "Wino"- have you had some troubles with alcohol over the years?
No, nothing too dramatic anyway. The song is pretty cool though and it really hurts when we play it. Poor devil!
What lies in the future for the band?
I'm in the process of doing a blitz of media to regional colleges hoping to get enough airplay to enable us to get some gigs booked with our buddy Rocky Rude at the Knobs, showing the kids how us old guys roll. Who knows, maybe they would dig it?
Any stories about playing live or being on tour?
We really do enjoy working together STILL. In fact, July 22, 2011, JPT Scare Band played our first concert in 38 years. It was an incredible event for us and for those who came out to support us. They seemed to really dig what we were doing up there. Lots of noise between verses and songs. It's hard to hide real enthusiasm and it fed into what we were doing up there on stage. After it was all said and done I talked with Terry and Jeff about their experience up there in front of a crowd and we shared a similar story of having a very surreal experience. It had been so long since we had an opportunity to perform that we were all up there pinching ourselves for the first few songs. It just didn't feel real! It felt very psychedelic however, all of us fell into that place where our brand of madness tends to arise.
