JEFF the Brotherhood are a two-piece rock band out of Nashville, TN. When we say “rock,” we’re not implying one of the pretentious subgenres therein, either; this is the kind of drums-and-guitar fire that you imagined could melt down your bedroom walls as an angry teenager, cascading over with chugging riffs and psychedelic soloing. Their stage presence is unusually intense for a sibling band; Jake and his guitar hover directly above Jamin as he hammers out insanely frenzied drum lines, both of them ensconced in fog machine clouds. They’re able to pack an evening’s worth of attitude into a slim thirty-minute-set, too, recalling the furious live shows at the root of Jay Reatard’s notoriety; rarely do you see the headlining band consume less time than their openers. Before last week’s Bug Jar showing, we sat down and quickly ran over the state of the band — topics include their recent foray into Canada, an upcoming electronic project, and a surprise appearance on the MTV blog.
(Buy their latest full-length Heavy Days at Insound.)
Out of curiosity, how’d you book the gig in Rochester?
Our booking agent actually booked it. We’ve never been here before…
So you probably have no idea where you are… speaking of geography, you’re painted very specifically as a “Nashville” band. How do you handle playing different cities?
Actually, we don’t play in the South too often anymore. We’re usually on tour, where there’s not much of a different attitude. When I come out to someplace new I don’t know what to expect, but I think I put just as much into my playing as I do in Nashville or wherever.
How’d your recent Canadian tour go, then?
Good and bad. It’s hard, it’s just twice as much work right now — it was negative 35 celsius the whole time we were there. In Quebec City no one really spoke English, either. We think the shows generally went well.
I’m assuming the Heavy Days cover art’s an implicit “Happy Days” reference.
We just thought it would be funny, actually. I remember we had chosen “Heavy Days” as the title awhile back, so that came first and the joke came second. I think you’re one of very few people who have gotten that, so far — I always thought people would get it.
There are two more songs on the album that include the word “heavy,” too. Where’s that motif come from?
That just goes with the title — we wanted to make a heavy album, we considered ourselves a heavy band. I think we still do. It’s funny but also meant to be very literal.
It seems like this album scales back from the last — a little less proggy, maybe poppier.
We did but we sort of didn’t. While we released Heavy Days we simultaneously released an album that was much proggier, but we only made 100 of them.
Do you see yourself progressing more in that direction, more pop-oriented?
I think right now some of the songs we’re writing are like that, but we always prefer to mix styles rather than keeping them separate. We have proggy songs, punk songs, hard rock songs — we usually release them alongside one another. We have some ideas now for an electronic project, so it’s whatever we feel like at the time.
Speaking of electronica, is it hard to be a band playing “classic rock” in this electronic-heavy environment?
I think so. I think a lot of types of music have built-in audiences, and the built-in audience seems pretty thin right now. You could get into subgenres of “rock,” but with the kind of rock we’re playing, it really is almost like we have to prove to people that we’re serious. Of course there are pockets in every city that support this or that.
Does Nashville have a vibrant rock scene compared to other cities?
Definitely. We feel supported there.
Can you talk more about the electronic project?
It certainly has a lot more of a live audience, which is part of the reason we’re going to to do an electronic record. We’re looking into some very cool collaborations, we’re going to start working on it as soon as possible. It’s probably going to be an EP.
You were recently featured on MTV’s blog. Does that level of exposure change your sibling relationship?
No. It gets us psyched, but it doesn’t change the relationships at all. When that thing on MTV appeared, the reaction was funny and excited. Hopefully they’ll start playing our videos… we try to keep our work and family relationships very separate. It can get pretty hairy [in the studio]… but I think we’re able to be more honest with each other, and there’s less room for stupid misunderstanding.
Because, at the end, of the day, you sort of have to deal with each other.
Exactly.
How about the making of your house party video, for “The Tropics”?
We had this great footage from a house show that we played for our friends. We needed an idea for “The Tropics” and we wanted to show people our friends, what our lives were like. We happened to be partying over at my girlfriend’s and we started passing around a video camera and filming — I think most of the time people didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t even know if we were going to use it, and it just came together when I went to edit it. I’m not sure how people are reacting to it at all. For us it was a very personal thing, just fun, something I didn’t know strangers were going to see.
What ambitions do you have right now? Plans for summer festivals?
So far we’re playing South by Southwest, Chaos in Tejas, and Slate Island in Calgary, that’s about it. We’re in a spot right now where we’ve pushed everything else in our lives aside to do this. We want to be able to pay rent somewhere. Have a place to live. And we want to go to Japan.
Jeff the Brotherhood will be playing in Ithaca on February 25th.
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Jeff The Brotherhood | “U Got The Look”
