Exclusive Interview with Less Than Jake’s Chris Demakes
by Michelle Oberg
For one of the most historic ska-punk bands in history, Less Than Jake’s appearance at Warped Tour 2011 was no surprise. Being a staple on Warped Tour for almost as long as it’s conception (1995), Less Than Jake have been on the tour since 1997. It’s always a pleasure to be graced not just with their presence, but iconic style and sound.
The very animated bunch croons up with their signature brass sounds prompting not just the ever-favorite dance move, “the two step,” but the thirst-quenching flavor of beer and “medical” marijuana—this is California, let’s just call it medical for arguments sake. Self-deprecation is a must—no one likes a band that loves themselves anyway—and it’s the ones that tell you they suck who always wind up making the hits. It’s a love of music for crying out loud.
Speaking of crying, there were almost tears on stage for they’re mid-afternoon, hot-as-the-surface-of-the-sun set, from a 12-year-old boy. This young buck was escorted on stage and received a mohawk from JR and Manganelli mid-set while Demakes, Fiorello and Schaub played on. Gentlemen, we thank you…I thank you…as the first gust of wind from the day allowed concert-goer’s to get rained on by the gentle strands of soft, brown, little boy hair; a perfect accoutrement to any open mouthed beverage.
The 5 song EP, Greetings From… (released in time for Warped Tour), embodies their sound whole-heartedly with little change. Tracks “Can’t Yell Any Louder,” “Goodbye My Personality,” and “Oldest Trick in The Book” can be heard on the tour along with some old favorites.
Demakes vocals and instrumentals mesh with his counterparts as they equally share the spotlight for each of their personally highlighted tunes.
We let the good times roll with punk legends, good tunes, huge crowds and dance-infused mosh pits at Warped Tour with Less Than Jake. I won’t tell you not to miss them at Warped, only because they’re probably at the top of your list anyway, so I’ll leave you with this: Hide your wife, hide your kids, and wear a hat, because LTJ is in town.
(Interview)
RUKUS MAGAZINE caught up with them before their set to talk about the future of the band and their experiences on Warped Tour. Be sure to tweet them, facebook ‘like’ ’em, MySpace em—whatever social networking you can think of—to stay in the know, because they’re not going anywhere. For that, again, we thank you, LTJ!
RUKUS MAGAZINE: This your 10th year on Warped Tour?
CHRIS DEMAKES: Tenth time? I actually don’t know. I don’t have it figured, out but I know we played in 3 decades. Our first one was in ’97. People can’t believe how good-looking we are that we’ve played 3 decades. It’s so shocking. Guys in their mid 30’s looking this chiseled…I’ve been working out everyday, can you tell?
RM: So obviously it’s number-one-fun summer camp. What’s your favorite part?
CD: My favorite part would be getting to meet sweet journalists such as yourself and getting to talk about myself all day. That and we’ve been doing it for so long that we pretty much know everybody out here and the guys in production behind the scenes, so it’s a lot of friends that dudes catch up with. It’s cool.
RM: Are there any downfalls to being on such a large festival?
CD: We did 3 days in New Mexico and then in Las Vegas so we had a bunch of 100 degree days. That kind of sucks, but other than that, no.
RM: Are there any artists you’re looking forward to seeing that you haven’t seen already?
CD: Pablo Picasso. [I then proceed to show him the Picasso tattooed on my foot] NICE! That’s a weird coincidence…Leonardo Davinci.
RM: I can’t help you with that one, but seriously, is there anyone that sticks out to you that you’ve heard puts on a good show?
CD: Not really. I’m too old, I don’t like music anymore. I listen to stuff from the ’70s and ’80s. There are a few bands out here that seem pretty cool. I’m loving Into Me and the Pepper guys are good friends of mine. Some of the younger bands too. There’s a band called Bad Rabbits; they’re really cool; they’re really different. I like the bands that are different; that stick out.
RM: You should check out Lionize.
CD: Yes! I know those guys. They are different. Not different like they ride the short bus, but different for Warped Tour.
RM: Where do you think Warped Tour is headed now, musically?
CD: I mean, by 2020 it will probably be the biggest rave/gay dance scene party ever. It will take a few years to get there. Honestly, I think Warped Tour can go on for as long as it wants to go on for. The owner of Warped Tour, Kevin, he just gets it. He understands how to do this and he picks the right bands and the tour remains successful every year.
RM: When can we expect a new album?
CD: We just put out a 5-song record for warped tour. We’re going to write some songs this fall and probably record again, but as far as a full length album I don’t know if were going to do that. Were probably just going to release a whole bunch of songs every year.
RM: Keep the fans listening. Real quick, run me through the pez collecting.
CD: My collection is small. I probably have over a hundred of them and they’re all different, but people always throw pez onto the stage and our guitar tech collects them all and gives them to me to go through. I’ll go through whatever I already have but I have about 120 from fans over the years, I don’t really collect them. But our bass player has about 1,000 different pez dispensers from all over the world. It’s crazy, he’s put a lot of money into his collection.
RM: Has there been another show as intense as the Vanderbilt performance that resulted in massive rioting?
CD: I had to have my manager basically force me to get on stage in Brazil. We were all getting shocked. Nothing was grounded in this place and we literally put a show on in a Mexican restaurant that went out of business and this punk kid got people to put a show together and it probably legally held 200 people; there must have been 1,000 people shoved in this place. We were getting shocked really badly; there came a point where I thought I might die. It was jolting me and I could see blue going up my arm so I said I’m not playing, but it’s shit like that. The unpredictability of it and then the next day we’ll go play an arena somewhere to 40,000 people at a festival and it’ll be perfect. Then we’ll go back to playing a dump.
RM: It’s about the fans, right?
CD: No, it’s about me.
RM: Thanks so much for catching up and we’ll see you on stage at 6.