IPO Interview: Jimmy Haber

Posted on 12 November 2015

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PGH is all about helping artists highlight their most recent projects, so let us all know what your latest project is – and tell us about how it come into the world. What has the initial feedback on it been like?

Jimmy Haber (JH): Sure, in April, I released My second solo album, “Joy Acid Pact”, it’s been getting a good response here and overseas, I read a review from Spain, Well, I barely read it, there was no ‘Muy Mal’, so I was happy. More importantly, its selling! That’s the businessman inside of me talking. I spent a year working on the record, hardly ever shifting into the business guy persona, now suddenly this summer, I’m all over the numbers. I started recording Joy Acid Pact in Orlando, Florida, but then the real tracking began in Boulder, Colorado, and I finished up in Sydney, Australia. It was that kind of record, fate, luck, being in the right place, the right people, and what a massive learning experience. Massive.

The Recording Process:  There are so many interesting ways that music projects come into the world these days compared with what artists had to struggle through years ago.  Take us on the creative arc of how this project came into being and any wisdom that you learned along the way.  Also, what were some of the obstacles or struggles that you encountered when you were working on the project?

JH: While I was an Active part of the Musical Collective, Maladaptive Solution, We had members in Orlando, Australia, England, Boston, Colorado, we were all over the place!! There’s a song on our last Ep ‘Heal’, where there are 5 people singing on the choruses, all from different parts of the globe! This opened up the possibilities for me, my “aha!” moment. When it came to recording the FIRST album (New Bondi Hippies), With the exception of a few vocal and guitar tracks, we recorded it entirely in Sydney. For Joy Acid Pact, we were shoveling tracks back and forth between Australia and Colorado, and it all sounded Fab with Michael Carpenter producing, of course. We did that process between Boulder and Sydney for a few months on what I call, the “summer 6”, and then finally, I went back to Australia and recorded the last 4 entirely there, and finished the others. There were problems with the communication between the studios, losing tracks in transit, demo guitars getting accidentally involved in the mix, those kind of issues, but this next time, I think I have a communication plan to not let that happen again. You know what they say, “Best laid plans……” Maybe I’ll just go down there and start from scratch!!

Are there any particular songs on this project that are special to you or communicate a message that you’d like to share here?

JH: The main one that comes to mind is “Jane, Stare At The Sun”, which was written with my cousin Mary in mind. Mary was 7 or so years older than myself, and came from New York to live with my family in Colorado when I was 21. She had a horrible Heroin problem, but managed to get clean for the 6 months she was here, hanging with family, playing cards, it just seemed she enjoyed it and was happy. A few years after she returned to New York, they found her in a bathtub dead from shooting up. She had been in that tub for 2 weeks. Nobody checked on her, like nobody cared, or was too busy, or maybe her family became emotionally unavailable from the pain of dealing with her…. In the song, I head into that big instrumental break, when in my head, the lyrical story gets to the tub, I just tried to create a peaceful place for the listener, and for Mary I guess…….

 As we all know, the music industry has been devastated for many reasons over the past 10 years, what are your thoughts on these changes and are you finding some of the changes helpful to you with getting more people to hear your music?

JH: I really miss going to the record stores, I do, and I also miss Vinyl as it used to be, the sole means of expression, THE vehicle, not like an afterthought or a specialty, with all that big art, and impossible to open shrink wrap, yes, it’s the same hassle now as then!! It’s just so wide open now though, so many different ways to get heard and seen, now there’s hundreds of millions of Artists releasing records it seems, of all kinds of quantity and quality. Maybe it’s a good thing, or maybe it’s harder to be heard over the din, but these are not the end times, I believe we are in the middle of a revolution, and rather than think of the biz as slowly being destroyed, Maybe it’s evolving away from the mega labels to smaller specialty ones.. One thing I will say, we need to figure out a solid payment schedule for internet royalties, Streaming, publishing, or even mechanicals, and make it easier to be the business guy artist, whatever size his or her “Business” might be, to get their art heard. I’m not a big believer in big corporations doing the right thing, so “We Should Start A Revolution” !!! By the way, that was shameless song hyping, because you see, that title is track 5 on “Joy Acid Pact”……..alright, moving on……….

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We would love to hear what your plans on with your next project – Are you going to a full CD, an EP or just release songs as you finish them?  Release them digital only or combine physical with the digital or what?

JH: I am very happy to be starting the new album in Mexico City, Mexico, this December, I’m thinking of a larger outpouring of songs this time too, but the big thing for me, is filming video for ALL the tracks, not necessarily individual traditional videos per track,….. well no, of course there’s that to do too, but more of a “impressionistic” composite of images to go with the songs, Hard to explain I suppose, but it’s in my head……………More importantly, I’m wanting to go back to Australia and work with Michael Carpenter again! Producer Muy Bien!

What are you finding that is working well for your music right now that others may find interesting to hear about?

JH: I felt for years that My Power Pop Genre was a dead end, I was a man outta time, but with the release of these past 2 records, I found a worldwide community who loves all the wonderfully obscure records that I do, and that I’m not alone in all this. Whats working, is that I’m keeping my art close to the chest, and doing what I like to do, and NOT trying to fit into that suffocating cube of ‘what’s Happening”. I say, do what you do best, love what you do, and forget all the rest.

Okay – time for some light humor!  Spinal Tap Moment: dig deep. Locate. Relive. Share that special ‘trauma’ with all of us!

JH: I’m sitting in Love Hertz Studio in Sydney, where I was actually living upstairs for a few weeks, I was the’ house American’, I believe they called me, and I came downstairs with a bowl of corn flakes, and there’s this nice guy sitting on the couch, and we exchange pleasantries, heys, where you froms?, like that. So I say,”so you are from San Francisco, huh?” He goes, yeah, I’m in a band that you probably never heard of, Brian Jonestown Massacre.”  “Are you fricking kidding me?? I was so influenced by this band, They were literally my Tibetan Book of the Dead!! I don’t know what they LOOK like, evidently, but Meeting Enrique Maymi there was a big thing for me, and the level of ‘no ego’ really proved to me that I’ve been right along about that Band, they are all for real.

Is there a particular musician(s) you’d love to collaborate with – and why?

JH: Brian Jonestown Massacre, I want to be the 10th person on stage backing up Antons’ cool as hell riffs on a 12 string Rickenbacker, Why? because we Love You. I would also love for the old Band I was in, Degenerates, to come together and do a fantastic simplistic rock record, but the other two guys are too busy and mentally removed, and maybe even, stuck in their cubes.

Advance apologies: the so-called ‘classic’ questions.   What other artists and bands have influenced your music and any particular reason why? Also, push come to shove: “Your Top 5 Albums Of All Time”?  (Pop Geeks really are interested in this, trust us!)

JH: I’m pretty simple on this, I always refer to the Beatles, Kinks, Stones, Who, then I would add Replacements, Cure, Teenage Fan Club, Cult, Smithereens, Stone Temple Pilots,and BJM. My top albums? hmmmm. “Revolver”, Beatles. //// “no4”, Stone Temple Pilots. /// “London Calling” the Clash, /// “Rubber Soul” Beatles, /// “Kinks Kronicles” Kinks.

Yes, it would be great if most indie musicians could work on music full-time but the reality rarely the case for most of them.  I am always asked by music fans, what are the careers or full-time jobs that the musicians of the music they are listening to do…so ‘what’s your main gig?!’

JH: I have a T-shirt Shop in Estes Park Colorado, very close to Rocky Mountain National Park, but rest assured, I’m a seasonal tall fish in a deep pond.

Okay, last question:  Where can we hear more of your music and any other releases you have? You Tube, On Reverbnation, just look me up please!

JH: On Jango Radio, but I am on iTunes, soundcloud, CD Baby, ReverbNation, and all the familiar places, and physical records are available from Kool Kat Musik.com, up in New Jersey

Had a lot of fun, thanks!!

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