Phoenix five-piece Andrew Jackson Jihad have been churning out folk rock tales for the depressed and disenfranchised for over a decade now, and with their new album Christmas Island, they’ve once again proven that no one is better at writing the soundtrack for everyone else’s problems. The record is a textbook-quality display of clever wordplay and warped emotions, bundled into a shiny packaged that you can’t resist singing along to – even if you probably shouldn’t be.
With the new album and a new record label in SideOneDummy, the band is hitting the road this summer for a North American tour that includes a stop at the Sinclair on June 16th.
Allston Pudding had the chance to speak with lead singer and songwriter Sean Bonnette about the inspiration for Christmas Island, the band’s creative fundraising efforts, and ice cream. Check it out below and grab tickets for their show next month.
Allston Pudding: First of all, congrats on your new album – it sounds great
Sean Bonnette: Awesome – thanks! We’ve been keeping it in the bag for a while and it’s great to finally put it out
AP: When you were writing this record, were you going for a certain theme? Or did you want the songs to stand as on their own?
SB: Kind of both – sometimes I write with not so much a theme in mind, but actually a band in mind. Like I’ll make up a fictional band or a fictional songwriter and make it like I’m writing for that thing. And that’s really fun – because all the pressure of having to write for Andrew Jackson Jihad goes away.
Sometimes I do write with a theme in mind. Before Christmas Island had a name and we knew what it was going to be about, we thought it was going to be about a futuristic apocalypse. Eventually we cast out a lot of that, but still got to keep certain aspects of it.
AP: So aside from apocalypses, a lot of the songs you write about are about people who are down on their luck – would you say you are trying to be an advocate for these people? Are you interested in social causes, or are these just your observations?
SB: In my civilian work, I’m a social worker. When I’m in Phoenix I work as a hotline supervisor for a company called Teen Life Line, and I train and supervise volunteers who run a crisis hotline for teenagers. Before I started working for them, I was a volunteer there since I was 15.
The bulk of my career in social work has been in homeless services – outreach and shelter management. So (2011’s) Knife Man was a record I wrote at the end of college when I was getting my degree in that and was really immersed in it – so that record is very civic minded.
So I guess I consider myself an advocate, maybe not as much musically, but definitely in my personal life. And I would like everyone who listens to our band to get from it that if they need help, they can always ask for it.
AP: So when you’re touring or recording, do you take a leave of absence from work?
SB: I actually live in a few different places throughout the year. I spend 4-6 months in Michigan, and I work an extremely part time job there doing policy research. Over the past ten years I’ve been able to find enough jobs that are “on-call” in social work where I can fill in when people can’t work or on holidays – and if you can find two jobs like that, you can pretty much work full time when you aren’t on tour. I recommend it for anyone wants to work and still take a lot of time off.
AP: Awesome, so staying with the theme of making money, you guys did an Indiegogo campaign to help buy a new van. You raised $33,000 and had 22 people pay $200 to hang out with you before a show – what’s that like?
SB: It’s amazing – I just hope we don’t disappoint the people who signed up. They’ll get to come to sound check and hang out and then we’ll go to dinner.
AP: Did you think of that Indiegogo as a way to get closer to your fans – or was it purely a financial thing?
SB: We had thought about doing something around crowd sourcing, but when it comes to albums, we felt like that was our financial obligation, and something we could handle with the help of our record label. Same thing with touring – it’s not our fan’s responsibility to fund that.
But the van – the one we had was in bad shape. If fans wanted to help make our touring more comfortable, they could, but we didn’t want to put any guilt or pressure on them.
AP: So here’s a softball question I like to ask: do you have a favorite ice cream place?
SB: Ha that’s a good question – there’s one in Michigan I really like – and shit… now I can’t remember their name…. I use to follow them on twitter…. Let me think about this. I mean, my favorite flavor of ice cream is coffee ice cream… and If I could give a shout out to Pinkberry in Lansing Michigan ….. no wait…. Sugarberry
AP: Yeah, I was wondering why you were giving a shout out to Pinkberry
SB: Yeah, actually I hate those guys – all of their employees seem really despondent and mean. And that’s the hardest question you’ve asked me so far.