The New Bomb

"You're calling all the way from Perth? Wow,” Mr Jon Spencer, the 'high priest of rock'n'roll' unceremoniously states at the beginning of this here interview. “That's a long way away.” Spencer's gravelly voice barely breaks over the interference, the unwanted product of any overseas call, but it conveys the relaxed manner in which he is used to taking about the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and his and his band's contribution to music over the last 22 years. “I haven't been out there for ages, it'll be great to get out there again,” he concludes.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will be coming out to our neck of the woods soon, partially as part of the release tour schedule for last year's Meat & Bone LP. It was the first record the three-piece (consisting of Spencer, Guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins) had released in eight years, with only some extraordinary retrospective re-releases and bootleg compilations to tide fans over in the meantime.“Those eight years, we had really done not much of anything,” Spencer admits. “But that was good, in a way. When we started playing live again, we were really doing it on our own terms, because we wanted to be doing it. It felt organic. We didn't have any higher-ups telling us what to do; it was really just off our own backs. We paid for our own rehearsals, we paid for the recording, we paid for the mastering. We were in control of the whole situation. And I guess that's what we've done before, but it felt like it really cam together for Meat & Bone. In that way, it was a relatively easy record to make. And part of that goes down to coming into it fresh, with new ideas, but another part is that we were doing it by ourselves. We felt comfortable with what we were doing.”

Spencer, as can probably be seen, has been an active proponent of the DIY style of music making, stemming back to the first JSBX releases, which came out on tiny indie labels, including through Steve Albini's roster. One of the main attributes of the man's conversations is that anyone has the power to release their own music, despite the pressures of the industry. “It felt really good to be able to get back into it again, and despite all the hard work we put in and difficulties we had, it was a great experience,” he explains. “And that's what I've been sayin' all this time; you don't need to have that structure, with the big wigs tellin' you what to do, to make music. If you want to make music, than make it! It's simple. I've never felt like I've had to pander to anyone like that; I've always felt like I should be in control of my music, and how it's made. We've been lucky to be able to keep that going, and make a living out of it. Not a wealthy living, but a living.”

Meat & Bone is a welcome addition to the JSBX catalogue. Stemming from the classic style of their music, which blends blues, funk, garage, rockabilly, soul and any number of genres you can name ('noise punk' is a common tag) into a fervid, in-your-face channeling of rock energy, the latest record throws the best of their past into a new context. By Spencer's own admission, part of that came from what he did during the hiatus: remastering and re-releasing the band's old work. “Yeah, it really was an eye-opening experience,” Spencer tells when asked about the process of digging through old material. “Like, we – and you'll hear any band say this – we never really wanted to listen too much to the stuff we did before. You kind of release an album, and that's it, you move on to something else. But with this, it was kind of an eye-opening experience. We really had this unique feeling of looking back and seeing all the work we'd done before. And through that, you kinda get an idea of where each record was coming from, through what you were thinking and how it came together.”

More than just being an opportunity to acknowledge the past, though, Spencer says that the process gave him newfound passion to focus on creatin new music. “Re-examining where we came from through the first ten years of our career, it really added fuel to the fire, you know?” he tells. “I really think that we took some energy, some of the energy that we had when we were making records like Orange and Plastic Fang, and kinda redirected it to the new album. But on that, I would say that Meat & Bone is definitely not a throwback record. I don't think it's just us rehashing some old idea. We might be taking the energy from what we've done before, but it definitely isn't the same. I think that it's definitely a product of where the band is today. And this is a band, mind you, that's been playing for a long time. We have 20 years of experience. And that experience comes through in different ways. Like, we came into recording the record, and we felt like we knew what we were doing, but we didn't feel like it was a chore, you know? We knew what we had to do, and we were excited about doin' it.”

It's interesting to note – and possibly deliberate, on Spencer's part – that he's adamant about stating that Meat & Bone is not simply a product of the past, but should be seen by its own contemporary merits. As a band that is well-known for their '60s and '70s-inpired freakout jams, it does seem like an important point to make. “You know, I consider myself a student of music of the past, so I'm always learning from those periods,” he says. “But this whole idea of, 'Oh, you cant make something that sounds like something from 30 years ago...' It's bullshit. Of course you can. Most of everything in art, not just music, but art as well, is the product of what came before. You can't escape that. We've never tried to hide that fact, and I think one of the reasons that I'm so comfortable and happy with the music we make is because we love that stuff from the '70s, when we were kids, and we're not afraid to show it.”

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 7 March – The Zoo, Brisbane
Friday 8 March – The Northern, Byron Bay
Saturday 9 March – The Hi-Fi, Sydney
Sunday 10 March – Golden Plains, Meredith
Tuesday 12 March – Astor, Perth (with Dinosaur Jr)
Thursday 14 March – Fowlers Live!, Adelaide
Friday 15 March – The Espy, Melbourne
Saturday 16 March – Corner Hotel, Melbourne