{"id":4269,"date":"2019-03-03T05:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T05:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=4269"},"modified":"2019-03-02T23:11:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T23:11:06","slug":"4269","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=4269","title":{"rendered":"Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A man who should need no introduction if we lived in a world where people got their just deserts because if that were the case everyone would know who the fuck Jim Jones is but we don’t so here is a chat I had with the frontman and voice and driving force of Jim Jones and the righteous mind. They are about to release a stunning second album and head out on tour to support it.\u00a0 You should check it out and take in a show it’ll be a revelation if your a newcomer and a celebration if you’re familiar.\u00a0 So without further waffle ladies and gents, I give you Mr. Jim Jones…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We’ll, we’ll start off if that’s okay, With the new album. You decided to go down the crowdfunding route. Was it last June? When it was launched. What was the idea behind going down that sort of less traditional route?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, it’s less traditional, but I think it’s becoming the way to go with The music industry just changing on so many levels, so fast I mean;\u00a0 you probably can see that you know like venues are disappearing more and more. you know, unless you’re doing something particularly\u00a0 financially rewarding in terms of pop or something like that you know lucrative, if you’re doing music there’s more based in art or something that’s kind of a bit more from the gut There are very few people\u00a0 in the industry that are going to hold the door open for \u00a0you. you know?\u00a0 You know with the ongoing political backdrop of this austerity nonsense that just keeps rolling on and on your going to see more venues disappear and all that kind of thing and for me it all ties in with that you know. \u00a0like if you can’t figure out a new business model you’re going to die with the dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

We talked about a lot and in the past, you know, we saw some people do, crowdfunding albums in a way just thought like just seems bit you know possibly a bit desperate or something like that but I think we just kind of had an awakening and realized it’s the way forward it’s the you know I mean it ties into me with the name of the album \u2018collectiv\u2019 is just really supposed to be reflective of everyone of people getting involved because that’s what I see as an antidote to you know the sort of\u00a0 ongoing\u00a0 crushing punishment that we get from the establishment day after day and their typical kind of call to arms is dividing conquer and you know the only source implanted I can sort of think of to combat that is get together,\u00a0 get together, get involved,\u00a0 and that’s become the sort of the rally cry for me because it is so messy business is a complicated business and the politics of everything and it’s like, it’s very hard, I think, is purposely so. You know, little bit like the law, you know, it’s made to be very kind of, you know, sort of confusing and gray because that just keeps your average working person who doesn’t have time, and everything, it just everyone gets the points I just don’t care I don’t get it and I don’t care you know, and they kind of do care because you know, and they go well, I’d rather put up with the shit than trying to wrap my brain around what’s going on here too confusing and so I think you have to go for life simple solutions and that’s my simple solution is get together get involved.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think its taking the power back as well, isn’t it? you know, being captain of your own destiny sort of…<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yeah, you’re not waiting for a record label to tell you what you can or can\u2019t do. \u00a0Absolutely, you know, you just press on. And it’s a no brainer really where it goes to the people that get it already, you certainly don’t have to convince anyone, these are people to kind of, do they see what you’re doing. I like what you’re doing and you’re doing it for them as well as yourself. Anyway, so it kind of it’s like, really like cutting out the bureaucracy. Yeah, and the red tape \u00a0just as between the artist and the observer, you know, the listener or, I’d like to sort of try and break that wall down even more. \u00a0I’ve done a lot of live shows, and I have a point of view about it. And my point of view is again, about that thing of being involved is kind of a ceremony of sorts and I think you can really be uplifted if you can give yourself over to it, you know.<\/p>\n

And I really feel like in any, any concert even in a huge concert, you know, sort of thousands of people, there is just one person leaves, it will be a different night if they had stayed. \u00a0And I think everyone has that energy that they bring into the room when they come into the room. And so I guess like the whole record is sort of reflective of that theme , you know, kind of riffing on that whole thing of like,\u00a0 what we can do together and, and with the political climate as it is, at the moment, you know, the backdrop that we’re working against, it just makes sense to, to sort of without trying to ram it down anyone’s throat you know, because no one ever learned anything by being told like you’re a stupid cunt people don\u2019t learn by that. \u00a0you’ve got to find people that aren\u2019t basing all their ideas on fear and hate Yeah, and that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re kind of encourage people you know, get them to join. Jo Cox, that politician who got stabbed. I found out the guy that did it, he was like,\u00a0 a little bit slower had mental health problems or something like that but he’d been kind of brought into that culture of, you know, kind of like neo-nazi beliefs and you just realize that that’s where we’re going wrong. He should have been brought into a circle of people that showed him, hope and encouragement and made and made him feel part of it rather than fear and hate people or what he is. It kind of might be like an easy sort of solution as to what to do with your time and your boredom but to have that sort of collective power everyone looking out for their neighbour; you don\u2019t need to know who they are but just be aware they\u2019re there.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Great rock and roll thrives when you have such a horrible government’s the same the punk was able to grow out of such adversity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s a very similar climate. Yeah. You got something to kick against<\/p>\n

The time you know, the time when you have to go okay, you know, I really don’t want you to put your foot on my neck any longer. It’s time to do something and Rock ‘n’ Roll is what we do.<\/p>\n

I think most people most could be capable when things run tlike they do this past few years\u00a0 they think “I want somebody to do it”, like there’s a point where it’s like this is just taking the piss \u00a0you know, you’ve been granted this power by everybody and you completely abusing it. It’s like\u00a0 an abusive relationship you know and i think\u00a0 people get to the point where they \u00a0get into a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome yeah where\u00a0 they’re so used to being in a cage that I feel uncomfortable when the door gets opened you know and as I don’t know what to do – like the canary in the cage thing you sort of open the door then what next? It doesn\u2019t fly away it doesn’t really know what to do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It’s been so familiar with being caged up for so long, anyway,\u00a0 this is a bit long winded but the crowd funding thing seemed to fit with that Yeah, you know, once we start thinking along those lines and like okay what are we doing what are we writing about what are we trying to achieve and because with the industry as it is you know I mean there are several generations now who don’t even know what Rock and Roll is so\u00a0 a lot of people now instead of going to a gig\u00a0 will put on 3d goggles and it’s just it’s not the same you know so it’s kind of like everyone to a certain degree is fighting \u00a0for survival and yet to come down to that thing of like what you care about and what you want and what what should we be doing at the moment and then you figure out a way to reflect that through \u00a0your art and creativity yeah and yeah it’s sort of like it feels like a cohesive\u00a0 kind of balances with each other, the idea of collective where people get together again, get involved and the crowdfunding thing so sorry that’s quite a long answer ha ha\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No no, we want to hear what’s behind the idea and what makes the band tick. Do find that doing it that way then it if you have a plan\u00a0 of where you’re going to record how long it’s gonna take that, the better the crowdfunding does, the plans change and, you know, sort of enables you to take longer to record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

you know, I think when we first started, we thought what was the minimum we can do this work having never done a crowdfunding thing before. I had no idea how it would work or it would be horrible disaster. And in the end, we got twice as much as we sort of asked that was like, Yeah, great. You know you have this sort of right brief moment of celebration when you know the sort of the deadline finally closes and you go wow, Well, we’ve got this much money and and then you suddenly go like Hang on a minute for every penny you’ve got there there’s somebody expecting a product. Okay time to buckle down and do some work and we had I had most of the ideas for the songs but there was an amount of time that needs to be spent, you know, kind of honing them down and then go – little bit of pressure on you know. Whereas with a label, they’ll go like, Oh, you need a bit more time. Let’s set that release date back a little bit further but this way \u00a0we kind of we promised people; \u00a0you promised some or something and you sort of you feel, you know, responsible for that it’s kind of it’s like signing up for something you need to deliver for sure. You know.<\/p>\n

With my history I’ve never cancelled \u00a0a shows.Unless its something pretty serious there was one where the drummer’s mum was rushed to hospital with cancer thats a different thing there but like other than that if you if you book it you do it you kind of you turn up there are people waiting to see you and it’s a responsibility but it’s a pleasure and an honour.<\/p>\n

A unique privilege and responsibilities and you have to rise to that.<\/p>\n

How much of the album the 10 songs were written?\u00a0 or would you \u00a0just select the \u00a0bare bones or ideas \u00a0and flesh them out then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0I always have you know sort of several ideas kind of bubbling along you know general things that I’m kind of working on and you know you just when it’s time to record you just start going through them one at a time and if one of them doesn’t really work very well. Okay, you just put that to one side, you know, I put it up on on blocks or use it for spare parts or you just leave it to, you know, serve as a project later down the line and then you go into the next idea and when something starts to click, you know, you just kind of feel it, and put all your attention into it. Sort of hone it into something worthwhile. But yeah, I mean, I think everything was pretty new apart from this one song called \u2018Out Align\u2019, which was a riff that I was trying to do something with back in the Jim Jones revue on the very last writing session, which is just before the band kind of broke up. Yeah, I had sort of a few ideas that I was working on some of those became stuff that went on the first couple of EP that did we do righteous mind and, and other stuff is still lying around, you know, in the spare Parts room and at one that that main kind of riff from \u2018Out Align\u2019 \u00a0was one that I’ve been working on with that they never really kind of jelled \u00a0with the band with the Revue.\u00a0 I always kind of liked it thought there was some mileage in it somewhere so let’s go back to it every now and then something happened it finnaly stuck.<\/p>\n

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How would you say you you write best? Do you come up with the songs yourself\u00a0 or come up with the bare bones like the same with the riff and then you pass around in rehearsal room…<\/strong><\/p>\n

yeah yeah a little bit, a little bit of all things really. some sometimes like a riff that turns \u00a0into an idea in your head sometimes just knock it about on the guitar and you stumble on something that you like the sound of.\u00a0 Occasionally you know I\u2019ll wake up in the morning with\u00a0 a fully finished tune in my head, \u00a0I don’t always have all the lyrics like some happen a good chunk of them enough…<\/p>\n

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Do you write quickly then? <\/strong><\/p>\n

You know sometimes things comes together after being very creative. Sometimes it’s like a real pain and you get a time but yeah sometimes its a real pain. These days I\u2019ve learnt \u00a0that if you keep trying and it’s not going anywhere I can you put it into the spare parts pile \u00a0and just let it maybe it’s not brewed enough\u00a0 – leave it\u00a0 for a bit longer and come back to it.<\/p>\n

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I thought \u00a0the flow of the new album is exceptionally good. \u00a0More so than your previous work, you know.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you very much. Well, it’s definitely got a continuity and that it was all recorded in the same period, you know, whereas the first record was done in sort of piecemeal you know, a couple of days here in a couple of days there. You know, sometimes they’ll be months apart.<\/p>\n

Occasionally different people playing\u00a0 on stuff. Whereas, this one was like a chunk of stuff I think we recorded 14 songs, and whatever, we did it over this, I don’t know if you remember how hot it was, and because of the soundproofing of where we’re working, we had to have all the doors and windows shut properly to play live and yeah, we would manage to three takes\u00a0 before somebody may have to like sort of open the doors \u00a0to run outside and breathe for five minutes It was really so hot the range on your forehead was up, you know, and you can you try to belt out a vocal.\u00a0 Yeah, It was very much like Memphis ha ha! I don’t know if there’s a Mississippi feel \u00a0to the record, but I would say those were \u00a0the conditions it was like super humid, super hot and yeah, we sort of turned it around fairly quickly. We had to to survive. \u00a0So pretty much like I think we had a delay of about a month\u00a0 Because the guy who runs the studio, who’s the main engineer that we work with, he had an issue with his mom who lives in Munich was having some treatment for cancer. And it was one of those things where it’s like, you can’t really go without him you know, he’s \u00a0got to go and, and it’s like you wouldn\u2019t say no about that.<\/p>\n

man. You know, we got deadlines that we’ve given our crowdfunding guys that you know, it is what it is. Yeah, I think we just had to put out a newsletter to those folks and let them know to listen, you know, missed a little – a bit of a delay. It looks like it’s it’s not going to be when we originally planned. We were trying to aim for October last year and have everything out. But you know, these things happened along the way and everyone was quite understanding. And we sent out a couple of downloads for people to \u00a0listening to stuff while they were waiting. Everyone’s been good natured about it.<\/p>\n

Is there a song on the album that captures what \u2018Collectiv\u2019 is all about or if you had to pick one to play somebody who wasn\u2019t familiar with your band what would you play them?\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s very hard to sort of sum it up with one track man uh…<\/p>\n

I think in the same way that it was cool, \u2018collectiv\u2019 is something where we had the idea of picking songs that were quite diverse you know? i think you’ll see that there’s some that are similar in terms of that some are a bit more upbeat \u00a0and \u00a0some a bit more kind of, you know, dreamy \u00a0but even the ones that are dreamy have got like a different flavour to them. \u00a0I think it was that thing of like representing a bit of a metaphore\u00a0 it’s like everything just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s wrong it’s just you know there’s something else and they can live together.<\/p>\n

The ebb and flow of the album works with songs like \u2018Meth Church\u2019 \u00a0then \u2018killer brainz\u2019 totally different songs yet they \u00a0flow into one another and it works perfectly <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, its like an afterglow or something after the intensity so yeah. When I sent out the first mixes to the guys in the band The guy who plays pedal steel and guitar Malcolm’s just messaged back. Saying, \u00a0Wow, It’s a Sonic feast. So Yeah, I think that describes it really well.\u00a0 Theres certainly a lot going on. But, but at the same time, you know, \u00a0there is a lot going on. But it’s not studio trickery. There’s a lot of you know musicianship happening , I suppose. Yeah.<\/p>\n

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Have you been playing much of it in the set live?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah. Well, its sort of \u00a0hard so far to do the dreamy stuff because it’s more about just being on fire and the energy of the other thing, I think when perhaps further down the line when the circumstances are right. We might even look at doing you know, two sets where we’ll do both. Do all the dreamy stuff and then and then come back on and do the fiery stuff and Four or five of the tunes off the album in the set.<\/p>\n

We just did a little run of dates in Spain and yeah they went across really well.<\/p>\n

I saw I saw the band when you played Ebbw Vale and saw the Revue plenty of times not knowing what to expect really, you know, is it gonna be more of the same but you know, but with the lap steel and more variety \u00a0I thought he was better now than the old band. you know?<\/strong><\/p>\n