Status: Single
City: LOS ANGELES
State: California
Country: US
Signup Date: 12/15/2005
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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
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1. Let's start with what everyone wants to know.What's Jeff Drake up to these days? How's lifetreating you at the moment?I'm currently a senior at CSULA, should have my B.A. by this time next year. After that I hope to go to grad school and get my Ph. D. I can't wait to make everyone call me Dr., and believe me, I will. Life is pretty good right now, I'm just living the life of a humble university student and trying to resurrect my musical career. 2. The reissue of Keeping Up With The Joneses willsoon be out on Full Breach Kicks. After all of theseyears, going back and listening to that album, what doyou think of it now?
Wow, that was a weird record and a weird time for me personally and the band as a seperate thing. As far as listening to that record, that's what the band sounded like then, so I can't really imagine it sounding any other way. I don't really listen to the old Joneses stuff unless I have to, for one reason or another. 3. So I hear you're going to be playing some gigs inconjunction with the reissue. What are your feelingsabout getting back on stage as The Joneses and rockingout live again? Do you have any expectations aboutwhat the experience will be like?
Well, to tell you the truth, I'm apprehensive. It's been almost ten years since I've done that so I hope i remember how. I mean, I was in Amanda Jones and the Vice Principals after the Joneses, but I played different roles in those bands. My only expectaions are that other people will have expectations, and I'm not sure what those are. I'm gona do my best to get up there and make sure they leave thinking that they were glad they came. I guess I'm just trying to be realisitic. Whatever that means. 4. Have you done any rehearsals or anything at thispoint for the upcoming shows? How are things going interms of "getting the band back together"? Can weexpect any kind of Blues Brothers style shenanigans?
Actually, no rehearsals yet. But we're setting them up. hopefully we'll start rehearsing in about ten days. It was really no trouble at all getting the band together. And except for one surprise, it's gonna be guys that I've played with longer than anybody else. Really my first choices. Greg Kuehn is gonna play piano and we've know each other for about 25 years. Greg's been on every record I've done since the Criminals EP, except that Hell Comes to Your House comp, and the only reason he wasn't on that one was I think he was palying with Bob Dylan or something right then. So he was busy. Mike Sessa is gonna play drums and Rocko Occhiato is gonna play bass. These guys were the Joneses rhythm section for longer than everybody else put together. It's great playing with Greg, Mike and Rocko cause we've known each other so long and played with each other so long, it's almost like they can read my mind. It's really easy that way. Greg's son Elvis, whose day gig is playing guitar with the Diffs, is gonna be the other guitar player so it's kinda like we're bringing up a whole new Joneses generation and keeping it all in the family. As far as the Blues Brothers, I'm hoping we don't have to put up chicken wire, and don't think we'll be stealing any cars or anything. But we are on a mission. 5. At this point in time, is it weird to hear yourname and your band cited as being legendary andinfluential in rock n' roll? In The Joneses' heyday,did you ever imagine that people would still belistening to your music two decades later?
It's weird to see the word legendary used in connection with me, cause i don't really feel like one. Don't you have to be dead or something? Or at least rich or wield some unearthly power? It's like someone asked me once if I was proud to have a cult following, but no, having a cult following is like a consolation prize. I mean it's great to know that some people are really into what you do, I just wish there were more. I never set out to be the leader of a cult. But influential, I knew we were influential as early as 1983 or so because so many bands in L.A. were obviously being influenced by what we were doing. Unfortunately, most of 'em got it all wrong and went on to unbelievable fame and fortune. To be totally honest, I never thought i'd be around this long, so i didn't really think about people still being into the Joneses decades later. it is kinda cool, though. 6. Talk a little bit about how The Joneses first cameto be. Had you been in bands before The Joneses? Howdid you first get together with the rest of the band?
The story goes like this: I graduated from Merced High School and instead of going to college, moved down to L.A. (where I was originally from) to get in a band. I had only been playing guitar a short time and wasn't very good, so why I thought I could just move to L.A. and get something going was just youthful naivete. The first week I was in L.A. I met Steve Olson at the Cuckoo's Nest. He was in a rockabilly band that needed a guitar player. So I joined his band, The Aristocats. (The drummer was Joey Escalante who was later in the Vnadals.) Steve and I had the same idea for a band, a mix between the New York Dolls and rockabilly. We quit the Aristocats cause it was too Howdy Doody and Steve joined a band called the Rockaholics. He got me into that one and then we were both fired cause we weren't Howdy Doody enough. Our pompadours were too big, i played with distortion on my guitar and we partied a little too hard for the rockabilly scene. So we decided to start our own band. Steve came up with the name. He knew Mitch and we were friends with Ron Emory from TSOL and Ron wasn't happy with TSOL right at that point. Mitch knew a guy who had a couple of open dates. So we rehearsed for a couple of weeks and our first two shows were opening for Missing Persons and the Dickies. About a week after that, we recorded our first 7'. I was writing the songs so I had to be the singer cause I knew all the words. It was just supposed to be until we found a real singer, but we never did. I never wanted to be a singer, but ended up doing it for a really long time. 7. People are always curious about how your band woundup on the BYO comp (Someone Got Their Head Kicked In)with all of those So-Cal hardcore punk groups. Therest of the album is your basic fast-and-loud thrash,and then in come The Joneses playing good, old rock nroll. How'd you get involved with that comp? Did youplay shows with a lot of the bands on that comp?
I think the Stern brothers contacted us through Steve Houston, who had replaced Ron Emory by then. Steve Houston was already a bit of a punk rock star by then cause he had been in Vicious Circle, the Klan and AKA. So they probably thought we were just another Orange County hardcore band. One of the Stern brothers told me shortly after that record came out that we got more hate mail than all the other bands put together got fan mail. We did a show a roller rink with a bunch of the bands from that comp. It was horrible. The punks hated us, we hated them, and I've never been covered with more saliva. 8. Everyone always mentions "Pill Box" as a legendarysong. It truly holds up as one of the classic rock n'roll tunes of the past 30 years. How did that songcome to be? Did you have any specific ideas in mindwhen you were writing it, or did it just come to youspontaneously?
Pillbox is a weird one. That song seems to have a life of its own. It's not one of my favorite songs that I've written and for years wasn't even part of our set. I wrote that song when I was sixteen, before i even started playing guitar. I swear to God I wrote it in about ten minutes, but that's the way it is when I write songs. When that song came out it wasn't even the one that people liked. People were way more into our version of Crocodile Rock. What gets me about that song is that it was truly the second song I ever wrote. Everybody says how great it is, does that mean I peaked when i was sixteen? I think I've written way better, almost everything I've done since then. I guess my tastes are different. When I wrote that one i was just trying to compare girls to drugs. Used that idea a couple times since then. 9. The Joneses had an interesting history in that thatband's existence basically bridged the gap betweenearly 80s California punk and Sunset Strip hard rock.Did you ever feel truly accepted or embraced by eitherof those scenes? Was there ever any hostility orskepticism from people telling you you weren't "punk"enough or anything like that?Oh yeah. Punks hated us cause we weren't wearing the punk uniform. The metalheads only noticed us cause that had nothing going on but fur boots and mustaches and we had long hair so they thought they liked us. There was a time when we were drawing more than any other unsigned band in town. the bands that tried to copy us, the L.A. Weekly called 'em "Joneses clones" copped the look and tried to do the music but either they didn't get it or they were smart enough to go for the lowest common denominator and got huge. There was a lot of pressure on me to go more metal but i couldn't even if i had wanted to and i didn't. 10. At the peak of The Joneses popularity, how big ofa draw was the band? Were you bringing the crowds tosee you?
Yeah we were really popular. We used to play this place in west L.A. called the Music Machine. It was huge. I don't know how many people it held, maybe a thousand?, but it would be sold out with a line down the street. The L.A. Weekly named us the most loved band in L.A.
11. The mythology/legend about The Joneses is one of
decadence and danger. I'm guessing that the stories
about the drugs, booze, sex, and overall craziness
relating to The Joneses are based in fact. Would you
say that's the case? Did things in this band get
pretty wild?
I don;t know if I heard all the stories you have, but we weren't faking anything. it's pretty common knowledge that we had enormous drug problems. We kicked out Johnny Sage for being too strung out and I remember a guy asking me how somebody could be too strung out to be in the Joneses. In retrospect, I guess it was pretty wild. We were fucked up all the time, we had any and all the girls we wanted, everybody wanted to be our friends, The labels were chasing us and we were in our early twenties. it was like Fantasyland. We were just trying to have a good time. Eventually we got more known for our drug habits than anything else and we scared all the labels away. Geffen passed on us cause we were too dangerous and signed Guns and Roses. I never felt like I was in danger. maybe we were the danger.
12. When Keeping Up With The Joneses was initially
released, how did it do, in terms of sales and
response? Did you guys ever see any money from it? Do
you remember how people reacted to the record itself?
"Keeping Up with the Joneses" was a nightmare. Our drummer quit in the middle of the sessions, everybody was strung out and the sessions were big parties. It got great initail reviews. CMJ put us on the cover and we were getting a ton of college radio airplay all over the country. but nobody could buy the record. We did a big record release party at the Whiskey in July 1986, everybody in town was there, but there was no record. The label signed an exclusive distribution deal with a company that went out of business like a week later. Some law enforcement official put a lock on their warehouse and so there are record sat for over a year. When the legal fur stopped flying the band had broken up, I had retired from music to become a full-time heroin addict, so at that time I don't think anybody realized it was out there. I think I made about a hundred dollars off that record if that much. Hopefully it will do better this time.
13. Is it fair to say there was something of a musical
evolution between your early stuff and the LP? Was
there an intentional move towards a glam/hard rock
style?
I think it is fair to say there was a musical evolution, but nothing that was intentional. When we first started i barely knew how to play. I was still being influenced by the same things, I think I was getting better and the people who were playing in the band were better. If there was ever any intentional directions on my part, it was just to try as hard as i could not to let other people force me to go into a more heavy metal, Hessier direction. i fought that tooth and nail, with every fiber of my being. In fact, at one point, in 1986 after "Keeping Up" was recorded the band tried to fire me. Thankfully that mutiny was unsuccessful.
14. I remember when that "new" Joneses 7" came out
back in the late '90s. It almost sounded like a total
throwback to the early days of the band – more Johnny
Thunders, less "rock". Would you say the same, or do
you just perceive it as a rock n' roll record?
No, there was no intentional stylistics changes. I haven't listened to the stuff recently so I'm not sure what you mean. To me it all seems like a logical progression, but maybe I'm too close to it to be subjective about it. We recorded it very quickly so maybe that's why it sounds that way.
16. When did the Joneses officially break up? What
precipitated the demise of the band?
The Joneses never really did break up, like couples do. I just stopped doing it and started doing something else. I was tired of doing the Joneses and it didn't seem to be getting anywhere. So I stopped. It wasn't until i stopped that people started noticing Pillbox and using words like "legendary". I felt like I was wasting my time and it wasn't getting me off musically anymore. So I started Amanda Jones, which was a much better band than the Joneses. All of I sudden i started writing songs that I thought were much better, the best I've written in fact, and I didn't have to sing anymore. I felt much more comfortable in that band. I'm surprised more people that like the Joneses don't like that band. Better songs, I was playing better guitar, had a better singer and me and Greg produced it. To me it was a big improvement over what had come before it. I still feel that way.
17. The Vice Principals record totally rocked. How did
this project come to be with you and your brother
getting together to make a record? Was this a one-off
thing, or could there maybe be another Vice Principals
record someday?
Thanks for that. I also think that the Vice Principals were better in some ways than the Joneses, and not that much different. I just wasn't singing. I think it's pretty well known that me and my brother do not get along and it's nobody's business but our's why we don't. The Vice Principals was supposed to be my solo record, but it didn't work out that way. I would be very surprised if there was ever anymore Vice Principals records. In fact, I think I can safely say that it will never happen, at least not wiht that lineup. But check it out: I played guitar, sang back ups, wrote some songs, Rocko played bass, Greg played piano and i co-produced. I think it's a good record, for the most part.
18. What led to the release of the Criminal History
collection on Sympathy for the Record Industry? Did
the label contact you with an interest in getting all
of those songs back into circulation?
Actually, another label was gonna do it. Junk records. But when it came time to step up to the plate, they pleaded insolvency. So the deal fell apart. John Mermis heard about it and said he would pay. So he put it out.
19. Now you're on the Full Breach Kicks label. How'd
you get hooked up with Josh and his label?
Josh is a great guy, totally easy to work with. He contacted me through Trigon records. who originally put out Tits & Champagne and asked to re-issue it. i said "yeah". I liked his approach so we decided to more. So far it has worked out great.
20. What's awesome is that I think about a lot of the
bands on Full Breach Kicks, and a lot of them were
directly or indirectly influenced by The Joneses. What
do you think now about this whole resurgence of
glam/punk? This was a sound and look that was kind of
dead circa the early 90s grunge era, and starting in
the late 90s and going into the early 00s, it really
came back strong. You've got a whole new generation of
bands and people who love the New York Dolls, Hanoi
Rocks, etc. Do you find that strange, considering how
The Joneses were once of the only bands doing that
type of thing?
Really i don't find it strange that there are bands coming up and trying to play that kind of stuff. i mean, I can't imagine being a teenager and not being totally into the New York Dolls. I never liked Hanoi Rocks, but again, i don't think they got it, couldn't write songs and were too metally for me. I think it's so good for the future of rock n roll that young bands are coming up and not forgetting who came before them. That's what i did and I'm still doing it. I'm nothing but the sum of all the stuff I loved as a kid and teenager. Really, "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants". 21. Nowadays, how involved are you in following newrock n' roll? Do you get out much to see the bands?Are there any groups today that you really like a lot?
You'll probably laugh and I'll lose any respect anybody has for my musical tastes, but my favorite band is Oasis. I don't go to see bands much, in fact almost never. I also like Garbage and ZZ Top. when I do go out to see bands, it's usually my friends' bands. My good friend Pat French, an amazing harmonica player has a great band called the Purple Gang. Somebody needs to do a record with them IMMEDIATELY! 22. Are you still writing songs and planning to makenew music? Any plans to get a new band going or do asolo record? I do want to do a real solo record, hopefully before too long. I have a lot of friends who can play great and I've never gotten to play with them. I love doing covers and I've always wanted to do a record of all covers. Me and Greg have talked about it and I've lined up some people. I wanna do some duets with some girl singers i know and I hoping this Joneses resurrection will make it easier. 23. Any final thoughts or remarks?
No real final remarks, but if i didn't fully answer anyhting or if you have any other questions, lemme know. thanks again Lord Rutledge.
12:29 AM
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