Up
Close with Squirrel Nut Zippers
Frontman Jimbo Mathus
By Josh Max
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Photo
© Squirrel Nut Zippers |
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Retro
swing bands made a huge, if brief, mainstream media splash in
1997. Two years later the craze had peaked, Hanson and their fellow
pop tots had invaded the charts, and many hep daddy-o's hung up
their creepers. What remains now are the the bands who were
into old styles before everybody jumped onto the zoot suit bandwagon.
Squirrel Nut Zippers were never swing, though journalists dubbed
them so in their quest to pigeonhole and simplify. They survived
the mass executions of bands who’d been signed to record deals
based on a craze which quickly faded., and have a new album,
Bedlam Ballroom, on
Mammoth Records. Ballroom continues the band’s unique
blend of hot jazz, goofy feels, crazy melodies, irreverence and
excellent musicianship. The eight-member Squirrel Nut Zippers
are headed by husband-and-wife team Jimbo Mathus and Katherine
Whalen. ATOMIC author Josh Max caught up with Jimbo at Mammoth
records the day of the Zippers’ Halloween show at Roseland Ballroom
in New York City.
Imagine
a better-looking Billy Babbit from the 1974 film One Flew
Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and you’ve got a pretty accurate description
of Jimbo Mathus. Tall (though it may be because of his hair,
precariously piled on top of his noggin like a house of cards
) and skinny, he seems more nervous than I, chain smoking and
drinking beer during our 4 P.M. interview. In an age where
many artists strive to appear authentic, Mathus doesn’t have to
work at it. The guy is pure country through and through.
You can buy all the vintage clothing you want, but anyone who
unabashedly declares, "I don’t have an Internet!"—
now that’s retro!
Josh: Who writes Squirrel Nut Zippers songs?
Jimbo: I write and arrange. I’ve done it ever
since we started. We had a guy in the band named Tom Maxwell,
who left after the last album to seek his own thing. He
used to write about 25% of the material.
Josh: When he left, was there a question of whether
or not the band would continue?
Jimbo: Nah. He really left so the band could
continue. He was real anti-music business, so it was kind
of hard. I wanted to keep going, but Tom wanted to get away
from the business side. He wanted to sell albums just over
the Internet. I don’t have an Internet, so I’m not counting
on that. I just want to keep making records with Mammoth.
Josh: When you first started out, did you try to
fashion yourself after any particular musician, or style?
Jimbo: Well, I grew up in north Mississippi, isolated from
everything. Music was just a part of our family and how I grew
up. The first musicians I knew were my Dad and his clan.
They played Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, jug music
and such. When I started guitar I really liked Robert Johnson.
I went through different spells. I usually find someone
I like and I listen to them for about 5 years.
Josh: Are you the most successful musician in your
family?
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© Jim Mathus |
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Jimbo:
Oh, yeah. They would never consider doing it for a living.
I was out of the family for a while because of my career choice!
But now I’m back in. (laughs) My Dad gave me a new guitar for
my birthday 5 years ago, which was an amazing expression of faith.
I’d left home when I was 17, taking his guitar with me, an
old Gibson J-45 flattop guitar. I used to pawn it all the
time when I needed money, but I’d always get it back. One
time I came home and had forgotten to remove the pawn ticket from
the case. My mom came up to me at a family gathering,
where we’d all play music all day and into the night, and said,
"You’re father’s pissed because he saw the pawn ticket on the
guitar. He wants it back, and right now." I went
to my Dad and asked him to just let me keep it, told him I’d never
pawn it again. He agreed to let me keep it. At the time
it was the only guitar I had. A couple of months later it
got stolen. So he fuckin’ hated me for a long time.
Him buying me a new guitar was his way of sayin’, "Everything’s
cool."
Josh:
You guys are heavily influenced by early American music, which
I love.
Whose lyrics do you love?
Jimbo: Man, lyrics mean less and less to me now.
I kinda feel the lyrics are secondary to the beat.
In blues, for example, getting a loud sound across to people is
important. I do like a song that tells a story. I
like a lot of Tin Pan Alley jazz. I just don’t take a whole
lot of time agonizing over lyrics. I like to get a good
little beat, a title, and go for it. "If It Ain’t Broke,
Don’t Fix It" and "Don’t Let The Bedbugs Bite"
off our new album are examples. I love early rock ‘n’ roll.
I love cabaret. But I don’t really have a main lyricist
that I like.
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© Squirrel Nut Zippers |
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Josh:
You write Katherine’s material, too, then, since you’re
the songwriter. How does it differ for you to write
for yourself and write for her?
Jimbo: Well, with her, I really have to write
for her personality. If she don’t like the lyrics, she
won’t sing it. She likes standards, and she
doesn’t like a whole mess of words. So I try to
write her songs that sound standard-y. It
ain’t easy to write for her ‘cause she’s real picky.
She turns down a lot of stuff. But I just say, well,
try, try again!
Josh:
So that’s not a source of friction between you two.
Jimbo: Not at all. I don’t take it
personally. I was obsessed with songwriting for a long
time and then I got to a point where I didn’t want to
think about it all the time. So it doesn’t bother
me if she doesn’t fall over when she hears a new song
of mine. It’s not that hard to write a song, so now I’m
going to think about some other shit, too.
Josh: Do you have any tips or tricks for
couples who work in bands together?
Jimbo: You have to listen to the other person.
It was hard with Katherine for a long time because she
really had no aspirations to be a professional musician.
She really liked just living out in the country where
it’s quiet. Every time we’d leave home in
the van, she’d cry for about 8 hours cause she was homesick.
I couldn’t get mad at her about it, so I just tried to
support her. Now she loves it, loves singing, loves
the band we have now. We even have our new
baby on tour. I can’t wait to see America and Europe
again. Never get tired of it!
Josh Max is the lead singer and songwriter of Josh
Max’s Outfit, (www.joshmaxsoutfit.com)
and an automotive journalist for the NY Daily News.
He is also a contributor to Maxim, New York Press,
Performing Songwriter, and other publications.
©2000 Yeah Media. No part of this article may be reproduced
without the author’s permission.
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