Jim Bob on his new album, Who Do We Hate Today
Following the release of last year’s acclaimed album, Pop Up Jim Bob, the former Carter USM frontman is back with a new LP, which lands later this week. Our editor, Bobby Townsend, asked him to tell us more about it:
Hi Jim. How have you been getting along during these weird times? How did you find the lockdowns, and have things started going back to any semblance of ‘normal’ for you yet?
Hello Bobby. I think it’s all been going on in one form or another for so long now that it doesn’t seem that weird anymore. Personally, I’m at the point now where I’ve found my own new normal. I imagine that’s what most people have done. Look after yourself and those closest to you in the best way you can. But don’t be too selfish. Wear a mask when you’re asked to. Make sure all your hugging is consensual. All the sort of stuff we should be doing anyway regardless of a global pandemic. I don’t understand how these things have become as polarising as Brexit was. I guess we just like taking sides.
Congratulations on the imminent release of your new album, Given that there were nearly seven years between your previous record and 2020’s amazing Pop Up Jim Bob album, I think many fans were a bit surprised when you announced that you’d be releasing an album this year. Was it always the plan to drop another record so soon and if not, how did it come about?
Thanks. It was definitely not planned. After Pop Up Jim Bob was released and when my constant self-promotion for it had died down, and without a tour to do, I sort of carried on where I’d left off. After I’d written another couple of half songs I thought I might as well go for a full album. The recording had to happen pretty quickly just because of the time it takes to get a vinyl record made these days. You have to book it a long time in advance and then make sure you deliver the finished recording for sending to the pressing people. Boring stuff. But anyway, I wrote the songs at the end of August/September, demoed them in October and November and went into the proper recording studio in January. I’m not saying that’s an amazing work rate but our neighbours started a loft conversion at the same time and it’s still not finished.
Does Who Do We Hate Today act as a companion piece to Pop Up Jim Bob, in terms of themes, subject matter, characters, etc?
There are themes that run through both records. Hate and violence, intolerance and masculine toxicity. All my usual favourite subjects. Giving names to people in songs I carried on as well. I found that helped me write lyrics with Pop Up. Creating characters to a certain extent, rather than all the songs being about me or sung from my point of view.
What else can you tell us about the new record?
It was quite hard to get everyone into the studio because of the various lockdown rules in place at the time. And certain things had to happen differently. Like Lindsey who played bass on Pop Up had been in New Zealand and unable to leave since shortly after we recorded Pop Up. So Jon Clayton played bass. Other people couldn’t – or didn’t want to – travel to the studio, so the planned violin parts for example ended up as synth parts, which changed the way the songs sounded. The lack of question mark in the album title is deliberate. The song ‘Who Do We Hate Today’ originally had a verse about Laurence Fox and Owen Jones. It sounds way too clunky and on the nose though, so I’m glad it’s not on the finished version. Also I realised that in spite of my obsession with people like Laurence Fox, a hell of a lot of other people have no idea who he is. Like Pop Up Jim Bob there is no acoustic guitar on the record even though all the songs were written on one.
When we spoke a few years ago, you mentioned how you had lost your musical mojo. What do you think it was that brought it back?
Initially, with Pop Up, it was playing with a proper and really amazing band again. That made me want to make a record with them. And also, the boring fact that I finally had a go on GarageBand. I hadn’t realised how fairly simple it was to use and how much I could do with it. It allowed to me to make some demos that sounded close to what I’d like a new Jim Bob album to sound like. All of that has carried on into the new album. Playing with different musicians (other than me) has also been great. Jen’s guitar playing is particularly amazing on the new album for example. She plays things I could never play, or even think of playing.
After the lockdowns and the restrictions of the past 18 months, you’re finally getting to hit the road later this year. Is playing in front of audiences again, and life on tour in general, something you are looking forward to?
I rehearsed with The Hoodrats last week. Just to see if we could play the new songs, altogether in the same room. The good news is we can. That’s made me keen to share the live versions with an audience. I might get anxious about being close to large groups of people again, but I was like that before COVID. In a way I also miss the touring aspects that don’t take place on a stage. Like eating crisps and service station sandwiches and finding out you’re booked into one of the few Travelodges with a bar. And it’s still open when you get to the hotel after the gig. Talking nonsense somewhere other than on WhatsApp. I’m looking forward to all of that.
With the release of your new LP and your nationwide tour, the rest of your year is looking pretty busy. Have you had, and will you have, any opportunity to work on any new books at all? If so, can you give any clues to what the next J B Morrison work might be?
I haven’t written anything literary at all since the last book. I imagine I will one day but the process of writing is just too daunting at the moment. If I’m honest, the fact that A Godawful Small Affair wasn’t a huge success depressed me a bit. It probably makes me shallow but I’m constantly in search of recognition for what I do. When I’ve created something I genuinely think is worthy of such recognition and it doesn’t come, it can make me bitter. I don’t want to be bitter.
What have you been watching/reading/listening to lately? Any tips? (I’m absolutely in love with Ted Lasso).
I enjoyed the first series of Ted Lasso too. Haven’t started the second one yet. Ghosts is back. I love Ghosts. Mare of Easttown was excellent. And so was Your Honor. Last year and this year I caught up on stuff I’d missed before, like The Tunnel, the British/French version of The Bridge, and The Knick, which I watched through my fingers a lot of the time. Moonbase 8 was really funny and The Good Lord Bird was great. That’s just stuff on Sky Atlantic I think. Don’t get me started on the amount of Netflix I’ve watched in the last year. I watch way too much telly.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Jim. What are you going to do now that we’ve finished this interview?
Quick ten minutes on the mini trampoline.
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You can pre-order Who Do We Hate Today, which comes out on August 20th, here.
Interview by Bobby Townsend.
