Speakeasy with Jeffrey Gaines
by Danica Johnson Oct 5, 2005
Jeffrey Gaines is an East Coast singer/songwriter who has put out records on Chrysalis, Rykodisc and Artemis Records over the last decade. Here, Gaines discussed the solo acoustic life and why he hasn’t rocked since high school. www.jeffreygaines.com.
Q: When did the music start?
A: In junior high school, guys were starting to get guitars and go to concerts … the big rock stuff like Rush, Aerosmith, Van Halen. I started as slacker dude kind of thing and then I started performing and getting bands together, playing parties. I started off with rock, got into new wave and punk in high school in my late teens.
Q: How did that lead to the world of adult contemporary glory?
A: I got to see Billy Bragg open up for Echo and the Bunnymen and got into this band called the Church and started mellowing a bit. I started writing songs on acoustic. By the time 1990 came around everybody was done with the metal years, I was doing more acoustic solo shows and then got signed out of New York. You just find that you build an audience and you look back on the years and say, I’ve actually had a career at this.
Q: Will there ever be a full-on rock record?
A: I always consider it. I put a little hint of it on each record, but so oftentimes, based on budgetary reasons, I end up playing solo and it seems more suitable on acoustic. But, I would love to; it’s just about how people would receive it — that’s another thing. Once you have a brand, people go to it for that particular thing and they’d have to be on board. I’d need some assurances that my core audience would be on board and then bring some new folks over.
Q: So instead you live a life of artistic servitude?
A: Well, when the cover is $2 you don’t have any responsibility to deliver anything to anyone because people come in for beers; [you can be] up on stage doing some of the most obscure, abstract what-the-hell-kinds-of-songs and be so into it. There’s freedom in that — to just go on every whim you want to. Now, the press will describe it as “unfocused” or “no direction” and I don’t know what division is, and it’s like, wow, I had no idea I was making a film or something. It’s not a conceptual piece; it’s just tunes I wrote. I’ve done it before … did everything I wanted to do, but once you’re a product, the label is paying for it, man.
Q: You haven’t “rocked” since being a teen?
A: The only thing I did that was full-tilt was the song “Headmaster of Mine” with this killer trio out of Boston called the Neighborhoods. The rock stations just started putting it on and they were like, “We don’t know this guy, we may not even have a follow-up, but check this out.” They put it on the air, did a video for and it and I was like, “Guys, we gotta do this!” But I had borrowed this band that had been together for like 12 years and they were sick of each other, so no matter what was going to happen they were going to break up. They were like, “Man, we were breaking up before you came along; you were like the last thing that came up … you think we’re going to do another 12 years with you?” They all went back to college and finished their degrees and that was the last actual rocking badass thing I’ve ever done.
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