Through the years, Less Than Jake’s music has continuously matured and evolved. They’ve flirted with mainstream success, but more importantly remained steadfast in both their songwriting and live performances. Their commitment to integrity and an overall fan-friendly approach has made it easy for many listeners to remain loyal to LTJ for the duration of the band’s already lengthy career. On 2008’s GNV FLA, they’ve continued their proud and storied tradition, showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. This interview was conducted via telephone with drummer/lyricist Vinnie Fiorello.
Bill – After Less Than Jake parted ways with Warner Brothers, the band responded by founding its own record label, Sleep It Off Records. Shortly thereafter, you issued your latest full-length, GNV FLA. What were some of the factors that led to self-releasing the album as opposed to going with a larger independent label?
Vinnie – I’ll be honest with you. Less Than Jake, from inception outward, liked to do a lot of projects with different labels. We’re no stranger to just sort of going from label to label. Ending the relationship with Warner Brothers allowed us the right time to be able to self-release the record. I think that without getting too heady about what I think of the music industry, I think that each band should definitely be the captain of its career. I think that bands in the future will not only release their own records, but will handle all their own merchandise, self-manage and self-release. It was again a perfect time that we parted ways with Warner Brothers. That allowed us certain financial responsibilities that sort of opened up on our end. We could afford to self-finance the record and we went from there. It was the right time and a lot of the right pieces sort of combined together to allow us to do that.
Bill – What have been the most challenging and/or rewarding aspects of the do-it-yourself approach for GNV FLA?
Vinnie – The most challenging thing off the bat is exactly what we do. We’re in a band, releasing our own band’s material. I think that business decisions sometimes trip over into band politics. I think what allows us to release a record is also the thing that most hinders us in releasing a record, and that’s ourselves. Between long hours on tour and then long hours making a marketing plan, or a long day with press into a sound-check, into a show, into another eight-hour jaunt to the next city, and you have to worry about the artwork getting in on-time; it’s not easy. What again allows us to do these things as a band is also the biggest enemy, which is ourselves. The rewarding things are simple. It’s being in control of what we do, how we do it and how we get represented in the outside world. It’s a cool thing, man. Gone are the days of opening a magazine and someone else from another label is speaking for the band or making the band look a certain way. Gone are the conversations and the red tape from major corporations. The music business is called the “music business” because it’s of course a business and they want to make money. All decisions that are made from that end of it are decisions made for the money aspect. There are very few labels on the planet that let artists on their label be artists and have no worry about money. By self-releasing with Sleep It Off, it allows us the freedom to do exactly what we want. The only people we really have to pat on the back or complain about are ourselves. It really sort of blows your mind that sometimes bands spend a lot of time vilifying who they’re working with, because of lack of sales or lack of success. In this case there’s no one to vilify except for ourselves.
Bill – GNV FLA was recording at Atlas Studios in Chicago with Matt Allison. What specifically about his previous work made you choose him to produce the record?
Vinnie – I think he was a producer that not only was in a city that we love, but he was not on the West Coast or the East Coast. After being a band this long and doing the L.A. thing and being a part of the New York music business scene as well, it was refreshing to do it in Chicago. When we were doing it in Chicago it was definitely a feeling of independence. There are no stopovers from people, it was just us recording a record and I think that’s fantastic. I think that with Matt Allison, he’s done some great pop punk records that really fit with who we are.
Bill – Sonically speaking, what do like most about how the album turned out?
Vinnie – I love the horns, I love the vocals and I love the snare drum. When I listen to the record those are the things that sound great to me.
Bill – Why is the record named after the band’s hometown of Gainesville, Florida?
Vinnie – I used Gainesville, Florida, which is GNV FLA, as a microcosm to look at and explain the bigger picture of the rest of the world and its suburbs and small towns. I just kind of turned the microscope inward to the town where I live. I used that sort of microscope to examine small town problems, but personalizing it at the same time.
Bill – GNV FLA was hailed as a return to form by many of your fans. Certain songs definitely recall moments from previous LTJ records, especially Pezcore, Losing Streak and Borders and Boundaries. Was it a goal from the onset to capture the spirit of some of your earlier work or did it just happen naturally?
Vinnie – When we talked about writing the record we were explaining it to each other as we wanted it to be a Less Than Jake record, but with what Less Than Jake feels like in a live setting. Basically we were going for an over-amplification of what people think we already are. If that means sort of nodding back to our past then so be it, but I think more so if you say “Less Than Jake” it conjures up fast pop punk or metal-tinged pop punk, ska and horns and a buoyant melody to go along with buoyant horn lines. I think that what we wanted was to pick people’s observations of our band and sort of magnify what they already think about us. We wanted the fast parts faster and the horns to be very heavy in the mix. We wanted it to be a complete picture of who the band is.
Bill – By and large, your fans seem to have a difficult time agreeing on which LTJ album they think is best. In fact, it’s almost become one of their favorite pastimes to intensely debate this topic over and over again. Is there a particular record that you’re most passionate about or consider to be the band’s finest effort?
Vinnie – I don’t think that any record is necessarily the best one. I’m breaking it down to songs these days. I feel certain songs are great for certain reasons and I kind of go with that. Like when I look back, a song like “My Very Own Flag” stands the test of time, thematically as well as genre-specific. Even off the new record, a song like “Handshake Meets Pokerface” is lyrically poignant, but it hits these dark notes of what we started to do later during Anthem. We started to do sort of very minor-y, but fast pop punk with these very dark overtones. “Escape from the A-Bomb House” is an example of this. Then we moved to the latest record, with songs like “Abandon Ship” that really hit the mark for me. I think that at this point it really breaks down to individual songs, not records.
Bill – Less Than Jake has been a longtime proponent of vinyl and has released numerous rare and unique records. GNV FLA was released not only on LP format, but also as a deluxe box set that featured three seven-inch records. Having supported vinyl for many years before its recent explosion in popularity, do you think it can maintain its viability over time or is just a fad that’s destined to burnout in the not too distant future?
Vinnie – I think that with vinyl, it starts to become more about the actual art on the record and the actual ritual of playing music. I think as long as there are music lovers there’ll be vinyl records. I think that the vinyl resurgence is definitely a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that you can fit your whole music collection onto a piece of metal and glass. I think back to when I was younger and I would get together with friends and we would put on vinyl records and we would party. When it came time to flip the record over it was a whole different experience waiting on the other side. It was a ritual for us, man. It was a ritual for us to hang out and listen to music. We poured over lyric sheets and found bands from lyric sheets too. We hung record jackets on the walls and they became part of the ritual as well. I think as long as there are music lovers, not just casual listeners, the vinyl resurgence can sort of hold fast. For a while, people who were music lovers turned to the CD, because people said and were informed that it was a more advanced listening experience. The fact is that CDs aren’t really more advanced when it comes to the audio of it. I think that a good piece of vinyl, and music that’s mastered for vinyl specifically, can hold up to the CD sonically any day. I think music lovers finally took the blindfolds off and now have crept back into vinyl. Frankly, anyone can buy a CD, anyone can download an MP3, but it takes a true music snob to go into the record store these days and purchase a record or buy one online and wait for it to come to your house or apartment. I think that it makes the club a little bit more elite when you’re talking about vinyl records.
Bill – Tell me about the vinyl/digital-only record label you recently formed called Paper + Plastic.
Vinnie – With Paper + Plastic it’s me putting my money where my mouth is, because I definitely am a rattler and I get up on the soapbox about how I feel about CDs and the death toll that major labels are leaving behind with bands. For me, I think that Paper + Plastic is my outlet that’s outside of Less Than Jake, but continuing the work I’ve done with Less Than Jake over the last 16 years as far as vinyl, packaging and art-centric pieces. It’s just a chance for me to do similar stuff, but deal with bands that are younger and sometimes more established bands as well. I think it’s given me a chance to release great music and hopefully spearhead a new generation of younger kids. I think that I’m just trying to bring the visual aspect back into music, instead of it just being a faceless digital file. I do sell digital files, but I couple it with high-resolution art, videos, screensavers and wallpaper. If you download the file with Paper + Plastic you’re getting all those visual aspects, but the convenience of being able to play it immediately.
Bill – Your band got its start on Gainesville-based No Idea Records. They of course helped to launch the careers of other influential bands like Hot Water Music and Against Me! as well. How have both the town and label fostered such a vibrant scene for so long?
Vinnie – I think that it goes beyond No Idea. I love Var and No Idea, but Gainesville has always been a hotbed for music. It’s a college town in the south and I think that it’s not quite as southern as Georgia and it’s not quite as ritzy and modern as south Florida. Someone coming up to college from Miami, Ft. Lauderdale or Tampa, they’re getting out of the metropolitan city and into Gainesville. There’s a certain freedom to that, a certain freedom of creativity if you’re a musician that allows you to open up a little bit wider. I think the town just by location allows for creativity. That’s number one. Number two is all the tradition. Let’s go with Tom Petty or Sister Hazel or a ton of other bands that have come and gone out of Gainesville that haven’t been on No Idea. Along with No Idea, there’s a sense of community, musically speaking, in Gainesville. When we first got here there were three other labels, there were studios here, there was a vibrant music community at the Hardback Café. No Idea was definitely a good component of that when it comes to the punk rock end of it, but there were other places and other outlets too. There’s The Alligator, the college newspaper, which gave bands the ability to get reviews and get noticed in a vast format. This was before the internet or anything. The Alligator was sort of the driving force when they were doing reviews of local bands, and then you had the Hardback Café, which was the outlet. It was the place to go and even now you have places like 1982, The Kickstand and Common Grounds. They further the Gainesville music scene and keep on making it go. What is it about Gainesville? I think location first, but I also think it’s small enough, but has enough parts to it that bands can come out of here and actually get noticed, have an outlet to play shows and go beyond that.
Bill – You guys have spent the majority of your existence as a band on the road. What’s the hardest part about spending such an abundance of time away from home?
Vinnie – It’s leaving. Once you’re out on the road things are normal, things are business as usual. You’re playing shows, you’re meeting new people and you’re seeing old friends. I think that the hardest part is when you actually have to pack your suitcase and close the door behind you from your own house. When you do that you’re sort of admitting to yourself that you’re going back in the clubhouse. The privacy is gone and the comforts of home are gone. As soon as you hit the bus, the airplane or the club it becomes, “Oh yeah, I’m living amongst ten people and I’m sort of living my life in front of 1,000 to 2,000 people a night”. Once you’re sort of in that motion it’s really not hard. You’re out there having fun and playing music. I’m doing what I love with my best friends. The hardest part is when you’re packing that suitcase and you’re ready to leave the house. That’s the hardest part, because you know what’s ahead. I’ve been doing it long enough to where I can pretty much call it like clockwork what goes on. It’s just resolving yourself to the fact that you’re getting ready to jump back into the frying pan by closing that door and leaving your house.
Bill – What’s your single favorite memory of playing shows overseas?
Vinnie – That would be easy, it’s the Reading Festival the first time we played it. Actually, it’s the second time. The first time we played it was with the Warped Tour and it was in a tent. The first time we played it officially we were on the main stage. We were the fifth band of the day and when we stepped onstage it was 90,000 people. It was insane. It was exhilarating. It was the crowning moment of who are as a band. It was all that hard work and the struggle, all the labels and releases, friends gone and friends added and everything. Stepping on that stage that day, you can’t explain it. We played in front of 90,000 people. Only a small, select amount of people can ever say that. It felt better than a gold record. It felt better than hearing your song on the radio or seeing your face on TV. It felt better than all that, because you were there and you’re playing music and people were reacting. It was just great, it was electric. It was like lightning striking for 45 minutes. It was awesome.
Bill – Is there one band in particular that you’ve had the most fun touring with?
Vinnie – I’m probably going to have to say Frenzal Rhomb from Australia. That’s just because they’re good friends of ours and they’re just fun people. It could be us getting dressed up in suits and going gambling, or going to the thrift store, buying those suits and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Those guys always had a great sense of humor and our humor always matched theirs, so it’s definitely Frenzal Rhomb.
Bill – Less Than Jake has been together for over 15 years, weathered the rise and fall of the mid-90’s ska craze and twice survived the major label wringer. Without a doubt, you guys are one of the most resilient bands around. If seemingly nothing can stop LTJ but itself, what does the future hold?
Vinnie – Let’s see, we’re leaving for South America tomorrow and taking a month and a half off when we get back. Then we go to Europe for some festivals, fly directly to Warped Tour and then after that I think we’re going to sit down and start writing some new songs for a new record. Who knows what’s ahead, because I sure as shit don’t have a crystal ball to look at and tell me the future. I think that I’m lucky enough to be in a band with my best friends and travel the world and have a certain amount of success while doing it. Being in Less Than Jakes allows a certain amount of creativity to do things that I want to do. I think that after we finish touring over the summertime we’ll be able to write some new songs and sort of gear up for our next record and think about it that way.
