Interview With Straight Jacket Legends

Hey folks, as a lot of you know, I’ve had the privilege to work with the band, Straight Jacket Legends, on several occasions and with the brilliant news of their new album coming out very soon, I took the chance to get a little interview with them.

Straight Jacket Legends Interview (Photo Credit: Panglossian Digital)

How have you found the recording process?

Dan: We just put the studio postcode in-to the Sat-Nav and followed it, really.
Jake: Idiot. She means ‘have you, like… had a good recording time?’, right?
Dan: OH! It’s been quality time with the guys. We’ve really grown together as a ban…
Caine: Don’t you DARE finish that Nickelback ‘growing up’ shit. We watched you eat chilli while upside down on a sofa. We didn’t grow at all, Karen. If anything, we regressed. But recording the album has been brilliant and valued time away from the grind. We’re proud of these songs. Anything, Tommy?
Tommy: Yeah. My chair broke on day 1. Not happy.

Has recording this album differed much from recording your last EP?

Jake: Erm, not so much. We’re working with Rich at Ferlas Studio again. He knows us and what we want to sound like. He’s just as much a fan of the genre as we are so his input once more adds some shine.
Tommy: If it were not for him, Caine would never have had Espresso.
Dan: We’ve never lived in a house together while recording. Balancing the dishes at home with the workload of 12 hour days in the studio was new to us. We smell, but I found it a much more enjoyable experience than doing 1 song here, 2 songs the next month and so on.
Caine: We also have Alex with us. He’s a visionary. He made me wear a different coloured tshirt for every drum track so the sound was never 100% the same. He’s a weird puppy.
Dan: I had to share a bed with him. I’m going home slightly bi.

Has there been any special moments from recording that you would like to share?

Tommy: It’ll take a long time before I am willing to talk about that.
Jake: We had a film crew with us for a while. I made a chilli and did the dishes. All of that was new to me.
Dan: We have something for Christmas as a present for everyone. Don’t want to give too much away.
Caine: Like you did to Alex?
Dan: Shut up.
Caine: We were promised the worst storm ever. As we had a film crew, we sellotaped a skateboard to Alex’s feet and waited to open a bed-sheet parachute in 90mph winds. No storm. That was shitty weather reporting and a waste of perfectly good tape.

When is the album due for release?

Dan: Some time in May, we’ve got some stuff and an announcement coming up about all that.

Who has done the artwork?

Jake: Shit, we haven’t NAMED the album, let alone done a cover.
Caine: We didn’t want to rush anything, you know?

Which of the guest artists have you enjoyed working with the most?

Dan: Alex’s ‘Woo’ on the album is inspirational. Nobody does it like him.
Jake: It took him 5 takes and he was still out of time.
Tommy: I am stoked to hear how the song with Brendan from Wheatus comes out.
Caine: Sorry, I wasn’t listening. Just found a Milky Way wrapper.
Tommy: Wait, what?!

When are you touring for the new album?

Dan: We plan on touring as soon as Jake’s criminal record goes clean again. What was it you were arrested for again?!
Jake: Driving round with a deployed airbag…
Caine: This is who I work with.
Tommy: Seriously. Where did you get that Milky Way wrapper?
Caine: Alex’s jacket, why?
Tommy: That son of a bitch!

Straight Jacket Legends Interview 2 (Photo Credit: Panglossian Digital)

*At this point, Tommy flew off the wall and out the door screaming something inaudible. Whatever it was, I felt it was a good time to cut the interview short.

Big special thanks to Dan, Jake, Caine and Tommy for the interview and also to Alex for helping me out with it. If you would like to find out more about Straight Jacket Legends then check out their Twitter @SJLtw, like them on Facebook and check out their website www.straightjacketlegends.co.uk.

Photo Credit: Panglossian Digital

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