Upon first listening to Jack Holiday and the Westerners, I expected one of two things: the roots music of the WFPK-ilk or straight Nudie Suit country music. I love a good Nudie Suit, but I got neither. Speaking with bandleader Scott Whitehouse, we discussed the band’s evolution, plans and his love of slam poetics.

LEO: I got to listen to the music on the website; I was very impressed.
Scott Whitehouse: It was a little bit older of an EP. We were working on the album and then Production Simple picked up our pitch for a 22-piece cover of Queen’s “A Night at the Opera” straight through. We said we gotta finish three tracks, put it out and commit to this.

LEO: I read on your website that you are a fan of slam poetry.
SW: Back when I was in high school, I was really big into poetry recitation and that kind of started to develop the values that I like in poetry, which are strong rhythmic values. It gives you the ability to emphasize specific words strictly on meter. I guess I was 17 and my friend told me there was this big slam poetry contest in California so we took a cross-country trip to move him. I decided that I was going to spend this week on this trip writing the most epic slam poem. It ended up not going so well. He lied to me. There was no contest.

LEO: Listening to the music, I hear a lot of Detroit rock influences like MC5. Tell me about your influences.
SW: If you were to ask any member of our group, none of us really listens to the same music. I’m a very big Modest Mouse fan. I take a lot of vocals from Modest Mouse and The Stooges. When I was in high school, I loved Neutral Milk Hotel. The hybrid became this very carefree live rock and roll show.

LEO: When did you decide that this was the band that you wanted to start?
SW: When I was 17, I started writing a rock opera. I really like a band called the Proto-Men — they only write rock operas. I really loved this concept of the medium of music being a story.  But I felt like a multimedia facet was
better.

Upon first listening to Jack Holiday and the Westerners, I expected one of two things: the roots music of the WFPK-ilk or straight Nudie Suit country music. I love a good Nudie Suit, but I got neither. Speaking with bandleader Scott Whitehouse, we discussed the band’s evolution, plans and his love of slam poetics.

LEO: I got to listen to the music on the website; I was very impressed.
Scott Whitehouse: It was a little bit older of an EP. We were working on the album and then Production Simple picked up our pitch for a 22-piece cover of Queen’s “A Night at the Opera” straight through. We said we gotta finish three tracks, put it out and commit to this.

LEO: I read on your website that you are a fan of slam poetry.
SW: Back when I was in high school, I was really big into poetry recitation and that kind of started to develop the values that I like in poetry, which are strong rhythmic values. It gives you the ability to emphasize specific words strictly on meter. I guess I was 17 and my friend told me there was this big slam poetry contest in California so we took a cross-country trip to move him. I decided that I was going to spend this week on this trip writing the most epic slam poem. It ended up not going so well. He lied to me. There was no contest.

LEO: Listening to the music, I hear a lot of Detroit rock influences like MC5. Tell me about your influences.
SW: If you were to ask any member of our group, none of us really listens to the same music. I’m a very big Modest Mouse fan. I take a lot of vocals from Modest Mouse and The Stooges. When I was in high school, I loved Neutral Milk Hotel. The hybrid became this very carefree live rock and roll show.

LEO: When did you decide that this was the band that you wanted to start?
SW: When I was 17, I started writing a rock opera. I really like a band called the Proto-Men — they only write rock operas. I really loved this concept of the medium of music being a story.  But I felt like a multimedia facet was better.