JEFF the Brotherhood, a Nashville, two-piece, stoner-metal band, was founded by brothers Jake (singer/guitarist) and Jamin Orrall (drummer) in 2001. Their latest studio album, Zone, was released on Aug. 12. Jake Orrall spoke to LEO from his Nashville home before the start of their 20-stop international tour that begins in Lexington on Sept. 16, and hits Zanzabar in Louisville on Sept. 18.
LEO: The new album, Zone, is listed as a spiritual album. The press release says its the third in The Spiritual Trilogy, along with the albums Heavy Days (2009) and We Are The Champions (2011). It also mentions you enjoy disc golf and gardening. Jake Orrall: It says that on the press release?
It also mentions that you like riding bicycles, I think. Oh, yeah, my brother is a cyclist. He builds and repairs bicycles.
So is gardening, disc golf and riding bikes intertwined with the spirituality element? Not really. About it being a part of the Spiritual Trilogy these three albums come from the same place spiritually, whereas all the music we are making is very spiritual. There are different things we are channeling and drawing from and being influenced by, and this one shares much more with the other two albums than anything else we have ever done. We didnt even realize it, until we were in the studio recording it, that we were revisiting the same themes that we did on the other two albums. The last two records we made, Hypnotic Nights and Wasted On The Dream, we made for Warner Bros. The second one, Warner Bros. ended up not putting out they dropped us. But, when we were making those two albums, we were trying to take a crack at being a major label band and get songs on the radio, and just see if we could break through as a rock band in this musical climate, which of course we didnt [laughs] with the current musical climate being what it is.
You have mentioned previously that you signed to Warner Bros. to make really, really expensive records. Yeah, well, that, and we wanted to see if we could make a big rock record like how rock records were when we were growing up where a band would put out a huge rock record on a major label and go tour stadiums. Like, Smashing Pumpkins were touring stadiums! Can you believe that?
Even Zwan managed that back then. That would be fucking unheard of now. It just wouldnt happen. Even Kanye West came here to the stadium and couldnt sell half of it, which seems crazy. So, to think a band like Smashing Pumpkins, or even Zwan, could do it is crazy. So, with all the grunge fashion coming back, like three or four years ago, with everyone getting into wearing ripped jeans and flannel shirts, and copying that style, we thought the music would come back with it. And to some degree it did there are tons of bands sounding like My Bloody Valentine and stuff like that now. But not in a way where it became mainstream with that type of music on the radio. We thought it would happen but apparently it was wishful thinking.
Bully is kind of like that. So maybe theres hope. And the singer for Bully, Alicia Bognanno, is on your new album? Yeah, its always great working with her. We had her sing on one song from Wasted On The Dream also. Actually, she was supposed to sing on two songs, but I wont say which one because I dont want to get involved with politics. But, she doubled my vocals on a whole song but Warner Bros. mixed it out. They didnt like it. Unfortunately that album was mixed and mastered and pressed to vinyl before we even got dropped, which is upsetting to me because I fucking hate the master. The first 5,000 copies were printed before they dropped us.
But you had a pretty smart contract with Warner Bros. that allowed your label, Infinity Cat, to release those records? Yeah, the contract states we retained the rights to the album.
Thats a good deal. Yeah, well it took us over a year to negotiate the deal with Warner Bros. We werent just gonna sign any deal. We also kind of figured wed be dropped after the second album. Thats what we had planned on happening.
You foresaw that? Yeah, cmon: Did we think we would be the next Red Hot Chili Peppers? Major labels are just scrambling now to be a part of whatever they think will make money. So, if they are gonna throw money at you, take the money. I dont think Ive made any money off record sales ever, actually, and weve made 11 albums. Maybe three grand in 10 years. It just costs too much to manufacture them. CDs are cheap to make, but nobody wants them, and nobody wants to pay for downloads. Its a tough business to be in.
JEFF The Brotherhood Sunday, Sept. 18
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St.
zanzabarlouisville.com
$12-$15 | 9 p.m.
This article appears in September 14, 2016.
