Los Angeles quartet, The Jacks, are already the darlings of the local southern California rock scene. With the recent release of their self-titled debut album, that acclaim and popularity will undoubtedly spread far and wide throughout the United States and beyond.
The group, comprised of lead vocalist/guitarist Jonny Stanback, lead guitarist Tom Hunter, bassist Scott Stone and drummer Josh Roossin recently appeared on the NHL Awards show, which was seen by tens of millions of hockey fans around the world. The Jacks proved their mettle under pretty stressful circumstances and also solidified a burgeoning relationship between the band and the top pro hockey league on the planet.
Stanback said they have loved their partnership with the NHL and realize how big of a potential audience it creates for their music, considering how the league is in more than 30 major North American markets and has players from more than two dozen countries playing within it.
“We played the Winter Classic on Jan. 1 [in Notre Dame stadium in South Bend, Indiana] and they also used one of our songs for a Stanley Cup promo, so we have a good relationship with them. And, with our label EDGEOUT/UMG there’s a connection there and when they asked us to play the NHL Awards Show we were really excited to do it. I think the league was looking for a band that was still kind of gritty and rock and roll. And because we had already played the Winter Classic, the NHL knew what we were about. It was a really cool time at the awards show. We like hockey and Scott is a huge hockey fan. We’re all Kings fans. It’s a really cool sport,” he said.
“And doing things like this is one way to get some attention. It’s so hard to get the traditional plugs and publicity and there’s so many people who are fighting for space. Especially for a rock and roll band, it’s hard to rise above the noise. So, if you can do things like an awards show and play different things like that, especially when they’re televised, you can kind of prime the market in a bunch of different areas. If someone doesn’t hear you on Spotify, but they see you on an awards show, or vice versa, by the time they see the 10th thing that you’ve done, they say, ‘oh yeah, I recognize that band.’ And for shows like the NHL Awards, you get a big demographic spread. To be on a show that was internationally televised and was hosted by Keenan Thompson and had Alex Trebek and Jon Hamm on it – we were kind of shocked as to how big a production it was, and we’re so lucky to be able to play something like that with worldwide access.”
Stanback said the band was originally thinking of releasing a full album, but with the momentum they had gained since signing their record deal and getting all the promotional benefits of their NHL forays, it was decided to put something out into the public sphere sooner rather than later.
“It’s great to see the momentum has continued. We have had a lot of cool articles and our music video for the single Walk Away came out and it’s doing pretty well. It’s great to see people latch onto stuff that we have been working on for so long, because it’s been a hell of a process to get from the inception of the songs, to getting them recorded, mixed, mastered – everything that goes into it. We’re just happy to have it out and that people are liking it,” he said.
“Doing the EP was the call because we have a lot of music and have been sitting on a lot of music for a while. We actually are going to end up recording 10 songs in total and are about to go in and record our second five-song EP pretty soon. But we wanted to release the first five songs as quick as we could. It’s been a non-stop roller coaster since January trying to get the songs out there. The EP was the best call for more than getting just a single out there and getting enough for people to latch onto and doing it quickly enough where we can capitalize on all the attention we’ve been getting.
“So, honestly next month we’re probably going to get right back in the studio and record five more. I think we will probably release those first as a second EP and then repackage them together as a full album, once the second EP has kind of settled. That’s what we’re hoping to do, but you never know with the way the music industry and all the label stuff goes.”
For the first EP, The Jacks collaborated with industry veteran Matt Wallace, who handled production chores. His pedigree includes working with the likes of Faith No More, Maroon 5 and Blackberry Smoke, among many others. The record was mixed by another experienced professional, Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, Hozier).
“Working with Matt Wallace was the best possible thing. For working our first time out with a big producer like that, I can’t speak enough about how great an experience it was. I think he has so much experience and just knows when to push and when to let us do our thing, which is what the best producers do. What he did was he was focused on bringing the best out of the songs and bringing the best out of us as musicians. Some songs needed more work than others and some songs just needed little tweaks. He knew what was important and when to make those changes and really take the song and bring it to the next level,” said Stanback, adding that it was also a treat to record at the world-famous Sunset Sound Studios.
“The first time we toured the studio, there were all these gold and platinum records all over the walls, from all of our favourite bands. We recorded in Studio 2 and I think the Stones recorded in there. So many legends have been through that place, so we love it there.”
Part of the reason for that love and appreciation of the venerable recording facility’s heritage is the fact that the members of The Jacks derive a lot of their music inspiration from the straight-ahead rock stylings that were more prominent in the bygone days of the late 1960s and 1970s. In fact, as part of their promotional material there is an assertive quote attributed to Stanback that says, ‘We are not a rock band, we are a rock ‘n roll band.’
“It’s a claim that we all kind of agreed upon and it really resonated with all of us because we feel like today a lot of the music out there that is in the rock space, the rock sphere, a lot of it is kind of on the active rock side, where it’s heavier and more hard rock. Or then there’s the kind of rock that’s played on a lot of the pop leaning radio stations. We found there was this gap where we don’t fit in either of those, and we don’t want to fit into either of those,” he said.
“We take our inspiration from the bands that we loved from the 1960s and 1970s like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and then from bands like Oasis from the 1990s who were also inspired by those same bands. All of them have this kind of feel to their music and it was a laid back, casual, don’t care attitude, which is kind of missing from a lot of the rock music today. So that phrase rock ‘n roll really resonated with us because that’s pretty much how we would define our music and go on to differentiate it from some of the rock music that’s coming out today. There are so many sub-genres and we really wanted out music to be completely inclusive which, to us, is what the term rock ‘n roll is.”
Stanback, Hunter, Stone and Roossin have known each other, or at least of each other, since high school, with the first three coming together to form what would eventually become The Jacks while all were attending the University of Southern California (USC).
“Scott and Tom grew up together and have been friends since Kindergarten, so they lived pretty close to each other and have been playing in bands with each other since they were kids, playing their Grade 8 graduation and stuff like that. Our drummer Josh went to their high school, but they didn’t meet him at the time. He was a year younger and he played a lot of jazz band stuff. Then in college, Scott, Tom and I met at USC, and I was a year younger than them as well. Scott actually did sound for a little acoustic show that I did, kind of like an open mic thing. I had been writing songs as long as I can remember but it was always a private thing for me, but at that time I wanted to start performing these songs, so Scott ran sound. I met him, and he was really cool. He asked me to join his band that was playing a house party with Tom and another drummer,” Stanback said.
“It was really fun and afterwards we started talking and I told the guys that I had some songs and that I thought we could be an actual band. I showed them to Scott and Tom and we started writing together, and that’s how it began. We started playing small shows, as well as more parties, and learned a ton of covers so we could cut our teeth on the local bar scene. About two years ago, when we had been going for about eight months, our drummer left, and Scott and Tom called Josh through a mutual friend because they know of him from high school. He came in and it was the perfect fit. We have been writing, recording and playing a bunch since then.”
Many of the song ideas begin with Stanback and Hunter but the entire band ends up getting involved in the final composition.
“We will make a demo, a scratch track kind of thing, and we will bring it to the rest of the band and try to jam it out as a band. The important thing is to make sure that everybody is on board for it. We try to find songs that we are all really excited about, and that goes for lyrics too. As much as the guy who comes up with the original idea wants to latch onto those songs, we have seen that the best songs have come from all of us playing together and figuring out what sounds good for the whole band. There have been a lot of songs where we come in thinking it’s going to be a really good song, and then we play it together and it just doesn’t sound like we thought it would,” Stanback explained.
“And vice versa: sometimes there is one idea that doesn’t seem to be as strong, but then once everybody gets their hooks into it and we play it in the room together, it’s like ‘wow, there’s a really cool energy here.’ At the end of the day, when we record any song, we really try to make sure it passes that test before we start putting it in our live set or on record.
“For Walk Away, I wrote the preliminary part about a year ago, and then brought it to the rest of the band. We started playing it and figuring out certain things. Lyrically, its about being caught in the same old patterns of behaviour with someone, like a girl maybe. You’re really falling into that cycle of not being able to get out of doing the same thing that you know probably isn’t good for you. We liked the energy of the song, and the vibe that it gave off and we thought it really embodied what we wanted to be all about. We really wanted it to be the first single, and were excited when everybody else got on board and wanted to push it as the single, because we thought it was really representative of what we wanted to go for with this first EP.”
The Jacks have a number of shows throughout the summer but are planning a more comprehensive run in the fall when the next batch of songs are released.
“We’re trying to pretty much go around the whole country. We have played in Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis and up and down the west coast, but we haven’t been to the east coast yet, like New York. And I know it would be a great idea to come to Canada too. We’re working on that,” said Stanback.
For more information on The Jacks, the new EP and upcoming tour dates, visit www.thejacksbandla.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
