When you’ve been a band for as long as Jimmy Eat World have – that’s 23 years and counting, by the way – you tend to spend an equal amount of time looking forward as you do looking back.
Consider, for instance, the duality of touring extensively in support of their eighth album, Damage, followed immediately by an anniversary tour celebrating a decade since the release of 2004’s Futures. Even as they approach the release of album number nine, Integrity Blues, it comes in the same year the American rockers celebrate the 20-year anniversary of their seminal Static Prevails LP, as well as the 15-year anniversary of their breakthrough album Bleed American. The band has, to borrow a phrase from Sir Paul McCartney, an ever-present past. With this in mind, how exactly do Jimmy Eat World navigate satiating these memories while also making fresh ones?
“It’s nice to sit in nostalgia for a minute, but there’s always a greater task at hand,” says Jim Adkins, the band’s singer, guitarist, lyricist and one of its three founding members. “In doing those types of shows, we look at it from the perspective of us as music fans – if you hadn’t heard of us back then when we were touring those records for the first time, you might not have seen us play those songs before. I look at it as a chance for those fans to finally get to experience what those songs are like live, but I also see it as a challenge to us as a band to see how we play those songs, taking into consideration what we know now as musicians and performers. It often ends up sounding even better than it did when we were first playing it.”
As far as Adkins and co. are concerned, the greater task right now is Integrity Blues. The album was recorded at sessions through 2015 into 2016, with producer and musician Justin Meldal-Johnsen – whose credits include Beck, Nine Inch Nails and Paramore – behind the boards. Adkins explains that the songs were pieced together in the years following Damage, with some parts of the record serving as an endgame for ideas that had been floating around for an age.
“For us, songs can come from anywhere – we could be in rehearsals, and one of us might stumble upon a new idea or a new musical part, and another might say, ‘What was that? Do it again!’ Other times, I could be lying awake at 4am with a melody or a lyric in my head, and I’ll have to grab my phone and just record a voice memo or something to document it.
“As far as Integrity Blues is concerned, the music was written across all kinds of scenarios just like those. ‘Through’ came together about a week before we were supposed to head into the studio. ‘Sure And Certain’ was sitting around as a riff idea for a few years before it ended up being put to use with some lyrics I was writing. You never clock out of this gig, man. You’re always sorting through scraps and ideas, hoping to make something meaningful.”
Jimmy Eat World began in 1993, when the band members – Adkins, guitarist Tom Linton, drummer Zach Lind and bassist Mitch Porter (replaced by Rick Burch in 1995) – were still teenagers in high school. In the two decades and change that have followed, the foursome have more or less grown up in front of their fans – many of whom were going through the exact same things.
“Our band really is a document of us growing up,” says Adkins. “It goes through all the same things that you go through when you’re 18, 19, 25, 30… your perspective changes drastically, your world changes drastically. I’m definitely not the same person now that I was when Damage came out, and the person that I was then was different to who I was when [2010’s] Invented came out. At the root of it all, the common thread is you. For whatever reason, the way that you process experiences and the way your perspective is informed is going to change over time.”
With the release of Integrity Blues looming, Jimmy Eat World are soon to be back on the road. At a time when such a matter could feel routine and boring, Adkins points out that it’s all a matter of perspective.
“In the early days, we were travelling around and seeing places we’d never seen before,” he says. “Everything that was happening almost felt like we were getting away with something – it’s like, ‘I can’t believe we’re in Chicago! And we’re about to play music!’ The idea of discovery really seemed like a big part of the early days of Jimmy Eat World – particularly in terms of the material we were putting out. Approaching things for the first time, being in wonder of everything… it’s kind of inspiring when you’re feeling jaded about life.
“In a weird way, I feel like it’s gotten back to that. We’ve been doing this for so long, it’s easier and easier to appreciate any little thing that is going our way or ending up in our favour. I have my mind blown every day by the experience that we get.”
Jimmy Eat World‘sIntegrity Blues is out Friday October 21.
