WGTB's Brett Davis' Interview with the Honorary Title!
“The city’s summer smells like perfume…”
So there I was, driving down I-75 South when I started to get butterflies. It felt like the pre-race jitters I used to experience weekly at high school cross-country meets. This would be my first band interview, well, ever. My friend Matt and I drove across a bridge spanning the murky Ohio River into Kentucky. We pulled off at the first exit in Covington. I could feel myself sinking into debauchery as countless liquor stores and strip clubs seemed to appear out of nowhere. Mr. Smoker’s Tobacco and Liquor and Club Venus are two that caught my eye, but I was on a mission. Matt directed me to the Mad Hatter with the Google Map directions I printed off earlier. As a side note, the Mad Hatter is by far the best concert venue I’ve ever been to. In 2005 I saw the Twilight Army Tour (Keating, Portugal the Man, The Receiving End of Sirens, and Circa Survive) at the Mad Hatter and it was pure magic. It used to be a strip club and still retains it’s gaudy 80’s neon lights and opaque class tiling. The stage is small and intimate with no barriers between the band and the crowd. In my opinion the Mad Hatter is the perfect venue for an Indie concert; sorry you Hardcore people there’s just not enough room for moshing.
Anyway, The Honorary Title kicked off its summer headlining tour with The New Frontiers, Mansions, and Paper Rival on July 28th in Covington, Kentucky to support its sophomore album, Scream and Light Up The Sky. The album was released on Doghouse Records, a division of Warner Music Group on August 28th, 2007. The first time I listened to Scream and Light Up The Sky I was blown away. I had heard “Stuck at Sea” by itself long ago, but never thought about it again until a friend bought Scream and Light Up The Sky. It’s one of those rare albums that is extraordinary from start to finish. Every song is good, but the album as a whole is great. I haven’t felt so strongly for an album since Brand New released Deja Entendu in 2003. For all those Brand New people out there, you know what I mean. Needless to say, I was extremely excited for the opportunity to interview the band. When I arrived at the Mad Hatter, Jarrod Gorbel, lead singer and founding member of the band, met me outside with a bag of Lee’s Chicken in hand. We went inside to an area that must at one time been a dish station and started the interview…
Jarrod: Commence!
Brett: All right, so you’re from Brooklyn?
Jarrod: Originally from Long Island, but I’ve lived in Brooklyn for a long time now, so it’s kind of become…technically Brooklyn’s a part of Long Island. Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Manhattan, that whole area.
Brett: Okay. How has growing up in New York influenced your music, your lyrics and all that stuff?
Jarrod: Uh I don’t know if geography…um I guess geography a little bit has affected the song writing because you have… if I grew up on the West Coast, maybe in California, they don’t experience as much seasonal change. So I always feel with dramatic, sappy, emotional, bullshit songs that I write… they’re not bullshit, they’re serious. But you know like weather change definitely inspires a lot of that and having the seasons. You know what I mean? You know what I’m saying? Oh I reference the subway a lot. That’s kind of New York, Brooklyn. Definitely thought up a lot of things on the subway.
Brett: I read on your website that one of your songs is about relocating to the suburbs?
Jarrod: Yeah, that was about my family, but more about my parents before I was really there. Their story. Because they’re from the Bronx and Queens and they moved out to Long Island. So that’s what I was referring to.
Brett: Okay. Is there any meaning behind “The Honorary Title” or is it just a cool name for a band?
Jarrod: It’s not just a cool name. Haha. Not only is it just an amazing name…. no it’s an okay name. It’s an okay name and it was just a phrase from a song that I wrote years ago and put on some early demos. And it was… the line was like, “Guess my honorary title was stolen when left unguarded and in appreciation turn my head and was bombarded. Or something about losing the love of a girl, the championship belt of her vagina.
Brett: Haha
Jarrod: It’s more than vagina.
Brett: Okay.
Jarrod: It’s heart.
Brett: Do you have any crazy stories about being on tour? Obviously this is your first stop on this tour, but any horror stories or crazy things that happen?
Jarrod: (Sigh) Our tours are usually one giant horror, horror. I don’t know how to pronounce it. Everyone pronounces it different. Horrorchhhhhhkkk. Horrific experience. I like horrific, it’s easier for me to say. Umm yeah you know we’ve had band members leave in the middle of the night, waste and debauchery the all standard, vans breaking down, getting to the show last second, running with stuff, running directly from the parking lot to the stage, you know weird fan stalkers…haha.
Brett: Like me?
Jarrod: No haha. They’re usually scarier. No. I got no specific tremendous amazing stories. Definitely our whole experience is very spinal tap. Like everything that can go wrong, goes wrong typically.
Brett: Is there anything that you take on the road with you, any food items that you…?
Jarrod: (Holds up can of Skyline Chili)
Brett: Skyline Chili?
Jarrod: Skyline Chili. I suddenly meandered toward Skyline Chili. Haha umm I don’t ever bring food. You know a lot of vegan people and friends do because it’s hard but…..
Brett: Don’t let the vegans eat the Skyline.
Jarrod: Yeah. Oh god. They would suffer internal bleeding. Probably project vomit for three months straight. Eyeballs roll out of their heads. “Can I have some rice chips to dip in my chili?” haha. No umm I don’t bring food. Uh we bring like red bulls and moist towelettes. Red bull, moist towelettes and emergencies, those powdery things you put in drinks. Those are the only things because I’ve tried to bring food and the shit just ends up being forgotten. And caught under an amp in the trailer and sometime later there’s a smell and you think it’s a dead body, but it’s actually the food you dropped. You know what I mean? But fans always bring us cookies and stuff.
Brett: Alright now for some good questions. If I press shuffle on your iPod, if you have one, what three songs would come up first?
Jarrod: There’s so much shit on my iPod that when I hit shuffle I’m always like, “Who the hell is this?”. That’s how I rediscover or learn about stuff because you know you pick up… you whore around your iPod and you’re like, “I’ve never heard that, let me try that.” Next thing you know your iPod’s racked up so many points. You know what I mean? Your iPod’s got STDs from all over the world, basically. And then it crashes and then you know what…but uh iPods do tend to favor shit though. It’s weird right? I just got a new one. What does it favor? I haven’t even shuffled on it yet. It’s so new, such a new experience. You know we’re still in that initial stage where we’re cuddly and we haven’t shown the bad side to each other. Haven’t really given him the All-American Rejects yet. Something tasteful. But what do I have a lot of? Umm. It would probably play an Elliot Smith song and then an Endor, Bright Eyes song and then it would play GZA from the Wu Tang Clan. And then it would go to Sam Cook and then it might play…uh… a Motley Crue song. That covers the spectrum of what’s on my iPod.
Brett: Alright this next question kind of ties into this. Do you have a guilty pleasure song that you’d like to share with everyone?
Jarrod: I, yeah, I like all guilty pleasure shitty songs and I’m not afraid to admit it.
Brett: What about Brittney Spears’ “Toxic”?
Jarrod: Oh that’s a good one. Totally. I actually don’t usually like her stuff… haha like I’m supposed to. But that song is a good production, definitely. She has all top producers, you know. So yeah “Toxic” is cool. “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls, always liked that. Did I mention All-American Rejects? Oh wait here’s my guilty pleasure of the summer! That fucking band…they’re so All-American Rejecty. It’s “The Soundtrack to My Summer” is the name of the song (The actual song title is “Thunder”). Girls Vs. Boys, Girls Against…
Brett: Boys Like Girls?
Jarrod: Yes haha. It’s like a song you heard…it’s been done a million times, you know what I mean? It’s like Dashboard Confessional, but quadruple rate, you know what I mean? Because he’s actually the real deal, sort of. So it’s just like…but when I hear it I’m like, “Hmmm what’s that?” you know? I can’t resist it. It’s like…it’s like this chili. It probably tastes really good, but you feel like shit afterwards.
Brett: Haha.
Jarrod: It’s not like that. You don’t feel like shit after you hear the song, but you would probably get sick of that song really fast.
Brett: Gotcha. Alright…last question. What does the future hold for The Honorary Title?
Jarrod: Umm more of the same obvious shit: recording albums and touring. Umm I don’t even know. I really have no idea what’s in the future of The Honorary Title. I’ve been trying to figure that out myself. But as soon as I find out I’ll let you know.
Brett: All right thanks. You’re just gonna play it by ear?
Jarrod: Yeah. I don’t know. Things just happen. We’ll see.
Brett: Well thanks for talking with me.
Jarrod: No problem, thanks for having me.
No comments:
Post a Comment