Less Than Jake has been playing its high-energy, ridiculously tongue-in-cheek form of ska-punk for nearly two decades now. While many bands went under when third wave's heyday ended in the late '90s, Less Than Jake has thrived. (Actually, it's probably the only ska band to actually sign to a major label in the last decade, hopping from Capitol to Fat Wreck to Sire in the course of 10 years.)
The band released TV/EP, a collection of TV theme song covers, last year, and March will see the rerelease of its two Capitol releases, Losing Streak and Hello Rockview, on the band's own Sleep It Off Records. (The group plays The Granada this Saturday, February 12, with openers Off With Their Heads and the Supervillains.) Trombonist Pete "JR" Wasilewski spoke to The Pitch by phone from Woodbridge, Virginia, about the band's touring schedule, running your own label, and advice for touring bands just starting out.
How long have you been on tour?
Nineteen years. [He laughs.] Oh, you mean currently? I guess this would be a week now. We just did five shows in a row, and we have a day off, then we go do 12 in a row, then we have another day off, then there's more shows, then we go to Australia, then we go to Indonesia, then we go to Bali, then I get to go home for a minute and change my underwear, and then I'm certain there'll be something else we're going to do after that. And that makes life exciting, doesn't it? It's awesome.
Obviously, having been on tour for 19 years, you've either learned to enjoy it or gotten used to it. How would you describe it?
I love it. It's not getting used to it -- it's a labor of love, I suppose. I was given an opportunity that most people aren't given. I actually get to live my childhood fantasy. Daily. Obviously, there's parts of it they didn't tell you about. When you have that fantasy as a child, they didn't tell you about the loneliness, they didn't tell you about the bad decisions that you'll make, they didn't tell you about the bad food that you're gonna eat. But they also didn't tell you about the great food you're gonna eat, the great friends you're gonna make.
Look, it all kind of balances out. We're what we refer to as "lifers" in this thing, and there's not a lot of bands that can do this for as long as we have, and there's not a lot of bands that have done it for as long as we have. So that's why I just kind of count my blessings, enjoy it, and try not to bitch too much.
Less Than Jake is touring in support of the Sleep It Off rereleases of Losing Streak and Hello Rockview. You've been with the band 11 years but weren't with them when those albums were recorded. What's it like when people start discussing them?
I used to think about that a lot when I first joined the band. I never felt ownership, and it was weird. Then I thought, if you look back on the other horn players -- if you took at all the years they were in the band and combined them -- I'm still in this band longer than all of 'em. So I have some ownership to it, just in the fact that for the last 11 years, when they've come to see us play, they see me playing the songs. Did I write it? No, I didn't write it, but will I support the record like I did record on it? Fuck, yeah. I love those songs. I didn't have anything to do with the creation of those songs, but I have something to do with how they're continued to be portrayed to fans, old and new.
Less Than Jake has been on every level, as far as the label situation goes. What's it like doing everything yourselves?
It's a lot of work, but like I said, fucking labor of love. We have a really great manager, who works really hard for us. We all do what we need to do, when we need to do it. We're not a band of talkers; we're a band of doers.
There's a lot of bands that talk, and they just don't do. They're afraid -- for whatever reason -- to fail, to fuck up. They don't have the resources. Whatever. If you can figure out the thing, you can figure out a way to make it work. I'm lucky to have ended up in a group with four really intuitive gentlemen who know what they want to do. I think that kids don't have the forethought anymore. Instead of, "This is what I want, and this is how I'm going to do it," they go, "I'm gonna do this and -- can somebody do this for me?"
What advice would you give to new bands going out on tour?
The advice I'd give would be common courtesy, but it should really just be courtesy. If it were common courtesy, then everyone would know it, and they don't. Everybody's raised differently.
First thing I would say to bands: If you're having problems with each other, mind your personal space, and the persons next to you. Be respectful of other people's things. Don't touch other people's things, don't fuck with other people's things. But if other people's things are in your way, you have the complete right to say, "You're invading my personal space."
Other times, people in bands are such pussies -- I can't think of another word -- they're such pussies that when you say something to them, they take it like it's a fucking personal attack:
Dude, pick up your sneakers.
"What! I can't believe --"
Bro, just pick up your fucking sneakers. I'm not asking for a reason why they're laying in a fucking hallway. Just pick up your fucking sneakers.
It should be simple, but a lot of times, it's not, because people get so emotional. I guess now that we've gotten older, we don't care. We're not hurting each other. We don't hurt each other. It's just words. I know it's not a personal thing, and if it's got to be a personal thing, then that's one-on-one, and then you take care of business that way. If they stop being such pussies, then everything'll be better.
That's 99 percent of why all these bands fail: Because they're fucking pussies. Seriously. They can't take criticism. They think criticism is a personal attack. If you think that people being critical of you is a personal attack, then you definitely shouldn't be in a band. You're gonna fail, eventually, and somebody's going to tell you when you failed, and how you failed. If you can't take that, then you're in the wrong fucking racket, kid.
Let me put it this way: The difference between a mistake and a failure is that a mistake is something that you learn from. A failure? You never learn. You just keep doing the same fucking thing over and over again, shooting yourself in the foot. That's failure.
Everybody makes mistakes. Not everybody fails. Kids get those mixed up, where they think every mistake is a failure. You're only a failure if you don't learn from it.
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