100 Monkeys Interview by 100 Monkeys Army

100 Monkeys Interview by 100 Monkeys Army

How did you come up with the title for “Liquid Zoo”?

Jackson: Liquid zoo has a couple of meanings actually. Its a commentary on the album to a certain degree. Its pulling and forming a structure and its the flowing of one instrument to another, it has the quality a zoo has. Its fun and you get to see all these different animals and different genres of music that we get to play. Also we recorded most of the album in a studio in California and the local bar there that we go ti is called the Liquid Zoo. So its kind of a neat thing, we would go there to kinda refreash ourselves after the night, grab a quick beer and they had these jam band nights and we would go up and jam on stage like our original days just jamming and kinda making stuff up, just playing with good people, so it seemed kind of appropriate.

Do you have a release date set for “Liquid Zoo”?

Jerad: We don’t officially have a release date yet, we have a window.

Ben G: We’re gonna be organizing it around our next tour dates, so once we bring all that together, we want to make sure to make to make the announcement to people when we have that locked down. Early spring around spring tour dates.

Do you have any pre-performance rituals?

Ben J: Making a set list. We make the set list about a half hour before we go on. We all sit down and we have to have everyone there, someone might have a good idea so we just kind of throw together ideas that we wanna try. We also think about the switches and about how we want the show to kind of flow. So that’s definitely what we always do.

Do you have any plans to release the soundtrack for “Girlfriend”?

Jerad: Yes we do. We are gonna release a soundtrack with some of the tracks that are in the movie and a couple of inspired by tracks by other artists like Jake Miller (The Kissing Club) and Tin Tin Can from our crew. We are planning on getting it put together in the next few months.

As some know, you’re involved in the Spencer Bell Legacy Concerts. How do you feel being involved in that has impacted research for Adrenal Cancer?

Jackson: Its definitely done some amazing things. They’ve actually come out with a new drug recently within the last year or so. Dr. Gary Hammer has been taking charge and really taken up the cause for the Spencer Bell Legacy Foundation. I think its really about two things: Its about raising awareness, which is what the 100 Monkey Effect can hopefully be helping with and its also about keeping the music of Spencer alive. Its one of those things when you put your heart and soul into music, its hard to believe its eternal, it will last forever. Its immortality. To have people all over the world listening to Spencer’s music is amazing, that’s just righteous.

You name Spencer Bell as one of your biggest influences, are there any new artists you have recently discovered who are influential too? – Stephanie

Ben G:We are certainly enjoying Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings album. Its ridiculously fantastic.

Jackson:if you haven’t heard of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, which we hadn’t until this tour, go pick up an album called “Naturally”. That was our introduction to them and -naturally- it should be yours too.

If you weren’t musicians, what else would you devote your time to? – Irina

Ben G: Writing.

Ben J: Writing or painting or something. There are other things I’m good at but this is what I’m supposed to do.

Ben G: Maybe make a bad horror movie from time to time.

Jackson: I can teach a class in posture (Jackson has a plant on his head at this point)

What is happening with Awesomesauce Radio? – El

Ben G:Its building. What we are doing right now is collecting music from different artists and we are building a library of independant music. Smaller bands and undiscovered bands, and we are using them in all the different projects we are working on. The whole idea is we are just looking for another way to bring other artists forward and into the spotlight because we are able to do that for them. So if you know anyone who is recording, send them our way. Awesomesauceradio@Gmail.com

Jackson:If your music is chicken wings, put some awesomesauce on them.

How do you choose if a song makes it into an album?

Ben G: When we make an album, we record more material than it fits. Then what we do and we take all the songs that we recorded after the mixing and remastering stage that we need to record and album and we sit down and listen to all the songs together. Its not just five or ten songs thrown together, its an hour long story. So if something doesn’t fit into that story we keep the song and we can re-record it for a different album. If it does fit the story, it makes the album. But we really focus heavily on making a record, not just a strange mix of songs.

Uncle Larry, we’ve heard about your musical history, do you feel like you’ve mentored the band or do you feel its a mutual education? – Camille

Uncle Larry: Music has a spirit that was born which lives in all of us. Every one of us has that spirit with us, all together. We just evolve with that spirit and it moves within ourselves. Its like love, you’re just no good unless you’re living it. The joy of music, that’s love. So its all mutual.

Source => 100 Monkeys Army / Via => Jackson Rathbone Online---Gossip Dance