Formed in 1993, Jimmy Eat World released their eponymous debut album the following year, though it was with their third (and second for EMI/Capitol) record, ‘Clarity’, that they first made real critical and commercial headway. Moving to Universal/Polydor in 2001, they released ‘Bleed American’, which sold more than a million copies worldwide and earned them two UK top 40 singles.
The band’s seventh album, ‘Invented’, was released in September, and the band begin a UK tour this Saturday. We caught up with bassist Rick Burch to ask the Same Six.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I first started out making music when I was ten or eleven years old, by sneaking into my older brother’s bedroom without him knowing and borrowing his bass guitar. I liked making a racket on it because I thought he was cool, I liked music and making noise. He would always get mad and give me a hard time about his guitar being out of tune!
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Lyrically it comes from [frontman] Jim [Adkins]. He was inspired by a photographer called Cindy Sherman and her ‘Untitled Film Stills’ series. These are images that look like they come from movies, but you’re not told what is happening, so they are really open to interpretation. It’ll be a girl in a certain setting – on the street or in an apartment – and you can tell they’re in the middle of something, but it’s up to you to put together what she’s been through, to create a story around these images.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
There’s no one set process. But sometimes we’ll be jamming in our rehearsal space and we’ll have an initial idea, or something will happen, and that will build from a melody into a song. Or someone will come in with a strong melody already thought out, or one of us will have a song pretty much complete, and we’ll just fine tune it.
Q4 Which other artists influence your work?
I’ve been listening to Grizzly Bear a lot lately, but I’m not sure it influences me a great deal. There’s no one record or artist that has influenced this album. As more time goes by we’ve become more independent from outside influences.
Q5 What would you say to somebody experiencing to your music for the first time?
Approach it with an open mind, forget any preconceptions or anything that you may have heard about us, and just listen to it as music. I’d describe us as a four-piece rock band, drums, guitars, vocals, just rock n roll!
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and the future?
I hope that some people like this record as much as we do, and that we can meet them when they come to our shows. That’s about as much as I can hope for really!
MORE>> www.jimmyeatworld.com
Sections: Q&A J | Tags: Jimmy Eats World
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