Gentleman Jesse is Jesse Smith. Formerly the bassist in the Atlanta punk rock band The Carbonas, Smith is now the frontman of Gentleman Jesse and His Men. His first album, "Introducing Gentleman Jesse" (2008), was a 1970s style power-pop romp that hit all the right spots. With a long history of music under his belt, Smith knows how to write catchy pop songs that are rich with hooks. The Daily had a chance to talk to Smith after he and his band opened for Those Darlins at T.T. the Bear's Place in Cambridge, Mass. last month.
Travis Petersen: So how did you get started with music?
Jesse Smith: S---, man. When I was a kid, I never liked sports [and] I was too old to sit around playing with swords so, I gotta do something else … And then I must have heard Metallica or something … So it was a different thing to play with. That was the next step, it was like, "Okay, it's like kind of sword, it's a guitar."
TP: How old were you when you started playing?
JS: I think I was 11 when I got my first guitar. There was nothing else to do, so I asked for a guitar for Christmas. [I got] some piece of s--- PBU guitar [by SX Guitars]. My parents were musicians, so there were always musical instruments around, but it was [the difference between] having a nylon string acoustic guitar and a piano around the house, and then having an electric guitar, you know? It was so much cooler. It was more attractive to learn to play. But I would sit around and be like: "I'm going to learn guitar." So I'll go fiddle around trying to learn [Metallica's] "Enter Sandman" on my dad's acoustic guitar.
TP: So that didn't turn out too well, huh?
JS: Well I had no idea what I was doing, first of all. It was like, "These notes are close." So, my dad was a drummer when he was growing up. My older brother's best friend was selling a drum set so my dad was like, "Sold!" So we had a drum set around and we would bang around on that all the time. That's how I got into it.
TP: How did Gentleman Jesse come about? You were playing with The Carbonas, right?
JS: Yeah, my old band was The Carbonas. It was the kind of the thing where I always wanted to write pop songs but had never really tried before. And there was definitely a learning curve. The early stuff was not by any means good. I wanted to do something less aggressive. It's a grass-is-always-greener kind of thing. When you're playing s----y punk rock, it's like, "I should do something a little bit less aggressive" … We played a Carbonas song tonight, the last song, and it feels really good. [Laughs] But [I was] just trying to do something else. I was playing bass in The Carbonas and previously to that, I had always been a frontman. I [wanted] to play my stuff and be a frontman again.
TP: Yeah, I was curious about that. I was listening to some Carbonas and I thought, "Wow, these guys are completely different than what Gentleman Jesse is playing." There's a big jump there.
JS: Maybe I'm delusional, but not really, though. We still have the tempo — it's still fast. It's just clean guitars — [that's] the most important thing to me. I never really liked '60s pop. Having clean guitars, to me, that's the element that's the most important.
TP: Who would you say are your big influences?
JS: It's weird. It started off being these really obscure bands from the late '70s, stuff from all over Europe, from really hard-to-find bands that only put out one single. As the band goes on, it seems the two main acts are Bruce Springsteen and The Beatles. It's weird coming from a really broad soundscape that's really obscure, to two of the biggest musical groups of all time, to use as guidance.
TP: So where are you going with Gentleman Jesse? I heard you play some new stuff tonight.
JS: Yeah, we've just finished recording 20 or so songs. We're on tour for three months, so we have to finish mixing the LP and putting singles out before the release. So that's the game play for that.
TP: When are you looking to put [the LP] out?
JS: Probably early 2011, but we're on tour for three months. We've got some things to do, but it's recorded.
TP: What's your take on a move to wholly digital music, where a lot of people will only buy one song rather than a whole album?
JS: That's fine, it's motivation for people to put out better records. How many records have just one good song on them? F--- those bands. If you only write one good song, don't even put out an LP. Me, I'm a record collector. I'm a die-hard vinyl guy. The only thing I see [that's] good [about] digital is that it's portable. I have an iPod with 5,000 records on it. It's awesome. Then I have 5,000 records at my house. Real records. It's the best of both worlds. I think there is an element of the album that's missing when it's not this big thing you need to invest time into. To have to flip it over. For people to sit there and flip songs around, they're not doing any work. Someone worked hard to f------ make that; you should f------ work hard to listen to it.
TP: Do you ever have bursts of inspiration for your songs — where you're in the recording studio and you just jam and it comes together?
JS: Oh no, we never jam. I don't know. It's one of those things where I'll hear a song or I'll be driving somewhere or just doing some generic everyday stuff. I'll just come up with a line and that's where the inspiration comes from. I'll usually write it down. When I get the actual line, I'll come up with a melody in my head. Then if I come up with a melody, I can remember it by saying the words. That's usually how it happens. It's real simple. Then you just fill in the blanks. I definitely have the format of verse, chorus, verse, bridge, guitar solo, chorus two times. That's the formula. Tried-and-true.
TP: What are you currently listening to?
JS: Modern bands? The White Wires, from Canada. The bands we're on tour with are great: The Strange Boys and Those Darlins. I just listen to [The Strange Boys, "Be Brave"] in the van — you'll love them. That says something, [that] I'm on tour for them with a month and I still listen to them in the van. We listen to comedy. Louis C.K., Mitch Hedberg is god. The White Wires and comedy. Oh, Creedence Clearwater Revival and this Irish band, Protex.
TP: How's being the front man of Gentleman Jesse, compared to [being] the bassist of The Carbonas? Do you feel like you can make your own sound with [Gentleman Jesse] more?
JS: It's like being the conductor. The musicians are good. I show them the song, they come up with their stuff. Then it's like, "Okay, this is the vibe I was going for." Now, we've been playing long enough that they know what I want — I don't really have to tell them anymore. It's definitely more [my sound] when it's a band [in which] everybody knows that I'm in control. [With] Gentleman Jesse, I did it so that I'm in charge of everything. It's a lot of work that way, but it's satisfying to have an idea and [to] have guys that are capable of making it come together.
TP: Any final thoughts?
JS: I never know what to say at the comments [and] last words part. [Laughs] Stay weird.
