They didn’t intend for it to be this way. Yet with three consecutive major labels staking claim in the band’s last three records, Jimmy Eat World (JEW) is officially Hollywood’s music industry couch-surfing champions. A recent phone interview with drummer Zach Lind reveals the band is still very much in control of their own destiny and conscious of what is to come.

Despite the attention of labels and celebrity fans alike, JEW has always had a strong DIY ethic. It keeps them solidly grounded- from image, to personal lives, and most importantly, their music. What gives the band such drive and yet manages to keep their heads attached to their shoulders?
“Our driving force is just being real with ourselves and with what the music business is and what the music business can and can’t do for you. I think it’s simply keeping your best interest in mind and taking control of that. We learned through circumstance. We signed to a major label really early on and went through the typical story of another band signed, ignored, and dropped. But we learned not to sweat it. If a label isn’t going to give us what we need or what we want, we’re not going to just sit there and cry about it. We’re going to go out and get it on our own. It entails a lot of hard work. You’ve got to swallow your pride, sleep on some floors and tour in your van and you’ve got to be stoked to play in front of absolutely nobody. We’ve been humbled by that experience more times than we would’ve like to but in the end it’s allowed us to pick our battles over what we can control.”

New company, new couch.

The story of Jimmy Eat World: The band was formed, signed and dropped all within the first 24 months. Rather than invite supporters to the pity party, the band stayed true to the passion in their music, recording seven inch singles and split records with bands from around the world, ultimately arriving at Bleed American. Despite furthering the process, Lind notes that the band wasn’t necessarily looking for that all too rare second shot with the majors. “At the time, we felt that being dropped was one of the best things that could’ve happened to us. I guess it was kind of both in a way. When we were recording Bleed American, we weren’t necessarily looking for a second chance but it was just a continuation of what we had been doing. But once we had recorded it and we had people listening to it and labels starting showing interest in releasing it, it became that second chance for us.”

Perhaps the term second chance is a bit understated. At the end of the Bleed American sessions there stood a band with high-profile management and full ownership rights to a highly anticipated record, all without any financial promotion. At this point, you have to give some credit to the fans.
Despite the ever strengthening bargaining power, the band continued to communicate with their fans, regardless of what was going on in the music business around them. “That’s the way you need to view being in a rock band or being any kind of artist. No matter what happens to you in the commercial, capitalistic landscape, if you have fans that respect what you do, then you’ll always be in a good place. At the end of the day, if your fans are supportive of you and you honor that, I think you’re in a good place.”

Speaking of being in a good place, they eventually signed to an artist favorite and Bleed American was released by Dreamworks. Then, known widely for their passion instinctive practices and artist friendly approach, the label was figured to be a key pillar in the new face of recording companies. Unfortunately, they’ve since gone under, leaving JEW, AFI, Rise Against, Sparta, and a slew of other artists in the hands of Geffen and their subsidiaries.

Next company, next couch.

“Being with Interscope is sort of the same situation again but new at the same time. It’s just the way it goes in the music business. We’re willing to work with anyone that’s willing to take a chance to understand what we do and respects what we do. In that regard it doesn’t much matter. So far, Interscope’s been really good. We don’t have any complaints right now. They’ve proven that they can do a good job at what they do. But for us that remains to be seen.”

Despite their track record with labels, the JEW family is not a shifty bunch. They’ve had a nearly spotless lineup since their inception and generally one man behind the mixing board, Mark Trombino…until now. In changing times and lives the band has sought a change of pace with their music and recording experience, thus landing them on the doorstep of veteran producer Gil Norton. But as Lind says, there wasn’t anything wrong with long time friend and producer Trombino. Rather, the band was reaching out intentionally to arrive at something different with the next album, Futures.

“Mark was a one man show. He has the capability to record, mix and produce. With Gil, he can do those things but chooses just to focus on the production aspects which immediately brought more people into the room for this record. That was a really big change for us. Fundamentally, I think Gil and Mark have a similar approach in making records. Gil, just in experience, has been making albums for a really long time and that’s something we really benefited from. Gil, personality wise is a little more tenacious and puts a band to work and that’s something a lot of producers don’t do. Choosing Gil on this record wasn’t anything against Mark, he’s one of the best out there making records, but our friendship with Mark was coming to the point where it was a detraction rather than an addition to the process. We work really well with each other but this would have been our fourth album with Mark. There was just a sense that we needed a change of pace and landscape.”

Comfortable in their own skin

JEW has never strived to be the next Pink Floyd, they’ve left that up to their contemporaries including acts like the Mars Volta to reach into the air for atmospheric, cosmically, all-consuming music. But there’s been an unmistakable push with the new record to find a deeper and more intricate sound.

“We’ve done that kind of thing before like with Clarity. We really just spent a lot of time on this record to make it as good as we could make it. Gil was just good at telling us when too much was too much or when enough was enough. The band’s always been interested in how to make songs sound big or not even that but just have them built with the proper dynamic shifts and how you can set up a song dynamically to make it interesting and just compel people to listen to it.” And many people have listened, leaving fans and critics alike noting the latest is their most mature effort to date.

“We didn’t sit down and say “Okay, we want to make a more mature record.” we didn’t sit down and talk about the record we wanted to make. We work on the songs and let the songs shape the landscape and then we can tell from the songs we pick, what kind of record its going to be. We had like thirty songs floating around and we narrowed it down to these eleven because they were, what we felt, made the best album. It was a natural progression. We’re all at different places in our lives now. What happens in our songs is what happens in our daily lives. It definitely enters the creative process. I think we are older, we are more mature men. We’ve just been through a lot of things that just encourage you to grow. This album is just the most thought out, mature album that we’ve made. Right now as a band I think we’re more thought out and mature.”

As for how Lind would describe the process this time around? “Deliberate. This was an album that we knew a lot of people were waiting for. We knew it would be held up to Bleed American and our history. Just in knowing that we felt that the stakes were a little bit higher this time and that we wanted to live up to that. Not for the people that will be the eventual judges but in terms of satisfying ourselves. To know that people are waiting on the end result I think it makes you more deliberate, more likely to put your best foot forward. If someone doesn’t like the record, we’re okay with that because this is the best record that we could’ve done, at this point in our lives. That’s how we went about making this album. We left no stone unturned to make the songs as great as possible.”

That’s not to say that they didn’t give it their all on any of JEW’s previous records, but Futures shows an undeniable progression in thought process if nothing else, compared to the days of songs like “Lucky Denver Mint”. Even in the last record you can identify some of the same patterns improved upon or at least given a fresher approach. When asked about the differences he thinks the audience will notice between Bleed American and Futures, Lind says:

“There isn’t a huge, massive difference between the two records. The elements we do are all still there. With this album we had more time, resources and we stretched this as long as we could. I really feel that on this record, the tenacity and the effort level was higher than on any other record we’ve ever made. I think that when you listen to it, there’s more going on. It’s just a deeper musical album, there’s more to pay attention to. It can satisfy a listener on the casual level but if you listen closely you can hear that second and third focal point in any given song. It’s also more of a cohesive album. Where Bleed American was more just a collection of songs, I think that this album more embodies the songs sort of working together to just make a complete album.”