Interview with The Jacks: ‘One of our next singles, ‘In My Head’, is about dealing with mental health and the feeling there’s no end in sight’

LA-based rock band The Jacks  are gearing up to release three new singles, starting next month, as part of a new strategy to release a new track around every six weeks.

The band is composed of Jonny Stanback (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Tom Hunter (lead guitar/vocals), Scott Stone (bass guitar/vocals), and Josh Roossin (drums/percussion). Hunter and Stone were childhood friends, Stanback joined the band after college, and Roossin became part of the band a year later.

Luckily for us, they had a very productive lockdown: ‘We wrote a ton of songs in May and June,’ said Stone. ‘The three leading candidates to release next are ‘In My Head’, ‘Do You Wonder’ and ‘Nightcrawler’. My personal favourite is ‘In My Head’, which has a similar vibe to ‘Who Are You’. It’s dealing with mental health and the feeling there’s no end in sight, when you want to be saved.’

‘It’s about a relationship that’s rocky all the time‘

Although Stone said that every song is different, Stanback or Hunter typically come up with the structure for a given song, although he also writes them. ‘Just A Little Bit’ was a song that Jonny and I started working on together around three years ago. Actually, it was one of the first ones we wrote together. It’s a song about a frustration in someone’s love life, about a relationship that’s rocky all the time.’ – ‘She cuts deeply, bleeding sweetly, I can’t feel it now, makes me feel alive, I can’t take it, drives me crazy, need her daily, you know I really do, well, I’m gonna lose my mind this time.’

All of their songs come from real experiences ’embellished for the song’, he said. Another powerful track is ‘Who Are You’, which is typically their opening song (‘Just A Little Bit’ is their closer). ‘It’s one of my favourite songs to play live. It’s also about mental health issues and that feeling that the walls are closing in. You ask yourself who is doing this to you and realise that you are doing it to yourself.’

As the song goes: ‘Well, I lost my way and Iʼm not coming back, you took my place and Iʼm thinking you locked me up in your cage, there comes a day when the sun will go black, then I will know that it was you, youʼre gonna hear when I say, Iʼm gonna take it back today.’

Last week, they repackaged some of their most popular tracks into two EPs, a rockier one, titled ‘I Don’t Mind’, which includes ‘Just A Little Bit’ and ‘Who Are You’ and a slightly less rocky EP, Remember You, which includes the tracks ‘Olivia’ and ‘Only One’.

Initially, The Jacks started out a couple of years ago playing four-hour cover shows in LA, or ‘building up our chops live’ as Stone put it, throwing in some of their own songs along the way. ‘This was before we were signed, so we were saving up money to record our first EP. (The Jacks, which came out in June last year). One night, at the end, a customer bought us a drink and told us we were the jacks of all trade because we could play any genre, and we kind of thought it could be a cool name for the band!’

‘It’s an emotional catharsis for me to play’

On their first EP, there is a deeply personal track about a friend of theirs, ‘Hello My Friend’, which Stone described as being about an intervention: ‘It wasn’t a full-on intervention but involved sitting down and trying to talk to a friend going through a rough time. You’re disappointed, too, in how you handle it. It brings up rough memories but fans seem to really enjoy it and it’s an emotional catharsis for me to play.’

In 2017, the band won the Los Angeles regionals of the KLOS-FM Next2Rock competition. The prize was a record contract, but the band turned it down, instead deciding to wait to sign with EDGEOUT Records in January 2019. ‘So we entered the competition and won the LA circuit but we didn’t know the record company and they didn’t know us,’ Stone said. ‘We didn’t know if we had the same vision. I don’t think we were ready for a record contract then because we still had more to discover about ourselves.’

The band lived together for a year in LA, which Stone described as ‘a lot of fun’. When touring kicks off again – they have a tour planned from LA to New York and back next March – they might rent a house together again.

‘Within LA, the rock ‘n’ roll community is very tight’

Stone has high praise for LA’s music scene, which he described as ‘very dymamic’: ‘I’m a big fan of The Shelters (a local rock band), they’re one of the first bands we were inspired by. Within LA, the rock ‘n’ roll community is very tight. There are so many new artists and a lot of talented people transplant to LA. It’s really nice to see other bands doing well.’

He’s also a big fan of LA rock band Arms Akimbo, who may support them on their tour next year, as well as indie rock bands Creature Canyon and Vista Kick.

The band has worked extensively with the National Hockey League, playing the league’s Winter Classic in January 2019, part of the Stanley Cup Playoff campaign at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas in July 2019. However, the highlight to date was playing at Ringo Starr’s Peace & Love birthday event in July last year. ‘It was through our record label,’ Stone explained. ‘They somehow had a connection there and we were luckily picked. Apparently, Ringo liked our music, which is pretty surreal because I live and breathe The Beatles! We got to meet him – he’s hilarious, so nice. He even made fun of me for being the bass player! When you’re a Beatle, everyone you meet knows who you are, so being able to stay that grounded, that’s amazing.’

If he could collaborate with anyone, he’d love to work with American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and multi-instrumentalist, Anderson Paak. ‘He’s an incredible artist. I’d also love to work with Bob Dylan – I would love to hear his voice, it’s perfect. If we wrote a song with him, it could be a really cool thing.’

However, when it comes to touring with someone, one band looms large at the top of his list: Oasis. ‘I’m not picking one of them over the other,’ he said, laughing. ‘I think that Noel is one of the greatest songwriters of all time, though. I’d love for them to get back together.’ When I tell him that this is extremely unlikely, he laughed: ‘Hey, anything’s possible, right? I’m not giving up hope yet!’