Jed and the Microwave On the Making Of “Ahead of the Curve, Behind the Times”
What was the creative process like for this particular "Ahead of the Curve, Behind the Times?"
Giving up, trying again, giving up, trying again, holding on to it, giving up and releasing the thing. The song was basically done around August ‘22, but I find it too easy to be sucked into other creative wormholes. Eventually, I discovered I had the energy to put the song out there if I channeled the drunken burnout that had been stacking up since I was around 21. Feels pretty good that it’s freed from my hard-drive, it’s been collecting dust watching me start and abandon thirty-eight other musical projects and ideas in between shifts at work and finishing my degree.
Is there a particular message or theme you hope listeners take away from this single?
There may be a few, I think it's a pretty Meta song. AOTCBTB was a lot saltier sounding of a song when I first wrote it, mostly because I was stewing, staring at "song declined" emails from Submithub during the lockdown. I toned it back a bit in an attempt to make it a bit more reflective on my own inability to understand what other people listen to, but if I can sum up my main thought while writing it's this: Make what you make, and learn to love the filth again.
I have liked a lot of songs that have terrible production purely because the songs were that good, but it seems the attitude’s swapped now and that does affect the quality of the output in my personal opinion. Particularly since that now it’s expected that right from the get go you sound like a fully developed artist with a gazillion streams, pro photo shoots and bags of merch, it’s important to remember that not everyone can start like that and they do what they can with the budget they got. It’s great that home recording has become more professional and ubiquitous as otherwise I wouldn’t have had the chance to finish this tune!
But I think back to when bands like Dire Straits used to get radio plays from distorted four track cassette recordings, and I do think that we’ve raised the bar high enough that those who don’t have the money, time or their own production skill to have a top of the range master don’t have as much of a chance anymore, even if the songs are fantastic. So always take a chance on someone, the shoes will shine one day.
Oh also go to local gigs, we have to pack out the rooms so people don't have to charge as much for a ticket and we can keep the scene affordable and alive. Too many good bands on the circuits to let the scene die to corporation-created androids made in a boardroom. Keep on Pub Rockin'!
Were there any memorable or standout moments during the recording sessions for this single?
The whole session was the standout in my eyes, the smoothest any kind of recording I've been involved in has ever gone.
The bass, drums and rhythm guitar were laid down at Brighton Electric (thanks Gordy!) in September 2021, the day before I moved out west. I took a couple of my old Brighton friends there, Emilio (Who gigs loads in London with a couple of bands called Moist Crevice and Plague) and Dale Guyton (who's working on stuff behind the scenes, but asked me to shout out Harlow Rockschool which he runs and is definitely worth the donation). We stayed in a hotel above the seafront and couldn’t sleep the entire night because it was right above a club. In hindsight, it's clear why that hotel was so cheap!
We spent time getting Dale to double track the drum fills in the section after the guitar solo. I wanted to have that Easy Lover sound for that bit in particular, so then after it can just be soaked in gated reverb. That was a good hour of our lives, and it was absolutely worth it. Emilio basically played the guitar I had in my head? The tone and performance were absolute perfection. The same goes for Dale. Couldn't have asked for a better day of it and I love those guys and the work they do to bits!
Can you share a bit about your musical background and the journey that led you to where you are today?
Sure thing, I've played music basically my entire life as a way to help me get better at talking and listening (I've been diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder since I was a kid). In that time I picked up guitar and bass, tiny bit of drums, then made the mistake of wanting to do it as a career as a teen.
I’ve been playing in punk bands for years in Brighton and Bristol. These include RainMen, Red Terror, Disruptive Influence and The Brislingtonez. It’s been fun and I loved what we’ve made, but I was getting a songwriting itch the animalistic nature of punk on its own would not satisfy. To compensate, anything that I was writing that didn’t work with anything I had on went into Plain Microwave, which is what most of the back catalog of JATM is. It was named that easy because, as a non-binary person, I didn’t know whether to change my name or stick with Jed. Eventually we get to now, where I have a bit more of an idea of who I am. And I am Jed, I am non-binary.
The name Jed and the Microwave comes from a band name for an assessment I had in college (high school), where we named the band like that to annoy someone who was a bit full of themselves. The main change musically between the two related projects is that JATM aims to keep the chaotic spirit, but alter the arrangement in a way that things could be played. I recorded the PM EP Repeated Graffiti at my friend Andrew Cheeseman’s house, and got carpal tunnel playing all the bass lines because I wrote them to be stupidly complicated. “Ahead of the Curve, Behind the Times” tames it back down to a more technically accessible level, which is great for preparing other people to play the songs live, as well as myself; it means I can still play it after a crate of beer!
Now that I think the identity is a bit more set, it's time to bring in some new folk to get the ball rolling down the hill straight into musical heck. Ollie Pickett from Disruptive Influence is stepping in to do guitar bits and production work, Jenny Rascal Ramone from the Brislingtonez on synth, should be ready to hit the road on a mission from god this year!
Where do you find inspiration for your songs or musical ideas?
Musically I'm inspired by any old but gold record, to be honest. There’s definitely a difference in the school of songwriting prior to 2010, and that’s where most of my influences come from. I have a really boomer family, I was raised on the White Album and mostly stuck with Classic Rock, New Wave, Grunge, Pub Rock, Punk, the good stuff. My uncle was a session drummer in the 80s and he's got tales with everyone I listen to. It's actually frustrating, it's to the point where I was watching Dazed and Confused with him and my parents and he kept saying "oh yeah I did a gig with them" with whatever band came on the soundtrack. I love his tales and he's a great uncle, cheers Charlie!
Lyrically I try to keep it to things I know and understand fairly well; drinking, bad jobs, bad relationships, gay thoughts, unhinged political takes, the good stuff. I find it difficult to pinpoint actual influences, however. I want to say Beat literature and things like that, but it's probably more internet memes/culture and the voices that persist in my head cleaning the black mold off the walls. Been reading Ray Bradbury again recently, though. I find his whimsical setups and soul destroying twists brilliant and I'd like to use that in the future.
All this considered, I've found that going to gigs in Bristol has been a massive inspiration just for keeping the creative lights on. The Bristol scene is wide, it's varied, diverse, everyone's got their own angle and I've rarely seen an empty room in a west country venue. A few of my favourites are thrash punk kings Bozos, queens of the peg Hot Flab, saucy thanes of surf The Sinictones, the ominous hardcore stylings of Mutilated State and now my new power-pop idols the Lovesicks. I keep coming across new bands as well like Death is a Girl from Cheltenham, who have some great tunes. Even if I have slowed down on going to shows as life gets in the way, it's great being a part of such a lively community and I can't wait for the band side of JATM to get set up so we can join them and rock on. I want to list everyone but I'd be here all day, so I made a playlist that I got linked on the band's Spotify page of these bands and many more. Also f*ck Gurf.