*At the time of publication, Jimmy and the Jimbos has officially shortened their band name to "Jimbo." The name change was not official at the time of our interview, so for the sake of editing, the interview refers to them by their former name.*
N: First of all, congrats on the EP release. You two are sort of the band leaders and founders of Jimmy and the Jimbos, how did you meet each other and how long have you been working on the songs on your EP?
AJ: I’d say me and Ryan met a long long time ago? That Calvary Kids group?
Ryan: Yeah.
AJ: We met then, but then we became friends a couple years ago in high school. We started hanging out and have been making music together since 2014.
N: So like three and a half years or so?
Ryan: Yeah, around that. It’s been awhile.
N: And the Jimbos EP is the first of that music you’ve released?
AJ: I’ve never released anything. Ryan has released an album before. I wrote the songs on this EP and a couple songs we play live together. We’re writing our debut album together for what’s coming after the EP coming out today.
N: So are some of the songs on the EP ones you wrote like way way back?
AJ: Yeah. On Bandcamp we say one song on the EP was a demo we did with my older brother in 2014, it’s an oldie.
N: I understand there were some last minute setbacks with the recording process for this EP and the tracks were just finished this week right?
AJ: We finished today actually.
N: Finished on release day, okay -- Can you talk a little bit about that and the rushed process and how you think that affected the sound, for better or worse and anything you learned from having to put something together that quick?
AJ: Definitely something I learned . . . I learned all of Ableton [a recording software]. My brother was helping us record, but he got caught up with work stuff while we were recording. Next time I’d say we’re going to give ourselves more time to do it and to work on it longer so we can have things finished before the day it’s actually supposed to come out.
Ryan: The tracks definitely could’ve been cleaned up a lot more, but I feel like we kind of thrive on chaos so . . .
AJ: Everything came out how I wanted it to sound
Ryan: Yeah--
AJ: If we put more time into it, I don’t know if it would necessarily sound better.
N: About the band name, Jimmy and the Jimbos, how did it come about?
AJ: There’s some lore behind that one.
Ryan: Deep lore. Do we really know how Jimbo originated?
AJ: Jimmy was the original word. It was just something you’d shout when you’re losing in a video game or someone’s about to die in a movie. I don’t remember, I think it’s from Godzilla or something?
Ryan: But then we started slowly using it instead of words like dude or bro. It’d be like, “What’s up, Jimmy?” or “What’s up, Jimbo?”
AJ: Jim was the final incarnation. It kind of devolved.
N: Is it maybe a Jimmy Neutron thing? The dad in that cartoon says Jimbo a lot.
Ryan: I don’t even know. I think it was from some Star Wars offshoot--
N: There’s no Jimmys in Star Wars, I do know that.
AJ: Jimmy Solo, don’t you remember Jimmy Solo?
Ryan: Pretty much in high school our whole friend group started calling each other Jimbo. It spread throughout the highschool and was kind of known our group was the Jimbos.
AJ: We met then, but then we became friends a couple years ago in high school. We started hanging out and have been making music together since 2014.
N: So like three and a half years or so?
Ryan: Yeah, around that. It’s been awhile.
N: And the Jimbos EP is the first of that music you’ve released?
AJ: I’ve never released anything. Ryan has released an album before. I wrote the songs on this EP and a couple songs we play live together. We’re writing our debut album together for what’s coming after the EP coming out today.
N: So are some of the songs on the EP ones you wrote like way way back?
AJ: Yeah. On Bandcamp we say one song on the EP was a demo we did with my older brother in 2014, it’s an oldie.
N: I understand there were some last minute setbacks with the recording process for this EP and the tracks were just finished this week right?
AJ: We finished today actually.
N: Finished on release day, okay -- Can you talk a little bit about that and the rushed process and how you think that affected the sound, for better or worse and anything you learned from having to put something together that quick?
AJ: Definitely something I learned . . . I learned all of Ableton [a recording software]. My brother was helping us record, but he got caught up with work stuff while we were recording. Next time I’d say we’re going to give ourselves more time to do it and to work on it longer so we can have things finished before the day it’s actually supposed to come out.
Ryan: The tracks definitely could’ve been cleaned up a lot more, but I feel like we kind of thrive on chaos so . . .
AJ: Everything came out how I wanted it to sound
Ryan: Yeah--
AJ: If we put more time into it, I don’t know if it would necessarily sound better.
N: About the band name, Jimmy and the Jimbos, how did it come about?
AJ: There’s some lore behind that one.
Ryan: Deep lore. Do we really know how Jimbo originated?
AJ: Jimmy was the original word. It was just something you’d shout when you’re losing in a video game or someone’s about to die in a movie. I don’t remember, I think it’s from Godzilla or something?
Ryan: But then we started slowly using it instead of words like dude or bro. It’d be like, “What’s up, Jimmy?” or “What’s up, Jimbo?”
AJ: Jim was the final incarnation. It kind of devolved.
N: Is it maybe a Jimmy Neutron thing? The dad in that cartoon says Jimbo a lot.
Ryan: I don’t even know. I think it was from some Star Wars offshoot--
N: There’s no Jimmys in Star Wars, I do know that.
AJ: Jimmy Solo, don’t you remember Jimmy Solo?
Ryan: Pretty much in high school our whole friend group started calling each other Jimbo. It spread throughout the highschool and was kind of known our group was the Jimbos.
 |
| The Jimbos at their Ep(ic) release night |
N: On your social media you seem to have crafted a persona and some lingo, calling all your fans “Jim” and “Jimbo” and making use of a stylized syntax. What inspired this sort of character you play online? What do you feel that brings to the table?
Ryan: We were striving for the cult following.
AJ: A cult following definitely. Also, personally I don’t think it’s weird when we say Jim and Jimmy. We have all this lingo that sounds completely normal to me because I’ve been using it for so many years, but some people want to question why we say like epic or jimmy or jimbo. Calling my friends those names is no big deal.
N: I guess people don’t always think to carry their social lingo over into creative projects. It’s a type of branding perhaps.
AJ + Ryan: Yeah.
N: I’ll just keep feeding you answers ha. So the album art and the general aesthetic choices of Jimmy and the Jimbos have a youthful over-the-top collage feel that reminds me a lot of Nickelodean TV visuals. Is that something you kind of draw from or am I totally off the mark?
Ryan: We strive to be as . . .
AJ: As goofy as possible. Not taking ourselves too seriously. We actually have a lot of Spongebob influence in the guitars. Do you know the band Ween?
N: I do not.
[AJ sings a few bars for me off Ween’s Ocean Man for me]
AJ: The guitars in Spongebob are kind of jangly I’d say. Those chord progressions inspired us a bit.
N: Were there guitars in Spongebob? I haven’t watched the show in a very long time.
AJ: Yes. Go binge that and listen to the music and see if you can pick out some relations between us and that. It might just be me. The tone is similar, I think.
N: Regardless of what anyone thinks of Jimmy and the Jimbos’ music, I think everyone can appreciate the fact that you’ve managed to assemble one of the largest local bands in the area including multiple guitarists, orchestral strings, and woodwind instruments. That’s something most bands don’t get to do until they get serious studio money behind them. How many people are in your band and how did you go about finding all these members that play auxiliary instruments?
AJ: We have ten . . .
Ryan: Normally ten people in the band. I kind of searched them out and asked around on social media. Our flute player was just a friend of our bass player [Bridgette]. The flute player was originally Bridgette’s ride to practice and I found out she played flute and we got her to join the band. It’s a lot of searching online and also happenstance.
AJ: Also the core members of the band are a close-knit group of friends. We kind of have expanded from there.
N: Do you find that your social circle just has a lot of people that grew up playing instruments and you lucked out in that regard?
Ryan: Yes and no. We even had some people like our synth player Ian. He learned how to play synth just so he could join the band.
AJ: And Bridgette learned bass just to join too.
N: Okay, that’s cool you’re giving people the opportunity to play music who maybe haven’t traditionally grown up playing.
AJ: I feel like almost everyone that grew up in a middle-class family had parents that forced them to play an instrument.
N: Yeah, I played trombone. I’m still waiting on my ska-punk band to form.
Ryan: No, just join our band.
N: I’m so bad, you don’t want to hear that ha. So Jimmy and the Jimbos and other Pensacola bands like Feed Lemon and Lights With Fire have forged this new social unit of sorts in Pensacola that has brought a lot of new musicians and also new fans into the nightlife economy here. Do you think there’s any one or two unifying factors that is bringing these people out to shows? Like obviously people enjoy going out on the weekend and seeing bands, but is there anything in your mind that has caused all these new people to latch onto local shows as one of their regular social outlets?
AJ: We do a ridiculous amount of pushing on Facebook and stuff.
Ryan: When you have ten people in your band and they share it a couple times . . . it’s like 40 shares.
N: Exponential returns. For every additional member you add to the Jimbos, you get like ten additional people in the audience at your show.
Ryan: Exactly.
AJ: We should add like ten more people.
N: That’s like a scam almost, i guess I should add some more members to my band if I want to get paid more ha. Is that a hard thing to do managing that many people?
AJ: Oh, it’s impossible. We don’t even manage it well!
Ryan: We were striving for the cult following.
AJ: A cult following definitely. Also, personally I don’t think it’s weird when we say Jim and Jimmy. We have all this lingo that sounds completely normal to me because I’ve been using it for so many years, but some people want to question why we say like epic or jimmy or jimbo. Calling my friends those names is no big deal.
N: I guess people don’t always think to carry their social lingo over into creative projects. It’s a type of branding perhaps.
AJ + Ryan: Yeah.
N: I’ll just keep feeding you answers ha. So the album art and the general aesthetic choices of Jimmy and the Jimbos have a youthful over-the-top collage feel that reminds me a lot of Nickelodean TV visuals. Is that something you kind of draw from or am I totally off the mark?
Ryan: We strive to be as . . .
AJ: As goofy as possible. Not taking ourselves too seriously. We actually have a lot of Spongebob influence in the guitars. Do you know the band Ween?
N: I do not.
[AJ sings a few bars for me off Ween’s Ocean Man for me]
AJ: The guitars in Spongebob are kind of jangly I’d say. Those chord progressions inspired us a bit.
N: Were there guitars in Spongebob? I haven’t watched the show in a very long time.
AJ: Yes. Go binge that and listen to the music and see if you can pick out some relations between us and that. It might just be me. The tone is similar, I think.
N: Regardless of what anyone thinks of Jimmy and the Jimbos’ music, I think everyone can appreciate the fact that you’ve managed to assemble one of the largest local bands in the area including multiple guitarists, orchestral strings, and woodwind instruments. That’s something most bands don’t get to do until they get serious studio money behind them. How many people are in your band and how did you go about finding all these members that play auxiliary instruments?
AJ: We have ten . . .
Ryan: Normally ten people in the band. I kind of searched them out and asked around on social media. Our flute player was just a friend of our bass player [Bridgette]. The flute player was originally Bridgette’s ride to practice and I found out she played flute and we got her to join the band. It’s a lot of searching online and also happenstance.
AJ: Also the core members of the band are a close-knit group of friends. We kind of have expanded from there.
N: Do you find that your social circle just has a lot of people that grew up playing instruments and you lucked out in that regard?
Ryan: Yes and no. We even had some people like our synth player Ian. He learned how to play synth just so he could join the band.
AJ: And Bridgette learned bass just to join too.
N: Okay, that’s cool you’re giving people the opportunity to play music who maybe haven’t traditionally grown up playing.
AJ: I feel like almost everyone that grew up in a middle-class family had parents that forced them to play an instrument.
N: Yeah, I played trombone. I’m still waiting on my ska-punk band to form.
Ryan: No, just join our band.
N: I’m so bad, you don’t want to hear that ha. So Jimmy and the Jimbos and other Pensacola bands like Feed Lemon and Lights With Fire have forged this new social unit of sorts in Pensacola that has brought a lot of new musicians and also new fans into the nightlife economy here. Do you think there’s any one or two unifying factors that is bringing these people out to shows? Like obviously people enjoy going out on the weekend and seeing bands, but is there anything in your mind that has caused all these new people to latch onto local shows as one of their regular social outlets?
AJ: We do a ridiculous amount of pushing on Facebook and stuff.
Ryan: When you have ten people in your band and they share it a couple times . . . it’s like 40 shares.
N: Exponential returns. For every additional member you add to the Jimbos, you get like ten additional people in the audience at your show.
Ryan: Exactly.
AJ: We should add like ten more people.
N: That’s like a scam almost, i guess I should add some more members to my band if I want to get paid more ha. Is that a hard thing to do managing that many people?
AJ: Oh, it’s impossible. We don’t even manage it well!
Ryan: Our practices don’t usually consist of everyone until the day of the show. We get together here and there to work on individual parts and bring it all together later.
N: Cool. any big plans for 2018?
Ryan: I think we’re just going somewhere out of town and lock ourselves in a hotel or a log cabin and just write a lot of music.
N: Is that actually what you’re going to do?
Ryan: That’s the plan.
N: Okay, I didn’t know if that was like some Bon Iver shitposting.
AJ: Ha, that’s us for sure.
Ryan: We’re looking to have our full-length album by 2018.
AJ: We’re working on the concepts right now. Oh, I thought of an answer to one of the earlier questions. You asked what we do with anything I learned from recording? I’d say we definitely worked out all the parts fast because before everyone kind of played whatever they wanted to play. When we went to record we figured out exact parts and tweaked things and refined it a lot.
N: Yeah, when you record you figure out this fun stuff you do on stage doesn’t always translate well to a recording that needs to flow. That’s a frustrating but interesting part about music. I wish we could figure out our parts before we had to go and record them, but for some reason it doesn’t work like that.
Ryan + AJ: Yeah, absolutely.
N: All right, cool. Well thanks for talking to me.
Ryan + AJ: Thank you.
You can stream download the band's debut EP here: https://jimmyandthejimbos.bandcamp.com/album/the-jimbo-ep-ic-demo-2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JIMBO-161700907734755/
N: Cool. any big plans for 2018?
Ryan: I think we’re just going somewhere out of town and lock ourselves in a hotel or a log cabin and just write a lot of music.
N: Is that actually what you’re going to do?
Ryan: That’s the plan.
N: Okay, I didn’t know if that was like some Bon Iver shitposting.
AJ: Ha, that’s us for sure.
Ryan: We’re looking to have our full-length album by 2018.
AJ: We’re working on the concepts right now. Oh, I thought of an answer to one of the earlier questions. You asked what we do with anything I learned from recording? I’d say we definitely worked out all the parts fast because before everyone kind of played whatever they wanted to play. When we went to record we figured out exact parts and tweaked things and refined it a lot.
N: Yeah, when you record you figure out this fun stuff you do on stage doesn’t always translate well to a recording that needs to flow. That’s a frustrating but interesting part about music. I wish we could figure out our parts before we had to go and record them, but for some reason it doesn’t work like that.
Ryan + AJ: Yeah, absolutely.
N: All right, cool. Well thanks for talking to me.
Ryan + AJ: Thank you.
You can stream download the band's debut EP here: https://jimmyandthejimbos.bandcamp.com/album/the-jimbo-ep-ic-demo-2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JIMBO-161700907734755/
