Jared Swilley - The Blacks Lips Interview
Are you originally from ATL? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the bass? Was this something that was relevant growing up in your household?
I was born in Atlanta and grew up there. My childhood was really nice and fun. Pretty all American, treehouse building, and playing baseball, although as I approached my teenage years I caused a lot of trouble. My Father is a preacher, and so was my grandfather, great grandfather, uncles, cousins. Pretty much everyone but me, so I was in church a lot. It was a Pentecostal full gospel kind of church, so everyone went really wild, and when I was a kid the music was really cool. It was a big influence on me. I love gospel music, but also the energy I would see at church. It was outta control, people having seizures and speaking in tongues. I've yet to see that kind of energy at a rock and roll show. The only reason I picked bass was because I knew I didn't want to lug around a drum set, and bass seemed a lot easier than guitar.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert? When did you realize you wanted to spend your time pursuing music and art?
I guess I covered a bit of that in the previous question. in elementary school it was building treehouses, shooting each other with our Red Ryder bb guns, riding bikes as far from home as we could go, swimming in the creek, and stuff like that. From middle school I started skateboarding and getting more into petty vandalism, and sneaking out at night to smoke marijuana. That all led to getting into punk rock through the older kids that skateboarded. Those older kids gave us cool mixtapes with bands like the germs and black flag, and that kinda flipped the switch in me. I guess the first bands I really got into were those two, The Ramones, Misfits, and stuff like that. But then around 9th grade we heard The Stooges and Link Wray, and I would say that a combination of those two is what really got us wanting to be in a band. From there I sorta leaned towards more 50's, and 60's punk stuff. The Cramps was a big deal for me. I can't remember where I saw my first concert, but after I heard these bands I was sure that school wasn't for me, and I was gonna be a rock and roller for the rest of my life.
When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you? Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to The Black Lips? What initially led to the band forming in ‘99 and how did you meet your bandmates? What were your first impressions of them and what was the initial chemistry like between everyone?
Our first gig was with a band called the Renegades. It was me and Cole’s first band, and the show was in our drummer, Bradley’s basement. It was called the Hellhole. It was a halloween party and we invited all the kids from school. I was a freshman in high school. We didn't tell Bradley’s mom, so she was pretty pissed when a couple hundred kids showed up. I think we only played 3, or 4 songs, then Bradley’s mom punched Cole in the face because he started peeing while he was singing. Everybody ran. It was awesome. We all met because I guess we were the weirder kids at school, and had shared interests in art, music, and juvenile delinquency. It was really fun, and we all liked each other a lot, I guess that's the reason we're still together 24 years later.
Eventually we kind of morphed into The Black Lips. We'd all gotten kicked out of school, so we just started touring. We worked at this diner, so we'd tour for a month, then come home to work at the diner and save money to go on tour again. we did that for a few years. We self released a 7 inch, and sent it to every label we liked, but BOMP was the only label that got back to us. Greg Shaw said he wanted to do our record, and we were stoked. We recorded it with Rob Del Bueno from Man, or Astroman and the Subsonics. We didn't know what we were doing at all. We didn't really know how to play that well. We were very naive. I got into a really bad bike wreck during the recording, and was taken to jail. Nobody could find me for a few days, and when I finally got out I wasn't able to really sing anything because of my severe facial injuries. We didn't really have a vision, we were just so happy to be making a record for our favorite label.
I would like to jump ahead to the band’s ‘07 release of “GBNE”. How did you guys approach this material with having a couple of records under your belt by this time? This was the band’s second album on Vice Records, how did that all come about? Would you mind walking me through songs such as “It Feels Alright”, “Cold Hands”, “Bad Kids” and “I Saw A Ghost (Lean)”?
By the time GBNE came out we were kind of seasoned veterans. We kind of knew what we were doing. Vice approached us after a gig we played at a polish restaurant in Brooklyn. We used to drive from Atlanta to New York about once a month to play a bunch of DIY shows, then drive back home. Vice took notice, and asked us to make some records for them. They actually flew us to Norway for a show they were doing, and we signed with them on that trip. I can only tell you about Cold Hands and Bad Kids because I wrote those, not the other two. I didn't put a lot of thought into writing songs back then. I wrote Cold Hands in about 5 minutes on my friends couch, and Bad Kids is pretty much an autobiographical song about my childhood, and my friends. I was surprised so many people liked it.
The band would go on to release a number of albums and singles after this including titles such as “Arabia Mountain”, “SG or GA”, 2022’s “Apocalypse Love”. Can you tell me about this album and how you guys have changed over the years with each release/line-up, etc.? What was the approach to this release? This was the band’s formal release on Fire Records, correct?
I guess we changed over the years just by gaining more experience. We also started working with producers starting with Arabia Mountain. Mark Ronson did that one, Patrick Carney did Underneath The Rainbow, Sean Lennon did SG or GA, and Saul Adamcewski did Apocalypse Love. Each producer definitely leaves their imprint on it, and they all have different ways of working. I enjoyed working with all of them immensely. We also had some lineup changes. Joe and Ian left amicably after underneth the rainbow, and we added Zumi on sax. Then Oakley, and Jeff came in, and that's our current line up. Apocalypse Love was our latest. We recorded that in Paris during the waning days of Covid.
What have you been up to more recently? Anything in the works for this summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
We are about to start work on our next record. Oakley built a studio up at his farm Cole, and Zumi have a band called Crush and they’ve been playing a bunch. Jeff just put out a solo record, and is touring alone all around Europe. I'm finishing up a solo project called War Fever that should be out this year. Black Lips are gonna be recording, and pretty soon we'll be out rippin’ it up again in a town near you! We are most excited about our upcoming tours in South America where we'll be playing in countries that you may have heard of Brazil? Yes. Argentina? YES. Chile? Colombia? Maybe... Hopefully, so hold tight, dear reader. We'll see you soon. And until then... Be good to yourself, and others. Live everyday like it's your last.
Love,
Jared
