Jimmy Eat World
Event on 2017-03-03 20:00:00
with AJJ
Before Jimmy Eat World entered the studio to record their ninth full-length album, Integrity Blues [RCA], the members of the multiplatinum Mesa, AZ rock band did something theyve never done in over two decades.We took a little break, smiles lead singer and guitarist Jim Adkins. After a successful 10th anniversary tour revisiting Futures, the musicians briefly went their separate ways at the end of 2014. Adkins released a series of 7 & embarked on his first worldwide solo tour, Lind released an EP and toured with his wife in The Wretched Desert, Linton took up boxing, and Burch opened up CaskWerks Distillery in Arizona. When the band reconvened in November 2015, they teamed up with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen [Paramore, M83] and began sifting through ideas.I came to a realization, admits Adkins. In the break, writing was a little trickier. I wanted to change things up. So, instead of writing about a problem, I wanted to write about a solution. If you look at your life for whats going wrong, it wont be too hard to find things. If you start looking at what you have rather than what youre missing out on, you come away from things with a much different perspective thats a lot more grateful and positive. As an album, Integrity Blues is about trying to overcome that personal struggle instead of getting upset with what life could be that it isnt.They recorded in Los Angeles with Meldal-Johnsen, offering a different setting from their usual Arizona digs. We became willing to throw away our default responses to everything and search for the best answers rather than relying on what was familiar or comfortable. When youre younger and you make music, you do it for discovery. Being in this for a long time, its about throwing out all of your expectations and comforts and seeing what you can do without them.With warm production and a powerful upbeat groove, Integrity Blues first single Sure and Certain pairs a buzzing guitar hum with an unshakable chant. Its about the idea of having blinders on for what you want to do and achieve, the frontman explains. Since youre so laser focused on what you think you want, youre missing out on everything around you. It can be a very limiting way to go about life.Meanwhile, the gorgeously minimal title track Integrity Blues tempers orchestral, cinematic overtones with a stark and striking vocal performance.It was a song I wrote on the solo tour, he recalls. Sometimes, the idea of walking your path the best you can feels like lonely work. The only way out is action. Feelings of being in a dark place are actually growth opportunities. Its emotional jiu-jitsu to shift your perspective into seeing it that way.Elsewhere on the record, Get Right snaps into an energetic refrain, while Through serves up one of the bands hookiest moments to date. You Are Free flaunts one of the groups most hummable and heartfelt refrains, serving as another high watermark. It Matters illuminates the bands diverse sonic palette and covers what Adkins describes as a central theme about the idea that a sense of comfort comes from within and not just external validation. Pass The Baby builds from a delicate heartbeat-style click into a deliberate and distorted explosion. Near seven-minute closer Pol Roger carves out an emotional and entrancing climax encased in a rapture of guitars and vocals, which according to Adkins, Felt like the right way to sum everything up. Surveying the journey thus far, Adkins maintains the same passion he did on day one, and it continues to fuel Jimmy Eat World. Ive wanted to play music since second grade, and here I am playing music. Its something were immensely grateful for. Thats why we dont take it lightly. We want to be in a constant state of progress. You have to move forward in a way thats challenging and evolving.At the end of the day, you have to be proud of your own work, he leaves off. We are. If you breathe that in and believe it, youve won.
at The Music Farm Charleston
32 Ann Street
Charleston, United States