Less Than Jake

The New Music Business Model

Though they’ve been together now for more than 15 years, Less Than Jake is starting all over again.

Having recently broken away from Warner Bros. and retained ownership (finally) of most of their earlier recordings, Gainesville, FL’s ska/punk legends have decided to start their own label, Sleep It Off Records, and go it alone.

Longtime saxophonist Peter “JR” Wasilewski took some time recently to speak with us about the new label, the new record and the current state of the music biz.

Less Than Jake has been together about 15 years now. How have you been able to keep it together for so long when most bands implode in a few years?

I don’t know. We all love each other and we all hate each other, but we’re honest about it.  When we love each other we tell each other, and when we hate each other we do as well.

Does it help that you don’t all live in the same town anymore?

Well, we still live pretty close. When we’re in Gainesville working and writing I live with Buddy (Schaub, trombonist and guitarist). We’re all close and we talk, but when we have our down time, our separation time, I don’t really talk to anybody.  Alone time kind of helps.  Also, I manage a couple of bands and it’s funny because the kids that I manage are between 19 and 23 and I think (younger bands) tend to take themselves so seriously.  Also, when you’re in a band with people, they tend to be creative and creative people tend to be a little off. I’m way off and so is everybody else in the band. But its how you deal with people’s quirks… the other thing is there are so many bands out there that think the world owes them a platinum record. It’s just arrogant. That’s basically why I find that bands can’t stay together any more. All they do is bitch; nobody wants to work it out.

I agree. And they all seem to be indistinguishable.

How many fucking flat irons is Clairol selling nowadays?  I’m buying stock in Clairol flat irons. It’s insane. That and white belts. I’m not hating, I’m just busting balls.

Let’s talk about the reissues. How long have you wanted to re-release the first three records?

Since we stated being a band. The ultimate goal I think when you start being a band is to have ultimate control over everything you make.  We don’t totally have it 100 percent, but we’re close. You can print this: this is the last time “Pezcore” will be reissued. It’s been reissued and remastered like four times. But it’s on our label this time. We got these records back and thought we would reissue them, but you can’t just do the same thing, so we thought we would do new artwork and a DVD for each one. Make it something that kids want to buy.  We took a week of shows last year in Florida and recorded on audio and video each record in its entirety and thought it would be a nice thing to include.

Do you anticipate putting out more?

Our goal is to put out every one of them with the accompanying live DVD. It’s going to take a little time, so everyone will have to be a little patient.

Are you putting your next full length out on Sleep it Off?

Yeah. We’re only using this as our label, to put out our stuff, so we’re not going to be putting gout other bands.

Tell me about the new album, GNV FLA.

We caught a lot of flak for our last record. I feel a lot of it was unjustified. But a lot of kids said “What happened to the horns? What happened to the ska?” It was just time for us to step back for a second because we were stuck in major label land for five years and we were playing the game. We didn’t want to be a part of this game anymore. Warner was very cool and let us out of our deal, and they were very gracious, saying “Good luck.”

Did you think about just going back to another indie, rather than starting your own label?

No. I think there was some talk for a second, but it just made sense to do it on our own. Really if everything gets fucked up, you can only blame yourself.  It’s on us, so there is a lot of added pressure and there’s more work involved, but we’ve never been afraid of a hard day’s work.   It’s all about the common goal that is Less Than Jake. It’s a little scary but we don’t have to answer to anyone else.  

I’m assuming that financially it’s a better deal for you as well.

CDs don’t sell anymore. It’s all about MP3s, so we cut out the middleman. Look at a band like Radiohead – and we’re not Radiohead – but what they did was so groundbreaking. The people who are going to buy it are going to buy it. Why do we need a label anymore?  All the labels are freakin’ out because they don’t know what to do. If we were to sign with another major label today, they would treat us like a new band and sign us to one of those 360 deals, where they would get a percentage of our touring money and a percentage of our merch money and all of this other bullshit. We have worked so hard and made some many other people money for so many years. Personally, I’m stoked that we get equal pay for equal work finally. It’s scary, but it’s exciting.