An Interview with Less Than Jake’s Chris Demakes

The Pace Press sat down with Less Than Jake member Chris Demakes to talk about the band, touring and crazy fans.

The Pace Press (TPP): How is touring with The Causalities and The Swellers?
Chris Demakes(CD): Well, it's only been about four days, well actually three days with The Swellers and five days with The Casualties. So far so good.

TPP: How did you guys get started? Did you know [the other bands] prior?
CD: We've done Warped Tours with The Casualties and we've had The Swellers out with us before. We just asked if they'd like to do the tour with us and they both said Yeah.

TPP: How did Less Than Jake get started?
CD: We all met in college in Gainesville, Fla. where we are from, and got a van and started playing bars and clubs and started touring.

TPP: You guys have been together for …
CD: 17 years.

TPP: That's awesome. What were some of the best times and the worst times that you had over those years?
CD: We could go on for days with the question. I mean, the good thing is still being able to play for this long, after this amount of time, and play to people who still want to see our band play and we still have fans. The bad things are everything from snow storms to being violently sick and getting on stage to other unmentionable things. The goo outweigh the bad.

TPP: How do you think the music has evolved over the 17 years?
CD: Depending on who you ask — we got crappier. I think we've gotten better as musicians and song writers and kind of honed our craft. We are not reinventing the wheel, but we do what we do.

TPP: Who writes most of your music?
CD: Our bass player and I write the bulk of the melodies and the chord structures, our drummer writes the lyrics. Our horn players come up with horn parts and then we all flush it out and make it work.

TPP: Have all of you been playing since you were really young or did some of you pick it up later in life?
CD: I've always been musical, but I didn't start playing guitar until I was 18.

TPP: Did you do it to impress the girls?
CD: That and free beer at clubs. No, I did it because I couldn't find anyone else to play guitar and I knew three cords and I was like well I can probably play these three chords as good as the guy I can't find to play guitar for us.

TPP: What was the hardest album for you guys to write?
CD: I don't know…if they are hard to write. They all come together one way or another. I think maybe one of the tougher ones was our album called Borders and Boundaries because we kind of just recorded it once in Florida and decided to record it again somewhere else. It just took as long time. As far as the songs coming about, it's never been too much of an issue. It's never been like "Oh my god, what are we going to do now?!" It always went smooth and again, the longer we've been a band I think they've gotten easier to record and collaborate together.

TPP: What is the craziest thing a fan has done? Too many to count?
CD: I'm trying to think of one that takes the cake. Probably loading up their car with their belongings and selling it across the United States as they go along. Pawning their guitar, their clothes, whatever just to get gas money to follow the rest of the tour but when they get to California they realize now I gotta call my parents or friends and beg for money to get home.

TPP: You wouldn't take them home on the tour bus with you?
CD: Nah, usually not. If someone is doing something like that…

TPP: Okay, they might be a little unstable.
CD: Well, maybe unstable, but I would have probably done something like that when I was their age. But that is dedication.

TPP: You guys use a lot of brass – whose idea was that?
CD: We were starting to get into band that had horn sections. There was the late 70s and 80s ska bands and specials, and they had horns. There was a punk band from England called Snuff that we really liked who had a trombone player.

TPP: You mentioned Snuff. Were there any other bands that influenced you?
CD: Operation Ivy, Bad Religion, The Descendants.

TPP: Do you end the show any certain way or is it always changing?
CD: It's always changes. It not ever a certain way. You never know exactly who or what is going to be on stage. You'll see the shenanigans.

TPP: What is your favorite restaurant around this venue?
CD: Virgil's is very good. You can print that.

TPP: Do you have any advice for college students who want to break into the music scene?
CD: Yeah, stay in school. I mean, there are a lot of components. You can be a band, be a song writer, you can join a band. Whatever you want to do. It possible but the biggest thing is that knowing whoever you are playing with that they have the same goals as you because if not , then it will never work. If you guys want to be a weekend band that goes out and plays for fun and makes a few bucks here and there – that's your thing. If you want to do this year round and tour outside f your city it take dedication, it takes the right guys and a little bit of luck.