Jibe is it . No if, ands, or buts about it. If this were a high school yearbook, under 'most likely to be successful' would be a full-page picture of Jibe, with their name in lights. Over the past year, the boys of Jibe have been busy recording, touring, and just plain knocking the socks off of audiences everywhere. Ben, Corey, Joe, and Toby are a quartet of musicians who have made their mark and are going to stay regardless of anything coming their way. With such a strong bond, the members of Jibe have become an impenetrable rock machine that plans to pound its way into the collective ear of the nation. Get ready kids, 'cause here comes Jibe, like it or not.
Diane: Tomorrow, you guys will be in Delaware with Nickelback and Jerry Cantrell. How did you end up on the bill and how has touring with them been?
Toby: Let's see , Jim Beam did some stuff with us, we've done some shows with Jim Beam before, they had sponsored us, and the people are really great over there, and they called us up and they said, 'Hey, we've got these dates, do you guys want to do em?' and we were like 'of course' you know. It was a huge opportunity for us so we did that, we played with them in Austin a few weeks ago. It was great, the crowd was really responsive, and we had some fans out there already, you know, we've been around for 8 years, but we got a lot of new fans out of it and met a lot of really cool people. See, we played with them a couple days ago in Baltimore, and it was a great show. My amp actually went out the third song, which was interesting. I didn't know what I was going to do, then Jerry Cantrell's crew went and got me another head and I actually got to play on Jerry Cantrell's amp which made my day, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. So we got to meet Jerry Cantrell, and the guys of Nickelback and they're all really cool people. We're gonna meet a lot of new people and make a lot of new friends, it's really cool.
Diane: Would you say your outlook has changed on things with your sudden record label mass-interest?
Toby: Umm, well, I couldn't say that it hasn't effected us because it definitely has, but I think in a positive way. I think we're the same band, and we have the same goals that we've always had, and we're just gonna keep on truckin' right through the middle, keep doing what we do, and whatever happens along the way, you know, pleasure and pain.
Diane: Have you guys decided on a label yet, or are things still pretty open for you?
Toby: Yeah, things are open. We're in the midst of things, and things are all good, everything is all good.
Joe: Hold on a second, I'd like to break things up. A little perspective on the moment: I'm late, I slipped off into a lackadaisical mentality and I found myself in between here and there, and now I'm back to here. And here we are. Toby has covered my ass and I have no idea what he said, but I trust him because he is a lover with out the pretentious sexual thing. And all the demands of physical fucking bonding.
Diane: Previously, actually when I first met up with you, you had been saying that after a bad experience with management and what not you changed your way of looking at things. Do you think all of your experiences have had an effect on your most recent pursuits and more importantly, do you feel it has given you an advantage over the "suits" you have so often referred to them as?
Toby: I definitely think we have a different perspective because you learn every day and everything that comes into you effects you and it changes you and you grow everyday and yeah, of course we've definitely been effected by it.
Joe: We've evolved ever since the beginning, and in the last year we've probably learned more hard lessons than ever before and now honestly, we've said it before, but I think honestly, we're comfortable in our own skin now finally, and that's why we're able to back up and re-approach everything cause the four of us is the only thing that creates the fucking perspective cause everybody we know and everything we do we have to revert back to the four of us and what makes us happy.
Diane: Well, I was going to ask you anyway, if you ever have any difficulties in the band, how do you do you resolve them?
Toby: We just kick each other's ass. [Laughter] Full on ass-kicking effect.
Joe: We're the kind of band that approaches it face-first and we'll call each other out.
Toby: Yeah, we don't hold back
Joe: We don't hold back, we have meetings all the time, we get together all the time.
Toby: We've toured together and lived together for eight years, so we got over the petty things that happen in relationships way early on, we're like an old married couple, you know that just fights every once and a while and go 'OK, we still love each other.'
Joe: [jokingly] Yeah, we're still hot for each other, we just haven't crossed that line yet we kept it in an associative art perspective.
Diane: With such a huge tour schedule have you guys been able to keep a level head, or has touring taken its toll?
Toby: It always takes its toll, but that what keeps you having a level head [laughs], I think.
Joe: The funny thing about this business is that things get to you like a whirlwind, like a tornadic activity, which like, encompasses everything that you are, and constantly you find yourself redefining yourself. Otherwise you get caught up in it and you die.
Diane: I read in your bio that your last album "In My Head" was actually recorded in the Curtain Club, interestingly enough, and over 7 days. Where have you been recording your most recent stuff, and do you expect to release any time soon?
Joe: Live.
Toby: Yeah, we've been recording live. We recorded some stuff in Denton with Eric Delagard and real time audio, a few demos. And we've been doing mostly live at the Curtain Club just demos and stuff like that, but I think we'll be releasing something sometime.[laughs], in the future.
Joe: We've been writing, that's the problem. The opportunity presents itself for us to write and we get in, we step away from it for a moment then we let our selves back in to it naturally, and for some reason lately, we've been getting all these crazy tours that have been popping up and we've been taking it out on the road and jamming with it. I think now we have probably a couple dozen songs.
Toby: Yeah, and I think 2003 will probably be when you see something new from Jibe.
Diane: Who would you say has been your biggest influences musically?
Joe: Toby.
Toby: Individually, or as a band? As a band it's, you can't really do that because we're all so different in our interests. I mean, we have the same common influences, some of them, but personally, my mother was a classical guitarist and she pretty much gave me the open door to start learning to do this, and then when I was a teenager, you know, of course Eddie Van Halen. What guitar player would you ask and they wouldn't say Eddie Van Halen, I mean a huge inspiration for me, and then you know of course bands like Jane's Addiction, and everything you listen to, Bob Marley is a huge influence, anything good.
Joe: I would say my influences are Toby, Ben, and Corey.
Toby: I'd have to agree with that too.
Joe: And honestly, all the dysfunction that I see in my life on a daily ritual I approach it different and I try to let go, but everyday some kind of new bombastic, turmoilistic... turmoil-ist-tic, record that, a situation presents itself and I have to redefine myself, and let go of inhibitions so machismo, I try to stay away from it, pretentiousness, it try to stay away from it, ugliness, I'm in it, swimming with fish, and I feel OK. Toby, hold on. Toby, I just want to say to you, if you were a girl, we'd totally be in big trouble.
Toby: definitely, I agree.
Joe: We'd be in big trouble [laughs]. Big trouble.
Diane: If you could be Jell-O, What flavor would you be and why?
Toby: Cherry. 'cause I like it.
Joe: Cherry.
Toby: We agree, it's a unified cherry thing.
Joe: I'd probably have a little spice in there, because I'm under a fire sign, so red is there.
Diane: Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?
Toby: Right here. And you can't really get that across In Texas, it's in the eyes.
Joe: It's in the connection, with Corey and Ben.
Toby: Yeah, if Corey and Ben were here, it'd be all around.
Diane: Ok, just one last question: Sum it up for the less fortunate folks out there who have never heard of Jibe. What is the message that you, as a band, hope to present to music listeners everywhere?
Toby: Unification.
Joe: Anything can happen at anytime if you want it to. When you stop believing, you stop wanting, you stop needing, an you stop surviving. We believe that the more we can throw into the bond together, and get on the same level, the more we can overcome. We're suckers for a revolution, if you want it to happen, if you don't want it to happen just stop it immediately and don't let it go any further.
Our thanks to Joe and Toby of Jibe for sitting down with us for this interview. To learn more about Jibe, visit their website at : http://www.jibeonline.com.
-forward by: Elizabeth Pardieu
-interview by: Diane Lovett
bandchat.org correspondent |
