The Junction
By Rick Roth
Published: October 10, 2006
Band Member(s): Matt Jameson – bass
Could you tell the reader who you are, and what instrument you play?
Matt Jameson. I play bass.
If you could describe your band to the readers in one or two sentences how would it read? Umm…guess we’d say we are in the rock vein. Though we like to play whatever we feel is moving forward for us.
Two of you guys have been playing together for about 10 years now, how did you meet Matt and what urged you to bring him into The Junction family (aside from his incredible dancing)?
I saw the guys play at a battle of the bands at my high school. Brent had recently transferred to my school and I don’t think I had met him yet. After the show, I chatted with them about jamming together. They didn’t have a bass player and I enjoyed the jazzy music a lot more than the punk rock I was playing at the time. Things later evolved for us.
Now a day we are seeing more and more bands splitting up to go their separate ways either because of musical difference, or disputes within the band. How have you three guys managed to continue on from such a young age and also managed to stay on the same page?
There is a constant vision and work ethic that everyone has to maintain a band. As long as everyone keeps working on those elements and communicates with each other when they have problems with one another…you can keep a band going. We’ve never had any musical difference problems because we are all open to a lot of different types of music. As for sticking together from a young age…it’s a long time working towards a dream and we depend on each other.
Although I have never experienced it first hand, I’m sure having kids come to your shows and sing all the words is a phenomenal feeling. What would you attribute to your success of attaining such a passionate following?
We care about fans as much as they care about us. If you show people you care about them and that you are playing music because you love it…people who love hearing music connect with it.
I know you guys have done your fair share of touring Canada. If there is one show that sticks out in your mind as the best show what would it be, and why was that?
The last show we just did in Halifax with moneen and boys night out was crazy. Halifax goes nuts for live music it seems. We’re excited to get back to the east coast. Hopefully we’ll be there late Nov/early Dec.
It seems that a tight knit family exists in the Canadian music scene, between you guys Moneen, Alexisonfire, Boys Night Out, among many others. What kind of lessons have you learned from touring with these artists?
That going on “nice guy” tours is great. Anyone with an ego is the first to get made fun of.
The first time I saw you guys you had a keyboardist. What happened with him?
I summarize it by saying motivational differences. It became very difficult to work with him outside of shows and seemed that he didn’t want to be a part of the group. He had personal problems as well; however after putting him on the fence for a couple weeks, there was no initiative to show us he still wanted to be a part of the band so we told him he wasn’t welcome to stay. It was not something we wanted to see happen but we had make the decision to keep moving forward.
Also the first time I saw you guys live one thing stuck out, you guys were all wearing yellow track suits. What was the deal with that?
It was a visual for unity. We dropped the jackets when we returned to being the 3-peice. We felt we had grown out of them.
Who are some older and more current musicians and bands that have inspired your sound and live performance?
A whole lot. The list goes on and on. For me…elbow, chilli peppers, radiohead, muse, jamiroquai, death cab for cutie, daft punk, flamming lips, etc.
Is there a set release date for the new album?
We are working on having it out for Feb 6th 07. Any later and we’ll probably pull all of our hair out and make someone eat it.
How has your sound changed from your first EP And with this Comes Tomorrow with regard to the new album? What should people expect to hear?
Expect to hear a record that is more raw than the last one. We did it live off the floor and went for a “band in a room” sort of record without trying to make it low-fi indie kinda thing. We are very happy with the finished product and can’t wait to get it out. We have a single up on our myspace and will be adding another track in the next week or so.
You mentioned that you guys have been planning on shooting a new video for your new single on your upcoming album. Any insight on what the premise might be for the video?
It’s a live performance video in an attic. Just watched the rough cut last night. It’s a feel good tune and the video compliments that well. Check our site and myspace in the next couple of weeks…we’ll have it up once it’s done.
What are some goals and aspirations you have as a band, and individually that you hope to achieve with the release of this album?
We don’t want to get our hopes up, but we hope people like it and we hope that we our music gets out to some other territories as well. We don’t expect to sell a ton of records, but we hope that it grows on people and in turn the band grows with this record.
What does the future hold for The Junction?
At this point, there is a lot of questions. We have no idea where we are going to be at 6 months from now. All I can say is what I know we’ll be doing up until the record comes out…which is playing shows across the country (the next one is west coast with meligrove band and the golden dogs), making another music video, and releasing the record in the New Year.
Is there any final thoughts that you guys wish to tell the readers of this interview about your band and your music?
Hope you like the new record! If you want to hear more of what’s on it…we are playing new tracks at all of our shows these days. Love you!
Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview. We all here at forthesound.com wish you all the best of luck with the release of your upcoming album and whatever the future may hold in store for all of you.
The Junction is:
Brent Jackson – Guitar/Vocals
Matthew Jameson – Bass
Michael Taylor – Drums