A Conversation with American Hi-Fi’s Stacy Jones – HuffPost 8.19.10
Mike Ragogna: Would it be fair to call you a pop-rock?
Stacy Jones: Yeah, sure. I’ll take that.
MR: You have a new album called Fight The Frequency. But first, you were the drummer for Veruca Salt and also Letters To Cleo, right?
SJ: That’s right, back in the 90s, indeed. You know, I’m a drummer by trade. So, I grew up playing drums, and I sort of got my start professionally playing drums. I was lucky enough to be in Letters To Cleo and Veruca Salt, and I got to play with Aimee Mann and Juliana Hatfield. I played with all the chick rockers in the ’90s, basically. I guess, at a certain point, I thought I might give singing and playing the guitar a try, and that’s how American Hi-Fi was born.
MR: Kind of worked, didn’t it.
SJ: It did kind of work. I’m shocked, quite frankly. I was shocked back then, and I’m shocked now that we’re going on ten years of being a band. It kind of seems ridiculous.
MR: Your music seems pretty youthful, such a natural for shows like Greek.
SJ: Yeah, we license stuff all the time. But with American Hi-Fi, I don’t think we’ve been on any TV shows in a long time.
MR: No appearances on The Vampire Diaries?
SJ: We were never on that one either.
MR: Gossip Girl?
SJ: We’re too old to be on those shows now, Mike, come on. They reserve that for like eighteen-year-old kids.
MR: The O.C.?
SJ: I think we just had some music on there.
MR: Let’s talk about your song “Lost.” It’s my personal favorite, and it now has a video. Could you give us some background, like who the director was, the concept, all that?
SJ: Yeah, the video is directed by our good friend, Chris Applebaum. He directed “Flavor Of The Weak,” “The Art Of Losing,” and he directed “The Geeks Get The Girls.” I’ve known Chris, actually, since back in the Letters To Cleo days. We’ve known each other for years and have been really good friends for a long time. For one, Chris makes us look decent, which is a challenge in and of itself. He always writes these treatments that are funny and cool and interesting, and he did another terrific job on the “Lost” video, I think.
MR: My favorite thing about the video is the girl who’s spilling things on herself, then later, sitting in the kitchen stuffing herself with cake. Just what have you done to drive her to this, young man?
SJ: Hey, that wasn’t me. I had nothing to do with it. I relate to her, I’m on her side.
MR: Uh-huh. You’ve got a really good sense of pop songwriting — who are your influences?
SJ: Well, I grew up listening to pop rock music. My parents were really into The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and they had Fleetwood Mac albums and The Eagles. You know, the first concert I ever saw was ABBA in ’79. I went to Wembley Arena with my parents and saw ABBA there. So, I grew up on popular music, and that’s always been my love. I like a melody, some big guitars, and call it a day, you’re good.
MR: I think most people still are especially fond of acts that know how to write good songs.
SJ: I appreciate that. That’s something that we try to do. And how about this? We actually play our instruments on the records too.
MR: No way.
SJ: (laughs)
MR: I don’t care. I grew up on The Partridge Family.
SJ: (laughs) Touché.
MR: Let’s move on to another song on your record, “Acetate.” Would you tell me what the heck’s going on in that song?
SJ: What is going on with that? I don’t know. It was kind of like this sort of Pixies-esque chord progression I came up with, and it ended up sounding kind of like American Hi-Fi channeling Superdrag, which is something I always try to do. Hi-Fi is at our best when we’re trying to channel Oasis, The Foo Fighters, and Superdrag, in my opinion.
MR: Still, you have your own sound.
SJ: Okay, I’m glad to hear you say that.
MR: Over the years, there have been a lot of acts that have thrown in the towel because they can’t compete with the level of bogus that’s going on in radioland right now. But, on the other hand, you have a lot of credible acts. And there are standard-bearers like — okay, I’ll say it — John Mayer.
SJ: Oh, I love John Mayer.
MR: His music is always good, songwriting always dependable, and his Rolling Stone rant on masturbation is required reading.
SJ: I agree. I’m a big fan of Mayer for a lot of reasons. I think his music is great, he’s a great guitar player, I really like his lyrics, he’s a great lyricist, and I think he’s really smart. I’ve hung out with him a couple of times, and he’s a really nice guy. He’s charming, and I have not seen the, whatever you call it, the self-proclaimed douchebaggery myself. But I’m a big Mayer fan. I’m backing him one hundred percent.
MR: I remember him winning the Grammy for best new artist and James Taylor giving the award to him.
SJ: The passing of the torch action there?
MR: Exactly. In my opinion, there are a lot more artists worthy of the torch such as Jason Mraz.
SJ: You know what? I think Jason Mraz is cool. I don’t know that much about him, I don’t listen to his records, but he seems like a good guy, and he knows how to write a good song. So, I’m backing him.
MR: I got to interview him too, talented guy.
SJ: He seems like it, you know?
MR: Yeah, and there’s… no, lets get back to American Hi-Fi.
SJ: Hey listen, I’d much rather talk about other people. Let me tell you, I’m happy to talk about other people. I’m always a little uncomfortable talking about myself.
MR: (laughs) Then let’s just talk about some of your singles. I guess your breakthrough was “Flavor Of The Weak.”
SJ: Yep. That was the one, for sure. That’s our song. It’s funny, these days, when people find out you’re in a band they say, “Oh, what’s your song?” Well, that’s our song, “Flavor Of The Weak,” for sure.
MR: But American Hi-Fi goes beyond that. You’ve had four albums, right?
SJ: We have. And, by the way, I’m happy to have a song. At least we have one, you know? I’m happy about that.
MR: You’ve also had “Another Perfect Day.”
SJ: Yeah, that had some play.
MR: And also “The Rescue” from the Sound Of Superman collection.
SJ: Nobody knows about that, Mike.
MR: I’m just sayin’.
SJ: That might as well have come out as like a Japanese B-side, vinyl only (laughs). It’s a shame, actually, because I really like that song.
MR: How are you supporting your new album? A tour maybe?
SJ: You know, we’re talking to some people right now about maybe doing some stuff. We’re kind of just gauging demand. We don’t really even know if anybody cares about American Hi-Fi and wants to come see us at this point. It’s been so long since we’ve done anything, our last tour was in ’05. We’ve played a couple of shows since then, but otherwise, we really haven’t done anything. So, we’re going to be smart about it and kind of do what makes sense. If there’s a demand, if there’s some town out there that wants us to play, we’ll show up. That’s kind of how we’ve always been.
MR: Since you’re a drummer, how do you contain yourself? How are you not the drummer for American Hi-Fi?
SJ: Brian Nolan is the drummer for Hi-Fi. I play occasionally. When Brian is not available I’ll still get back there.
MR: You were in Letters To Cleo, so, I’ve got to ask you a very important question. Do you know Razor & Tie’s David Richman?
SJ: I know Dave.
MR: Yes, I meant to say Dave Richman, drummer extraordinaire. He also played with Letters To Cleo.
SJ: Did he? I didn’t know.
MR: I thought you possibly replaced him since there have been lineup changes.
SJ: There have. When I originally left the band, a guy named Tom Polce replaced me for a little while, and then I went off and was playing with Veruca Salt. I actually came back to Cleo and filled-in, and I continue to do so over the years. We played a few shows in the last few years with the original lineup, and it’s been an absolute blast.
MR: I love hearing stories like that. I used to live out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I recently sang the national anthem at a Red Sox/Blue Jays game, which of course, means I can never go back to New York.
SJ: I’ve got a Red Sox hat on right now, as we speak. Wow, were you scared?
MR: Nah, I’ve sung for minor league teams. But it was really intense because here I am singing at this major league baseball game, and I haven’t done that before, only minor league games. It was awesome for me and, especially, my dad who saw it on YouTube.
SJ: Oh man, there is no way I would ever do that because I was sort of briefly asked at one point. Because we have a lot of Red Sox connections, someone said, “Hey, would you feel like doing that at Fenway?” And we’ve been really fortunate with Hi-Fi in that they play the intro to “The Art Of Losing” to kind of pump up the crowd at almost every game. Anyway, a friend of mine that works in the organization has asked me if I wanted him to try to get me a shot at singing the national anthem at a game. I said, “Hell no,” because — no names will be mentioned — but I saw a guy who I’m sure you know singing the national anthem at a game one time, and he messed up the lyrics. So, he messed up, and there was this sort of din of the crowd going, “Oooh.” And the poor guy, you could just see his face went purple from all the blood rushing to his head. Then he tried for one of the high notes, and his voice cracked because he was so nervous from having already screwed-up. That was just awful, and I’m cringing just thinking about it.
MR: But that would not be the story for Stacy Jones.
SJ: Kudos to you for being brave enough to get up there and do that because I would not have been able to.
MR: Dude, you’d be fine. And you know, I had to learn the Canadian national anthem, which I knew no lyric and no melody of before I got the gig. I know you can do this.
SJ: Is that “Oh, Canada?”
MR: Yes, it’s “Oh, Canada.”
SJ: That’s all I know (sings), “Oh, Canada. Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.” I don’t think the Maple Leafs will be asking me to come up there to sing any time soon.
MR: We’ll work on that. By the way, what’s with your new album’s title being Fight The Frequency? A coup against the airwaves or just trying to put me out of work?
SJ: The deal with Fight The Frequency is it’s kind of like a self-empowerment song. Kind of saying, “Look, we’re going to do this our own way here.” So, one of the reasons that that song became the title track is that we feel like that song really encapsulates everything that American Hi-Fi does in one song; it kind of has all the elements of the band. That’s why it was the title track, and that’s the little story about that.
Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney