DRUNK DIAL #12

POST-RECORDING INTERVIEW WITH JESSE SMITH

[DD] What’s your drink of choice?

[JS] I mainly drink wine and the style of wine I drink depends on what I am cooking. I eat a lot of seafood so I tend to drink a lot of white wine. I like Chenin Blanc and Chablis. I don’t go out very often, but when I do, I drink to fit the occasion. I always think it’s funny when someone goes to a dive bar and tries to order a Manhattan or something like that.

[DD] Drunk Dial prohibits writing or rehearsing the cover before going into the studio, but did you prepare for the day of recording in any other way?

[JS] I prepared by going to the liquor store! I also considered what we would be drinking over the course of the day so that we could be the most productive. We actually recorded 3 songs that day (one of which was a cover of Dump on the Chump for a WFMU fundraiser compilation) so we loosened up while tracking the first song. Then we got into some rosé and started coming up with the structure for Where Time Stands Still. Then went to beer and then Old Fashioneds for when we were doing vocals. I had a drink menu and timeline planned for the session.

[DD] Did you have any specific fears going into the studio? What ended up being the most difficult part?

[JS] I knew it would be a race against time because of the alcohol. I was worried that we wouldn’t get it done. Also vocals are the last thing you record. We definitely sound drunk on Return of the Mack.

[DD] Why did you choose to cover “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison?

[JS] I became obsessed with that song right before the Pandemic. I went to a food and wine festival for work right before everything shut down and ended up at a dive bar where that song was playing. I was drunk as a skunk and I shazamed it to see who performed this song that I knew from mainly being played in grocery stores. I listened to it non stop for the rest of the year. Why did I decide to try and cover it? Delusions of grandeur maybe? Honestly I think it was a mistake. Sometimes you shoot for the stars and end up in the sewer.

[DD] Do you prefer playing music sober or buzzed?

[JS] When I was young I liked playing buzzed but it depended on what I was doing. I would drink less if I was the frontman. When playing bass in the Carbonas I could get away with drinking more. I remember in the early days of the Carbonas, there was a week that I was hitting the sauce pretty hard and decided not to drink at band practice. While we were playing I was thinking to myself “God we are awful”. After that I came up with the saying “practice drunk, play drunk”. Nowadays I don’t have a drop of alcohol before I show. I wish I had been a little more concerned with the music and less with the party when I was younger. I remember King Louie telling me a story about hanging out with the Murder Junkies and offering them all cocaine. Everyone in the band partook except GG because he was such a professional. He sat in the corner and ate laxative bars getting ready for the show…

[DD] What is the best cover song of all time?

[JS] Damn that’s a tough one. I don’t really like covers. I think taking a normal song and making it punk is pretty cringey. Covering a band that your band sounds just like is pretty cringey. Covering Mark Morrison is very cringey. Greg Cartwright always does a good job taking a song you don’t know and making it sound like it’s always been there. It becomes his song just as much as the original. He’s pulled it off many times over.

[DD] It’s closing time at a bar full of your friends, there’s only time to play one more song on the jukebox. What do you play?

[JS] ROTM was one of my jukebox jammers for a while but I burned it out. We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off by Jermaine Stewart or Grey Cell Green by Ned’s Atomic Dustbin are some of my favs.