Anyone remember
JAUGERNAUT ? Well, this US band released 2 fine albums (privat
releases on Valentine
Records) in 80 and 83. The first selftitled album is very rare
nowadays. On this album, JAUGERNAUT had 6 members and the album
contained pure pomp music, including all the ingredients such as
many harmony vocals, upfront keys and a fine combination of poppy
tunes with some prog elements like bands as STYX did in their
Equinox-years. The lyrics on the album were, sometimes, a bit
mellow but yet possitive all the way.
There aren't any screaming guitars
on this album, but the album contained nice melodic rocksongs
varying with more balladesque songs, using acoustic guitars,
great harmonies and many, many keys. Yes, very pompy stuff
indeed. Personaly, I think there isn't a weak song on the entire
album, but if I may pick out some favourite tunes, then they'll
be The light of your love, Sooner or later and Dear Sunshine.
Although the production was a bit average, this album is very
recommendable and don't think twice if you see it.... Happy
hunting !
Three years later, there was an
almost complete line-up chance and they released a second album
called Take 'em there. Jaugernaut reduced themselves to a quartet
and the music changed a bit toward a more AOR approach still
there were enough pomp traces left reminding their debut. James
Johnston (bass, lead vocals and songwriter) made his enterance on
this album. Again, on this album, no weak songs in my humble
opinion. The production was better than on the debut and the
music on this classic album contained some 'heavier' songs, still
very melodic and also still with plenty of keys.
The prog elements in the music are
sporadic and the songs turned out more mainstream sounding, more
AOR. A song like Trendsetters even reminds me a bit of early
Queensryche, including the high vocals. Other outstanding songs
on this album were and still are the titlesong, Love I Do (with
those up front keys like on their debut), Anti Freeze, On the top
of the world (great melodic rocker with catchy chorus) and the
really beautiful ballad 2 or 3 Years. Even my wife likes this one
very much ! Again, a very recommendable album, maybe not as rare
as there debut (saw it on several sales lists).If you like bands
like STYX, SUNBLIND LION (second release), LINK, ROADMASTER and
these kind off bands, JAUGERNAUT is the band for you !
Gradings: 7,5 for the first and 9
for the second release. Thanks to Eric Abrahamsen, we were able
to get in touch with James (Jim on the record) Johnston (bassist,
singer/songwriter on the second album of the band) and he told us
there's a possibility both albums will be rereleased on cd. This
is great news, especially for those who are looking for the rare
originals. James is also working on a second solo release and we
hope we'll be able to review some of his solo material in the
future. We asked James some questions, about the past and the
present, and you'll find them together with the answers in next
interview.
Please, can you tell us how it
all started way back in the early eighties ? How did JAUGERNAUT
formed ?
Jaugernaut Started out in 1974 as 5 high school friends in a
cover band called 'Joint Effort'. They mostly played dances at
local high schools. In the first 3 years they established
themselves as the most popular band in their hometown of Olympia,
Washington. It being the 70's, the word 'Joint' had some negative
connotations with
the adults who were responsible for hiring bands for local
dances, So the boys started looking for a name that would make
them more 'marketable'. - or at least less controversial.
What does
JAUGERNAUT mean ?
Originally, The band chose 'Juggernaut', - which is an
unstoppable force, but another Seattle band was also using that
name, so, they changed the phonetic spelling and annunciation -
Since I wasn't around when they chose it, I really cant say why
they just didn't find something else, It was always a touchy
subject amongst us, because Jeff Wade and I always thought the
name was not worth all the effort. I always thought we should
just use Juggernaut, and tell the other band to piss off, they
weren't very good - or popular for that matter.
I always ask
myself, how does a band find their musical direction or style ?
Which were the bands or music that influenced JAUGERNAUT ??
We all came from different backgrounds, but we all loved the
Beatles, and some of us - like Jeff and myself
were absolutely crazy about bands like YES, Led Zeppelin and
Rush, So we tended to write kind of Poppy sounding songs, with a
progressive edge to them. That was our trademark, and in the 80's
in America, it was also the 'Kiss of Death' -commercially
speaking. We were called '70's Dinosaur Rockers' by Every Radio
station and press organization that would even talk to us at the
time. It was a tough sell, but we decided that since that was
what came naturally to us, it was the right thing for us to do.
We tried on occasion, to do what
people said would make us popular, and it always failed
miserably. I remember playing a club in downtown Seattle called
'Pier 70' a very upscale club on the waterfront, a pure dance
club, and we would Start sneaking in originals into the set list,
and the place would go wild, then afterwards, the club owners and
booking agents would tell us what every other band that played
there did and why that was better than what we were doing. It
just never worked out and at that time in Seattle, you couldn't
make a living playing all original music, so we had to strike a
balance. It allowed us to sell some records, but hurt us too
because all the original music bands felt we were selling out by
playing cover tunes, and the 'cover band' elite thought that we
were crazy for even trying to play progressive music in an age of
'Maddona' and 'Men without Hats' - (remember 'The Safety
Dance'?).
In 1980 JAUGERNAUT
released their debut, followed in 1983 by the Take 'em there
album. As you probably know, they are kinda rare nowadays and
people pay a lot of money for a copy. You told me, there would be
a chance they gonna be rereleased on cd. Please, can you tell me
more about that and is there a chance there will be a reunion of
JAUGERNAUT ?
I am currently working with Jim Valentine to get both albums on
to CD, but there are lots of issues still yet to be worked out,
but it is under way, and we are looking for a way to get it out
within the next year. Jim had to go out and look for the half
inch master Tapes - he was storing them under his house in Los
Angeles. Fortunately, they are still in good shape and are now
being cleaned up, and I'm currently looking to line up some kind
of a distribution deal, so I don't wind up with a big stack of
them in my garage, when they need to be available in
Europe. Another option is to distribute via the Web, but we
aren't to that stage in the decision process yet. We are also
selecting outtakes and what kind of Photographs to go with the
release. We have a ton of live stuff too that never made it on to
vynil.
On the first
release, JAUGERNAUT was a 6 piece band and on the second release
there was an almost complete line up chance. What happened and
for you James, how did you came in touch with the band. Did you
play in other bands and did you released something before
JAUGERNAUT ?
The first Jaugernaut album was released about a year before I
joined the band. Relations between the Drummer, Dale and the rest
of the band had become strained, and Jim and Geoff started
looking for a more consistent Drummer. I understand that Dale
loved to 'Jam' on the songs, and rarely played a song the same
way twice. Which tended to irritate Jim, in particular. Jeff Wade
tried out and was a perfect fit. It is largely Jeff's love for
progressive music, that gave the band its real Progressive edge.
In the mean time, John DiBernardo had become tired of being a
small town Rock Star, and had decided to move on,that left the
band without their 'lead' voice, so when Brad Hymas took over the
job, he had a great voice but didn't have the stamina to sing a
full night's worth of music. Within a year Jim and Geoff were
looking for another vocalist/Bass Player.
While this was going on, I was
playing in a struggling (starving!) Seattle band called 'The
Warheadz'. Guitarist Mark VonBeck and I had just written and
recorded an almost punk version of 'On top of the world'. Mark
happened to be in a recording session one day with Jim Valentine,
and played 'On top of the world' for Jim. Jim liked my voice, and
One thing led to another, and I drove to Olympia and tried out
with the band, and everything seemed to work. My vocal range made
me a perfect match, and I became a member of Jaugernaut! Over the
years I got to know the ex-members, and we all get along very
well.
Personally, I think the second
album is the better one the two releases as the sound changed a
bit toward AOR, although there were still the POMP traces from
the debut. Can you remember the recording off this classic second
album, can you please tell us more about that ?
Yes! it was a nightmare! we
recorded it in the middle of a 38 day straight shot of playing
live, so our voices and ears were totally hashed! You can really
hear it in my voice on 'On top of the world' - there just wasn't
much air left in my lungs when we recorded that song. We recorded
at a studio where we had access to every new toy you could ever
want, but we didn't know squat about using any of it. The
Engineers and owner got a big kick out of our method of
production, which was 'Hey, what happens when I turn this knob?'
Being a self released album we had total freedom to do what we
wanted to. There were some big mistakes too.
We ran out of 2 inch tape at the
end of Anti-Freeze, and so we had to splice on an additional 10
seconds of tape, and it made the fade out sound funky, so we
replaced it with the sound of ice cubes thawing in an ice tray.
It came out totally funny, but hey, -that was our solution!
Another technical problem was the drums - particularly the snare,
the engineer used noise gates on the drums and when we were
mixing, we noticed a horrible sound on the snare track, like a
garbage can lid being banged with a baseball bat, It turned out
to be the ride cymbal bleeding through the noise gate on the
snare - so in the mix we had to squash the snare so badly, that
is came out sounding really 'tiny', when Jeff has a Monster snare
sound. 
There were also some problems
with the Mastering process too. John Golden Mastered the album,
He is one of the best there is.but he complained that there was
too much bottom end on the master to make a good sound on vinyl,
and rolled it way back. It gave the album a smaller sound than we
wanted. The plan is to go back to the original half inch master
directly off the 2 inch tape, and the sound of the cd will be far
better than the album was.
Both albums were released
privat. I can't believe there weren't any labels interested in
your music or am I wrong?
As I mentioned before, American Labels at that time were really
looking for only certain things, - Big hair and sex appeal. We
were a 'Rock' band, playing music that took perhaps a bit more
thought than what was suitable for the airwaves. Songs with
breaks, pauses or changes in speed were just not cool in the US.
We just weren't
'commercial' enough. We did have some talks with some promoters
about going to Japan, but we all wanted to do something here (in
the US). We always believed that if the music was good enough,
the labels would come to us. - that just never happened. We were
just a bit too rough around the edges for the labels of the time
How was response on this second
album ? Have you any idea how many copies were sold off both
albums ?
About 2 thousand of the first album were sold, and we printed
about three thousand of Take E'm There, but at least 500 of those
we used as demo's and Promos.
Where there, back then, many
bands making your kind off music ? Which bands can you remember
in the scene back then ?
Yes, I remember that Rail was a fairly big Northwest Washington
act back then, They were the original winners of the MTV basement
tapes contest (If you can remember back that far). Just a few
years before, there was a band we all had admired was called 'The
Sorcerers Apprentice' - They eventually got signed, and renamed
by the label to 'Russia', I've heard that they still have a bit
of a cult following as well in parts of Europe. Of course,
Queensryche has been a huge success, and I actually played in a
cover band just for a few days with Geoff Tate before He quit and
joined 'Ryche. It was a real joke. I'm one of the few people in
the world who has heard Geoff Tate sing 'Pop' music. -It wasn't
pretty. As far as bands that played our kind of 'progressive'
music, there just wasn't much out there at the time, except of
course, bands like Rush, but even bands like Yes were just barely
surviving.
Can you remember the best gigs
or tours you did and with which bands? Had the band a big
following ?
Jaugernaut had a fairly strong following in the Northwest area of
the United States, and we eventually were making top dollar - as
far as working cover bands go in the Northwest. But we really had
very little contact with the better known 'popular' bands of the
day, mostly because we were making a living by playing cover
songs. And the National acts preferred to have all original bands
open for them, and pay them accordingly. - of course, we
could make over a thousand dollars a night, playing by ourselves.
Looking back, I'd have to say we were pretty clueless about how
it was supposed to be done.
What is the most nicest thing
you can remember about JAUGERNAUT ? What was the biggest
disapointment?
For me, the best part about Jaugernaut, was the chance to be
involved with living your dream, I look back at those years and
sometimes I yearn to be able to make a living from music. I guess
conversely, the biggest dissapointment was realizing we weren't
going to 'make it'. People we knew were getting signed for
putting out crap, and we couldn't get anyone to listen to us.
How did it came to
an end ? What were the reasons for the split ? What happened
after the break up ? Did you all go your own ways or did you stay
in touch ? Were you still connected in a musical way ?
In 1984, we began to disagree on how to 'make it'. Geoff and Jim
were of the opinion that we should take the band to Los Angeles
and starve until we got noticed. I was married with children, and
didn't want to move my family down there. The bottom line is, we
all agreed that if nothing happened in 1 year, that Geoff and Jim
would move to California, and the band would split. We stayed
together until mid 85, and nothing did happen, so we said
goodbye.
I got a Computer job, Jeff
started playing with a Metal band, and Jim and Geoff moved to Los
Angeles. Through the years, we've all stayed in touch, and I talk
to Jim and Jeff regularly. I stopped playing music for about 10
years, but in 95, I started again. I,ve been playing and
recording alot. Jeff Wade and I are still very good friends, and
Jeff puts down drum tracks for me, and up until last year he and
I played in another band together called 'Nitecrew' for about
three more years. In fact, one of the 'Bonus Tracks' on the Take
-em there CD will probably be a song done by me, Jeff and Jim.
Are you still occupied in the
music business ?
Boy, am I! I am currently recording a second solo CD. I am still
shopping my material to labels and to Publishing Houses. I've
developed more of a Pop sound to my current music. It has been
described alot like Rush meets the Beatles, - with a folk twist -
and a Horn section.
Ok, the last half year, we hear
many great things about many classic rock bands giving it a
second try. I don't know if you heard, but bands like STARCASTLE,
BLUEBEARD, STONEBOLT, .... are releasing new
material . Could this be a sign for JAUGERNAUT to give it a
second try ?
We have discussed releasing a third Jaugernaut CD, but we are
scattered all over the west now, Technology would allow us to do
it, but it would take some doing. Right now Jim has some pretty
hefty business commitments, Jeff is currently playing for Metal
Church, (they just got back from a tour in Europe in October) and
all this makes a reunion difficult. Our first 2 albums did so
poorly when they were released, that it would take some serious
action in sales to justify a reunion. I'm not saying it wont
happen, but it would require something
to seriously motivate us.
Which are the best 5 albums ever
made, in your opinion ?
That's an almost impossible question to answer: I really do love
alot of different types of music, and I rarely listen to the same
album more than once a year, but I'd have to say that My five
favorite Rock/Pop albums of all time in no particular order would
be:
Jethro Tull: Songs from the Wood
Led Zeppelin 2
Rush: Hemispheres
Jellyfish: Spilt Milk
David Byrne: Emotion
At least they seem to be the
albums that keep finding their way into my CD player.
Last question, do you have some
last words for all the fans over here in Europe, and of course in
the rest of the world ?
I was very shocked when I found out that Jaugernaut had gained
some notoriety in Europe. This makes me feel great that the music
we believed so much in, and put so much hope in, really was worth
doing. For years after we released Take 'Em There, I sometimes
felt that it was a mistake to put so much effort into something
that gave back so little in return. We had such great commercial
expectations! They never paid off.
But life is short, and for me,
creating music will always be worth the effort - for me alone,
-not for buckets of money, or fame. but if even one person - or a
few people a continent away feel the same enjoyment from the
music, that is a wonderful and rare thing. Thank you all! Thanks
for giving me the opportunity to be interviewed! If you have any
comments, just e-mail me at: dimbulbz@earthlink.net
(This interview and story
above of JAUGERNAUT was done by Willy van Buel)
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