[ Source: http://www.skratchmagazine.com/INTjetstobrazil.php ]
Interview by Matthew Stabley of Skratch Magazine, 2000.
Brought to you by Jets to Brazil Un-Official.

On October 15, Jets to Brazil released their third album, PERFECTING LONELINESS, which continues the trend away from the ambitious and edgy pop/punk sound that made Jawbreaker a leader of the emo school in the early '90s. Blake's songwriting forsakes its past and reveals the new hopefulness of a maturing punk. He took some time out to talk to SKRATCH about the new album, the not-so-new band, and New York.

SKRATCH: You grew up a California boy. How has New York been treating you?
BLAKE: I like it for being everything that California wasn't. It seems like together the two form a whole picture. I like the speed of it. But I miss the Pacific; I miss Northern California.

SKRATCH: Why did you decide to relocate?
BLAKE: I felt like I needed to put a lot of distance between me and San Francisco. Everything had just kind of broken up, and I just wanted to begin a new life.

SKRATCH: How do you feel about the current music scene in New York?
BLAKE: I think it's great, in that every band stops here. You can always see whoever you want; you just kind of have to jockey for position. Shows are really crowded here. [Maybe] I just like popular music, I don't know.

SKRATCH: Are there any up-and-coming bands you've been particularly impressed with recently?
BLAKE: We always try to take a band with us [on tour] that are friends or that we like from the area. We had J Majesty, who I think are a very cool band. The Love Scene we took out on our last tour. We got Ted Leo—he's super. There's a lot of bands in New York...I don't know half of them. I think it's very loner-ish in a way, or we're a loner band, definitely off on our own trip.

SKRATCH: PERFECTING LONELINESS sounds great. Are you pleased with how it turned out?
BLAKE: I'm cool with it. I'm kind of amazed it went down. A lot of songs were really different than anything we'd tried before, so I couldn't really imagine how we were going to record it. But it was encouraging to actually throw it down on tape and make it happen.

SKRATCH: Clocking in at over an hour, it's longer than past Jets to Brazil albums, with more songs clocking in at near the six-minute mark or longer. Is that an intentional direction the band is taking?
BLAKE: We just had waited longer than last time so there was more to say. People always clamor for releases between albums, and I'm just giving it to them all at once. They gotta understand this is like instead of getting a 30-minute album and an EP six months before, it's all in one [release]—one-stop shopping.

SKRATCH: You seem to be using piano and keyboards more and more these days. "Cat Heaven" even has a sort of Ben Folds Five feel to it. Why have you chosen to play more piano on this record than in the past?
BLAKE: I just love the instrument. I'm learning how to play it. I mean, in this band I started playing it. So it's like this work-in-progress. It's such a deep instrument; I only know chords. I mean, I haven't even scratched the surface. I think just it's a great tool for songwriting. And I love Ben Folds.

SKRATCH: The guitar work on the album is impressive and particularly unique, I think, on "The Frequency" and "Perfecting Loneliness". Who are some of your personal guitar heroes?
BLAKE: Steve Albini—definite guitar hero. Broke my mind open on the concept of noise. And whoever plays for Tom Waits. Actually the lead on "Perfecting Loneliness" is kind of an arabesque figure that was based almost entirely on a Tom Waits song. (I should know the guy's name.) But on the song "Clap Hands" there's a scalding solo that has a really tight delay on it. I was actually flagrantly trying to emulate that sound—although I did write that solo. I'm happy with that one; I like that lead.

SKRATCH: What are your thoughts on the progression of Jets to Brazil over the course of three albums?
BLAKE: It's been interesting. It feels like we're on a trip, and everybody's learning each record or each set of songs—each song really. I feel like everybody is learning their instrument and their place in the band a little more. I don't know what we're building, 'cause it almost seems like we abandon everything to get to the next place. It's a weird progression, but that's how we're doing it.

SKRATCH: On www.jetstobrazilonline.com, I saw that you have a couple classical records in your top ten. Do you listen to a lot of classical music?
BLAKE: No, I just pick around in it. I have some composers that I really enjoy, but I have very limited knowledge.

SKRATCH: How long have you been listening to classical?
BLAKE: A lot of it came from film, from watching film and hearing, like, Górecki in the film FEARLESS. But that's such great music, such powerful strings. I cross-reference.

SKRATCH: When Jets to Brazil formed, many considered it a sort of indie supergroup. How different has this experience been from past bands?
BLAKE: I had the advantage of experience of doing a band from zero. Doing Jawbreaker, like, from being absolutely unknown—paying to play Los Angeles, just pretty rough to get it going—to a band that kind of automatically had gigs and a draw, that's a big difference. But I really wanted to do a band, too. I wanted to be communicating to the world through song. So the desire was still there. I think the drive is the same. I have to write songs. I don't know why. I think people who write songs just have to do it.

SKRATCH: How did Jets to Brazil come together?
BLAKE: It really began with Jeremy. I mean, it began with me; and then just playing music with Jeremy, the two of us and the drum machine. Then we got Chris and eventually got Brian, so we kind of built it up slowly and casually. The gestation of the band was really laid back. But as soon as we played out, it happened really quickly because we had all been in other bands and there was immediate [public] awareness of our group...for better and worse. But I'll say "better," because I know there a lot of other bands that would like to get seen, to have that luxury. But it was weird. It really changed. At first we were just in a room writing music completely just for fun. And then it was like, "Oh you guys are this band that people go see and you need to do a record." It became very official quickly. I really try to hang on to taking it easy.

SKRATCH: How did Brian Maryansky come to be a member of the band?
BLAKE: It happened just before our first U.S. tour. We'd had Peter Martin playing guitar for us before. He left, and Chris knew Brian, so that was it. I think they played in Resurrection together. And Brian worked in a photo gallery and had assisted in a shoot we did for the first record. We all just liked him. He came and practiced, and that was it.

SKRATCH: Are you planning a tour in support of the new album?
BLAKE: We will go out with the album basically in October, a U.S. tour. We'll probably be off for the winter. I don't know about Europe.

SKRATCH: Do people ever mistake you for J. Robbins?
BLAKE: Yes, actually. He's on all the Jets records. It's an intense relationship we have—good, positive intense. It's very much like he joins our band for the duration of the record.

SKRATCH: Have you ever played a concert in Brazil?
BLAKE: No, but we've been getting a lot of mail from Brazil. It's cool. Just people who are like, "What the fuck's going on with you guys?" I'd love to go. We never really played any Latin American countries in either band I've been in. It's a shame.