Now in his mid-30s, Jeff Rosenstock has been releasing music and touring for more of his life than not. Having come a long way from The Arrogant Sons Of Bitches – a Long Island-based ska/punk band he co-founded as a teenager – Jeff always has a variety of projects going on. Currently, the emphasis appears to be on his solo career (the latest release of which titled “We Cool?”) and his “pay what you want” record label (Quote Unquote Records).
Jeff, who took some time to answer questions over e-mail, can be seen at Webster Hall’s Marlin Room on July 31st alongside Alkaline Trio’s Dan Andriano. As part of a 24-city co-headlining tour, Jeff will also be performing on-stage with Dan, whose latest album he produced.
To someone who hasn’t knowingly heard your music before, how would you describe it?
Jeff Rosenstock: I guess it’s kind of anything goes punk rock music. I tend to write outside of the standard guitar, bass, drum vibe, incorporating keyboards, horns, multi-part harmony, bells, claps, strings, and all kinds of shit. In the true spirit of punk rock, I’m not particularly good at playing any of that stuff, definitely not particularly good at singing all that stuff, but that doesn’t really hold me back from doing it anyway.
You’re a solo artist, a sideman in bands, a producer, a graphic designer, and have your own label. When someone asks what you do for a living, how do you usually answer?
J: I generally tell people I’m a musician, and then if they ask questions about “well then why haven’t I heard of you?” I tell them about all that other stuff. I told people I was a graphic designer for as long as I could before it became very clear to me that graphic design accounted for about 5 percent of the work that I do. Having five or six jobs that pay very poorly is a weird thing to explain to people, but if you get one write-up in The Washington Post or something, people tend to think you’re doing fine, even if you’re broke.
You began in music as a teenager, most notably being the leader of The Arrogant Sons Of Bitches. Is it embarrassing to know that your earliest work is out there? Or do you get a kick out of that?
J: At times it’s embarrassing. There’s lyrics and stuff on there that are very 16-year-old lyrics, which means a handful of words I just don’t say anymore because I’ve realized the weight behind them. I think it was pretty fearless musically though, which I like. The tempos, the time signatures changes, the overly-complicated horn parts, the intensity — I think that’s all really rad for a local band that no one was ever going to hear. Aside from the last record though and a handful of songs, most of it sounds like muddy garbage with a kid complaining about girls on top of it in his best Against-All-Authority-voice. I always thought we were best live, because the set was always in danger of coming off the rails, and often did.
ASOB’s music evolved over time, with your sound often blurring the lines between ska, punk and hardcore. Your work with Bomb The Music Industry did similar things. Now, as a solo artist, I hear more actual song craft and pop in your music. To what do you credit your evolution as a songwriter?
J: I think a lot of it has to do with being inspired by the bands we play shows with, the bands I wish we could play shows with, and digging up more and more old records that I had never checked out. Also doing it as a solo artist is allowing me to tap back into that fearlessness, even if in my thirties that means not being afraid to sing in falsetto or have a song that’s based around a slow, droning harmonica sample played in reverse. It lets me just be the person in my bedroom experimenting with shit trying to echo the thing I’m hearing in my head. But I tried to dig into stuff like that throughout all my other bands as well.
I’m aware of your playing in Kudrow, Antarctigo Vespucci, Pegasuses-XL, and The Bruce Lee Band. Any bands I’m missing? How are you able to keep up with so many projects?
J: Nah, you’ve pretty much got it. Kudrow and Pegasuses-XL have been pretty inactive over the past bunch of years, The Bruce Lee Band doesn’t play all that much and Antarctigo Vespucci is such a low-pressure situation; it’s just me and Chris making songs in my apartment. To be perfectly honest with you, I’d like to be in MORE bands! I wanna play drums in a band, fuck it.
Your label Quote Unquote Records did the “freemium” model even before Radiohead did that with “In Rainbows.” Where did the idea come from for you?
J: I borrowed a laptop with ProTools and an M-Box from a friend named Rob Spadaro to record a handful of ASOB songs that were supposed to go on a Japan-only release. I went to school for recording, but I was pretty intimidated by how much everybody else knew plus all the math and steady soldering handwork that would be involved, so I switched majors and didn’t really learn too much about it afterwards. Recording those songs myself though, I realized that it really isn’t that much harder than pressing a few buttons and trying to make it sound like what you wanted it to sound like. I still stand by that — it takes a recording genius to make things sound amazing, but anyone can make something that sounds decent. Just point the mic at the thing.
A lot of ASOB’s recording existence was spent in recording studios, spending a lot of money that we earned at shitty jobs and ending up with recordings that didn’t really capture our sound, ’cause we were young and didn’t know how. When we decided to “do it right” for the last record and record up in Boston with Steve Foote, we had been sitting on some of those songs for like six years. So borrowing a laptop and realizing, “holy shit, I can write a song TODAY and that song can be recorded TODAY and I don’t have to pay anyone ANYTHING” was an enormous revelation. It changed the way I thought about everything. I never wanted to hassle people to buy shit, or hinge on whether or not I could make music on selling shit and now I didn’t have to.
So on Christmas Eve one year, when I was bumming out on stuff, alone at my parents’ house, I recorded a song and put it up for free on the internet. People responded well, I started touring without selling things and people showed up and donated to keep it going. My friend Matt Kurz had a one-man band called The Matt Kurz One. We toured together and I wanted to help him, so I thought “hey, I did this thing that helped me, maybe it can help you.” And that’s how Quote Unquote was born.
Are there any goals for your label? Are artists actually coming to you now asking to release through Quote Unquote?
J: The only goal is to put out good music. Pretty shortly after the proper site launched people were hitting me up about putting out their bands’ records, but I was hellbent on putting out records that I thought were awesome from friends who I had known for a long time. I could have put out a lot more music, but I was a stickler for quality I guess. In hindsight, if I had seen that there was a demand for this I probably could have been the guy that started Bandcamp. Instead, if a stranger e-mailed me about putting their record on Quote Unquote I would just e-mail them back and explain how to do it themselves.
Having done a release through SideOneDummy, a label which released a lot of albums that have influenced you as a musician, is it your hope to do more with other labels?
J: I think we’ve been lucky to release records and become friends with both Asian Man Records and SideOneDummy. As pretty loyal to labels like those, Dischord, Kill Rock Stars, Fat [Wreck Chords], Epitaph, Sub City… it was the era of comps, you know, so that’s how I found out about a lot of bands that I like now. Anyway, it rules. I’ll put out a seven-inch with anyone as long as it’s not a major, ya know?
Does DIY ethic factor into any areas of your life beyond music?
J: It’s helped me not be afraid of doing things in general. I think when you do stuff on your own, whether it’s something small like booking a show at your house or something big like pressing a bunch of records, you realize that you can actually do these things that you’re raised to think should be best left to the professionals. It helped me to be more confident in my instincts at day jobs, to have a positive attitude about doing stuff that’s difficult, to cook more at home and to have a nice high horse that I can sit on and judge people because they’re not as “DIY punk” as me.
Beyond possessing DIY ideals, what are some of the things that you feel a music fan can do to make the world a better place for others?
J: I think a good start is just to look out for the people around you at shows. While I hate that this is still true, the fact is that women who attend shows are often in danger of getting groped by shitty dudes. I guess whenever you put a lot of people in a room, there’s a chance of someone who is big preying on someone smaller than them, and punk shows — while taking place in a community that is all about open-mindedness and acceptance — still aren’t safe from that. So obviously, don’t do that. But if you’re at a show and you see it happening, maybe talk to some folks around you and try and stop the situation from happening. We’re all mostly on the same page, and everyone will have your back if you’re standing up against sexual assault and violence.
Generally speaking though, we’re drifting further away from actual conversation. There are too many bad things happening now that are just unspoken. I think the road to fixing any problem in the world is gonna start with a conversation, and with any luck we’ll reach some understanding.
Given how much material you’ve put out in the last two decades, and that it’s a hometown gig, what’s to be expected from your upcoming show at Webster Hall’s Marlin Room?
J: It’s gonna be a lot of stuff from the new record and [2012 album] “I Look Like Shit”…it still feels new and exciting to play that stuff live. It’s gonna be a fucking blast. Playing in New York is fun for any band I think, and when it’s your home that just gives you even more of a reason to let loose, have fun and freak out.
Finally, Jeff, any last words for the kids?
J: Nah, fuck it.
-by Darren Paltrowitz
