Jackpot Party: in conversation with Brandon Ivey
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Brandon Ivey is the creator of Jimes (a band with no other permanant members) a sometimes-comedian, journalist and the mastermind behind four genius/idiodic albums. The best CD is "Less than or Equal to Music," a compilation of newer and classic songs including his Casino-themed hits. He is disturbingly skinny (he has a hole in his chest), misuses quotation marks a lot and has written for the Seattle Weekly. His songs are free to download.
Jimes Homepage
Brandon's myspace page
May I suggest "Bunk Bed" (track 11) "Robot Porno" "Alchemy" and "Jackpot Party"
[Email interview]
MF: You know what, let's just start the interview now.
So, Brandon or "Jimes"
which one is it? You're an infamous musician, how many different people are
in your band?
BI: My name is Brandon Ivey. My band's name is "Jimes." Before I started
Jimes, I was going to name my first child "Jimes," but now that I have
seen how the band has turned out and how I have matured, I do not plan
on having children. I am the only permanent member of Jimes, but to
call me a "musician" would be bad. I do not know how to play any
instruments or sing. That said, I do both quite often on my albums.
I am the only permanent member of Jimes. As far as I can tell, one
tone-deaf person does not make much of a "band." So, to supplement my
vanity project, I coaxed actual musician-friends of mine to make music
for me. I guess that has worked okay, or people are too
passive-aggressive to tell me to stop making music, because after less than two years I have four albums out with more to come.
BI: So "Mike 'Force' McKeogh," which one is it?
MF: Let's not talk about me.
Some compare your work to that of Beat Happening, Westley Willis, Frank Zappa, Gil Scott Heron (the revolution will not be televised) even the new William Shatner album with Ben Folds. Who are your influences?
BI: That's cool, I've never heard of any of that stuff. Well, I heard that
Shatner is big in Germany. He was on Baywatch and he was Knight Rider
too, so it's understandable. As for my musical influences, that is a
tough one. Obviously I do not know the "cool" "bands" from your list,
so I do not want to embarrass myself by naming "not cool" "bands."
Or maybe my influences are un-heard. I am trying to do something
different. I do not want to sound like another band/sound because
those already exist. Why copy that when I can create something new?
So, I am trying to create unique music without knowing how to play
music, using ever-rotating band members. If there is already some band
out there doing that I might as well give up and get into the Muzak
business.
Great Guy & Jimes at the Underground Coffeehouse, Bellingham Photo by Joe Ivey 2/05
MF: As far as I know, you've played in Bellingham, Seattle, Olympia, Ann Arbor, Brooklyn and Washington DC., all with different people. When you sang to your own instrumental CD in new york people seemed to really enjoy it.
Have you played for an audience who didn't appreciate your presence?
BI: The Brooklyn show was a new thing for me. When I moved to DC, I moved away from all my former band members. I wanted to keep playing shows, but I played a
solo show in Bellingham once and that left something to be desired. So
I got a friend to make instrumental versions of my songs and now I
sing over them, karaoke-style.
Oh, I remember a bad show. I tried to play an open mic in DC before I
had the CD to sing along to. The open mic was at a piano bar. I went
with a couple of my friends who also signed up. Besides us, there were
about four people at the show. We signed up for the first three slots
and played in each others sets. After we had finished playing, the
piano bar kicked us out. Two people had walked out when we were
playing and the bar said we were making them lose business. It was
weird that the piano bar kicked us out AFTER we were done.
Seeing as most of the content for my songs comes from reality, I made
a song about that evening. It is called "Piano Bar." It will be on my
next CD.
MF: What do you have in store for your next CD?
BI: I have two "next albums," one with a name, one still brewing. The
sooner album is a live album called, "Shirtless Coffee: Jimes Live."
It is a recording of a show I played with my "rock band" line-up at a
coffeeshop in Bellingham last year. We showed up and acted like we
were going to play a run of the mill coffee show, whatever that means.
We used a violin and accordion in the first song, I was dressed in a
tux because I had just come from work at the casino. Then, during the
second song, we rocked out, I stripped. I had tight black ladies-jeans
on under my slacks and I put on a head band and wrist bands, the rest
of my band took their shirts off. It was probably one of the best
shows I played. That is coming out, with a few added suprises, on MASA
Records (masarecords.com) and Chew Your Own (chewyourown.com) in a
month or two.
The other album is a "studio album." It is currently untitled, with no
set "release date," but a lot of the songs are already done. Grant
Cross, a good friend and inspiration for Jimes, recently visited me in
DC and then moved to Argentina a week later. We recorded eight songs
when he was here. I sent the songs to Bellingham where my main man,
Jimmy, is adding beats and working his magic. Jimmy and I recorded "In
the Casino" in a similar fashion. The point is, I take care of the lyrics and I suggest to Jimmy how the songs should sound, then he goes to work.
I am also in talks with Patrick from Puberty Press to release a Jimes
"greatest hits" album. That would be good because there are a lot of
great Jimes songs spread over the four albums (plus the coming two),
but there is also a lot of questionable material. If there was any
band that deserved the greatest hits treatment, it is Jimes. Hopefully
Patrick can make that happen.
MF: You work with monkeys at the Jane Goodall Institute. What's that all about?
BI: Monkeys are not chimpanzees. Jane Goodall researched chimpanzees. The
Jane Goodall Institute...I am typing this answer from work. I work in
the communications department. I write news stories (published to
www.janegoodall.org), press releases, letters to the editor and things
like that.
I drove from Seattle to DC in September and started working at JGI the
day after I got into town. Jane Goodall is on the road over 300 days
out of the year. Fortunately I have had the pleasure of meeting her a
few times. I do not know what else to say about her or work.
MF: Okay.
BI: This can be for the interview or for your personal knowledge...I just
got hired at a new job. I am now a reporter for a mortgage newsletter.
Honestly, Brandon.
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