Death On Wednesday
Toxic Emotions
Issue 2, Summer/Fall 2003
S&S: What song are you most proud of on your latest release and why?
Jeff: I would say either "Falling" or "Sympathy." "Sympathy" is the acoustic track. "Falling" just because I think that melodically it's really a step forward for us. I just like everyone's parts. I'm really happy with my guitar parts [and] I'm really happy with Nate's vocals. As far as "Sympathy" goes, I just think that it's really a step forward for us to do an acoustic track on one of our albums. It was an electric song that we used to do live, and it just translated really well into acoustic. I'm really happy with the way it came out.
S&S: Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Jeff: We just kind of all get together and [I'm not] trying to sound mean, but we kick everyone out of our backstage room. We spend the last five minutes before we go on stage [with] just the four of us. We don't have any crazy rituals where we do anything superstitious. We just like to kind of zone everything out and get in our little mood.
S&S: Acoustic or electric?
Jeff: I like both. I'm a really big Rolling Stones fan and they kind of go back and forth between the two. We've done whole acoustic shows, just Nate and I, and we've done a couple of acoustic tracks in our live set, but I think, truthfully, I prefer playing electric. It has more energy to it.
S&S: Do you prefer playing local shows or traveling to new places?
Jeff: I like them both. The local shows are so welcoming. It's so nice to come home to familiar faces in a familiar surrounding; someplace where you're really comfortable and where you know you can go and sleep in your own bed that night. This tour has been so amazing. [In] cities like Cleveland, where we haven't been in so long, [we've had] such an amazing reception from a packed room full of kids just screaming their lungs out. It's so rewarding both ways.
S&S: Some bands don't like to be compared to other musicians, for the sake of preserving their own unique sound. Would you say you fall into this category?
Jeff: I think that we're not afraid to draw from our influences, but, at the same time, we don't really try to follow any niche or any specific trend. We're proud of the fact that we're different, but we're not afraid to tell people that we take a lot of influence from bands like The Clash, The Stones, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and The Misfits. So, a little bit of both, I guess.
S&S: Have you ever broken down while on tour?
Jeff: Yes, definitely. We're pretty good. We like the road a lot and we do really well as far as keeping our spirits high. There have been a few times where we've gotten in a few knock-down drag-outs with each other after one two many laps of the whisky or whatnot.
S&S: If you could pick any member of a band and sit down and talk to them, who would it be and what would you want to ask them?
Jeff: I think it might be Dave Ghrol. Any band, huh? I don't know. Probably Joe Strummer, Keith Richards, or Tom Petty. That's a hard one. I think that I would want to ask them where they draw their influences from, what inspires them, and what sparked them [to start a band].
S&S: What is your favorite song and why?
Jeff: I don't know. That's a hard question. I know what my top five favorite albums are, but I don't know my favorite song. In no particular order...I know that other members of the band share a lot of these albums with me, as far as favorite albums of all-time: Foo Fighters "The Color and the Shape", "Danzig 2", Smoking Popes "Destination Failure", Guns and Roses "Appetite For Destruction", and Rolling Stones "Exile On Main Street" or The Clash's "London Calling".
S&S: Are you an early riser or a night owl?
Jeff: Night owl, for sure. We party too much. I've ended up in the hospital a couple of times, just from doing dumb stuff like splitting my knee open. We're just a bunch of dummies that like to party. You've got to expect to have a couple of casualties once and a while, right?
S&S: If you could live the life of any fictional character, who would it be?
Jeff: I don't know. Let me think...I'm reading Catcher In The Rye right now and I don't think I ever want to be Holden Caufield. I just was reaing To Kill A Mockingbird, [so] maybe someone as simple as Atticus Finch. He has a lot of integrity, and [is] just a good role model.