Interview | Josh Jackson Interview
Written by: Marianne Moro

        The Josh Jackson Band, a quartet hailing from Music City, bring a promising new sound to mainstream rock.  It's the sound you might hear on a contemporary adult radio station, but there's one important difference.  It's not soulless like the music of many middle of the road bands destined to have their one hit sandwiched in between promos for soft rock to listen to at work. The 9 songs on the band's advance promo CD are simple, guitar-based tunes akin to Matchbox 20. The opener If It All Comes True with its' infectious, toe-tapping beat  and heartfelt lyrics, is the perfect intro. Jackson's vocals are warmly reminiscent of those on any Dishwalla, or Vertical Horizon offering you've heard. Next Best Thing and  Save You From Me are lively, straightforward love songs that are mercifully free of sappy lyrics. In Save You From Me, Jackson sings "Don't think I haven't thought this through/I just want what's best for you" That's certainly a refreshing sentiment as opposed to the "I'll keep you at all costs no matter what" message of most MOR love songs.   Locke's economic guitar work complements the tautly structured songs. Rosa is the pensive ballad about a girl leaving the Hollywood wannabe life for brighter pastures. It's the most affecting track on the CD.

The current line-up of the Josh Jackson Band  have been together since 1999. Vocalist/guitarist Josh Jackson, bassist Jason Hollis, guitarist Locke Sandahl and drummer Kris Crawford  have played to enthusiastic crowds in their homebase of Nashville, and they were even voted the city's #1 band by alternative paper Nashville Scene. They've also garnered kudos from Rolling Stone Contributing Editor David Wilde. I recently conducted an interview with group founder Josh Jackson via e-mail for the lowdown on the band's current modus operandi.

1. What is your musical background? Did you play in other bands previously? Any major musical influences?
I started playing guitar in college when a friend of mine asked to borrow my "boom box" to record some songs he had written. I listened to him play and sing and thought to myself "I bet I can do that". Sure enough, I could! We started an acoustic duo just weeks later, calling ourselves "Dead Lettuce". It was short lived, but it was my first taste of being on stage and performing. Since then, I have been in a couple of other bands. Wendell and The Edisons both enjoyed mild local success, but nothing like we are achieving with the JJB. Our musical influences are all over the map. Anything from 80's rock groups like Poison, Bon Jovi etc. (which we all grew up loving) to songwriter stuff like Shawn Mullins or Jeffery Gaines to modern pop/rock groups like Sister Hazel, Vertical Horizon and Train. A little bit of everything....

2.How did the band get together?
Bass player Jason Hollis and I have been playing together since 1995. We were both in the group, The Edisons together. After I went solo and started playing shows, the other guys just fell in line. Kris (drummer) was also in The Edisons, in a separate lineup, and when they disbanded for good, I snagged him up. Locke came along last, on a recommendation from a mutual friend. We have had this line up fairly solid since 1999.

3. Is it difficult to be a "pop-rock " band in Nashville, which is essentially the capital of country music? What is the scene like there?
The Nashville rock scene is much better than you would think. There are a ton of great rock bands here. I think people would be surprised to hear some of the great Nashville groups: Atticus Fault, Big Jim Slade, Mink...I could go on and on. Even though the rock scene is growing here, most people do think of Nashville as Country USA, and there are a lot of country outlets, but to me a lot of the "new Country" is pop/rock anyway. So, the lines are blurring with artists like Shania Twain, Rascal Flatts and Emerson Drive.

4. Where was the album recorded? Do you have a set idea of what sound you want, or do you experiment in the studio? Did you produce the record yourself or use an outside producer?
The album was recorded in Feb. of 2002 at Dark Horse Studios in Franklin, TN. It was great to record in a great studio and see gold records on the wall from Faith Hill, Jars of Clay and other multi platinum artists who had recorded there. It was very inspiring. Chuck Davis, an emmy winning audio producer from here in town, (and a good friend of the band) recorded and produced for us. We had many practice sessions and meetings to discuss what we wanted to record and how we wanted it to sound. Chuck is a virtuoso guitarist and between he and Locke, they really came up with some great guitar sounds. We also have to thank Ryan Smith from Shure microphones who came by and donated some great sounding mics for the sessions. All in all, we wanted a "great sounding, guitar based" pop/rock record that was true to our live sound. We didn't really want to record anything we couldn't reproduce live. So, I believe we accomplished what we set out to.

5. How did it feel to be voted Nashville's  #1 band of 2002 by Nashville Scene? Do you have a lot of loyal, "repeat" fans who come to your shows?
When we got a call from the newspaper saying we were being awarded this great honor, it totally blew us away. If they would have called and said we finished in the top 50, I would have been ecstatic! The award comes straight from the readership of the magazine, so it felt great to know that the city of Nashville was behind us! We do have a "core group" of people that ALWAYS show up for our concerts. It's great to see those familiar faces every performance and see them singing along and rockin' out with us.

6. Are all the songs collaborative efforts, or are you the main songwriter? Do you have a favorite song on the CD?
I am the main songwriter along with my good friend Arlis Albritton. Arlis is a staff writer with EMI Nashville and is a really talented guy that just wrote a great country ballad for Diamond Rio's new album. He's very versitile. Not many people could effectively write both pop/rock and true country stuff. It's been a blessing to have him around as a friend and a collaborator. Without him, this album might not have been written! My favorite track on the album is "Next Best Thing". It has gotten the most response and it has a killer groove when we play it live. It really rocks out. "In Pieces" also turned out great. We wrote it as a faster number, but Chuck had us play around with the arrangement until we got what we did, a sparse, haunting ballad. I had never written anything like that before so it was rewarding to hear it end up so well.

7. I noticed that one of the songs from the CD "If It All Comes True", my favorite song on the CD, incidentally) has been added to the playlist of WITR-FM, a station that features Christian rock/inspirational music. Do you consider your music "Christian rock" ala Jars of Clay? How would you describe your sound/message?
My debut solo CD back in 2000 was very much a straight forward Christian rock CD. This time around we didn't aim to be recognized as such. We just wrote songs that anyone could understand and relate to. No one in the group has compromised or abandoned their faith but we felt it was time for a change musically. We still wanted to be positive, but we also wanted to put something out that was a little more accessible to the mainstream.

8. What's on the horizon for the Josh Jackson Band? Will you be going on tour to promote the CD?
The future is wide open for The JJB. I don't know if we will ever be signed to a major label or make a million dollars playing music, but as long as we continue to influence people positively and have fun, we will always be putting out great music. We plan to play locally more than we have in the past and maybe even venture out of this city a bit. it all just depends on scheduling and timing.