f10 interview: singer/guitarist Jake Rabinbach (Jump Back Jake, Francis and the Lights)

Some people go on long journeys in order to escape or leave something behind. Jake Rabinbach’s journey was a means of finding something.

Rabinbach spent time at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he was buddies with Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden of later MGMT fame.  He left after two years for New York with the hope of achieving his musical aspirations.  But Rabinbach’s vision needed something more, something with a deep, engrained musical history.  That desire took him down to Memphis, where he formed Jump Back Jake, a “modern Memphis rock n’ soul” band that was soon signed to the newly relaunched Ardent Music, the label that launched legendary power pop band Big Star many decades before.

With their debut album, Brooklyn Hustle/Memphis Muscle receiving critical praise (you can read f10’s review here) and the band playing multiple shows at this year’s South By Southwest, Rabinbach is seeing his vision finally come to fruition.  Splitting time between Memphis with JBJ and Brooklyn with his other band, Francis and the Lights, has turned Rabinbach into a musician with lots of frequent flyer miles, but he’s not complaining.  Just as JBJ’s debut title mirrors the duality of Rabinbach’s two distant bases of action, Rabinbach enjoys the freedom and opportunity to explore many different musical avenues, no matter where they take him.

(Interview after the jump.)

F10: What was your inspiration for leaving Brooklyn for Memphis? Were you tiring of the scene?

Jake Rabinbach: Well, New York is hard for anybody – trying to fight the fight. I don’t know if I have negative feelings about Brooklyn so much as I thought that, I guess from understanding how music was made in Memphis historically, in whatever small way that I could having never been here before, it seemed to me that it might be a more conducive environment for me, to be creative there.  And because I was so interested in Memphis music, and there were so many different kinds of music that I loved that came from Memphis, I felt maybe there could be some magic that I could pick up here.

F10: You’ve called your band a “soul band” and said you try to emulate the qualities of musicians like Booker T and the M.G.‘s. With a lot of the young bands today trying to emulate Joy Division or My Bloody Valentine, do you ever worry about how you would be received by audiences outside of the southwest – maybe back in New York? Or is that what makes you unique?

JR: I try not to worry too much about how I’ll be received. I think about it, I think you sort of always have to think about the delicate balance of an artist, of thinking about the vision versus the audience, but I think that the most important thing within that relationship is to try to see there’s a process of translation, how what you create musically goes out into the world more than focusing on what people are interested in hearing.  In a way, I think what you’re saying is what we’re doing isn’t necessarily fashionable, and to some degree, I completely agree. I think that that was part of my desire to do it. I think that there’s elements of Brooklyn Muscle/Memphis Hustle that were deliberately un-hip.  I think people have associations with certain kinds of music – I think the Allman Brothers Band are a great example of that.  The Allman Brothers Band today, who are more on the jam band tour circuit, people have really parodied that.  But the first Allman Brothers Band record, which is really the only one that I ever listen to, is one of the great white boy psychedelic soul records ever made.

F10: What was it like working with the team at Ardent Records? They seem like kind of a family over there.

JR: They really are. They’ve been a wonderful home for us, incredibly supportive.  Getting to work with someone like [Big Star’s] Jody Stephens and [Ardent founder] John Fry on a daily basis is really wonderful. They’ve been a part of a very rich history that I really admire, and to have people like that supporting you in a very familial way,  it really does a lot for you as an artist. It did a lot for me.

F10: You’ve played South By Southwest before, but this was the first year you had a showcase.  How was that different?

JR: Well, it was also the first year we played more than once, it was the first year that I was there with two bands, so I was incredibly busy. I think I played eight [shows], four with each band, and it was an absolute blast.

F10: Your record has a pair of boxers on the front cover. Do you feel like your north and south elements are sparring for predominance?

JR: I never really felt like the two boxers represented north and south – other people have said that.  To me, Brooklyn Hustle/Memphis Muscle was borne out of the concept of – it was almost like a tagline that one would use for one’s fight; in my head the narrative would be a boxer who had spent half of his life in Memphis and half of his life in Brooklyn and was sort of embodying the two elements to take that into the ring, and I would say that’s what we were trying to do.

F10: Now, you also play guitar in the New York band Francis and the Lights. They have more of a Prince/Phil Collins thing going on – it’s more electronic.  What’s your attraction to that? Is that more your New York sensibilities coming out?

JR: I don’t know if my attraction to the music has anything to do with any set influences.  I have been working with Francis since 2001, so I’ve been in that band for quite a long time and it’s a very important part of my life and artistic expression, so that’s certainly what my attraction to it is at this point.

F10: It must be tough balancing time between the two bands, especially geographically.  Do you see yourself veering towards one focus at some point?

JR: Oh, I don’t ever want to have one focus.  I’m really attracted to artists who have their hands on a lot of different projects. I love Tom Waits, he’s done so many different collaborations with people and also so many great solo records. I love the way that he’s gone about his career. I don’t ever want to be in a position where I have to say, ‘this one person, this is who I am and that’s it.’  I just can’t imagine that.

mp3: Francis and the Lights – “LIME”

mp3: Jump Back Jake – “Terrible Mistakes”