13 QUESTIONS WITH JESSE VEST OF TANTRIC

(In case you're unfamiliar, TANTRIC is the remaining three fourths of DAYS OF THE NEW after frontman Travis Meeks gave them all the boot prior to the seond disc's release. The band moved back home, intending to all get 'regular jobs' when they hooked up with Hugo Ferreira, who helped them to convince themselves they could be a band again. The result was their debut release, Tantric, which yeilded three top-20 hits, and proved the band would be just fine without Meeks.

We were initially offered the interview with TANTRIC a while ago, and we were eager to do it, because a bunch of us, myself included, are BIG fans of the first Tantric disc, and even bigger fans of the second disc... This interview was initially scheduled for a few weeks ago, but got pushed back. Lead singer Hugo and guitarist Matt were doing a lot of the interviews, but we honestly had no idea which band member was going to call in when our turn came up. When we finally got a commitment, bassist Jesse Vest called up, and a lot of my questions had to be thrown out, because they were directed at Hugo and Matt. No biggie. After fumbling a little bit, I was able to grab my sheets with the questions on them and fire away a pile of half-serious, half-goofy questions.

if READING isn't your thing, you COULD download the entire MP3 of the interiew. It's big, but manageable. DOWNLOAD HERE (slow modem users lay off...this is 12 MB)

Steve C: Are you guys on the road now?

Jesse Vest: Yeah, well we're actually ...we did our last show with 3 DOORS DOWN last night, and we are just about to pull into our hometown. I'm talking to you on the bus.

SC: How is it touring with 3 Doors Down?

JV: It was great. It's the third time we've been out with them. They pretty much...they're southern redneck hillbillies kind of like us, and we all get along really well. It's like going out with old friends.

SC: I've got to ask about this preview disc that Maverick sent. Have you seen what Maverick is sending out?

JV: No I haven't.

SC: It is, basically, a CD-R, with printing on it. It is barcoded, numbered, has my name on it, and it comes with a page-long letter that basically DARES you to pirate it.

JV: Oh yeah, I have seen those. I got one of those myself, I got the same letter believe it or not.

SC: Oh my God... is it THAT bad?

JV: You know what, it really is. Right out of the gate, a lot of albums are just shut down, and don't even get off the ground because of piracy.

SC: Is there a serious danger of getting dropped now if you guys don't perform?... in terms of 'album tanks because of priacy'... you guys hit with "Breakdown" a number one single... a top ten hit with "Astounded" ... a top 20 hit with "Mourning"...if you don't follow that up, for whatever reason... for piracy, for lack of audience interest, is getting dropped really a possibility?

JV: Well, not to get into the specifics of our individual contract, but...

SC: No no, I'm talking about in terms of a general vibe.

JV: Yeah, yeah, you know in general, when you have a successful album like we did, and you follow it up with a not-so-successful album, it's a good possibility that nobody's going to give you the third shot. It's really the public who decides what's cool and what's not...and if you're all of a sudden not cool, then nobody wants you anymore. So yeah, you know, it's definitely a possiblity. That's what this industry runs off of. If you're not selling, and if you don't have... I mean, there are bands that go gold with every album, and that's good enough for them...and they can make seven or eight albums, and not ever have a problem... but if you don't have that solid fan base, and you get a significant drop in sales from the first album to the next, then yeah, you're talking about a potentially serious problem.

SC: How much of a factor was piracy, say, when the first album came out? Peer-to-peer sharing has been going on for a while, and record companies have been complaining for a while, but did you guys feel the bite, or was it..were you still getting a good push from MTV, were you still getting a good push on radio?

JV: I don't really know the specifics of the numbers, of how many people are doing it, like piracy, downloading and all that, but I know that the awareness of our label and their interest in it has doubled from the first album to the second. And that's a conservative thing... it's at least doubled. They're efforts to keep this thing from getting out earlier than our album release date... You read the letter yourself...

SC: Oh yeah...

JV: They're not pulling any punches, they want this thing to go...

SC: They're not screwing around; That was the FRIENDLIEST nasty letter I've seen in a while from a label...

JV: Yeah, you know... they're not messing around. The industry is really feeling the bite from this.

SC: You guys shot the video for "Hey Now", right? (CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO)

JV: Yeah.

SC: Have you gotten any word... is that going to surface on the video outlets?

JV: We just now released it a week ago, and we've gotten some positive feedback. I know VH1, they've got 'The Rock Show', and they said they're going to be putting it on there. We're getting word back that MTV2 is interested and might start playing it. Video has never really been our...

SC: Strong suit?

JV: Yeah. I mean, we made three videos for the three singles on the last album, and we spent an insane amount of money, and it was never worth it. When we made the video for "Hey Now", we did it pretty much in our hometown for literally a fifth the budget of our other videos...

SC: A lot of bands are doing that these days.

JV: Yeah, I just hate to spend all that money and not reap any benefits, so we figured we'd get something out there, and if people like it, that's great...but I don't want to put a lot of money into something that nobody's gonna play. Our real strong point has always been radio airplay.

SC: That never really goes away. It's just a question of getting it to the programmers and hoping they play it.

JV: Yeah...

SC: "Hey Now" is the first single. Any thoughts on second, third, fourth singles at this point?

JV: You know, we're going kind of back-and-forth about it ourselves...The title track of the album, After We Go, we're thinking about that as a potential single...and the cover of "The Chain"

SC: That's a fantastic cover...and I'm not... I could give a shit about kissing somebody's ass. That's one of the best covers of that song that I've heard. I've read that you guys weren't really intending on doing that song at first?

JV: We weren't intending on doing any cover songs at first. It was pressure from the label; they were like, "listen we've got all these songs and they're all great, but we want you guys to go back to the studio and try and do a cover song just to see what happens" We went back and forth about what song to do, and we were just sitting in the hotel, and said "OK, whatever song comes on the radio when we turn on this radio here...that's what we're going to do"....and we turned it on, and it was "The Chain"...If it had been a crappy song, I'm sure we would have not done it, but "The Chain" is really a great song.

SC: What if you turned on that radio, and it was a song by The Carpenters?

JV: yeah, I think we would have drawn the line.

SC: OK...

JV: FLEETWOOD MAC is ...not that we're all Fleetwood Mac buffs or anything, but it's a band that everybody knows, and everybody in our band loves all their stuff...and that was a song that we thought we could do justice to, you know, 'cause there's a lot of realliy cool harmony work vocally, and the music just leaves so much room to play around. You say you've heard it, you know there at the end where we cut it to half-time and bring in the dirty guitars...there's just so much room for eperimentation, that we really thought it was a cool song to pick.

SC: You guys did really dirty it up with this disc, compared to the first one...Are you afraid that the fans might not embrace this considering how clean the past singles were?

JV: No, I'm not worried about that. To be honest, I think it's all still pretty 'Tantric'

SC: You guys have a pretty distinctive vocal sound; Hugo's voice is pretty unmistakable...I dont' think the fans are ever going to question whether or not it's you. It's the question of whether you can heavy it up and maintain the following.

JV: I think that once people get into the album, they're going to see that not only do we...put some more balls behind it, we got a lot more dirty stuff...but there are songs on there like "Just Once" where it's really clean guitars and you got those twelve part harmonies, vocally. Really, what the first album was all about, we kind of multiplied it all the way around. We went to the extremes with the distortion, and we went to the extremes with the laid-back harmony stuff. I think that all we did was build on to the foundation of the first record.

SC: While you're on tour...alcoholic beverage of choice...

JV: You know what? Beer. Beer before the show, and red wine after the show.

SC: The whole 'Sodom and Gomorrah' aspect of being in a rock band just doesn't apply in terms of alcoholism?

JV: No. I'll tell you what, we've had our fair share of problems and bad experiences, and at least before the shows, we all keep it nice and straight. Beer only, and not too much of it. After the shows, each individual's got their own...

SC: Their own vices...

JV: yeah yeah, but we keep it...we keep it pretty tame, because when we were touring the first album, things had a tendency to get out of hand, you know...and I think we've learned from our experiences. You just can't live life like that, you know. When you're touring, and you're in a different city every day, and you got to get up early in the morning, and go to bed late at night, it just doesn't work if you're not taking care of yourself.

SC: If you had to pick one experience you learned from the most, in terms of losing control, what would it be?

JV: Well, nothing I want to elaborate on right now...

SC: Awwww (evidently I hit on something sensitive, and didn't realize it. Trust me, I pulled that question out of my ass. Nothing terribly insightful going on here)

JV:(laughing) I'm going to censor myself. I don't really ... I mean... that stuff happened in the past, and I don't want to bring up old garbage. Somebody else might get offended if I did that.

SC: Good segue. Speaking of getting offended... Superbowl Halftime show...There's a massive uproar with regard to Janet Jackson's performance, KID ROCK's outfit... How do you feel about what's going on in terms of people getting offended with what happened during the Superbowl halftime show?

JV: I gotta be honest. I was offended myself.

SC: Really? (I SOOOOOO was not expecting this answer. I thought someone like Jesse would have a much more permissive look on the whole incident)

JV: yeah, and that's coming from a guy who's seen it all and done it all. I mean, I've been touring in the rock n' roll industry for eight years now...and I was literally appalled, because my wife and my two boys...my two young boys... were sitting there watching the Superbowl at home...and I knew they were sitting there watching it, and they watched the halftime show...and you know, not just the boob coming out...or the fact that [Kid Rock] was friggin' desecrating the American flag... If you look at the material they picked for the Superbowl halftime show. The Superbowl is supposed to be something that brings Americans together, blah blah blah.... and they're up there... Kid Rock's playing a song where he's talking about all his heroes in the methadone clinic...and NELLY comes out, telling girls to take off their clothes. You know, that's network TV... I don't want my kids seeing stuff like that, you know, I got a three year-old who loves football...that's just total...

SC: For the sake of argument... it's a breast. Does the sight of a breast cripple emotionally a three year-old child?

JV: No. Absolutely not. I believe that... I can be pretty liberal in my views too. I think the human body's a beautiful thing. Janet Jackson's right boob is a very beautiful thing. I don't have a problem with the boob itself, I have a problem with... I mean, it's blatant sexuality. When you have Justin Timberlake ripping her clothes off...it just speaks to something much deeper than nudity. I've got a three year-old and a six year-old at home, and neither of them need to be seeing that. It's much too young for them to be ...not even considering sexuality. I mean, they can't even comprehend it yet, let alone getting bombarded with it daily.

SC: In terms of the witch hunt the FCC is embarking on with this material, and it's not just the Superbowl, it's radio shows, it's anything that they consider to be offensive or obscene is now being targeted and fined. As somebody who makes his living entertaining people, does that frighten you at all..that maybe something you guys might do on stage is gonna get targeted? Something you guys might consider to be innocuous?

JV: You know, no... I mean again, this is me being a father first, and a musician second. I believe that, for one thing, we try to keep our shows and our music pretty responsible, you know, we have a couple of curse words here and there...but we don't talk about...the subject matter...in the songs... they always have an uplifting kind of theme to them.... about perseverance, and you know, being yourself... We're pretty responsible about the image that we portray for that very reason. If my kids come to one of my concerts, I don't want them to see a bunch of naked women dancing around on stage. I don't want them to think that in order to be cool, you have to do drugs...

SC: Not necessarily seeing naked women dance around on stage, but God forbid, you curse on stage...and some overly-sensitive individual decides that they were offended by that. Maybe setting a precedent for [condemning] certain otherwise innocuous behavior might not be such a good idea.

JV: Yeah, I see your point. Well, you know... I believe it's different, in the sense that when people come to a Tantric show, they KNOW it's a rock concert. They KNOW that we play rock music. They've probably heard the single "Astounded" and we say the word "fuckers" in that song.

SC: Right. Exactly.

JV: I have to assume that these people know what they're getting into so if we curse, or do something that might be considered lude to someone, chances are those people don't show up...the people who'd consider it lude. People don't bring their three and six year olds to Tantric concerts.

SC: How long do you plan on staying out on tour for this disc? or is it too early to tell yet? (Note to anyone ever doing an interview: Don't ask a guy whose CD hasn't even been released yet how long he's going out on tour to support it. This was a 'kill time while figuring out which final questions to ask' question, and it was STUPID. Shame on my stupid ass)

JV: It is too early to tell, you know...we toured all of October, and then we toured all of this past month in January. It's going well, we're just getting the album kicked off, it doesn't even come out until February 24th...and that's when we start touring again, is after the release of the album. So we're going to pretty much take it and promote it as much as we can....and hopefully we can get the same amount of success that, or more than, the first album had.

SC: If a producer for MTV's 'Celebrity Deathmatch' approached you guys about being featured in clay form in one episode, which band would you MOST like to attack with a chainsaw...in clay form? (This is one of those questions that might have worked better in an Email interview, but we'll see how he does with it)

JV: Oh Goodness... Ummm... I don't even know how to...

SC: I know, it sounds like I'm really trying to bait you (I swear, I wasn't. It's just that so much of this conversation had been serious, that I felt the need to goofy it up a bit)

JV: Well, it's not so much... I'm not afraid of pissing somebody off... it would be hard to pick, you know? For me... the other guys might not agree with me, but for me, it would probably be like, a rapper.

SC: Really?

JV: yeah, you know... all the rap that's out right now is pretty much just...junk food for the brain. I'm not afraid to let anyone know that I think that...but I don't wanna get SHOT, so I might not attack a rapper...even in claymation form.

SC: (laughing) Good. Good answer. (*cue Homer Simpson voice* It's funny 'cuz rappers carry guns...somtimes)... Even though you've got a wife, you've got kids, being on a tour bus can be particularly lonely sometimes. What's the adult movie of choice when Tantric's out on tour?

JV: (cracks up)

SC: PORN of choice while Tantric's out on tour...

JV: Hmm, let's see... we keep it pretty basic. Anthing Jenna Jameson..you know.. it's all pretty recent. We're fairly young guys, so...

SC: Thanks very much. Good luck with the tour, and good luck with the disc...

JV: Thanks a lot, bro.

SC: ..and hopefully we'll catch you out on tour...

JV: OK, man...we'll see ya.

See? That was fun, right? We asked Jesse about the PORN, the booze, the Superbowl (and honestly, I did not see THAT answer coming. Just goes to show you never can tell, eh?)...and he answered as honestly as he possibly could have. I'm still curious to find out what exactly he did while drunk that he didn't want to talk about. Oh well, maybe next time.

CLICK HERE FOR A REVIEW OF TANTRIC's NEW DISC, 'AFTER WE GO' (truly, one of the best CDs I've heard in a while)

CLICK HERE FOR THE BAND's OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Thanks so much to Eleanor for setting up this interview.