05.13.06 - Volume 2, Episode #6 - Length 29:41
BrightSideBroadcast proudly presents James Whiton and the Downtown Apostles. The James Whiton and the Downtown Apostles recipe. Equal parts double bass, guitar, drums and trumpet. Mix and enjoy! Since first being served in 2004 thousands have become fans and all who have experienced James Whiton and the Downtown Apostles can never get enough. So be warned: They are more addictive than crack and one song, you’ll be hooked.
AAC 27.5 MB
MP3 27.2 MB
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
James Whiton: It’s the loudest jazz band you’ll ever hear.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
James Whiton: I think we started in 2004, with a gig that was well attended by two of our friends, and we played for both of them and they liked it. So, we decided that maybe there would be other people that would like it as well.
Bill Patton: But there weren’t. There never were.
James Whiton: But we’ve been alienating crowds now for the last year and a half, all over the country.
Bill Patton: Sad, really.
Jay Jascot: And our families.
James Whiton: Yes, our families as well. I alienated my family years ago. That’s another story.
Bill Patton: Could we just lighten it up a little bit.
James Whiton: Sorry, man.
Bill Patton: Not a good day.
James Whiton: It’s all fun and games with Bill Patton.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
James Whiton: I basically played with every member, separately, except Jay. We never actually played together. We had admired each other’s playing from afar.
Jay Jascot: Yeah. We were eyeing each other.
James Whiton: Making eye contact across the room.
Jay Jascot: Sometimes glancing away. Sometimes actually holding eye contact.
James Whiton: Sometimes holding the gaze for a painful few seconds.
Jay Jascot: Yeah. It got a little awkward.
James Whiton: But then I called Bill and said that I was starting a band with Jay Jaskot and he said, “Oh my God. I’m there.” And then, John was the later addition, because we were scared of his prowess, of his masculine power. But at the last minute he came in, and we found out that it’s OK, it’s OK to hurt like that. In the present conception, we’ve been playing… I think it took about a month to steel ourselves up to have John join the band. And it’s been a great, great time ever since then. We just needed to embrace the pain.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
James Whiton: We just finished a new record that’s on Hipsync Records out of Seattle. It’s called The Way Your Mouth Moves. It’s available at hipsync dot com. Hip is spelled with an “I” and sync is spelled with a “Y” and a “C.” So, it’s not like the kitchen sink, it’s like that boy band. But it has nothing to do with boy band music, it’s, well, it’s a good record.
Jay Jascot: All of us here are boys, though. Except for me, I’m a hermaphrodite.
James Whiton: We are a boy band. We just don’t sing or dance. (laughter)
Jay Jascot: It’s a great record.
James Whiton: Yeah, we spent like two days making it and it really shows, the amount of time that we put into it.
Bill Patton: It’s a long time.
James Whiton: No, we were going for a live feel. You know, we wanted to get in the studio and just play together and see what happened. So, over two days I think we recorded about seven and a half hours of music and somehow sifted that down into a 69-1/2-minute record. We wanted to stay below that 70-minute mark.
Jay Jascot: And whatever dementia you see is a reflection of that 48-hour period.
James Whiton: It’s well-captured onto the digital medium that we chose to record it into. It was produced and engineered by Simon Grant who has been a friend of mine for a long time. He does very good work. He’s worked with an impressive roster of clients. I’m not allowed to mention any of their names.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
James Whiton: Each of these guys bring a different, unique voice to the mix, and so when I’m writing structures for songs, they’re very open for the most part so that people can kind of shine and do what they do. There’s very little written parts, there’s more just like frameworks and seed ideas. So, the improvisation is key. Otherwise we’re not playing off each other and there’s no creativity to what we do. I sure am answering a lot of questions. Let’s ask Jay about his hermaph…
Jay Jascot: Well, for me, it’s all about attention deficit. That’s improv in the nature of stuff.
James Whiton: He hasn’t been taking his Ritalin Sometimes we force-feed him. Tie him up and promise him…
Jay Jascot: That’s my favorite, favorite time. Some of my favorite moments. Tied up. Bodies pressed on me.
Bill Patton: Total freedom.
Jay Jascot: Total freedom.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
Bill Patton: Yeah. Totally. I think we both play with a lot of effects and a lot of noise and chaos just kind of always there, that kind of a deal. I think we try to blend. It’s definitely different playing with him, because it’s less of an Ostinato, low-frequency repeating thing. It’s a lot of mid-range stuff and bowing distortion stuff, so it’s different. The bass had a kind of different function in a lot of the tunes than it usually does. It sounds like a whole string section or like an electronic music composition or something rather than a bass-line, per se. But playing with Jay and him, locked up together, it’s a perfect place to just, you know. You can drop out and the two of them together sound like a full band anyway. So, it’s pretty easy to play with.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
John Fricke: It’s awesome. It’s the best musical experience I’ve ever had. He writes some really cool grooves, cool changes, and it’s the first guy I’ve worked with that came up to me and said, “You know what, I don’t want it to sound like a trumpet. The more effects you want to put in…” And, so, that’s just like a big, bright light shining, going, “Ahhhhhhh, finally somebody want effects!” It was a killer.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
Jay Jascot: no. I mean, yes. What I treasure about this group is the dynamic range of the group. It has the opportunity to get extremely quiet and ambient, and it also has the opportunity to get completely volcanic and eruptive. That provides me, and perhaps the other folks, with a full emotional spectrum within which to work, which is really what I value the most within the group.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
James Whiton: These guys embrace doing different things, whereas other bands that I’ve played with kind of want to have a more restrictive framework, so they breathe within that.
(Jay whispering in background)
James Whiton: This band is really like, “Yeah, let’s play something different.” They’re much better looking than most of the musicians that I’ve played with. Excuse me.
Jay Jascot: What?
James Whiton: I can’t hear what he’s saying, but I’m sure that when I hear this broadcast that I’ll have to come and punish him for those words.
I love the way that each one of these guys plays. I think that on their instrument, they absolutely have mastered what they want the instrument to sound like. In every case, it’s a very unique take on the instrument. Bill sounds like no other guitar player I’ve ever heard, and that’s a very difficult thing to say, particularly on that instrument. The same thing with Jay on the drums and John on the trumpet. Instantly you hear something that they’ve played, a phrase or a lick, and you know it’s them, immediately. That’s what I really treasure in listening to music. It’s how well someone has been able to find their own voice and make their own instrument sound different and interesting. So, yeah, it’s a pleasure playing with these guys, except for when they fuck up. But other than that, it’s really fun.
Jay Jascot: Can you say “fuck” on a podcast?
James Whiton: I think you can say anything you want. I think you can use all the curse words. Go for it.
Jay Jascot: Oh, I don’t know. My mom’s probably going to listen to this.
James Whiton: What the f… Hi, mom! Oh, shit.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
James Whiton: The website for this band is the Downtown Apostles dot com. And by “the” Downtown Apostles dot com, I mean Downtown Apostles dot com. You can find our new CD at Hip Sync Records. It’s linked from our site and it also has its own site at hipsync dot com. Check it out.
( ♪ ??? – Recorded Live by BSB at Jazzbones ♪ )
"That's what I really treasure in listening to music. It's how well someone has been able to find their own voice and make their own instrument sound different and interesting." - James Whiton
