Naturally enough as it were, an interview I had been waiting to do for months fell into place at the proverbial eleventh hour (later than that, actually), and ended up becoming an exercise in total recall, due to the tormenting nature of an intermittently functioning tape recorder. However, Jonestown are so damn friendly and un-assuming, that it actually wasn’t too difficult to piece things back together, and a labour of love it was at that.

What follows is a semi-paraphrased version of an interview with five of the swellest guys you’ll ever meet in the band “scene”, local or otherwise; sparing us any of the defensive or facetious tactics employed by hardened veterans of the scene (usually in an effort to duck out of any meaningful intentions).

To date, the band has released two singles, and have only recently embarked on their second tour (with B), and have previously only been subjected to one interview, in which they asked themselves questions borrowed from an old motion picture. Not your ordinary band, and not your ordinary interview, either.

Q Why the name, considering that so many bands are currently making a living off other people’s misery?

A Dan: We’re certainly not making a joke about it or anything. There is a lesson to be learned from what happened. I think the really amazing thing about it was that this man was able to get all these people to follow him to such a great length.

Eric: I don’t think there ever was a vote on the name.

Tom: We had to come up with something really fast. We had a gig to play, and we didn’t have a name. We weren’t even really a band at that point.

[The other members volunteer some of the names that might have been – most of which owe a huge debt to ‘70s afternoon television – which served to reaffirm that the final choice was more profound than anyone will ever know.]

Q Who writes the group’s material?

A Dan: We all do.

Tom: Dan writes the words

Q Would you be inclined to comment on the nature of your song-writing, be it political or spiritual?

A Dan: I’m really surprised at how many bands purposely avoid making any kind of important statements, as if they won’t be considered cool or something.

Q What inspires you to write?

A Dan: It’s about how people treat each other. There’s so much that is so…. brutal.

Q Do you feel you affect your audiences in the way you would like to, in terms of whether or not they’re really llistening to what you say?

A Dan: I think it’s really hard to get anything through to anyone when you’re playing in a bar. There might be one person who actually hears the words. We’ve always met one or two or three people at all those shows that were poorly attended who liked it.

Tom: They stand up there, and they stay there for the whole thing, and then maybe talk to us afterwards.

Dan: If that’s the worst we have, then we can deal with that, because at least there’s somebody who likes it – and there always has been, at least one person. That’s better than none.

Geoffrey: There’s one song of ours, “Eye For An Eye” – it’s about capitol punishment – and people have actually walked out when we play that, because it just kind of breaks down in the middle and becomes really chaotic and intense. People will say to themselves, “Hmm… I was really starting to get into this stuff, but now I don’t know about this”.

Tom: We work hard at trying to keep the music interesting. We like to keep it melodic, so we don’t get bored with it.

Geoffrey: Some of the music carries its own meaning, I think – even without any words at all.

Q Have you ever run into a subject that you wanted to write about, but felt was too overwhelming for you to do justice to, or have written and wish you could go back and change in some way?

A Dan: Oh, definitely. That’s why the lyrics to some of our songs have been changed over periods of time. We keep re-writing them.

Tom: That way we don’t get tired of playing the same songs over and over again.

Q What are some of the immediate goals of the band?

A Dan: To continue making the best music we can. and learning more about how to run our business better.

Tom: We may possibly get to the point where we need help in managing our affairs, but that would be way down the road.

Q What is Project A-Bomb, besides your own label?

A Dan: We have no money, so if a band wants to put something out on our label, we’ll help them out, but they have to put up the money. We can help with distribution – we have some credibility and some connections we have possibly a little pull with, so we can help in that respect. The first thing that we’re planning to release on the label is going to be a single by Dog-Faced Hermans, which hopefully should lend exposure to the name.

Q As you’ve been fumbling through the process of self-promotion, what are the most significant things you’ve noticed about the machinery of marketing a band?

A Dan: People kind of give it up to the power of some other thing – an office some place, a lot, and it doesn’t really need to be done. We’re not by any means geniuses for figuring this out, it’s really basic shit.

Geoffrey: I just think that too many people think that somebody else is gonna foot the bill, or make them or break them; they’re gonna get signed to some small label – or a big label, whatever – “If we play this kind of music we’re gonna be on Sub-Pop, or AmRep, or Twin/Tone…” – the copycat syndrome, you know?

Tom: We figure things will develop the same, no matter who you’re with – label-wise – in a way.

Dan: There are exceptions to all those rules.

Tom: Bands that get signed to those labels, they’re familiar to the promoters, they’re familiar to the record stores. Someone will go, “Oh, a so-and-so band – I’ll probably like this”, and take it home.

Q Do you feel that labels themselves try to make that strategy appealing to unsigned bands, as a means of snaring them for the label?

A Tom: Totally! There’s a lot of great bands who do that.

Dan: It’s a big trick. So many of those bands end up going, “Oh, we got signed!”, and all of a sudden they spend two thousand dollars recording their first LP – which can be a fairly outrageous amount for a first LP – then before they know it, they’re in debt to that label that just signed them, that they thought was gonna be their saviour.

Eric: Plus, they’ve got to rent a van, and pay for t-shirts….

Dan: Then, they’ve got to go on tour to support that….

Geoffrey: And then, the label doesn’t do much to promote the first fucking record anyway, so they owe ‘em a bunch of money when they record again….

Dan: And then, they break up.

[laughter all around]

Geoffrey: The fucking independent label thing is as bad as the major label thing.

Tom: But please don’t mention any names.

Dan: Feel free to mention names!

Tom: It’s all the same shit, people know what we’re talking about.

Dan: Mention all the names! They’re all equally as guilty.

Tom: So…. say you mention ******** [I’m not mentioning any names, personally – J.], but you don’t mention some other asshole. Well, mention all the assholes, then – let’s fucking slander every asshole in the world, you know?

Dan: Why not? They’re all equally as silly.

Geoffrey: Where there is good, there is bad, and where there is bad, there is good.

Tom: There’s bullshit in everything, you know, so take it for what you want.

Geoffrey: All systems can be improved upon.

Q Do you currently book your own shows?

A Tom: That’s something that’s gonna have to be dealt with in the future.

Dan: Except for the East Coast thing Peter Davis helped us out on, the West Coast thing we did ourselves, everything locally we do ourselves.

Q In the past, a lot of club owners wouldn’t even talk to members of bands, only their agents – has that changed much?

A Geoffrey: Only a couple of times. Some of those guys didn’t know who the fuck I was. I send ‘em a promo pack – they don’t know if I’m in the band or not. I was just representing us on the West Coast thing. In Boise, Idaho, I dropped some fucking dimes into the phone, and this guy is like, “Call me back tomorrow”, “Call me back next week”…. I finally get hold of him, and he goes, “I’m not interested” – – click!!!

Eric: I tried to set up some extra shows on the East Coast, and I got the same thing out there.

Dan: That’s what I expected all along, though. I think it was amazing that we pulled off the West Coast thing.

Tom: Geoffrey’s got a good phone voice.

Dan: At arm’s length, you can hear him.

Tom: But that’s something, though – when we were in Seattle, all these bands that were at our level all had managers, and that really freaked us out. The more I thought about that, the more I thought about…. not along the lines of a manager, but something else – to be an intermediate, with booking, and stuff like that, might be something we need.

Geoffrey: That’s all future discussion.

Dan: Booking a tour is tough as fuck. I mean…. anyone who can do it – five stars. It’s hard. I don’t know if we’re gonna continue doing it.

Geoffrey: Right now, we’re kind of at a plateau. We’ve got two singles out – one coming out on Sympathy For The Record Industry [the B-side of which should be a real treat for all you Captain Beefheart fans – J.], a track on an Amphetamine Reptile thing coming out, and a track after that on a C/Z record, Teriyaki Asthma.

Dan: The other one’s Peace, Love And Hugging In the Streets [the ever-popular Amphetamine Reptile compilation series, that is – J.]

Geoffrey: If that escalates to some strange degree, you don’t know. For instance, Babes In Toyland – one single, six tours, off to Europe with Sonic Youth, on the dawn of releasing their LP….

Jonestown • photo: ©Karla Olmedo; 1990

Fortunately, somebody had the good sense to remind one and all that the band was pressed for time, and the sun was on its way back up. The East Coast was waiting, and there were plenty of new audiences to win over, with a sound non-characteristic of Mid-west bands, for a change.

All those cute little seven-inchers should be out right around the time you’re reading this, so snap a few of ‘em up and hear something that’s worth getting excited about. Jonestown is a rare breed of band these days, amongst the hordes of poseurs and prima donnas with their snappy patter and business savvy stuffed in your face.

Five individuals, one direction. If you could multiply the attitude and the conviction these guys have, society might be just a wee bit nicer of a place to live. Their music speaks for everyone, and it speaks for itself – not a half bad start, eh?

© J.Free / The New Puritan ReView; 1990; 2025

Photographs of Jonestown  from the 7th St. Entry in Minneapolis, MN; circa 1990-92 © J. Free 2025