In the Studio: Jubilee

I’m in my studio right now, up in beautiful North Hollywood and it’s 4:45 in the morning. I’m putting the cherry on top of our album; little things here and there. At the end of our UK tour we fly to New York to mix the record and master it, then we keep touring and keep moving.

With Jubilee, initially the idea was to start something and write songs that were nothing like any of the bands we’d been in - or were in at the time - and to a certain extent that still is the idea. For me, I’ve always been in bands where there are dudes wearing black and songs about all the darker aspects of life. Not that there’s anything wrong with that - after all rock and roll’s not all shiny - but to a certain extent it can be easy for that darkness to turn into a cartoon, which is how I felt in the Icarus Line.

I played with those guys for nine years and felt like we’d become Spinal Tap. I felt like the band had run its course and took off, then ended up – funnily enough – playing material from Trent [Reznor]’s past that explored that dark stuff. Now, I’ve been playing music for a long time and I don’t really feel like getting a job at Subway anytime soon, so if I want to play music for the rest of my life I’ve got to figure out how to do it without ending up in this abyss of ugliness. It’s got to be a little more uplifting. I realise that sounds a little hippyish – like I want Jubilee to be a Christian band or something – but that’s not the case at all, there’s things I want to explore other than ‘drugs,’ ‘all women are whores’, ‘there’s no god,’ ‘live fast, die young.’

I’m not putting down Joe from the Icarus Line and definitely not Trent – he’s an amazing musician. Nine Inch Nails was fun but I didn’t feel like playing someone else’s songs my entire life either. I’m a songwriter - always have been - and I feel like I’ve got something to say other than all that stuff. So that’s that.

Video: Jubilee - Rebel Hiss