The bassist Jepha Howard, of the American alternative rock band The Used, came to give us details about the composition and songs of their new album « Heartwork », released on April 24 via Big Noise. An album full of many literary references…
RiskTheDeath: How are you?
Jepha: I feel like I’m living inside of the season finale of the Trump show. Hopefully there is no second season, the first was disgusting and horrific enough.
RTD: Thank you very much for taking time to answer my questions, and sorry for my bad English.
Jepha: Of course! Your English is better than my French. ❤️
RTD: Thanks! So… John Feldmann has been your producer for a number of albums: does his return to you mean good news for you?
Jepha: Of course! This time it felt like returning to see a family member, there was an extremely positive and family vibe during this recording session.
RTD: For the writing and recording process: have you to move to Los Angeles, to be as close as possible to John?
Jepha: We recorded in three different three week sessions spanning almost a year. We all had to be in LA of course for the writing and recording, living out of hotels for those three weeks. But it was very nice splitting up each session to keep the creativity fresh.
RTD: At the end of this session, you composed 27 songs; resulting in a difficult choice to retain only 16 of them: can we say that it is like choosing your favorite child; in other words, an impossible choice? The songs that were not selected will be re-examined for a future album or will they simply be « thrown in the trash »?
Jeph: Some were obvious which we were all already decided on making the record, but there were a few that we all individually had mixed feelings about. Those few we just had to vote and see what the group decided was best. For the left overs we’re going to release them later on or maybe even next year just for fun.
RTD: The artwork of this new album « Heartwork » by Cam Rackam, is presented in the form of a tarot card, which includes several literary references and hidden objects: for us, can you reveal some of them and give their meanings?
Jeph: No, (haha) lots of literary references and occulted meanings are better left to be found by those that enjoy spending the time to search and explore.
RTD: « Heartwork » has similarities with your album « Artwork », in particular the investment and the emotions transmitted; but also with their visuals: is the tree a wink to this album of 2009?
Jepha: The Heartwork albums vibe is filled with winks to our first three records with a little hint at the fourth. Might even say this is a different branch from the in love and death tree.
RTD: The song « The Lottery » is inspired by the controversial novel by Shirley Jackson (published in 1948), which highlights Caleb Shomo from Beartooth: is this band an influence for the band?
Jeph: I don’t listen to much music past the late 1970’s, but I really love Caleb’s voice. His part on « The Lottery » is incredible, even better than we were imaging.
RTD: The title « Blow Me » was taken up by Jason Aalon Butler of Fever 333; just like the titles « The Lighthouse » and « Obvious Blasé » were taken up by Blink 182: how did this opportunity come about? And how did these collaborations go?
Jepha: We’ve known Jason for sometime now from Letlive and Fever 333 and we’ve toured with Blink 182 and some of their side projects in the past but this was the first time we had a chance to be able to work with them. Jason’s happened really fast, we had the song somewhat finished except for the bridge and asked him if he was in town and wanted to come add some fun to this heavy song we were working on. Two days later he was in the studio screaming for about two hours. Jason is an incredible human and a positive influence. Similar things happened with Travis and Mark, they had free time and came to the studio to work on some music with us. Really loved the chance to put some bass down to Travis’s drum tracks.
RTD: Thank you for your answers; good luck in the future projects of The Used…
Jeph: Thank you! Stay safe and positive, and I hope to see you soon.
By thanking, Elodie from HIM Media; The Used and precisely Jespha…