San Francisco- Washington D.C. Based indie pop band Jukebox the Ghost consists of only three guys, Ben Thornewill (vocals/keyboard), Tommy Siegel (vocals/guitar), and Jesse Kristin (drums.) This power pop indie band has just released their fourth album, the self-titled Jukebox The Ghost. To promote their newest album they have been touring all over the country. I was lucky enough to catch them before their San Francisco show for a quick interview.

Laura Chandler: You’ve said that your fourth self-titled album was a reinvention and a self-evaluation. What was the inspiration behind that? Why did you guys want to reinvent yourselves?

Ben Thornewill: You know, it’s funny, it was more process, it was the way we made the record that ended up feeling like a reinterpretation. We came at with, like, fifty songs and the demo process took months, recording process took months, and it was very meticulous, like chipping away, and the construction of the songs. So at the end of these months and months of work we found that we sort have taken all these risks.

You guys have worked really hard on this new album, what are your favorite songs?

Hollywood is one of the absolute favorites because Jesse, who’s the drummer, is singing for the first time. And especially in a live setting, it’s this really big moment when he comes out to the front of the stage and sings. It’s just the highest energy moment of the set. Otherwise, we’re at a point where the song has taken on a new meaning because we’re playing them live, so maybe the favorites on the record end up being in a different order of preference.

So, you guys have been active for about a decade. How does that feel? What about the band has changed?

I remember two years ago we went on a tour with a band and we were so used to being the youngest band on tour, you know, being the babies, being the people playing at the show for their first time. And now when younger bands come on tour with us, they call us “tour dads.” It was weird, because it was like ‘oh right.’ Because in the grand scheme of things, we’re almost like touring veterans, we’ve done like nine hundred shows up to now. It feels good! I think we’re lucky in that we get along well. It’s like a marriage, it’s so f***ed up, none of the sexual benefits, but as far as the “good years” and “bad years”  and the emotional upheaval and knowing each other quite better than we should, it’s all there.

You’ve gotta be that close to continue doing what you guys do.

Yeah, luckily the other guys in the band are fantastic. So we’re able to get along and talk!

What were your hopes for the album? Did you achieve them? Do you have any more hopes for it?

This album is so young. We had just switched record labels, so it was released back in the fall with our last label, which we had just been with for our previous two records. It’s being re-released by Cherrytree, which is a bigger label, a bigger platform, and we’ll have international presence. Every time you make a record, you think ‘okay, this is going to be the one. This is gonna be the one that makes it huge.’ I was very careful to limit expectations, and sort of, not expect too much. So far I’m thrilled with how it’s going. The crowds are bigger; we just played Conan a couple days ago. It feels like there’s some buzz behind it, but at the end of the day there’s no formula for success. For us, there is no quick path to becoming a huge band.

So you were on Conan? How was that experience? I know you guys did Letterman before.

It was awesome! It’s surreal, we had played in Salt Lake City the night before, we flew to  LA, woke up the next morning, we had to be at the studio at eight-thirty in the morning, do the sound check, do the rehearsal for the cameras, and then by ten-twenty we’re done. We just sit for six hours waiting. And then someone shows up, and it’s the kid from Boyhood, and Kim Kardashian shows up, her rear-end is as big as you’d imagine it to be. Yeah, it was amazing. It’s so weird, you spend all this time waiting for it and building up to it and at the end of the day you just play one song. So you get up there, you play the song for the cameras, and then that’s it. We met Conan on stage and he was a spectacular guy, we got to hang out with him for a bit after as well. It was a great experience!

After this album, are you going to continue in this direction or experiment more?

I have no idea. You know, I think you discover what a record’s going to be as you make it. A lot of it is defined by the songs that are available, the songs you find yourself writing. We wouldn’t be able to describe the album we made before we made it; you know you discover it. I feel like it’s almost like you raise the children that you have. It feels like you don’t know what you’re going to get, you’re gonna make a child, (laughs) presumably I haven’t done this yet, I think. Anyways, you make a child and you figure out who they are as they grow up. And making a record is kind of like that. You have the songs and you figure out what they mean and how they fit together on the record.

Since this is Best New Bands, what’s a new band that has caught your attention?

Tommy, what’s a new band that’s caught our attention?

Tommy Siegel: Last year, I loved Ava Luna. They’re one of my favorite new bands.

Ben: Yeah, Ava Luna! And Secret Someones, who we’re on tour with, are super spectacular!

Make sure to check out Jukebox the Ghost ’s website and Facebook page  to see when they’re playing in your town.

Photo: Jukebox The Ghost By Eric Ryan Anderson