“We did the core of this record live,” says front-man John ‘Junior Smalls’ Randall. “I’ve wanted to do an album like that for a long time; I haven’t gotten to record that way since 1999 when I was in a hardcore band called Confide (not to be confused with the more recent California band of the same name). It brought out a totally different feel than we could have achieved tracking separately. Making pop-rock records with 12 Summers Old was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of emphasis on perfection, which definitely spilled over onto the first JS&TC record “Best Laid Plans,” and I wanted to try something more relaxed, a little more human. Carter and Ryan and I had been touring on these songs since March, so we had that tightness that only comes from being on the road, playing the songs together night after night, so I had confidence that we could get some great takes of these songs live in the studio without even a click-track.”

“The first day, we went to Firebrand Recording (www.firebrandrecording.com) in St. Louis to use their awesome live room. It was a stressful start of the day; I had just gotten back in town from Ohio recording Afroman hours before we were scheduled to be at the studio. Ryan was about an hour late per the usual, but our bass player Carter, who was also to be our engineer for the day, messed up and double booked himself at his own studio and was hours late. On top of that, I went to the nearby gas station to get a couple bottles of tea for my throat as I would be singing for a long time that day, and got a crash course on the potency of Marley’s Mellow Mood Relaxation Beverage Green Tea with Honey. The gas station was out of regular bottled tea brands and only had the Marley stuff so I bought two bottles and headed back the studio. I had never drank it before and didn’t read the label, thinking the whole ‘Mellow Mood’ motif was simply a marketing gimmick and not indicative of actual effects of the drink. Man was I wrong. Halfway through the first bottle I was feeling like the Lion of Zion all of a sudden; I read the label and was ‘tickled’ to see that it contained melatonin and a few other sleep agents. Great for a night at home on the couch but not ideal for someone about to record for ten hours! So, at least Carter’s extreme tardiness let me catch a nap and undo some of the effects of that bumbaclot tea before he got there.”

“When Carter finally arrived, Firebrand co-owner/operator Brian Sheffer (who is a real cool guy by the way) hung out and helped Carter hook up the Tascam MS-16 sixteen track tape machine, which we then ran into Pro-Tools. We set up for drums, bass, guitar, and main vocal tracks to be recorded live, and went to work. My boy Pauly Paul was also there with us to help start and stop the tape machine so Carter didn’t have to run in and out of the control as much while he was playing bass.  We did about three takes each of seven songs; we wound up using five of the seven for the e.p.”

“We then took that live session back to Suburban Pro Studios in Florissant, MO, which is owned by Carter and another great friend of ours, Matthew Sawicki. A week or two later I managed to coerce string player Devon Kirsch, a former colleague of mine at Accent Music in Swansea, IL, where I used to teach, to come hang out at the studio and play on some tracks. It was an amazing day; he wound up playing violin on We Make Our Dead Friends Saints and Alone Again, then put mandolin and ukulele on Cold Shoulder. Then he disappeared completely. Unreachable. No response to emails, texts, voicemails, and I probably even sent a Facebook message. To make matters worse, my friend Ellen from The Skekses (http://theskekses.blogspot.com/) was supposed to do some backing vocals on the album but caught the flu and understandably had to bow out.  So here I was with a partially done album and a quickly approaching deadline to get the record to the promoter, and without the two people I intended on finishing it with.”

“As the universe sometimes allows, things worked out great. I was able to get ahold of Jesse Farrar, a dude I didn’t know super well but considered a friend; he had filled in on bass guitar with my little brother’s band Farmers Tan Market some years prior and I knew he was an awesome multi-instrumentalist. Ironically, I had also crashed at his college apartment a couple years ago when I was on tour with The Fufops and Afroman. When I asked him about playing on the album he agreed immediately, and much to my relief was down to start working right away. I gave him the charts and he cooked up a perfect mandolin part on West Belleville; he and I also arranged a string part on Windows Down that turned out to be the final touch needed on that song. Mr. Farrar’s other contribution was playing organ on our cover of Uncle Tupelo’s song Cold Shoulder; this was perfect because he is the nephew of Tupelo co-founder Jay Farrar, and being that we are all from Belleville, IL, it was a beautifully incestuous tribute to not only a seminal band but also to our hometown that spawned all of us. The female vocals were sung by the beautiful Shelley Katherine Plumb. She is the girlfriend of singer Riley James, whom JS&TC almost always tours with. Being Riley’s girl, she is constantly dragged to shows and knew the songs anyway, so that worked out great.”

“Once tracking was done, Carter and I spent a few sleepless nights at Suburban Pro mixing the record. I was really happy with the final results, so I wanted to get a good mastering job done on the record. Much to my surprise I was able to quickly get ahold of Brian ‘Big Bass’ Gardner, a well-known and much respected mastering engineer, whom it seems, after reading his discography, has mastered about half of the important records of the last thirty years. It was the perfect ending to the e.p.; when I got the tracks back from Mr. Gardner they were pristine and I was elated! Thanks to everyone that destroyed their schedule for a day or few days to help make this e.p., and thanks to anyone listening the record, for appreciating what went into this work.

March 1st in Columbia, Mo

March 3rd in Des Moines, Ia

March 4th in Chicago, Il

March 8th in Cincinnati, Oh

And more to come soon!!! Hope to see you guys there

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