Jesus Jones

Jesus Jones are back – but to be strictly accurate, they never actually went away. “We just dropped off the radar, for a while” says singer and principal songwriter Mike Edwards. “We never split, or gave up altogether; we just needed to rediscover how to be a fully-functioning band again”. So – what changed? Well, around a decade ago, the band were merely existing, playing the occasional show when the urge took them. “But then” says Edwards, “we just realized: look, this is still fun, so why don’t we do more, and we’ll have more fun?”

Since then, they’ve overhauled their management (they’re now managed by the band’s keyboard player, Iain Baker) have revamped their web presence and social media, toured the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and have taken charge of their back catalog. In 2011 they released The Collection, a double CD featuring never-before heard demos and rarities, and in 2014 reissued expanded versions of all four of their EMI albums. Each album featured a huge treasure trove of demos, rarities, alternate versions, live tracks and rare videos. With original drummer Gen back on the drum stool, the line-up is now exactly the same as it was, over twenty-five years ago, when the band was first formed.

“How’s This Even Going Down?” finds the band reflecting on their place in the world, and the throes of the mid-life crisis everyone expects them to inhabit. Talking about the single, Edwards explains: “It’s basically about not quite believing your good fortune at getting to be this age, which as we’ve seen in 2016, when the Grim Reaper has gone niche with musicians and entertainers, shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

Edwards muses: “This is a great time for us. We’re doing the best shows we’ve ever done, it’s the original line up getting really inspired by so much great new music and as a result we’re making new material which stands up really well next to the older songs. To be honest I wish we’d been this good when we were more in the public eye – the praise and success would have sat more comfortably!”

Discoveries of the American Scientific are an electronic-infused indie rock band from Chicago.
Joseph Wood – Vox/Guitar/Misc
Wes Vanek – Bass/Sequences
Jamie Gallagher – Drums
Dave Gallagher – Guitar