If some unfortunate accident occurred following this interview, in which you ended up having…oh I don’t know…your brains eaten and your body ripped into pieces and then sold to restaurants throughout town, at which restaurant would your wee wee’s be served at and why?

CHAD: I think mine would be served at The Canyon Café.

Why?

C: Because my DJ name is “The Anaconda”(laughter)

SHANE: I want my penis to be served at The Chop House, downtown, because I will be getting top dollar for that baby (laughs)

JEPEDO’S JUICE is an unusual name for a band. How did it come about?

S: I took the idea of Jepedo, from Pinocchio. He took a piece of wood and carved it into a living thing. Musicians play wooden musical instruments and create something that’s alive.

Is “Juice” a reference to…um…semen?

S: No! (Laughs) It’s just a reference to healthy energy.

That’s kind of heavy. Is JEPEDO’S JUICE an introspective, spiritual band?

S: Definitely. I think so. I believe that songs are already written somewhere and we are like the channel for them to come out. I guess if you call that spiritual, yeah.

C: I think there is a good level energy in the room when we all write together. Shane a lot of times comes in with a song he’s written. He does a large majority of the song writing. He’ll come in with a song, and we will all kind of collaborate. The energy in the room is spiritual. Nothing you could put a name on.

You have some rather mature, positive lyrics. Is that by accident or design?

C: It’s definitely intentional. Ever since Shane and I started writing, way back, in my bedroom with just some turntables and an acoustic guitar, we’ve always been about writing really positive lyrics. There’s enough negative bullshit out there. This is just kinda, how we are, you know?

S: I don’t see a point in promoting negativity that’s gonna put other people down or make other people feel bad. I just wanted to write something uplifting, something that doesn’t create any negativity.

Hip-Hop has a history of lyrical negativity though. How will you keep an edge without following suit?

C: I don’t think there are any limits to music. I think it is what you a make it. There is definitely an influence there in our music, in terms of style. But in terms of what comes out of my mouth, there are no influences, really. This is all about what WE want to say.

Cool. Tell me about the formation of the band.

C: It was the end of ’97, beginning of ’98. At the time I was living in Littleton. I was riding for a skateboard shop that Shane also rode for. We kind of hooked up through the skateboarding team. A common friend of ours named Matt knew I was in a band in High School. He mentioned to me one day that Shane plays bass. He said, “you guys should get together”. So Shane and I got hooked up and for awhile just played beats on the turntable, played acoustic guitar and just played kind of,”Acoustic Hip-Hop’. It was fun. So we eventually put a flier up in a music shop and two guys I actually went to High School with responded. Scott and Jimmy.

Where did you rehearse?

C: The owner of Totally Board skateboard shop, which is currently out of business, allowed us to come into the back of his skateboarding shop where the skateboarding ramp was and do our first practice session. We didn’t have a place to practice at all. We got back there, I drank a six pack of beer and we just kind of made the best of it. It was fun. We put together “Give it up”

When did Katie come into the scene?

C: About a year later.

Let me hear it from you, Katie.

KATIE: One time I went to one of their shows at Herman’s Hideaway. And I got…um…intimate with Shane (laughs).

Really? What’s Shane’s wee wee like? Would you pay top dollar at the ChopHouse for it?

K: No! (Laughs)…it’s so small you can barely see it. His balls are friggin’ humongous! (More laughter). Shane would lie in bed and…please himself.

That’s rather hot.

K: No it wasn’t. (Laughs) Because I would just lay there and watch. He would get out his porno magazines and leaf through (laughs) and then he would want me to give him blowjobs while he watched porn! (Much laughter)

How did this end with you being in the band.

K: Shane knew I played piano. I am a classically trained pianist. I worked with Natalie Merchant for awhile when I was a little girl. He knew I was a piano teacher. He asked me to come and play keyboards for the group. I did, and the rest is history.

A personal message from Shane to all women reading this interview:
“That shit’s not true. I have a fourteen inch cock and that’s all you ladies need to know!”

Since you are a classically trained pianist. Was it hard to make the transition to Punk-Hop?

K: Yes. It was real difficult for me at first. I always played only classical music. This music is more about feel. It was hard for me at first because I was use to having music in front of me. I would worry about not playing the right key signature. I had to get over all of that.

How did you get over it?

K: I don’t know. I just did. Of course, Chad kicking my ass a little helped. (Laughs)

C: I got really drunk one night. I was a really big dick to Katie. I told her shit I didn’t really mean. I told her I thought she wasn’t good for the band…. I don’t even remember some of it…

K: I do! Let me fill him in (laughter)…Chad told me that maybe I should re-think being in the band ‘cuz what I was doing didn’t work out. Maybe I wasn’t going in the same direction as the band.

C: To say the least, that’s a statement I regret at this point. I think she has been an incredible asset to the band. From every standpoint. Musically…

K: And I’m hot!

C: And she’s hot. She’s got big tits. (Laughter)

Since Scott and Jimmy aren’t here, tell me about them.

C: Jimmy is a really talented individual. He is trained from an orthodox standpoint. He played in marching band in high school. He was asked to be a Blue Knight. That’s a pretty high stature of marching and drumming.

He’s incredible on the album.

C: He adds a lot of subtleties. Little cock fills, high hat trills. Stuff you don’t usually hear drummers doing. It’s not always 100% accurate, but it adds a vibe to our music that sets us apart from other bands

Scottie is the man! I love him.

C: The thing that is cool about Scott is the speed in which he learned the bass. He really only started around the time we formed. Most people think he’s played a lot longer. He owns the bass. He is an integral part of JEPEDO’S JUICE.

Where did he get the idea to do the jump during “Home”?

C: He just added it one night when he was hammered. (Laughs) It’s definitely a crowd pleaser!

Give me the skinny on the new CD

C: The new CD is titled “Construction of Sound”. It was recorded in Parker, Colorado over about fourteen months under the supervision of a Mr. Jeff Graves. He produced and engineered it for Round Tree records.

Was this the first time all of you were in a studio?

C: All of us together? Yes

Was it an intimidating experience?

C: Not really. Jeff is a real personable guy. It’s a home studio, so it’s not like, “time is money”. He completely did it for free because number one, he knew we were serious about our music. And number two, he believed in our talent.

Do you think you got an inferior product due to his work being for free?

C: No. Actually, it’s not for free. He has a cut in the profits.

K: He just did the recording process for free.

C: Yeah he just basically fronted his time and his money actually. For a guy like that, time is money because he is so busy with other projects including his own band.

OK back to the CD

C: The CD is fifteen tracks. It runs about an hour in length.

How long did it take to record it?

C: About a year and…two months.

Why so long?

C: Because of the process that we went through. I now feel we could have probably minimized our time more. We all have different schedules. A large majority of it was getting together, tracking drum and bass, and then building from that. In fact, that’s where the title, “Construction of Sound” came from. Building it up piece by piece is literally what we did.

Tell me about the building process.

C: Each individual member would come down, do their part, and track on top of what was already good. We found out in the end that was the wrong way to do it. The last couple of tracks we recorded, one of which was “All for the People” and the other “G-Spot”, were recorded completely live. We just did take after take until we got it right. We really wanted a live kind of vibe on the CD.

That works great for rock and roll. But doesn’t that mess with the produced, studio vibe of Hip-Hop?

C: Not necessarily. There are things you can do in the studio to eliminate noise. The drum kit was in the garage. The amplifiers were downstairs in the basement. Even though we were doing all the music live, everything was separated, so Jeff had a good level of control over the sound.

If you were to record the CD all over again, would you do more of it live?

C: Yeah, definitely. We agreed that with the next one were gonna try to do more of that. It just will save time and money, not to mention some of the headaches we went through during the mixing and mastering.

Let’s talk about the songs. Shane, since you seem to be the main force behind most of them, why don’t you do a track by track description?

S: Track one is “All about the People”. It was one of the last tracks I wrote. Basically, I was shooting for something that sounded kind of like an anthem. I came up with a catchy riff. I wanted to create the same kind of a vibe that a song like, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” has. I pictured an arena, where everybody is all pumped up when they hear the first chords of the song. The song is about all of the people coming to the shows and having a good time. The people are as much apart of the band as we are.

“GIVE IT UP”

S: This is one of the first songs that we wrote, maybe two and half years ago. It has more of a garage thing happening, like Nirvana. It’s all about the whole Colorado scene, the skateboarding and the snowboarding scene here. In my opinion, that scene isn’t pushed enough. I grew up in California. People’s perception of Colorado is a lot different than what it really is. It would be nice to be known more for the skateboard; the snowboard scene that really does exists here. And the music scene that goes along with it.

“SOMETIMES”

S: We may re-name it “Take a step back” since Brittany Spears came out with a song called “Sometimes”, herself. This song is about doing a bunch of things in life, and at certain points, you have to stop and take a step back and see where you’re at. It’s about taking an outside look into your life.

“HOME”

S: This is about a bunch of life experiences jumbled into one. This is a cool punk rock song. It’s driving punk rock and then it breaks down into this clean part that feels really good.

“LEVEL TWO”

S: Another song about life experience. It’s mostly about how I want to see my life happen. I know I want to be a certain way someday. It’s a pretty positive song. It talks about being with one girl and treating her right. Which I used to be good at (Laughs). I haven’t been lately, so…I don’t know, I want to get back to that “someday”.

“JUST ANOTHER DAY”

C: This song didn’t really fit into the niche of the album, but we really felt it was an important song to include because all of our fans really dig it. The song is about when I used to live down town (in Denver). I used to live off of 12th and Washington. And I just kind of observed, when I was in bars down there, how a typical guy would go into a bar and try and pick up on women. (Laughs) It was pretty pathetic, so I just decided to write a song about it. It’s a real cool song because it’s slow and kind of has a deep, melodic feeling, but then breaks into some Reggae, some Ska kind of stuff in the end. It’s a real important song, because everyone who comes to our shows really gets into it.

“360 FLIPS”

S: This song is about skateboarding and enjoying life. Scott really contributed to this song. It’s basically about me just saying, ” to hell with everything, I want to go the beach and just hang out, just ride my skateboard.” That’s basically the whole scene I came from. I miss that. I just want to be one of those 65-year-old guys, retired and at the beach with one of those 15-foot long surf boards (laughs)

“LARAGE”

C: Larage is French for, the rage. The lyrics were originally about the whole experience about Princess Diana and how she died in her crash. It evolved into something that was more in lines of just a lyrical display. It’s not about anything in particular. It’s more a collage of lyrics.

“REASON TO BELIEVE”

C: This song is actually about Aliens. Shane claims he saw a ship take off really quick into the sky when he was a small child. I tried to envision his experience when he explained it to me. One of the lyrics in the song is “…electromagnetic propulsion systems making your mind bleed…”. There is this theory that the government has these things that are capable of harnessing the magnetic power from the Earth to shoot shit off into the atmosphere (laughs). I don’t know, it’s just kind of a stab at explaining the technology behind what an alien ship could be. It’s a Hip-Hop song that is definitely one of my favorites.

“CYNICAL RHYMES”

C: This is one of our earlier songs. It really dialed the sound that was true to who we are today. The catchy Hip-Hop verses going into the driving choruses. This is definitely one of our showcase songs. Whereas most of our songs evolve and change over time, “Cynical” is one that has stuck around and not changed AT ALL. The writing was so strong and the lyrics were so strong, that nothing needed to be changed. This is definitely one of our stronger songs.

“HEY HEATHER”

S: This is about a stripper I used to date for about two years. She was BIpolar. Maybe borderline Schizophrenic, I don’t know. She pretty much turned my life upside down. I was hooked on her, couldn’t get away. She had a really addictive personality. In to drugs, almost got me killed one night. The song is about that and all the people out there that have been in that kind of relationship. It sucks to be in love with someone who’s fucked up.

“BOILER ROOM”

S: We used to practice in a boiler room. It’s a heavy ass song that we just wanted kick ass, pretty much. It sort of has a Beastie Boys feel with a Deftones, Pantera kind of guitar riff. The lyrics are a little more sentimental.

C: “Everything in the world has a price. Be like him, do the crime, roll the dice”. This is about when I got in trouble with the law like three years ago. I was manufacturing fake id’s. I got pinched pretty hard. I was charged with four counts of felony fraud. It’s about how getting caught up in the system can either straighten you out or it can really fuck you up. It’s all about your attitude and how you want to take it. My attitude at the time was, “Fuck this!”. I was getting pinched hard. My attitude has since changed because it was something that happened to me for the best. But this is one of our angry songs.

“SUPERFLY”

S: This song stems from when Chad and I started playing Hip-Hop, turntable type of stuff in his apartment. Basically he came up with a guitar riff. I had been working on these lyrics that I wanted to rap. I wanted it to flow in a different way that wasn’t just line after line. It doesn’t rhyme like a normal song does. It moves in a different direction. I was listening to the Wu Tang “Forever” album. I think that’s what influenced me to to write the way I did. They do that really well. At first, it started out almost a dance beat song. Just a beat with a keyboard type of thing. It evolved into a song with an acoustic guitar. We recorded it once, and it had like a trumpet solo. It had really a different aspect to it. The last time we recorded it we brought in Marissa Knight. She’s a DJ of SUNDOG INDUSTRIES. She has some really good vocal sounds. She sings on the choruses and stuff. It came out really well. She has a really intriguing, unique voice.

“G-SPOT”

S: We took a trip to San Diego two years ago. It was spring break. Chad and I were having breakfast on the beach and we heard that song by Everything But The Girl. The name of the song is “Missing”. Basically, that song is a trancy, ambient type of song. And I heard it and thought, “why don’t we do that punk rock style?” I went back to the hotel and figured out some chords. I don’t even think it’s the same chords they use at all. But the words work with the punk rock riff.

“FIVE POINTS”

S: This is the last song on the CD. This comes from a band I was in when I first moved here. We were called Floodline. I played bass. This song has changed more times than I can count. We’ve recorded it three or four different ways. I think it works the best the way we have it now. It really sounds like what we’re doing now. It’s not about putting Five Points down. I’ve lived in the poor parts of town. I’ve constantly moved around as a little kid. It’s kind of about just picking your head up. You can let shit get you down. If you’re picking your head up and making the best of things, it’s gonna happen for you. With communities like Five Points, things can be shitty. You’ve just got to make the best of it and try to get out.

I love the Album! I’m curious, do you think JEPEDO’S JUICE best music comes out of just ignoring a lot of what’s going on musically around you and doing your own thing?

S: Yeah definitely. The best stuff comes from the heart without listening to other influences. We’ve got that original twist I haven’t heard in other bands.

K: I disagree. I find it very helpful to watch other keyboard players and look at their technique. I had the keyboard player from Pomeroy show me how to play some jazz stuff. I find it very helpful.

S: Don’t get me wrong. I think watching other bands is the always the key in like figuring out new stuff, especially for bands that haven’t made it yet. It’s kind of cool just to watch and see what they’re doing. I just meant that as far as who we are, and what we are doing, I think it’s more important to listen to my heart.

What do you think of the local music scene?

K: It’s good.

C: I think the local scene is advancing very quickly. There is a lot of good, local talent.

Who are some of your favorites?

C: I really like Yo Flaco! I think they are a really talented band. I think their CD is really good. Suburbia’s Finest is killer. I think their drummer is killer. Every single member has incredible talent. I also like a punk rock band called Lifted. They are going places. They are doing things with their music.

S: I like most of the bands Chad mentioned. I think it’s cool what Blister 66 is doing.

K: I really like Yo Flaco! I think they are incredible!

Thanks for the great interview guys. Why don’t we go hang out around the pool?

C: Sounds good.

I suppose I should ask a final question. Hmmm…What’s the last thing that enters your mind before you go on stage?

S: Is my guitar plugged in?

K: Is Jimmy on the crapper? (Laughs) Whenever there’s somewhere to be count on finding him on the toilet. (More laughter)

C: Some guys puke before shows, some guys get butterflies and get nervous. Jimmy just shits his brains out!