Photo/New Medicine
Recently, The Pit had the opportunity to speak to Jake Scherer, frontman for New Medicine. We asked questions about the band, the new album, ‘Breaking the Model,’ released on Imagen records and their upcoming tour with Halestorm, which kicks off October 16th.
The Pit: So I got a chance to listen to the new album. I really do like it a lot, it’s really good. I got a sense of a lot of different musical styles. What are some of your personal musical influences, especially going into the new album?
Jake: I would say it ranges all over the place but it goes anywhere from Nine Inch Nails to Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Green Day. I’m Kinda all over the place. Even some of my favorites like Tom Petty and old school stuff. Just tons of different stuff. I’m a huge fan of Queens of the Stone Age, riff rock. Tons of different stuff. Beastie Boys, I love the new Eminem and was listening to that a bit when we were recording. And so I kind of come from all over the place and I think that’s what creates our sound, it’s different.
The Pit: Listening to the album, I definitely got a sense of a lot of different styles coming in there and it made for a really great product, so props on that. I know 2013 was a really interesting year for you guys especially with Matt and Ryan leaving the band. How did that affect you personally going forward and did the addition of the new members change the sound of the group a little, especially after Race You to the Bottom?
Jake: That’s a great question. On a personal level I was bummed because we’re all friends, we’ve been together for a long time. But I understood that they were at a different point in their lives. But my devotion to the project, it was always kinda my brainchild and my thing, I wrote all the songs and everything. So my devotion and my inspiration for the band was unwavered. I knew I needed to keep going and keep making this happen. It was a bummer to lose them as friends and fellow members, but I knew I wanted to keep going and I had all these new songs written that I was super excited about. I used it as an opportunity for change, to change for the better. Kinda like you’re changing the engine out, putting new tires on the car. Let’s put some slicks on it, let’s go faster. Whatever it is, and so it was a cool opportunity for change. We also parted ways with Atlantic Records and Photo Finish which were major labels. And so we got to choose our next home and we went with an indie label that we’re really stoked on. We got to make a record that creatively we love. As far as your question about it changing with the new members, definitely with our new drummer. It’s kinda like Nirvana before Dave Grohl and then after Dave Grohl they made Nevermind. And his influence on that record was obviously…you could completely hear the difference. I think that Dylan, our drummer did some of that on this record. He brings his own energy into it and so it’s cool having him play on the whole thing. And Kyle, our bass player is a great singer and a great bass player. He comes from a different place as far as bass playing goes. But it works really great with Dylan and what I do and so I think it was a great thing.
The Pit: What can you tell me about some of the themes of the songs? With songs like One Too Many being about doing things in excess and World Class Fuck Up, how did you decide on the themes of the songs that you were writing? Did they just come to you or did you make a conscious decision to choose these themes? How’d you go about it?
Jake: I try to take every song and every day writing as like what’s going through me at that time, y’know? And so with songs like that…sometimes you just hear a phrase. I remember a sign that just said “World Class Fuck Ups”. I thought “That’s a title for a song! I could do that as a title for a song”. And I’ve also heard “one too many” and I immediately thought “Oh yeah, I’ve had one too many drinks and one too many fights”. And then songs like ‘Desire into Gold’ was during a time when we’re parting ways with the record label. It’s like “Hey, I’m fearless, I don’t care what it is. I’m a fighter, I’m a warrior, I’m not gonna give up!”. So it’s like “Hey, we don’t fit in their formula”. Everybody’s been trying to force us into their format or formula. Cookie-cutter this or that. But we just wanted to do our own thing and that was our mission statement. There are songs about relationships, which are all real relationships I’ve had in my life. Boy Like Me is a song about a girl I knew in high school. I could never get her attention or whatever. But all the songs come from different places, but they all come from me and what I’ve been through and I try to give it variety and make it a lot more interesting.
The Pit: The first thing I noticed, even before hitting play on the album, was the artwork. At first glance it looks like a pair of hands holding some rosary beads. But then you notice it’s actually a key on a chain with the word “Gladiator” engraved in it. What is the significance of that and how did you guys decide on that concept?
Jake: Actually our producer gave me that key at the end of the record. He got it made by this company called ‘The Giving Keys’ … and basically the concept is whatever words are written on that key, you give it to somebody you think needs those words. He made that one for me and it was actually in one of the songs, ‘Desire into Gold.’ The lyrics are “I’m a gladiator, I’m a warrior, I’m fearless to the bone”. So the front of the key says “gladiator” and the back of the key says “warrior”. He gave me that key and we thought about it, seemed very significant to what we were going through. What we wanted to say coming on on this record, ‘Breaking the Model,’ we wanted it to break the mold and be different. We need to be strong we need to be a fighter, so that’s where that kinda came from.
The Pit: Your tour kicks off on the 16th and I know you guys are gonna be playing with Halestorm. When did you guys first link up with Lzzy and the guys from Halestorm and what’s it like being on the road with them?
Jake: It’s cool because we playing their first headlining show they ever did. We played with them the first show when we first signed to Atlantic. Before our record even came out, they had just kinda started working on their first record. I remember playing with them and about a hundred people showed up in Texas and Lzzy was backstage. And there was a hundred people there, maybe a hundred fifty. We talked to them and they were super nice, they knew we were on Atlantic too. We were at our merchandise stand when they went on and they played the gig like it was an arena with ninety thousand people. But there only about 90 people. So we got to see them do that and a couple months later we ended up doing the Uproar tour with them and they were getting bigger. So we got to do another tour with them at Uproar and then a year and a half later we ended up doing another tour with them and Evanescence on the Carnival of Madness tour. So we got to spend so much time together, we kinda came up together on the same label and the same management, so we have a lot of similarities. It was cool because we grew up in the scene together so going out with them is like going out with our friends. Now they live in Nashville and so do we, so we hang out all the time. We hang out, write together, bum around. It’s just a fun friend/family kinda vibe.
The Pit: That being said, do you feel like your music compliments each other? Do you feed off each other when you’re hanging out? Are you guys bouncing ideas musically from one another?
Jake: Yeah, I think we inspire each other. Lzzy is always like, “I love this song, I love that song”. She’s always playing me demos of their new stuff and I’m like “oh my gosh, that’s awesome” and asking me “what do you think about this?” and I ask them “what you think about this?”. We bounce ideas off each other and it’s a great energy. Seeing the reaction of our fans is funny because once we released a bunch of the dates there were a bunch of Halestorm dates put first. And all these fans were going “New Medicine and Halestorm?! I gotta get tickets!” and it’s cool just to know that people are fans of both of us together. We don’t sound like each other, but you get a great night of music and you know you’re gonna get a show. You never know, one of us will jump on with the other band and keep playing. It’s a good camaraderie I think the bands appreciate too.
The Pit: I don’t want to keep you too long I just have one more question. Of both your albums, do you have a song that you have as a favorite to play live?
Jake: I really like the song ‘Desire into Gold’ off our new record. It’s so in your face and I get to just rock the mic and go for it. It’s so balls to the wall and it just demands your attention live, you can’t look away. So I love playing that one live.
Breaking the Model can be downloaded on iTunes or Amazon. Tour and band info can be found at http://www.newmedicinerock.com or https://www.facebook.com/newmedicine
