May 15, 2007
Jesse Ponnock

C = Cath, J = Jesse

C: How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it before?
J: I’d probably make them listen to it.
C: You can’t describe it?
J: When I get that these days, I honestly tell them to ask someone that I’m not friends with. I feel like I would answer that question biased, and so would anyone that’s in my immediate line of friends or family. That’s kind of a shit answer, I’m sorry.

C: You just won a contest with MTVu, which resulted in winning an EP deal with Drive-Thru Records. Could you tell people a little about it, for those who don’t know? What made you decide to enter?
J: Basically, if you’re in college you can upload songs to this website and then people vote on them. There’s also a panel of judges from the label and the TV station that give their input, and the winner is based on a mixture of the votes and panel that’s judging. Why I decided to do it is because… A friend of mine told me about the contest, and I remember watching the winners last year. I don’t know, I just heard about it and said, “I’m going to try this”. But I never thought I really had a chance, I just thought that maybe I could get a little publicity out of it and get some more people listening that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I thought that my style wasn’t really in sync with Drive-Thru, but it turned out pretty nicely.

C: Do you have songs in mind already that you know you want to be on the release?
J: What people don’t realize is that that’s really not up to me. Yes, I have a lot of songs that I would really love to have on the CD, but ultimately it’s not really my decision.

C: How long do you think it will be before you go into the studio to record it?
J: I don’t know. Look at it this way: The band who won last year hasn’t even released their record yet. I’m not planning on a release anytime soon. I haven’t even signed the contract yet, we’re still reviewing it. I would hope for an early 2008 release, but I won’t really know until probably the end of the summer.

C: You are in college right now, going for majors in both music engineering and computer science. Since your career as a performer is starting to take off, are you considering pursuing that full-time or getting a job that has more to do with one of your majors when you graduate?
J: I’m definitely going to pursue this full-time, but when is the question. The answer is that I’m going to continue with school until something becomes an issue, so I can’t do one or the other. That’s when I’ll have to make a decision whether or not I want to finish school. After school, I’ll definitely pursue singing, songwriting, and performing, as long as everything goes as planned.

C: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
J: Hopefully in a far, distant country writing some new songs. I think that’d be sweet.

C: If you had the chance to collaborate with anyone, who would it be and why?
J: That’s a fucking good question. I would love to do a song with Danger Mouse. I think everything he touches is pretty amazing. He did `The Grey Album` and The Gorillaz’s new album, which is brilliant. If not him though, then Nigel Godrich. He’s a producer who did the last bunch of Radiohead albums, and he just did a Paul McCartney album that was pretty awesome. He’s the man, I’d love to do something with him someday. But they’re kind of both big time, and I’m kind of still working my way up there.

C: Who are some of your main musical influences?
J: Bob Dylan is a very big influence. I like Radiohead, Muse, and Queen a lot... As far as songwriting influences, I think Jesse Lacey is a pretty brilliant writer. Off the top of my head, that’s all I’ve got right now.

C: If you could choose any animal to be your mascot, what would it be and why?
J: Probably a lynx, because they’re super cute and they would get all the girls to come over and see what was going on. Then they would hear my music and be like, “Oh, nice. A little disappointed, but nice.” A lynx, for those of you who do not watch Animal Planet regularly like I do, is a small, cat-sized, jaguar-type beast. They are the coolest things.

C: The next questions are pretty much ridiculous hypothetical situations. If you were stuck on a deserted island and had the chance to take 3 things with you, what would they be and why?
J: Is food provided?
C: Yes.
J: Can I bring a library, so that I’d have a bajillion books?
C: That’s pushing it.
J: Alright, alright. Sorry. I would bring my guitar, my friends for company, and my pet dog. My dog’s name is Willow and she’s a beautiful Samoyed. I think I’d be pretty set right there.

C: You are asked to make a rap album. What’s the CD going to be called, and what’s the name of your first single?
J: That’s so funny, I was just talking to my friend about writing a whole rap album and giving it to Drive-Thru as a joke, just to see what they say. I was seriously considering doing that for a while. I still might do a few rap songs, just because I like it. I would call my first rap album “Guns Everywhere”. The cover would have a picture of me, and I’d be covered in guns. My first single would probably be the title track. So it would be like “Lots of Guns… Everywhere”. I don’t know, this is a very interesting question.

C: Justin Timberlake walks up to you one day and tells you he wants to join your band. What do you do?
J: I’d probably piss my pants, and then I would say “Yes”. I’m a big fan of his, actually. Not so much the genre, but I think he is super talented and he’s the man right now. He’s probably the most successful singer out today. I would be all for that – anything to get the focus off of me singing… tell me where to sign, and I’m with it.

C: Closing statements?
J: I just hope people will give me a shot because I know I’m way different than a lot of the Drive-Thru acts and they really took a chance on me. Once the record is finally released, whenever that is, please give it a spin at least once before you make any judgement.