28 January 2023 – interview by Bec Harbour
Jimmy Eat World’s bass player Rick Burch is currently in Australia having a “working” holiday. I had a quick catch up with Rick about their new music and their upcoming Australian tour with My Chemical Romance.
After some initial confusion (on my part) about timezones in Australia during our daylight savings period we chat about a current article that I am doing for the upcoming double header tour from Bad Religion and Social Distortion, with Rick letting me know they recently played with Social Distortion in the US…”its going to be so awesome, you’re going to love it…”
Bec – You’re in Australia right now?
Rick – Yep, I’m in Hobart.
Bec – Are you doing something at MONA (museum and gallery in Hobart)?
Rick – No, me and my wife have an apartment here and we spend as much time as we can here.
Bec – Oh it’s so nice down there, you might even get snow if you’re lucky! (Note: its Summer in Australia right now)
Rick – Ha ha yes! Its four seasons in one day and that’s not even a joke! Ha ha, love it.
Bec – Just to get into the music, I was looking into your discography and you guys have 10 albums under your belts and give or take a few movements, you guys have been together for around 30 years?
Rick – That’s right, so 2023 marks 30 years together as a band, its mindblowing to me we didn’t imagine that this would go on for so long, we’re thrilled about that and we’re looking forward to celebrating this milestone together in 2023.
But equally, we are really excited about the new material that’s coming up that we have just done together, so it’s a bit of both celebrating our history and celebrating our future. Hopefully there is another 30 years!
Bec – Lets hope so, you can be the Rolling Stones of the alt-rock world.
Rick – Hahaha, I don’t know, in saying that though, no way, that’s amazing, but it happens – look at the Stones, it happens.
Bec – Would you just forget to retire?
Rick – Exactly, you know – this is what we do, this is what we do.
Bec – I listened to the latest music that you guys put out and at the same time I was doing an end of year round up for the magazine and revisited Archers of Loaf’s 2022 new album, one of the things I thought about that album and had the same thoughts about your new material was they started very angry and punk in the 90’s and you guys were very fun and hi-energy, and upbeat but the latest stuff [from Archers] was very much a break-up album and very introspective. Somebody broke up with someone, the person who writes lyrics for them.
So refamiliarizing myself with your back catalogue, I listened to your latest song ‘Place your Debts’ and thought this was a very lo-fi offering from the band, a lot more drawn back and introspective, is that something that you guys are aiming for?
Rick – Definitely. That’s exactly what that song is, it’s very introspective and more of a sonic landscape with a very vast vista. So Jim writes the lyrics, we all contribute to the music aspect, but Jim writes the lyrics, the theme that he is looking at or focusing on, is accepting the path of the infinite choices that we find ourselves on, accepting and owning that, Ok this is where I am and this is where Im going.
Not getting lost in the if I had of done this or had of done that, I could be over here. Well that’s not what you did and you’re not over there, you’re here. It’s a deep dive, it’s a side of Jimmy Eat World.
Another side is last year we put up ‘Something Loud’, it is that high energy and the immediacy of the rock and roll that’s happening.
Bec – Its interesting for us to know the different sides, I have always thought of Jimmy Eat World as soundtracking the Americal teen movies of the late 90’s, early 2000’s. But when I looked up the iMDb to find out which songs had been included in those movies, there wasn’t any?
Rick – It’s interesting how many different avenues our music has taken, Im equally as surprised by that, its an honourable surprise.
Bec – It’s funny when I was speaking with people about interviewing you – ‘The Middle’ popped up of course and people said that they loved that song and most thought it was from American Pie, I had to fact check that and found that it was not and hadn’t been included on any teen movie soundtracks.
Rick – Its interesting, I think it’s that time and that era, I even get confused and think certain things are associated with things that they are not.
Bec – I also realised during my research that you guys were very busy during the Covid lockdowns, how did this affect your recording process, were you all in one place, were you sending files to each other?
Rick – That’s a really good question, because we weren’t in the same place, at least for the start of it. It was a bit of trading tapes over the internet, but it did get to a point where we were all together and that was the Phoenix Sessions, that happened in Phoenix [Arizona] then because we were together we were able to go to our studio on Phoenix and do some recording.
We were due to be in Australia at that time, the week the borders closed. So that tour never happened, I was super excited for that tour, we were going to be supported by A.Swayze and the Ghosts, Im a big fan of theirs, and we had just released our 10th album so yeah…
As a band we seem to have a 3 year cycle, it’s turned out that we seem to release a record every three years – the recording and making of, then the touring to support, it really stymied us not being able to tour. We are still kinda recovering from that, we are excited about new music and ideas that we are having but feel like we haven’t done enough with that album.
Bec – So with the song writing process, do you guys all convene together and jam it out or mock it up on tape and let’s fill the bits in. It sounds like a very collaborative approach you take.
Rick – It can be exactly how you described, we often make a tape with very sparse sections for the other guys and we present that and work it through. It is done with the intention that we will get together and work it through and each find our place. Sometimes that idea changes with the group and it changes from the original.
Bec – Have you ever heard someone do an improvisation on-stage because they were bored or just played the song too much and you’ve thought that’s great, we need to use that in another song though. I spoke with an Australian band who says that happens on long tours to them.
Rick – Hahaha, that’s an interesting concept, we play the songs very close to the recording though, occasionally a different version, but I can totally see where that might come from, and where the band might be coming from, you know Ive played this hundreds of times on this tour and you could easily drift off and just do a creative thing that you didn’t realise that you were doing.
Bec – Thanks for taking us through the creative process but the end result is usually touring, you guys will be out here supporting My Chemical Romance very soon.
Rick – Yeah we are super excited for that. And like I mentioned earlier we were supposed to be out here in 2020, we were really bummed about that. We are excited to finally get back – it’s been far too long, and in such a massive fashion playing those huge shows with My Chemical Romance with an audience full of Aussies (note: Rick pronounced Aussie right!) and just getting back, we’re all very excited to be doing these gigs.
Bec – What about a Jimmy headline tour?
Rick – I know right, as excited as we are to do these gigs, and sharing the stage with MCR, if we headline we can do some deeper cuts into the back catalogue.
Bec – No side gigs or a sneaky jam session at the Bendigo Hotel in Hobart?
Rick – I might just do that by myself haha – but we do just want to come back and play those deeper cuts in Australia soon.
