A few hours before The Used’s first show in France in seven years, RockUrLife’s team had the opportunity to have a chat with Jeph Howard, the band’s bass player. In the dressing room of La Machine Du Moulin Rouge, we talked about the band’s new album “Imaginary Enemy”, their return in France and the band’s evolution.
You guys are back with a new album “Imaginary Enemy“. How was the recording process?
Jeph Howard (bass): It was a little different this time. We had different plans when we started out to record this record. We wanted to be a little more grungy, like our last EP “The Ocean Of The Sky” it was like grunge, kind of messy and noisy. We wrote a bunch of songs, we wrote like 30 songs, maybe 27 to 30 songs and we when got in the studio we changed our mind. We erased everything, just started over from the beginning and decided to record it a different way too. We kind of made it more natural, we were just trying to not think and do it.
And how different was it from what you used to do?
J: Very different. Usually we have more solid ideas written fully before going into the studio. It’s more complicated, it wasn’t just like “I hope this is gonna be cool, I think it will be”. For bass parts I was doing the same thing, I was making a bass line and being into it, letting it become as natural as possible.
On this album you have recorded the vocals first and then the music. How different was it from what you used to do?
J: We started with guitar lines first, but those guitar lines weren’t real guitars, they were just ideas to see how the song goes. Then Bert recorded vocals and we started recording all the music, starting with drums and bass. It was really interesting actually. Normally, I wouldn’t like to do it that way but it was really fun.
Which three tracks could you pick up as the best of the record?
J: I like “Cry” a lot. A lot of fun. And I’m coming from the bass point of view. “Revolution” too is really fun. Every song has little fun beats through the whole song so it’s really hard for me to say “this song is my favorite”. “Cry” overall is really fun for me to play so I really like that song and so is “Revolution”. But I’m happy with the whole record.
How did you come to pick up “Cry” as the first single of the record?
J: It felt like a good bridge between our older stuff and our new stuff, it tied together the whole thing.
It’s been seven years since the last time you played in Paris.
J: Yeah it’s a long time.
How do you feel about the show tonight?
J: So excited. We’ve been trying to come back to Paris for a long time, trying to come back to Europe and UK for a long time. It’s just complicated, it’s too expensive for us sometimes to come over and we can’t get the right shows. I think after doing the Europe shows we did and the UK show we did, we’re gonna be able to come back a lot easier.
Your style changed throughout your different albums. Which one was your favorite?
J: It’s all very different. Each one of our records is like stepping, growing up, it’s almost like going to school: high school is a period, college is a period… Each one of our records is like one of those periods. It’s a period in time. They all have lots of fun memories, lots of amazing memories but also really tough part memories like touring, sometimes too long, sometimes anger, and some issues. For me it’s all fun. I’m still touring, I’m still happy, I love touring. Not many people can say that after a long time.
What have you learned from being in a band?
J: You have to make yourself happy first, I think. You learn a lot by yourself touring. Because you’re usually stuck waiting. The majority of things that we do it wait. We have to wait here until the show happens, we can leave but we’re still waiting for the show to happen. And after tonight we have to wait to get on the bus, and after getting on the bus we have to wait to go to the airport, and once we’ll be at the airport we have to wait to get on the plane, then we have to wait to fly… It’s lots of little waitings. So you become very content with just going on with it, letting things happen as they are and just living in the moment. I’m very… living in the moment. I like life now as it is. I think that actually taught me a lot about living in the moment.
Last question, as our website is called RockUrLife, what rocks your life Jeph?
J: Traveling. The more I travel, the more I want to travel. Before this tour, me and my wife have been traveling for a year. We moved out of the place we were living in. Traveling to new places and seeing new places is always extremely exciting. I’ve had a lot of good trips this year and it’s making me want to travel more and more and more.
Thank you for your time and see you tonight!
J: Yeah of course!
Website: theused.net
