The Jesus Chords by The Jesus Chords

We called camp

songs Jesus chords - the first edition chords that you learn when you first

learn to play guitar. so you can play 'Kumbaya' and songs like that. All

the Jesus songs. Basic chords, I guess. The first songs that we wrote as aband were all like that so I said, "Oh, these are Jesus Chords."

Gabe Keenan: There is something funny that happens because of playing all

those first position chords. Sometimes we hear another instrument. All the

guitars, just like a chorus, add up to more than the sum of its parts. But

about the name... a lot of times people think we are a religious band, but

we're not.

Tablet: Who are your biggest influences?

JH: I think we have a lot of different influences. We listen to a lot of

old school bluegrass and country records: Mississippi John Hurt, Johnny

Cash, Merle Haggard, Bill Monroe, lots of punk/garage music.

GK: But I don't know how direct those are. Usually we're just trying to

write simple songs, but somewhat interesting. Keeping simple chords but

maybe making the structure funny. But all of our songs are usually about

two minutes long.

Tablet: Is there a reason they are only two minutes long?

GK: No guitar solos.

Tablet: Do you think you guys now have the same musical vision?

GK: Personally, I think about making songs that are good the first time

people hear them. Really simple lyrics that are clear, but convey some sort

of meaning at the first listen. I think we're pretty much the same in the

vein of how we write songs.

JH: We also don't only do country songs. Our songs have a lot of differentGK: We're a monster with four heads. We're starting to understand how we

all function as a unit. We change things around a lot. Greg can play

trumpet. Jonas and Greg switch around, and everybody sings. There are no

taboos for us. Through this, I think we've finally found the simple song.

That's what we are working on. We're just trying to build on that and find

out what you can do with it. As it turns out you can do a lot. To make the

music float and to make it happen, fuck man, that's Jedi. To get like that,

I think that's really the goal, just to get there. Wherever the fuck that

is.

feels.

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