Latest / WEHM All Access / Smithereens' Jim Babjak - EHM Breakfast Show w/ Harry 9.24.26 Interview

Transcript

Smithereens' Jim Babjak - EHM Breakfast Show w/ Harry 9.24.26 Interview · WEHM All Access

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's the HM Breakfast Show with Harry and coming to the Suffolk in downtown Riverhead Friday, September 25th at 8 o'clock, it's the Smitherenes with uh their special guest vocalist Marshall Crenshaw.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: And joining me on the uh the virtual studio on Zoom is Jim Babjack from the Smithereens, founding member, guitarist.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Jim, how are you?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm doing great.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for coming on.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh coming back to the Suffolk for a show.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been uh looking looking out there, seeing what you guys are up to.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of different things in the past year.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: You guys seem to be kind of in the studio, do trying some different things unplugged.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: What's that been like for you over the past uh year or so?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Doing a lot of different uh little things now.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it keeps things interesting for us and for the audience, you know, uh trying new things and and recording is taking a long time, you know.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's all spread out.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Marshall's doing shows on his own.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Robin Wilson sings with us sometimes, and they're on the road with Jim Blossoms, and um, you know, uh, so we're they're all busy and we're just trying to get all the ducks in a row.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what's it been like now to, I guess now working on new music?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's so different from when you recorded it um back when you started.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much new technology, there's so many different ways to do it.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, how has that process been like for you?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: It does it make it easier or it does your mind still work like it did 20 years ago?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: My mind still works the same way.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we we still use uh two-inch tape.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the only difference now is uh when you want to fix something, you don't have to cut it with a razor blade and tape it.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: You could do it on the computer.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's the the the technology's great.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, we you know it's funny, somebody sent us a uh a thing, they used AI to create a smithereen song, and it was scary.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, but it wasn't that good.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, yes.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I would never, never go into that air.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I would never want to do that, you know.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's still 100% live.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: No, that that that's great.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So you are working on some new songs and it's slowly coming along, but you're also doing a lot of performances.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm curious with the new songs and and kind of how do you choose the vocalists for them?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um is that kind of something that uh you think about a lot, or is it kind of just naturally, like organically happens?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, I thought about it ahead of time, and you know, I I uh, you know, I have certain songs in mind for Marshall and for Robin Wilson, and and even maybe John Cowsill, because he's been singing with us lately.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh we got a fourth guy now, John Wesley Harding, whose uh real name is Wesley Stace.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's a British guy, and um he uh he's really good and he lives near me uh so we can we can uh you know work out some things.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're you're now where are you based right now?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: You're still in in Jersey?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, central Jersey.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's that's great.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's fun to see you guys always coming back to the Suffolk in Riverhead and a little different each time.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: I and I love the fact that you're continuing really the legacy of the band.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And Pat, what has that been like for you?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'd imagine um and I I can't obviously I don't want to speak for you, but I imagine it was pretty painful in the beginning, and it it doesn't and it it sticks with you, but how has that evolved carrying on the legacy over the past few years?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I well I gotta say, you know, I my wife, uh that I've known since we were teenagers, uh, passed away a year before Pat.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And not that it prepared me for it, but it kind of did.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um so what I realized after Pat died is that uh people still want to hear the songs, and then we still enjoy playing.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've been playing with our drummer Dennis, who and also an original member since we were in high school.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: We were 14 years old when we started this, and so we were together nine years with Mike, our original bass player, before we even met Pat.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So what we got was we got a and we had different lead singers during that time.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: We got a great lead singer and somebody who could write songs, and then Pat, on the other hand, got a full band right from the get-go.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, we still I still feel like I'm 14.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you, when I'm on stage with Dennis, our drummer, it there's nothing like it.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we put out 100%, we don't dog it, you know.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we still have the enthusiasm and the passion for the music, and and the audience does too.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we're out there, and we're doing more shows this year than we have since 1994.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have a new booking agent, and um, so we're going to other parts of the country where we haven't been in a long time.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of fun.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, it sounds like it's and it's kind of cool to see uh you're re-energized in a in a way, uh doing different things and getting out there.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: What is it like to bring this music now to uh really just a new generation?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you're you're watching them grow up now as well.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's it's kind of it's kind of kind of rewarding and cool to see.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: At first, it was kind of strange when younger people would come up and say, I grew up with your music.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: My parents were playing your music, and I'm like, Okay, I'm definitely old.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, it's time in a way though, the the sound is is almost timeless.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I think the love of of music like the Beatles and really influenced you, and and you see that people still love that today.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Even a younger generation are discovering it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it's classic songwriting, and and that I guess I you know, I don't know what I I didn't know when I was younger that rock this would still be around, you know.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it's kind of not.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the most popular music now is not what we're doing, but it's still popular, and a lot of younger people are are uh gravitating towards it and listening to the classics.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's never been easier to the find music, and I think that kind of could help uh as well.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's so different niches uh now as far as different types of music, because literally you can have someone who's you know 20 years old just go on a streaming service and and find you.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's gotta help.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously it doesn't there's there's good there's pros and cons to all of it, um, but you you certainly are still growing that audience.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what's it like to to be able to I guess you you've you've have a full audience that have grown up with you over the years.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what's that like to see the older audience now and chat with them about the experience?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because they've been kind of in it with you over the past few decades.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we'll go out to the merch table after the show and talk to people, take photos and sign autographs and stuff.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the stories are incredible, like like, oh, I met my wife at your show and we shed our first kiss, and uh, you know, it just these incredible stories and how the music has affected them.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I never really thought about that at much when I was younger.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I but I don't take any of it for granted.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I really love hearing those stories, and it it it really touches my heart.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: It really does.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, being totally honest here.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's that's it's wonderful.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: That and I think you appreciate them too as you as you get older.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you've got such a rich history with the bands, and I'd imagine there is there's so many different recordings you can still pour over kind of in the archives.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: What's that like uh to kind of sit down?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know you've used some stuff in the past, and and what's that like to kind of sit down and and listen to all of that?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're listening to your own history.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's weird because it brings back memories, and I remember what it what the studio sessions were like and this and that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: We found some uh tapes in the studio of Pat doing some acoustic versions of songs we were working on back in the early 2000s, and and um we're gonna we added uh drums, bass, guitar to it, and there's gonna be another uh it's not like the Beatles um, you know what they did with uh Real Love and whatnot.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's better than that because these these demos were recorded in a studio and they sound really good.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's great hearing Pat's voice again, young and fresh, and then adding uh the music to it is just um I don't know.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's just a great feeling, and and I think people are gonna like it.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think they do, and and that's really cool to hear um that there are there are things that they can still be released and that that'll be out there with Pat's voice and just a very cool story and history over and really 40 years, so uh career in rock.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Did you even imagine that you'd still be still be doing this?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because I what what is the when you look back, what do you think the key to sustaining it has been?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll tell you, it's it's it's the roller coaster of this career.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's been up and down, up and down so many times that I feel like I was at uh at Six Flags, you know.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I so I mean I had a day job for like 20 years during, you know, after Grunge hit and our and radio station stopped playing us and record labels dropped us, but we still kept playing live, but we weren't playing as much.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to get a day job for 20 years, and I was just this guy in a cubicle.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody knew I was in a band, but at that same time, I used my vacation time and weekends to do gigs, and we recorded eight albums during that time period.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I just managed to balance all that.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I did it, but I but I did it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so you just have to stick if if you have the passion for it and the love for it, you just stick with it and it comes back around.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I talk to other older bands, and it's the same thing.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, God, I didn't know I'd still be playing this.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you look back at the old Rolling Stones uh uh interviews, and Mick Jagger says, Yeah, I can't imagine doing satisfaction when I'm 30.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: 30.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's cool, and you're right, it's up and down, but you I guess perseverance and you just kind of reinvent and do different things along the way.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, you you've got a side project.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: How'd you get into coffee?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've read you Babrix Coffee.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I used to own a record vinyl shop in the 80s.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I I had to sell it when uh when we got signed to a record label, but I had this notion uh a couple of years after my wife passed away.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, like, all right, well, we still aren't doing a lot of shows.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I have a friend who's a coffee roaster, and I'm like, why don't I open up a cafe that sells vinyl records and and have a coffee shop in there or sandwiches?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then I decided, no, I I I don't want to do retail anymore.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was already like older, and so I decided just to sell it online.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a roaster that does it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: We it's a small batch, so yeah, and this way I I don't have to I get free coffee in a sense.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: You keep it, you keep it busy trying and trying different things.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh as you as we continue coming, I want to mention, of course, Jim Babjeck uh Smithereen's coming to the the uh Suffolk in Riverhead Friday, September 25th, uh with Marshall Crenshaw and grab tickets at thesuffolk.org.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: You've had some really cool moments uh in the past uh recently, I'd imagine, over the past decade or so, being inducted into the Jersey Hall of Fame.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um what was that like for you to to go through that process?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's quite an honor.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's great to be recognized, especially in your own state.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, yeah, it it's just really cool to be in there.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and sometimes I wonder, okay, there's Frank Sinatra and uh Einstein.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not just music, it's like uh people that have um influenced and have done certain things.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So um that and and I was also uh I'm also uh an honorary member of the uh the Long Island uh Music Hall of Fame.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's beautiful.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: They've done a great and that was that that award was given to us at the at the Suffolk uh one-time, yeah.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm also in the White Castle Hall of Fame, which I'm proud of because I wrote a song called White Castle Blues years and years ago when I was in high school.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So um I'm collecting these uh these awards.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So and and uh the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in in in uh Cleveland uh uh is uh they they want to do uh display for us there.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's gonna be cool.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: How do you yeah, and I'm curious because you've got different memorabilia and guitars.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: How do you decide what gets uh you know gets kind of displayed for people?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is it and is it hard to kind of give that away?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was always wondering that.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I gave away a lot of guitars to hard rocks back in the day.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I had them back.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh because yeah, well, because it's cool to go on display.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe borrow is the word uh that should happen.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, no, it it's interesting.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know you at the Grammy Museum you've got some stuff, and that m it must mean a lot though, uh, I'd imagine to just to be able to know that people are interested in that.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just kind of cool.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I don't know how to decide that.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I knowing that I'll get it back, I think.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: But with the hard rock, they they kept it, so I don't know where it is.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Jim Babjack from the Smithereen's uh it really been an interesting career.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, I love the fact that you were in a cubicle but still performing even in the middle of all of this, and you kept going, which is is is really and I think that's just such a great lesson for for anyone in anything.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you very much for your time.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Looking forward to seeing you with Marshall Crenshaw Friday, September twenty fifth at the Suffolk and Riverhead.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, new music coming.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows when, but but somewhere in the future.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're looking forward to that.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: You bet.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Tim.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: You better be able to do that.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for your time.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.