Twenty years ago, The Used was brought to life and have since released a collection of albums that shaped the space of the alternative rock scene. High energy live shows, gut wrenching relatable lyrics, and melodies that blended pop sensibility and hard rock was the perfect combination to make an everlasting impression on fans globally. The band return in 2020 with a brand new album titled “Heartwork” where the band’s own unique sound is pushed into a further evolution more than ever before, we chatted to bassist Jepha Howard ahead of it’s release to find out what it’s like 20 years on to create new music in a world currently surrounded by uncertainty and a situation that is new to everyone.
Andrew: It’s pretty crazy times in the world at the moment so how are you guys holding up at the moment?
Jepha: It’s definitely tough everywhere and I’m one of the lucky few people that really enjoys being at home. I’m kind of a loner in general so I don’t really hang out with people unless I’m on tour, so it’s really just me and my wife when I’m at home so I’m doing alright. I know a lot of people are struggling and it’s really a scary time for the future.
Andrew: Yeah definitely so I guess we gotta count our blessings for the ones that are in a more fortunate position. So I guess all the touring plans you may have had for the year have probably been cancelled or put on hold at the moment right?
Jepha: Yeah that’s the scary part, at least for me not being able to tour is terrifying but it’s all for the greater good.
Andrew: Yeah obviously we gotta do the right thing. What’s the longest period of time you guys have gone without touring?
Jepha: I think there was a year we didn’t tour once which is a crazy long time. So hopefully this won’t be as long but there’s always a possibility it’s going to be this long and I’m going to have to start getting a day job mowing lawns in the neighborhood or something!
Andrew: Yeah well I guess we gotta see what other options there are. But on more positive news you have a new album coming out on April 24th called “Heartwork”, I was just listening to it just before I called you up and it sounds really diverse and really dynamic. Was that the idea going into the recording in the first place?
Jepha: Going into it we had no expectations. Originally we took about a year off on just writing and then we went into the studio, and this was in between touring and in between doing stuff at home, we kind of come together and write and then record demos of those and then do that again months later. Well we went into the studio with that and decided to scrap everything and just start over from the beginning which can be scary but we trusted going back to [John] Feldmann [Producer], we trusted in the process of everything, know all our abilities, we know where we can go if we just relaxed into it and I think a lot of this record was just relaxing, getting in the right vibe, getting in the right mindset and just being creative as possible together.
Andrew: With all the stuff you had written that you threw out, was any of that going to be kept at all for any future releases or was it completely thrown out for no use at all?
Jepha: It’s a possibility. It’s still there saved on a hard drive so it’s not going anywhere unless the hard drive crashes, but the possibility that we can revisit those is a future idea. We still have 8 songs from this record too that we didn’t put on the record so there’s a lot of music that’s just kind of waiting to figure out what we want to do with it.
Andrew: Is that normal for you guys? Do you tend to write more songs than is released on the album where you have left over songs or do you tend to write songs just for the album release only?
Jepha: There’s always left overs because you never know. Sometimes you think you’re headed in the right direction and in the end maybe it doesn’t turn out the way anyone pictured and nobody is really excited about it and then so you kind of just hold it off to the side as like a maybe song. Maybe we will revisit, maybe we’ll change something else, maybe we’ll forget about it and that happens. On this record there’s actually two songs that were full songs but they got cut down to little parts – a song called “Heartwork” which is one of my favorite songs on the record and I don’t know if it’s just a minute long but it’s just a snippet and was part of another song actually but we just cut off the bad and left the best part and it sounds so good on it’s own it doesn’t need the rest. That’s a rarity, never really do that.
Andrew: One of my favorite songs on the album is a song called “Blow Me” which features Jason Butler from Fever 333. It’s a great song and has such a high energy to it, I don’t know if you’ve been able to play that yet but I would assume that would translate well to the live stage.
Jepha: Oh it was epic. We’ve played that and we’ve played “Paradise Lost” live on the last tour we did before this Corona thing, it was amazing. honestly it felt like we’d been playing both these songs for 20 years, it was really awesome!
Andrew: How did the collaboration with Jason come about?
Jepha: We were really lucky on this record, we got to collaborate with a lot of different people which is pretty rare for The Used. Usually we have a special guest, one person on a song or something but this record we got to branch out and add all these extra people which is really fun. Jason we’ve known him for years, we love Jason, we love his vibe. Him as a human being is so awesome and his voice is great and so we had this outro that you’ve heard on that song and it’s really heavy and kind of slows down to a kind of hardcore breakdown and it wasn’t quite finished and we needed somebody to sing over the part. So lucky enough – I don’t know if it was John, I think Bert (McCracken, vocals) said, ‘Why don’t we get Jason to do it’, and John knows Jason so John hit up Jason and he came down like a day or two later and made up all of his own lyrics, came up with his own melody and just did his part in an hour. It was really awesome, it was such a perfect vibe for that.
Andrew: It’s a great song and as I said I love the energy and all the riffs in the song is a great thing. This is also the first album to feature Joey (Bradford, guitars) as well which I guess is a new experience for a new member to come in and have his part. How did that go?
Jepha: It was really easy actually. Joey is such an easy to get along with person, he’s pretty much the real life version of The Dude from Big Lebowski and I mean that in the most positive way!
Andrew: [laughs].
Jepha: He’s so easy to get along with, he’s so mellow, he’s just chill and having him come in…and he’s also very creative, he’s got a really good ear, he’s got lots of ideas and he’s just The Dude so what’s not to like about that. Having a Dude in the studio makes everything easy.
Andrew: Did that change the process at all? I mean obviously you guys have been doing this for quite a while now but do you have a formula worked out or do you kind of go in and see what happens? How does that all work as far as the recording process?
Jepha: It changes from time to time, I think the writing process and the recording process has been different from record to record. We’ve tried everything we possibly can recording it with John, the first ones or recording it on our own for one record or doing it with Ross Robinson where there was no click track and all drums are to tape and all the music just had to flow, mistakes in or out. All these interesting ideas to do it and the way we did it with John on this one was just very smooth and easy, like somebody would come up with an idea, we’ll work on that idea. We’ll move to the next part of that idea and see if it works together, we’ll just do that for a day and if that song is not working out we’ll try something else later. It’s just very easy.
Andrew: You’ve mentioned John a few times here, he’s obviously been a big part of the band’s career over the years and it seems like it was the right time for him to come back. Was it as it was in the past or had anything changed at all with him?
Jepha: Change is inevitable, we all know, good and bad. But I think this time change was definitely for the best, reconnecting with John is what I want to say which has been so awesome. John is pretty much a family member, we’ve known him for 20 years and the difference between him 20 years ago and now is so massive but for the same reason that it’s different in all of us. We were just kids and now we have an understanding in a different way musically and being able to come together with John 20 years later with this unsaid creativity and explosion of ideas, it was really relaxing! Really awesome and relaxing and I can’t wait to record with John again, I had so much fun recording this record.
Andrew: It must be kind of a trip to think back on all the years that you guys have worked together but also going back in time to when you guys first started as a band. Do you remember at that time when you did the first album and ever thought that 20 years later you would still be doing this but in a bigger way?
Jepha: You know, 20 years ago I do remember, I remember a lot of it. I remember going into it, our first thought was it was all a joke because long story short as everybody knows, we had a demo out and John found that demo and liked it and wanted to record us. He just started recording bands and so he was excited about our demo and wanted to do something with it so he flew us out to L.A. so we could meet him and start recording and we thought it was going to be a prank, we’d fly out there and be like a ‘Fuck you we’re not recording’, just some TV show prank or something. But John is an interesting personality and different, what’s cool is me and John are very different personalities, I’m very laid back and he’s very kind of tense. It’s very good to have that and when we first started recording with John, I didn’t understand how good it was to have the differences. 20 years later I really understand that all these differences really make up something, they really make a part and being able to relax in my vibe and having John relax in his vibe and Bert relax in his vibe and having it all come together is so important and so awesome and it’s easier to be creative when you relax into it.
Andrew: Well it’s been an amazing career so far and obviously you have a lot more to do even with things now being on a bit of a stand still. We saw you guys a few years ago where you did the 15 year anniversary and played the first two albums over two nights, that was a fantastic run of shows as well.
Jepha: Yeah that was so much fun, honestly! It’s unfortunate with right now it’s pretty much our 20 years so it would be nice to do a 20 year right now but we also want to do this record but we can’t tour either so we’ll have to do a 22 year or a 23 year or something. But it will definitely happen again because that was one of the most fun tours we’ve done.
Andrew: Well hopefully this will all blow over and we’ll get back to some kind of normalcy but I think this will probably change a lot of things as far as people working in the music industry. But we hope to see you guys back on the road down our way as well and congratulations on the new album as it’s amazing stuff.
Jepha: I really appreciate that man, I really do and I appreciate you calling and I can’t wait to come back to Australia. I love Australia, I love touring in Australia, like so many good foods down there! But hopefully it will happen sooner than later.
