ALL IN MY HEAD SPECIAL INTERVIEW: The Jim Ivins Band

from left: Jim Ivins, Jack Ivins, Bobby Gary, Drew Martin

For the people who really enjoyed Parachute or you are into Boys Like Girls’ heartfelt alternative- rock sound, you will really like this up and coming band. The Jim Ivins Band formed in 2007 in Richmond, VA.  The band is made up of Jim Ivins (of course) as the lead singer, Drew Martin (guitar/backing vocals), Bobby Gary (bass/backing vocals), and Jack Ivins (drums). They are an acoustic driven pop rock band who put their hearts out there in their beautifully crafted lyrics. Unlike most pop-rock/alternative bands they make a statement with upbeat pop-rock songs with an acoustic dominated sound, but it sounds finished– not like an iTunes live session (no hate directed there, but it usually sounds pretty raw). They have played with Parachute (for all the people who discovered Parachute through my previous article), Carolina Liar, and many others.  I was lucky to have the opportunity to talk to the guys from the Jim Ivins Band for the first interview in All In My Head’s short history.

How did you guys all meet and decide to from a band?

Jim: Bobby and I had played in a band (Busted Wire) together for 4-5 years so we were all ready best friends and had a good musical relationship with one another. Ironically enough, Bobby quit the band and Drew was his replacement. A few years ago, once that band started to fizzle out and do less and less stuff, I made a solo record called “99¢ Dreams”. This was a big deal for me because it was different from anything I’d ever done because my old band played pop punk in the vein of bands like Unwritten Law, Race The Sun, and Sugarcult, and this album was all acoustic/singer-songwriter based, much like Dashboard Confessional’s album “Swiss Army Romance”. Also it was the first release I’d ever done where I wear all the hats – music and lyric writer, guitar, bass, and drums. I put the album out and then wanted to start playing shows so Bobby and Drew were obvious choices for bass and guitar, respectively. Jack was not a difficult choice at all, being that not only is he my brother, but he’s one the absolute best drummers I’ve ever seen. This was my dream team lineup and I’m very happy to have these guys playing with me.

So you are multi-talented when it comes to music?

Jim: I am indeed. I play guitar, bass, and drums. As I said earlier, I played all the instruments on “99¢ Dreams” except on “Run” where Jack played drums and Drew actually sang backup so the seeds for the band were planted before I even knew it. I also played drums on “2 O’Clock Wake Up Call” off of our “Back To Reality” EP. I really want to conquer keys, though. I can’t play hardly anything on keyboard. Both Bobby and Drew can but I can’t. Bastards. 

Why acoustic pop rock?

Jim: After playing in Busted Wire for so long and I began to grow up (we started Busted Wire when we were 14), I started to branch out musically and was actually finding it increasingly more difficult to write Busted Wire songs. Completely coincidentally, I surround myself with musical people. I began looking at my friends Drew Martin (www.myspace.com/drewmartinband) and Zach Birnbaum (www.myspace.com/zachbirnbaum) and started really connecting with their music and connecting a lot with John Mayer’s music. I got to the point where I was like “I want to do that” and just started writing as much as I could. In Busted Wire, Bobby wrote most of the lyrics. I had written some here and there but for the most part that was him. I had never really taken on that role before. It was very exciting for me and it was acoustic pop music that was speaking to me the most and was able to effectively get the words out of me. It’s also just really fun to play. I love playing these songs and I try and write songs that are gonna be fun for people.

So does Drew play in two  bands or is this another Drew Martin?

Jim: Drew does indeed. He’s a fantastic songwriter himself and that’s pretty much how we became friends. He’s in a band called The Drew Martin Band that I actually play in as well. We’ve never been good with coming up with band names haha.

Back to the acoustic pop subject, I feel like it has some effect where words just come out naturally. What do you think? 

I absolutely agree. I’ve found that if you try and force the words for these songs, the listener will be able to tell. Whenever I break down and try and force something it’s never as good as a time where I am just patient let the words just come out naturally. If I get excited enough about the music then the words will just flow

When I was on your My Space music page. I viewed the lyrics. When I read them I really could relate, how do you go through the writing process?

Jim: Oh thank you very much I’m so glad you could relate to what I say. That’s really my number one goal when I write songs, I want to be able to write songs where our listeners can go “wow this is exactly how I’m feeling” and “I know what that’s like”. It’s those kinds of songs that resonate with me a lot and made me want to pursue this project the way that I did. The writing process for The Jim Ivins Band is kind of weird. I write musical ideas on my guitar and record them all the time and I also write lines of lyrics all the time however, for some reason, I’ve found that my favorite songs of mine, for the most part, are ones where I just take an idea that I’m excited about and don’t walk away from it until all the music and lyrics are written. I know some people sit on songs for ages doing touch-ups and re-writes and struggle with lyrics forever (which I do from time to time) but for me it’s like if I can’t do it all then it’s not usually an idea worth pursuing. Once I do this I write the rest of the parts and give them to the guys. They then take their parts and add flourishes and change them around to fit their own personal styles. There are also other times where I just bring them the acoustic guitar and vocals and I’ll just say “write your own parts to this”.

Do you have any tips for aspiring songwriters?

Jim: Write as much as you can and never ever throw anything away. Sometimes things aren’t as bad as you thought and sometimes you’ll just wanna see how far you’ve come. Don’t get discouraged, either. The first stuff you write will not be good. It’s just a fact. It’s different for everybody but it took me years to write a song that I consider to be really good. It just takes practice. Also write from the heart and don’t try and write about things you don’t know and don’t feel. 

Are you going to have an album out soon?

Jim : I don’t know the answer to that. We have a bunch of songs that need to be recorded or re-recorded but we have no current plans to do that. We are about to put out a physical release compiled of remixes and re-recordings of songs from the “Back To Reality” EP and “Free-P”. We’ve never had those songs to sell at shows (and in the case of the “Free-P” songs, to sell at all) so we’re excited about that because its frustrating to have people come up to us after shows trying to get certain songs that they enjoyed during the set and we don’t have for them at that time. We’re also in the process of giving away a lot of free music. If you go to our myspace (www.myspace.com/thejimivinsband) and sign up for our mailing list, you not only get our monthly E-Magazine “Jim Ivins Band Monthly”, but for the next few months we’re giving away a free song every week. These could be live soundboard bootlegs, acoustic and alternate versions of songs, new demos, etc. You get a studio recording for free when you sign up as well. We’re just really in to rewarding people who support us in any way because we appreciate it so much, it means the world to us.

You guys are an independent band does that mean you have your own label or are you guys waiting to get snatched up by a record company?

Jim: There is nothing I would like more than to get signed and tour the world. I just want to get our music out to as many people as possible. We’re grinding it out as much as possible right now trying to make it all happen so fingers crossed.

How was touring? Where have you toured?

Jim: Touring has been cool. In addition to doing a lot of regional shows in the Virginia, D.C., and North Carolina areas, we’ve done touring through places such as Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and more. We’ve also been very fortunate to share the stage with such national artists as Parachute, Carolina Liar, Mae, The Ataris, and Pat McGee Band. Our first official tour was interesting in that we were a very new band and we didn’t have a van or trailer so we packed four dudes and all of our gear into a Ford Expedition. We had never been closer haha.

That must have been interesting. How was driving for 8 hours all cramped (I’m guessing with all the stuff you guys must have been cramped)?

Jim: It redefined family haha. It was very interesting indeed, I had never heard of anyone doing that before. And we did 8 hour drives a few days in a row so cramped is an understatement. Even so, we still had a total blast on that tour. Just going out and seeing the country together for the first time was a really great experience.

How was playing in the Northeast? Was it different form playing in Virginia? Would you guys drive back up?

Jim: We will drive anywhere to play shows north, south, east or west (though being in Virginia we can’t really go any farther east). I would only say it was different playing up there because we were playing to people who had no idea who we were.

What was your best and worst touring experience?

Jim: Funny story – we were trying to get our car into a parking deck in New York City and got stuck so we had to take the top compartment off of the car then take a lot of the contents of the car, put it in the top compartment, and put the top compartment inside the car. The guy in charge of the parking deck was yelling at us so we weren’t too fond of him. Another funny story was when we found out that New Jersey can sometimes lose its creativity in relation to street names. On our day off we saw John Mayer play and on our way back from the concert we got lost and saw two interesting signs – one was an exit for “Street Road” and the other was a sign for “New Road Road”. Our GPS told us to turn on New Road Road and we thought there was a glitch. Sure enough, there it was. There wasn’t really a bad experience per sé. We had a great time and can’t wait to get out on the road again.    

If I decided to put your iPod on random what music would I see?

Jim: You would see literally everything haha. I know I myself have 14,000 songs on my iTunes but it goes for the other guys as well, none of us are confined to one style of music. For instance, my top five all time favorite artists are Oasis, Radiohead, Coldplay, blink-182, and John Mayer. All of us also love hip hop. From Mos Def to Jay-Z to The Roots to Atmosphere. Me and Jack’s cousin Bill Leverty is in a band called Firehouse who found great international success in the 1990’s and were the last big “hair band”. Bobby, Jack, and I all love Killswitch Engage and a lot of other bands in the metal scene. I know Bobby and Drew just got the new Pearl Jam album and love it and Drew likes artists such as The Black Keys, As Tall As Lions, Deer and the Headlights, and Pilot Speed. We all love different things and we like a lot of the same things and it’s always interesting to me to see how people in certain types of bands don’t have to only listen to the kind of music that they play. Here’s what Bobby and Jack themselves had to say about it:

Bobby: “Lots of different styles. From alternative to rock to jazz and even a little classical (I’m a music major in school).”

Jack: “ABBA, Creed or anything I can punch myself in the balls to ease the pain of what I’m hearing.”

Haha some humor there. You guys have a variety of music you listen too, like I always hear people say  that certain groups of people do not listen to certain genres (for example: I always hear something like rap guys dont listen to rock and vise versa), which I think is absurd because I like everything. What do you think about such generalizations when in comes to music?

Jim: I think it just goes back to not judging a book by its cover. I know a lot of people that like a lot of things that, on the surface, you wouldn’t think they would like. I’ve found that you just never know what you’re gonna find in someone’s record collection, or I guess now its more appropriate to say in their iTunes.

So are all you guys in school?

Jim: I am not but the other three are. Jack graduates in May so we’ll see what happens then.

Who were your greatest influences?

Jim: When I was a kid, seeing Bill become so famous with Firehouse made me want to do what we do for the rest of my life. I know that goes for Jack as well. Other than him, I would say my greatest influence are Oasis, blink-182, and John Mayer. blink-182 seems random but I, like many fifth graders of the time, had my life changed when they came out with “Enema of the State”. Critics will always bring up their immaturity but they are brilliant at writing great melodies and harmonies and specifically if you listened to the “untitled” blink album, they are fantastic songwriters all around. I know Drew has definitely been influenced the most by artists like John Mayer, Ryan Adams, Steve Moakler and Mae.

Bobby: “Taking Back Sunday, Dave Matthews Band, and local bands like Race the Sun who show that you can be from anywhere and make it big and share your music with the world.”

Jack: “Bruce Willis’ first album, The Mamas and the Papas, anything involving ‘Wah-Wah Watson’, and the soundtrack to ‘Mighty Joe Young’ “

Jim: Yep, that’s my brother Jack for you.

I like blink too, but I wonder what ever happened to their comeback?

Jim: Their comeback is in full swing from what I understand. I saw them twice on their reunion tour (which I heard was the biggest tour of the summer) and they were incredible. They’re supposed to have a new single and a new album real soon and I can not wait for that.

I know this is random, but are you going to go to the theatres and watch Michael Jackson’s This is It Movie?

Jim: I saw it at midnight last night and it was phenomenal. MJ was dancing and singing like he was 20 years old and its such a shame because that show was gonna be amazing.

I know someone who saw This Is It two times and is thinking about going again. Is it really that good?

Jim: Absolutely

Everyone pick a color.

Jim: Are you asking what our favorite colors are? If so, mine is blue.

Jack: Green

Bobby: Green

Drew: The color of Love

Its Halloween

Fall Flat