slice of lime

the tradition of aesthetic in rock and roll: Jaguar Stevens

Read The Full Interview Here…

“We pull a lot from Noir, in terms of our image. It’s pretty black and white and monochromatic.”

Jaguar Stevens has settled into a garage rock four-piece, their songs drippy and sloth. The twangy organ sound is part of their new development as a band with the addition of Charlie as their keyboardist, and I can’t imagine their songs without the hypnotizing melodies created by Charlie. The dark flirtation of the songs off their self-titled LP take on a witchy hue live, which is also where lead singer, Caleb’s vocals come to life. Recorded he adds an Elvis mumbly layer to their songs, but live it transforms into a true centerpiece to their dark Americana twist of rock-and-roll.

“It’s definitely evolved from where we started, I think it leans heavily into garage rock/psych rock/punk rock more so than I guess it would be kind of bluesy/Americana sound that we initially started with. I think that is still present in the music.”

There is a consistent thread of melody that runs through their songs, and each one highlights the members differently. The guitar in ‘Someone’s Basement’ is a creeping presence, the balance of light to the angry vocals. The angst and impatience channeled through the song complement their lean towards more garage and punk rock styles. They promise newer songs, with more writing and influence from all four members, and I think a slower ballad would be a great progressive step in their discography. My personal favorite, ‘Capital Lie’, features some melodic breaks to highlight Steve on the guitar, crumbling and angry.

“We’re creating this stage persona and it’s beyond us as individuals.”

The entire LP follows a common thread of dark sensitivity, a place where Jaguar Stevens flourish. They fully capture the fleshing out of aesthetics through rock-and-roll music, understanding that this exposure of emotion and self is essential to creating music that others can connect to. This combined with their stage presence, one of utter confidence and energy, makes them a band that sticks out in the Denver music scene.

Interview

Let’s start off with names and your role in the band.

Caleb: Well, I’m Caleb. I’m the lead singer of the band. We’ve been in this band for now a couple years, Jaguar Stevens, and before it was a band called Bromantelope. Steve and I were writing folk songs together, playing guitar, and doing some Bob Dylan and White Stripes covers, and then evolved into doing our own songwriting. Then our music kind of shifted to pretty heavily rock, and then we realized we didn’t have a drummer or a bassist or keyboardist or anything that we had like dreamed of having, and then we kind of assembled all of that.
Steve: Steve, hi, I play guitar and write songs, not all of them. I’ve been kicking around with music before Bromantelope even, just my own folky thing, but as Caleb was saying, COVID happened and we were doing more songwriting and we were like ‘Oh it would be cool if we released an LP’. So we did that as Bromantelope and we recorded it with some dude in Italy who was drumming and we had a bass player from somewhere else because we used this like app thing. And then it sounded good and we kind of did that, played those songs, and then COVID was still happening, and we’re like, maybe we reach out to somebody and see if we can record an album. So, we reached out to Nate Cook of the Yawpers and we ended up recording an album in the studio. It was just Caleb and I, we kind of had a drummer and then we just had a studio musician that played bass and keys on that one. Fast forward and we get Charlie on keys.
Charlie: So I’m Charlie. I play keys, and I’ve also stumbled my way into bass playing as well on my keyboard. As soon as I joined the band, the bassist at that time had left the band, and what started as a dad joke where I would say, well, we have a bass player I can play the bass parts with my left hand. It kind of became reality and we just kind of stuck with it. So, there is no actual bass guitarist in the band. So, I do handle the bass parts with my left hand and usually play organ with my right. But as far as joining the band, I realized through a Facebook classified ad that they were rehearsing one town over from me. I live in the South suburbs of Denver, I’m in Castle Rock, it’s not really ground zero for the music scene in Denver, but a 15 to 20-minute drive from my house to be able to regularly play music with people sounded like a great opportunity. And after listening to their LP there were a lot of 60s inspired, Elvis Costello inspired keyboard parts that I was picking out in the mix. So with my keyboard being able to generate a lot of organ tones I figured it was worth a shot.
David: I’m David, the drummer. I mean, I joined you guys back in October, I think, of last year. I was looking to start back up in music again and found these guys on Craiglist of all things. Came in and tried out once and somehow got called back for a second and then got a message saying I was in the band. So here we are, no it’s been great. I came from the East Coast so I had been playing music for a while out there. Kind of made my way across. I come from a punk rock background, right, since I grew up on the Misfits, and Descendants. Kind of played in the underground scene of New England, things like that, for a while. Met these guys, got along with them, and then started playing rock-and-roll and here we are and it’s been awesome to be honest. It’s been an absolute blast.

How have you seen the sound change over time then, with the addition of members?

Caleb: It’s definitely evolved from where we started, I think it leans heavily into garage rock/psych rock/punk rock more so than I guess it would be kind of bluesy/americana sound that we initially started with. I think that is still present in the music, but I think it’s definitely changed in that sense. Melodically, I think our structures have really grown over time, and I think as musicians we’ve also sort of grown. Two of us are full-time teachers, right? And so it’s like, it’s a day job. But then, music is still my main passion. So being able to express that on a Friday after work is pretty cathartic. I think sort of what friends said or shared with me, I feel like you’re such a different person on stage and it’s just so you know, bizarre to like see your talent like after work when I usually just see you like interacting with kids every day.
Steve: I listen to all kinds of music and I’m always trying to get everyone else around to me to listen to all the cool music I listen to. I think I dabble in all the genres. I think with the keys especially it’s allowed me more freedom to explore guitar sounds. I think that addition, with four people in the band, it’s like you have a good friendship. Yeah, it’s about having fun. We get together on Friday after school and have a little cathartic experience through rock-and-roll.

You said you do a lot of the writing. Is it mostly you or a little bit of everyone?

Steve: Yeah, it’s Caleb and I, we write the songs. The album that we recorded and some of the songs I’ve had for like 10 years or something but we reworked them into a rock sound. Kind of transformed and now we kind of all write songs. Collaborate with the creative process, and we have an albums worth of new songs that are created by everybody which are more exciting to listen to.
Caleb: I’ve got to say I prefer the new stuff. I really like where it’s going and where it’s evolving because of these two balancing it out and like sharing ideas. Building off Steve’s point, it all stems from that idea: music for the sake of music and having fun. Knowing that’s the root of it and then from there, it’s staying humble. A little bit, I do get a little cocky on stage.
Charlie: I think when you have shows on the books it gives you a deadline to try stuff out and workshop different and new ideas on stage. So, you are kind of hopefully racing against the clock to try and have it stage-ready by a certain point and just see if it works. And then when it does, then you just fine-tune it and it just gets better and better. So, that’s kind of how the new song ideas have worked out.

The new stuff, how does it differ from stuff you already have out?

Steve: It’s better *laughs*. I just feel like there’s more energy to it.
Caleb: It’s higher energy. There’s more hooks. It’s catchier riffs.
David: It’s got every one of our individual influences, in our new stuff we write a lot better. So, like my background, all our backgrounds mesh together. You kind of hear it and you can really feel it from the stage presence that we bring. So like, I think that’s something really cool about it. And it makes it re-listenable too, right? So, you’re always looking out for something different.
Steve: Yeah, we’re all focused on the songs. So, we’re not jerking off on stage. But we’re actually just playing songs. But not just trying to show off. We’re not trying to jerk off, we’re not trying to show off.

What do you find is a lot of the inspiration for your stuff writing, as the four of you then?

Steve: I know with lyrics I’m more concerned about the language and a little bit of storytelling, but creating images. To write a good song you almost want to get into a fugue state, not overthinking it and just like letting the things, the vehicle come through.
Charlie: I think the wild cards will sneak in too cause there was one time where we made an offhanded comment that Caleb sounded like Jello from the Dead Kennedys and that really just resulted in us doubling down and observing that and I would say there’s a song that’s pretty reminiscent to the Dead Kennedys in our set now just because we made that stray observation.
Caleb: Are you talking about Liquor Store? Yeah, I think to Steve’s point in terms of songwriting, it’s something internal and something that I feel like I don’t know sometimes. I just feel like I’m drawing on the other side, whatever that might be. It’s a language, it’s a vice.

What do you think sets you apart from other people I’m hearing tonight, other people in your genre, other people in Denver?

Caleb: I feel like we’re not trying to be like somebody. We just write things that we think sound good, songs that we think sound good. Don’t necessarily have a message, although some songs do push a little message. It’s again going back to the songs, they’re not trying to show off. Just trying to present a good song, and have people enjoy it.
David: There’s definitely a non-musical aesthetic that runs through everything that we’re doing and Caleb, what do you think that is?
Caleb: Yeah, I would say it would be probably, we pull a lot from Noir, in terms of our image. It’s pretty black and white and monochromatic.
Charlie: It gets witchy sometimes.
Caleb: It’s a little evil. It’s always fun to play with the dark and light balance.
David: I would say what also sets us apart is just the performance, it’s the energy we bring every night to the stage, right? It’s playing for one person, it’s playing for 100 people, it doesn’t matter we give our 110% all the time. And whoever is there, I really feel like they get the bang for their buck. They respond to that, right? Because we’re having so much fun, and the more fun we’re having on stage, I think the more fun that everyone out here is having too. That’s just one thing I really think makes us stand out a lot.

Is that your favorite part, performing?

David: Selfishly, 100%. Yeah, yeah, I’m a terrible songwriter. That’s why I play the drums. That’s my favorite part, but I don’t know about you guys.
Caleb: Yeah, really, yeah.
Charlie: Hell yeah.
Caleb: It’s like what I look forward to all month is the show. Building up this anticipation, and again it’s this catharsis too. It just sort of, you know, we work pretty stressful jobs and we help between, you know Steve and I, serving kind of America’s backbone or serving the backbone of American society. That’s exhausting and draining, and yet we put all this extra energy in the band and it is somehow revitalizing.

Since you guys have all come together, how do you deal with any conflicts or disagreements?

Caleb: We just tell each other to fuck off, I don’t know.
David: Nah, we’ve never had one disagreement our entire lives.
Charlie: I think when we do have a conflict we all just kind of get quiet and we beeline to Jets Pizza. It’s the best Detroit pizza around and we all love it and we all agree on it. It resets the equilibrium.
Caleb: Don’t forget the side of ranch.
Charlie: You were talking about fun facts, Caleb has like a spidey sense when it comes to ranch dressing.
Caleb: Yeah, that’s true. Here’s like a real conflict, a real beef between Steve and I. I always said that I really like hate Hidden Valley Ranch and I can taste the difference between the ranches and Steve kind of had this plot.
Steve: Yeah, I had this plot. I was like ‘How the hell can he tell the difference between Hidden Valley Ranch and others?’ So, we get Jets Pizza and a little ramekin of ranch and I swap it out for Hidden Valley in there and am like, here you go. Caleb’s eating and he’s like ‘This ranch is like…I don’t know, Jets kind of like changed the ranch’.
Caleb: I think I actually said ‘it tastes like hidden valley’ and I was really pissed and I can’t believe they switched to Hidden Valley Ranch. Being from Wisconsin, you always eat ranch with pizza, it’s just an odd phenomenon. So anyway, I called it out and I do have a spidey sense for Hidden Valley.
David: We underestimated his ability to sense Hidden Valley.
Steve: Yeah, so Caleb and I didn’t speak for a couple of weeks after that.
David: I thought Caleb was going to quit the band for a second *laughs*.
Caleb: Yeah, I was ghosting Steve for a little bit. Those were our dark times, but now we’ve come to the light, you know we came to the other end and can put it behind us.
Charlie: That is honestly one of the biggest beefs that has come up in this band: the ranch dressing situation.
Caleb: I feel like, in terms of going back to that question of just how we deal with conflict, like I feel like we’re all really good at listening and just like what you said about slowing down and pausing and being like, ‘Jets Pizza?’. Honestly, like ‘here’s where I’m at, where are you at as an artist?’. Kind of like checking your ego, because you know I think that’s also part of the band. We’re creating this stage persona and it’s beyond us as individuals. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll get an ego, I’ll get excited about something I write, but then I realize I have to step back and let the band like figure that out and how that’s going to work with all of us. I feel like that’s where it can be humbling.

You mentioned some newer songs. Do you have any specific projects you’re working on or goals in mind?

Caleb: I think the next big goal is to conquer the world. I mean we definitely want to tour in the summer or maybe in the spring. But also like to record more music, and release a single.
Steve: I think as long as we’re all enjoying ourselves it’s a win.
David: I think the toughest part is taking the roughly 8 songs we’ve come up with, from scratch in this new ensemble, and picking out our favorite that we all agree on to take into a professional studio environment and try and cut a single. I think that’s definitely in the near future for us.
Charlie: Then playing the High Dive, hitting the local staples in Denver. Getting like that, playing with our local favorite bands. Gotta start somewhere, you know? We’ve met a lot of contemporaries and peers in the music scene that have resulted in additional shows with bands that they know and you definitely see the local scene networking, taking shape.
Steve: What’s unique about our band is that we are all just in this one band. No one is in three other bands.
Caleb: Yeah, this is it. As far as I know, I mean.

Speaking of Denver’s music scene, how do you find it to be? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

David: I think if you connect with the right bands who are in the right circles you will be pleasantly surprised. We had a show this summer that resulted in one of the other bands who shared a bill with us reaching out to their friends in Portland. This separate Portland-based band who was planning on coming through Denver and because of that connection they hit us up and we got a show together. We connected with them and now we’ve got this connection, this hub if you will, that we’re now aware of and have experience with in Portland. So, depending on who you get your foot in the door with you might have the network expanding outside of Denver. So, I think it’s cool to realize that’s possible even among Denver bands, and Colorado bands.
Steve: There’s just a lot of bands in Denver, we’ve been lucky enough to strike up friendships with a number of them and it’s been great for the most part.
Charlie: It’s on the up-and-up. It’s really exciting to be a part of the ground level and growing with it. I think that’s awesome. The scene has exploded over the last few years and we’re just riding that wave. We wanna be part of that growth. It’s exciting to be a part of.

David: I think if you connect with the right bands in the right circles, you will be pleasantly surprised. We had a show this summer that resulted in one of the other bands that shared a bill with reaching out to their friends in Portland, and this separate Portland-based band was planning on coming through Denver. And because of that connection they hit us up and we got a show together and we connected with them. Now e’ve got this connection, this hub if you will, that we’re aware of and have experience with in Portland. So, depending on who you get your foot in the door with you might have the network expanding outside of Denver. I think it’s cool to realize that’s possible even among Denver bands, Colorado bands.
Steve: There’s a lot of bands in Denver, and we’ve been lucky enough to strike up friendships with a number of them.
David: It’s really exciting to be like on the ground level and seeing it grow and we’re growing with it. I’t like the scene has exploded over the last couple years and we’re riding that eave and we wanna be apart of the growth.

What do you look for in the bands you partner with, open for, or have open for you?

Caleb: Communication is one of them. Sometimes I’ll reach out to a band and don’t hear back and sometimes it feels like community if they’re responding, even if they can’t make a show work. So yeah, just communication.
Steve: Turns out female musicians are way better at communicating than their male counterparts.
Caleb: Yeah, that’s true.
Steve: In our experience.
David: We’ve had musicians from bands we’ve played with who’ve also helped book gigs as well and it’s always real cool to see them keep us in mind for future gigs and follow through with that so that’s always a benefit.

If you could open for anyone-

Steve: Bob Dylan.
Charlie: There was no wait on that one.
Caleb: Jack White.
Steve: Sheryl Crow *laughs*.
Charlie: I’m trying to think of a good keyboard-based-
David: King Gizzard?
Charlie: Sure why not. I don’t know if that’s at the top but I’m not going to argue with a King Gizzard spot.
Steve: Radiohead.
Charlie: Bruce Springsteen.