WTBU DJ Danya Trommer sat down with The Aquabats’ frontman Christian Jacobs (AKA MC Bat Commander) ahead of the band’s show at Paradise Rock Club in September. They discuss the band’s Kickstarter, TV show, and future projects.<\/p>\n
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Danya Trommer: Your Kickstarter just got funded by 690%… What exactly has been your reaction to that? Did you expect it to go this far?<\/b><\/p>\n
Christian Jacobs:\u00a0 We were really nervous about Kickstarter, maybe because we\u2019re from a different time, like gnomes or elves or something. We\u2019re kindly people from another dimension [<\/span>laughs<\/span><\/i>].\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know how people were going to react, like if there was going to be backlash… Sometimes there\u2019s a perception that crowdfunding can feel like digital panhandling, but someone explained it to us pretty well before we jumped in with both feet and said that crowdfunding is the new generation, [fans] want to be a part [of the process].\u00a0 You\u2019re giving your fans an opportunity to interact with you and be a part of something, and that\u2019s special for a lot of people… A lot of good stuff has come out of it. I was blown away that it worked. The band was a little doom and gloom about it because you don\u2019t want to put yourself out there and say, \u201cHey, here\u2019s this thing we want to do,\u201d then the writing is on the wall if nobody donates.\u00a0 It was kind of like hey this is it, will the Aquabats survive or are we ok with being part of another time.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: That sounds like an episode of the show.<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: It does.\u00a0 It was make it or break it.\u00a0 Fortunately, we have awesome fans and people were really stoked on what we\u2019re doing, and I don\u2019t want to say that we\u2019re #blessed, that\u2019s stupid–<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: But you\u2019re #blessed!<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Yeah! With so many friends! It\u2019s really humbling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: So I know with the Kickstarter you\u2019re able to make two new albums.\u00a0 I was reading an interview with you that said you\u2019re thinking about going into dance music.\u00a0 What other genres can the Aquabats venture into?<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Well we recorded one before we left on tour with Reel Big Fish this summer.\u00a0 It took a month to just get in there and do it. I think it turned out well. Over the years we\u2019ve done so many demos, some of them were rock, some of them were dance-y, some of them were just <\/span>weird<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I think we just chose the ones that were most ready to be recorded.\u00a0 That\u2019s the fun thing, though. If you listen to the [<\/span>Aquabats Super Show<\/span><\/i>] soundtrack that just came out, there\u2019s so many different styles of songs [and] it\u2019s kinda fun just going on a musical adventure.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s fun about the Aquabats. Even though we initially we launched in the midst of the ska [craze], we\u2019ve been able to carve our own path and kind of do whatever we want.\u00a0 I think as long as the songs are fun, sing-alongable, and can be replicated live, whether it\u2019s dance music or country music or elvish lore\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: Yeah, like even with your early albums, with songs like [\u201cLobster Bucket!\u201d], just super weird stuff\u2014<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Yeah! Even songs like Marshmallow Man off our first record, it\u2019s not really ska, it\u2019s more of a swing time signature.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t trying to get locked into just ska, even though, for what it\u2019s worth, ska is fun live and everyone can dance to it [and] it fit our schtick.\u00a0 But we want to do all kinds of different stuff. I think as long as it\u2019s fun and silly, no one\u2019s gonna judge us too harshly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: I know even in the days where you guys were wearing wetsuits [as costumes] you wanted a TV show.\u00a0 Has the TV show turned out to be what you were picturing?<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: We had a couple of iterations of the show that we tried to do.\u00a0 We did a pilot with Disney that wasn\u2019t exactly how we wanted, we compromised a lot of our creative vision for budget reasons… It ended up becoming something we weren\u2019t really going for. I always envisioned it being kind of like a sarcastic Power Rangers, or one of those old Japanese <\/span>Tokusatsu shows…but the first couple of things we did didn\u2019t really get there.\u00a0 I think the <\/span>Super Show <\/span><\/i>has surpassed our expectations stylistically\u2026 but it took on a life of its own.\u00a0 The characters are strong, hyper-reality versions of our own personalities. It\u2019s just fun. There\u2019s a lot of inside jokes that we\u2019re writing for each other, but the biggest benchmark for the show was the fact that kids like it\u2026 It reminded me of when I was a kid watching the 60s Batman show and thinking, \u201cThis is incredible,\u201d and as I got older [I realized] they\u2019re just joking around. It made me like it even more. Being campy for kids was always the idea, but to be able to do it and have it look so well, we definitely surpassed our expectations. That\u2019s why when [The Hub] went under and we couldn\u2019t do any more episodes… and it hadn\u2019t grown to the point where our cult following [forced a network] to pick it back up, the fans stepping in and saying, \u201cWe want to help you guys do it,\u201d was just incredible\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: The new episodes are webisodes, right?<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Yeah, it feels like the <\/span>Super Show <\/span><\/i>but it\u2019s just going to be shorter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: Will there still be cartoon segments?<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: That\u2019s where we had to draw the line because it\u2019s expensive.\u00a0 Fortunately, we were able to work with some animators that weren\u2019t super expensive, but I think if we start getting some momentum back we can start doing cartoons, we\u2019re hoping\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: I know this year marks the 20th anniversary of [album] <\/b>The Aquabats vs. The Floating Eye of Death<\/i><\/b>, do you think you\u2019re going to do an anniversary tour for it?<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: We were talking about that today, actually.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about some shows in December, between Christmas and New Year\u2019s…I don\u2019t know, because I know [our album <\/span>Fury of the Aquabats!<\/span><\/i>] was a classic record and it got a big push and a lot of sales, but when <\/span>Floating Eye of Death <\/span><\/i>came out, the label we were on wasn\u2019t doing so well and [the album] didn\u2019t get promoted at all.\u00a0 We would show up to shows and the clubs didn\u2019t even know we had an album out, [and] the <\/span>fans<\/span><\/i>!\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those records that slipped through the cracks a little bit, and I think with maybe a lot of our fans over time it\u2019s [become part of] the canon of the Aquabats… We\u2019re thinking about it, but we all have our own doubts about it because we remember what happened when it came out. But we\u2019d love to come do some <\/span>Fury <\/span><\/i>shows on the East coast, because we only did a couple on the West coast.\u00a0 So, maybe. If not the whole album, at least a good portion of it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: Could we hear \u201cChemical Bomb\u201d at some point?\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Yeah, maybe not a medley, but a stretch in the set where there\u2019s like four or five of the solid songs on there.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if [\u201cThe Ballad of Mr. Bonkers\u201d] will make the cut, but\u2014 [<\/span>Laughs<\/span><\/i>].\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: We can only hope!<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: There\u2019s some good ones!\u00a0 But that was a weird time for The Aquabats, too, because we were all struggling with [thinking about if] we\u2019re going to keep doing this, and the label we were on was struggling.\u00a0 Nu-metal was coming in on the radio and was pushing all the fringey ska stuff away. When Limp Bizkit came on, they came on hot and fast. It was hard to fight off that whole decade of negative metal that was definitely not what we were doing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: Yeah, you guys are definitely a very positive force.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Yeah, that was kind of like the polar opposite of what we were trying to do.\u00a0 We were trying to do something that was all-ages and fun and sunny.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: Now that the cadet program is back and better than ever, do you think there\u2019s going to be any more cadet summits?\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Yeah! We were talking about it. We were just playing a festival in Orange County [that] was at a location where we shot most of season one [of the <\/span>Super Show<\/span><\/i>], so we\u2019ve definitely been talking about it.\u00a0 Some of the guys in the band, who were never super vocal about their enthusiasm were like, \u201cThat\u2019d be awesome.\u201d\u00a0 I think it\u2019d be fun to see what would happen. I\u2019d love to do an East coast cadet summit as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: Please, I beg…\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: Maybe we\u2019ll do a dual-coast type of thing.\u00a0 It\u2019d be <\/span>fair.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>We might even go to Australia, or the UK\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DT: Those are more fun than New Jersey.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n CJ: There\u2019s some fun spots in New Jersey!<\/span><\/p>\n