Heart Condition

As a followup on my recent artistic collaboration with fellow noir artists/musicians “Crime Rock,” I am excited to bring you this exclusive interview with L.A.’s own Brandon Jordan.

Check out my cover design for their brand new single “Stop Looking For Love,” then head downtown tomorrow night to catch a FREE live show at the Down & Out on Spring Street. Whoever said crime doesn’t pay!

GH: Many of my blog followers are L.A.-based and familiar with your old band “Killradio.” Can you tell us how you went from post punk to Tom Waits meets Nirvana meets Morphine staging Weegee photos?

BJ: I began poking around into my father’s unsolved and mysterious death because I got a package sent to me in the mail with his death certificate. It said the cause of death was “unknown.” I started asking questions, I didn’t get many answers. Killradio fans should remember the song “Burning the Water Brown”, that’s about my father. I was sick of not knowing what happened so I started writing songs, and I made shit up like a fiction writer. It opened up a new creative side of me. I had turned the dark into the light. After Killradio, I had fallen in love with the band Morphine. From then on I knew I needed a baritone saxophone in the new band in order to re-tell the story of my father’s life. A distorted guitar and a baritone sax go together in an amazing way, and I realized I was heading into new sonic territory. If these events didn’t go down, I don’t think I would have started Crime Rock. I was pretty beaten down after Killradio called it quits.

GH: Before you picked up a guitar or discovered you could sing, what were you listening to on the radio and was there any particular catalyst in your life that made you decide to be a musician?

BJ: I started singing and recording songs on this little tape recorder I had when I was 4. So I was probably watching and listening to a lot of Sesame Street. Blame the Count!!! In 4th grade, I was getting into too many fights and school made me to the office for recess and lunch. I started really writing songs in that stuffy office. Guns and Roses was the biggest band in the world at that point, so I was listening to a lot of them, and I loved the story telling of 80’s hip-hop. I know it sounds funny now, but I really liked Ice-T, he had a great way of telling a crime story.

GH: I’m a noir artist who draws inspiration from art forms and artists ranging from German Expressionism to Alain Resnais to David Lynch. Who are your “noir” influences and how was Crime Rock conceived?

BJ: Musically I think The Murder City Devils, Nick Cave, and Tom Waits had a lot to do with how I approached writing the lyrics in Crime Rock. But the French gangster movies of Jean-Pierre Melville and Jules Dassin in the late 50’s and 60’s really set me off. My early favorite noir authors were Jim Thompson, Ross MacDonald, and James Ellroy because our childhoods were very similar.

GH: I don’t know too many people who pay for music these days, but I supported the protest against Pandora Radio. As an artist who has made a living making records, what are your feelings about the royalties paid to musicians when their creations are streamed on Internet radio?

BJ: I like any service that gets music out to the people. I really do. I wish those companies had more transparency and the artist could have a check and balances system behind the scenes. But in an industry that is plunging, the need and consumption of music is higher than ever. If it wasn’t Spotify or Pandora, it would be something else because people are going to get their music, no matter what. I think that’s proven. One day the musicians will get together and start a digital union or something like that, and then we’ll see the industry really rally against us. The industry does a lot better when musicians are in the dark.

GH: When you asked me to create the cover for your new single “Stop Looking for Love,” listening to the song gave me an impression first in the form of colour (this case red) then the lyrics inspired the subject matter. How would you describe the start to finish process of writing a song and is it a solo or joint collaboration?

BJ: Every song is different and as an artist, I have many tools to use. Generally, I start with the lyrics. Really, I start with a title. I have a notebook with just possible song titles. For instance, a couple years ago I wrote down the title “Right Time, Wrong Blond.” A little later I sat down to write and opened up my song title book and saw that title. I had just had a fight with a girl I was dating who is blond and I got to work. A lot of craft and a little inspiration can go a long way. Recently I’ve been taking the lyrics and just singing with no instruments. Just singing. When the melody feels good and it fits the content of the lyrics, then I pick up the guitar and figure out chords. Then I bring the melody and some chords to the band. The best thing I do as a writer is….I keep writing. I write terrible songs, all the time, but you will never hear them. But I don’t let the last song keep me from writing the next song.

GH: How did you meet your current band members?

BJ: The whole band was almost put together using craigslist. Our new drummer Mike was told about us because his friend had wanted to try out but schedules didn’t line up. The friend told Mike to check us out and he did. Other than him, it’s all been Craigslist. Andrew, our bass player, grew up around me and we had a ton of the same friends but we had never run into each other.

GH: What and where was the most memorable live show Crime Rock has performed to-date, keeping in mind of course the best is yet to come?

BJ: We recently opened up for the band SNOT. We were very nervous that the crowd would hate us and not “get” us. They have a much heavier sound than most of what we do. But the crowd ate it up and really showed us some love. I guess we realized that our sound, that can’t be described in one genre, was still able to reach other audiences. But in the early, early days of the band, it was just a sax player and myself, and we played at the back end of a cat-walk at a seedy Hollywood strip club. The girls really liked us and they seemed to still find a beat to groove to, even though we didn’t have a drummer at the time.

GH: Describe 3 things you can’t live without.

BJ: Gel pens with fine pointed tips, my beagle Bentley, and my SOS Crew.

GH: If you could open for any band/artist who would that be?

BJ: Faith No More, without a doubt.

GH: What’s next for Crime Rock and how would one commit the perfect crime?

BJ: First off, to commit the perfect crime, I wouldn’t talk about it here, that’s for sure! Ha.

For Crime Rock, we are releasing our new single and video for “Stop Looking for Love” this month, which features your wonderful artwork. A live record will be released this summer from the show where we opened up for SNOT. And we have finished writing Episode Two called “Little Victim”. We will be going into the studio in the next month or two and recording it. As far as live shows go, we will continue to show LA our pride and loyalty, but we are also getting outside of Los Angeles and bestowing our love onto more of the West Coast.

GH: Thanks Brandon - good luck to you guys! - Gina Higgins