I’ve been told to never judge a book by its cover, and I suppose that could easily translate into a band and its name.  But when I saw the band The Samuel Jackson Five, I thought, “How could I go wrong with this purchase?”  I now have all three of their releases and love every one of them.  Their latest album, Goodbye Melody Mountain (2008) was released only a few months after my artist profile of The Samuel Jackson Five.  Although I have not written a full length review of this album, I assure you its every bit as good as their previous albums and a even a little more accessible.  Speaking of accessible, here’s our interview with The Samuel Jackson Five.

First of all, you guys have possibly the best band name I’ve ever seen. What’s the story behind it?

Before the first concert we needed a name. The best thing we came up with was things like “Rich is the new poor”, “Tips and Tricks” and “The Fantastic Plastic Woodpecker from Outer Space, Mars to be presise”. But a friend had a bandname he didn’t use, so we stole it and became The Samuel Jackson Five. we always thought we´d change it before the next gig or the first release, but never did.

What is the music scene like in Oslo, Norway? Are there a strong following for instrumental rock bands?

The scene in Oslo has actually gotten quite good, but the main focus isn´t on instrumental rock, but different variations of indie-music. However, bands like Shining and Jaga Jazzist has made some awareness of the instrumental genre.  

Who are some of the bigger influences on the band’s stylistic choices? Are there many American artists among them, as your name seems to imply?

I don´t know if you have ever heard of them, but being from a small and in musical terms, unimportant country, the biggest influence on us all is probably our natives Motorpsycho. They have touched on almost every genre imaginable, always with quality and style, and they tought us at an early stage that this was possible, when everybody else was listening to Pearl Jam. Other than that, we all liked the sound of post-rock from Chicago and Canada, most notably Tortoise, Do make.. and GYBE.

How many different instruments are used in your live shows?

That depends. Some times we have guests who play saxophone, violin and percussion. But when we play as a quartet: drums, bass, keys, guitar, percussion and PC/samples. if Thomas feels like it, he will bring along a theremin or maybe some f*cked-up radio run through a distorted amp.

Do you have any plans to play any shows in the US?

This is our one big true dream, to TOUR THE STATES! Unfortunately work and other boring facts have kept us on the wrong side of the Atlantic way too long. We are still trying to realize this dream, though.

Is Honest Abe your own record label?

Yes, it is run through our drummers basement and it has given us all the creative freedom in the world. And little of the money.. 

Have you self-produced and self-financed your recordings?

Yes. Same Same, But Different (2004) is produced and mixed by us, on the two last albums we have gotten help with mixing. We also make our own art-work. We save a lot of money on doing everything our selves, but it’s still expensive. on balance we neither make nor lose money on our music.

Could you give us a little insight to the creative process  behind your compositions? Is there a primary composer? Or do most of your compositions come out jamming and improvisation?

Both are true. The songs usually have a primary composer, but we jam around the drafts and everyone contribute to the finished songs.

Your latest album Goodbye Melody Mountain is your most cohesive album thus far. It is also much busier, and in general a little less experimental or abstract. Was there a source of motivation for this transition, or has your music simply arrived here naturally?

We experienced a writers block after our second album, Easily Misunderstood (2005). We needed to turn over some rocks to manage to make some songs. We threw away all the songs we made from 2005-2007, took a deap breath and wrote the songs on Goodbye Melody Mountain in around a year. The transition was natural, but didn’t arrive without a fight. To complete the album, we carried all our equipment to a cabin up in the mountains(yes, therfore the album-title..) and stayed there for some 13 days. it was intense

You guys mentioned “a place to sleep, a meal and some beer is the minimum” for performance. Though you probably weren’t serious about that for all your gigs, there might have been times when things got pretty close to that. Would you mind sharing one of those experiences, perhaps one of the tougher times?

We have played in Germany, England, the Netherlands and Belgium, only in the latter country did we make any profit. The desire to play our music for new people is a lot bigger than the desire to make money. The gig in England was probably the toughest, because we were just one of tvelwe bands at the venue. When we entered the stage both we and the audience was tired. All the other bands sounded like Oasis/Travis-wannabes, it was clearly not the right venue for us.

But mostly we have had fantastic experiences with playing at quite rundown venues. The best small concert was Astra Stube in Hamburg. A very damp, tiny stage under a railway track. It was intense and intimate and the reception was brilliant. You don’t need big stages to have a great time, often the opposite is true for our kind of music.

You said on your blog that you really liked Sigur Ros and Sonic Youth’s live performances. Any other bands or groups that you’ve been listening to? Any recommendation on albums we should check out?

Shining - In the Kingdom of Kitsch, You Will Be a Monster

Motorpsycho - Trust Us

King Crimson - Red

Godspeed You Black Emperor - Slow Riot For…

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

5 albums that might seem obvious, but if you haven´t checked them out, they are truly masterpieces.

Do members of the band have day jobs outside of making music? If so, would you mind sharing what they are?

Yes, all of us have full time jobs. Stian(drums) runs a record store. Thomas K.(guitars) does web design, Thomas M.(multimusician) is a student and Sigmun Bade(bass) does car-journalism.

If you could play alongside any band or group in a concert series, who would they be and why?

Radiohead would be high on that list. They’re in a different league and one of the bands that have been best in constantly reinventing themselves. Their songs are great, and I think we could learn a great deal from them. to start off with a major hit like “creep” and evolve to solo-stuff like “the eraser”, and the Greenwoods reggea and “there will be blood”-outings is impressive.