Utter Trash--this is exploding

Have a Blast

An interview with Joshua Jesty of This is Exploding

By Eddie Fleisher

this is exploding are an energetic four piece from Cleveland. I interviewed their guitar player, Josh, after their one year anniversary show at the Grog Shop.

Eddie Fleisher: How did you all hook up?
Joshua Jesty: Once upon a time in 2002, 3 bands called Open Blind, Lacy Underall, and the Feel Bads competed in a Baldwin Wallace battle of the bands. That's the first time the 4 of us were in the same area as we were in one of those three bands. I was good friends with Dan and had known of Nick from that battle of the bands. Nick kept in touch with me, asking me to get together and jam with him every once and awhile. His persistence paid off, and I met with him and his friend Brian, and the 3 of us, plus the drummer from The Feel Bads, played together. We wrote one song together at the practice, and then The Feel Bads drummer bailed. Dan had just left his band Lacy Underall, and I asked him to come jam with us for a few weeks while we searched for other drummers to audition. That's what convinced Dan to play with us in the first place, because he didn't want to do anything long term after Lacy. The four of us got together in late August for what we thought would be one or two jam sessions, and on the first session, we wrote a really cool song called "Annual Rain Parade". From the moment we finished that song, we knew we had to pursue this a little further, and that's how it began.

EF: Cool. Who came up with the name? And why?
JJ: The first thing we ever did as a group, besides play together (we'd been getting together and writing songs with each other, but we still didn't know much about each other), was go to Brian’s house and watch this poorly copied CD/video of a movie called ‘Shaolin Soccer’. It’s is a really cool, but kinda weird, movie [and one which your humble editor also recommends – ed.]. At one point the main character is talking to the female love interest about pursuing what you're passionate about, and at the conclusion of his speech about following your passion, the camera cuts to a shot of a butcher who is standing near by who exclaims "I have always wanted to be a dancer since I was a child... Ah, this is exploding!", and then he proceeds to dance. I was writing down different phrases and things that stuck out to me while watching that movie, and that phrase was the one that stuck. As we thought about it more, the name this is exploding really expresses what we do as a band. We spell our name in all lower case and make it to look very minor and normal, and we dress normal at the shows and don't do anything to make ourselves stick out like spit fire or hump everything, or what have you. However, just as the name this is exploding definitely implies that there's a fire and something very strong within it, I think musically and performance-wise we put out the most explosive, passionate, and powerful rock show that we possibly can.

EF: On a scale of 1 - 10 how do you rate the Cleveland scene?
JJ: I'd say when I'm putting together shows around 7. When other people put together shows for Cleveland bands, it's around 3 or lower. I haven't seen any bookers around here really listen to bands to see if they fit together. I understand that there's a bottom line of expenses that have to be met, but the artist side of me still cries to want to just put together the best local bands and let it ride out. Here in Cleveland, we're taught in our high school bands to go sell the most tickets and win the battle of the bands at our high school, or at the Odeon Rock off, or at the Peabody’s Battle of the Bands. That's the first gigs any band can get in this town usually, and that sets the tone for the way the scene is. There isn't always a lot of cooperation in this scene. That's something I'd like to rectify. There's a lot of miscommunication, as well as ego, that gets in the way of a lot of cool bands getting together and putting on really good local shows. It's still kinda an “everyone for themselves” vibe, which I don't really like. I think that because of this Rock Off Battle of the Bands Vibe. We're all bred to think that there's only opportunity for 1 band to do anything around here, and that's completely false. That narrow view is what is screwy about our scene. There are 7 or 8 good rock clubs to play here in town, which is more than most towns can brag about, and there's a lot of good bands, and if there was more of a community sort of thing, I'm sure that there would be a lot more opportunities that would open up. *getting off pedestal.*

EF: I agree with you 100 percent. Ego and lack of cooperation are a HUGE problem around here. The whole ticket selling thing with places like Peabodys really hurts the scene. We really all need to work together and try to promote a community. We could go on all day with that subject. On another note, what are your musical influences?
JJ: So, so many. The beautiful and unique aspect about this is exploding is that we all write the music together. All of the early songs we created together, and even the later songs are about 80% all of us and 20% one of us bringing in a new idea to the table to add to the song. So that means all our influences come through and mesh together a lot more then if just one of us wrote. So I think you can hear any number of influences from the obvious like Beatles, Nirvana, Weezer, and then on down to the less obvious like Wilco, Built to Spill, Afghan Whigs, REM, the soundtrack to ‘Ghost Dad’, Matthew Good Band, Nada Surf, Talking Heads, Police, and on and on.

EF: Very nice. Those are all great bands. If you could tour with any band from any period of time, who would it be?
JJ: I would go with Weezer on their Pinkerton tour because you know that there wouldn't be as many people at the shows, but those who were in attendance would love every note of it.

EF: Coke or Pepsi?
JJ: I'm gonna say Coke. But come on with the vanilla already.

EF: Who gets your vote for president in 2004 (so far)?
JJ: No one has impressed me at all, just turned me off further.

EF: What's your biggest accomplishment as a band?
JJ: Most likely this Birthday Show that we had. There's been a lot of milestones, though. Releasing the EP, opening up for Flickerstick, winning one of those evil battle of the bands I talked about earlier, getting to play in all the different places we've played. Getting on the radio, getting press, oh oh, and getting hit in the face in the middle of a show by Brian’s Bass.

EF: Aha. What do you guys do for day jobs?
JJ: I serve old ladies pancakes, Brian makes old ladies pancakes, Nick cuts old ladies lawns, and Dan stocks shelves at target over night while old ladies sleep and dream of new ways to complain to the guy who serves them pancakes.

this is exploding’s latest self-titled EP is available now through their website.