Colorado’s Jesus Christ Taxi Driver performs at Wave on Thursday, Feb. 19, as special guests for The Reverend Horton Heat.
The quartet will release its second album, “Taxi The Rich,” on April 24 via the Midtopia label. Guitarists and vocalists Colin Kelly and Ian Ehrhart as well as drummer Miles Jenkins recently spoke with KMUW about the new recording and the unit’s approach to live performance. (The band is rounded out by bassist Will Ehrhart.)
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
There are a number of different styles represented in the songs on this new album. It seems like there aren’t rules regarding genre. If someone brings in a surf riff, that’s fair game.
Ian Ehrhart: I think we’re still finding ourselves musically in a lot of ways but at the same time we just all like so many different kinds of music that I think it would be silly to not go with what your heart says.
It’s a focused set of songs and the sequencing is pretty relentless, once listeners are in for the first song, you keep them hooked, waiting to see what comes next.
IE: I think it was about going with our hearts on it. As we were recording, we were discovering this kind of layout and theme. But it’s hard to plan that.
Colin Kelly: I think we leave the sprawling stuff for the live show. For a record, we’re very much a pop band structurally. We appreciate the beauty of a pop structure. I think that ABAB structure works for a reason.
Did you all grow up listening to radio? Because that’s what strikes me most about the songs, that they’re concise and focused, the kind of thing that keeps you tuned into a station.
IE: I grew up listening to radio for sure. Even the early Beatles, verse-chorus-verse, maybe a bridge. Catchy, straight to the point. But I also like “A Day in the Life.” It’s all about trying to mishmash that Beatles influence.
Miles Jenkins: I used to listen to longer stuff. In middle school and high school I was listening to jazz and all those recordings have these solos and the songs are at least six minutes and can get up to 15 minutes. I listened to a lot of ambient stuff. I can get into something that’s way long. With these songs we didn’t want to add anything that didn’t need to be there. Get the point across, give it a hard ending and just let it be.
IE: Beatles reference.
MJ: [Laughs.] I’ve listened to a lot of Beatles too. So there is that.
I think The Beatles are a good point of reference because that’s a band that wasn’t really about a genre.
IE: It’s hard to ignore that influence. It opened up some possibilities in my mind. The music can be anything.
Once you have a song written, do you feel comfortable taking it out and trying it front of an audience, or do you wait until you’ve recorded it and allowed people time to familiarize themselves with it?
IE: I’ve always done it in that shoot from the hip type of way. If we have a melody and structure of a song I’ll just make up words live and see what sticks. Over time, some things stick more than others. I think Colin’s got a different approach. Maybe opposite.
CK: Yeah. I do love being able to play a song live before you record it because that can definitely help inform how you’d like to make the statement, how to record it [properly]. Ian is more of a flow stage or fugue state lyricist and I am too afraid to do that. I’ll finish the lyrics and do the music later. I think trying a song out live before you record it aways an option, especially being an obscure band that nobody really knows. You have that luxury so why not?
IE: In front of five people. [Laughs.]
MJ: I feel like half the songs on the album were played live before we recorded them and the other half came together when we recorded them.
The lyrical approach has a balance. You take on some weighty topics but there’s humor in there too.
IE: Thank you. That’s good to hear. I think humor is a good delivery method for a lot of heavy topics. Any of the lyrical themes come from what we’re experiencing in our day-to-day lives. Lately, day-to-day life has been filled with lots of horror and suffering. I guess you need some sugar to make the medicine go down.
MJ: Mary Poppins. Wow.
IE: Yes, to quote Mary Poppins.
CK: I didn’t see that one coming.
IE: It’s a classic. [Laughs.] But, yes, there’s humor and I’m glad you said that it balances out because I was hoping that it would.
I went to see Gang of Four here in Wichita last year.
IE: We were there too. That would have been when we were recording our record.
Cool. I was just struck by the song “I Love A Man In Uniform,” which is about fascism but it also makes you want to dance.
IE: That show probably informed a bit of our recording at least in a tiny way.
MJ: That was the night we got to town. We found out that they were there and we said, “We’re going down.”
IE: I loved the toaster smashing.
When it comes to your live performances, there’s a lot of energy. It’s about the performance as much as about the music. Did that come to you naturally, or was it something where you said, “We’ve got the music, now let’s find this other thing to get people engaged?”
IE: It was not really a concerted effort. For me, it’s nervous energy transformed into chaos. I’m, like, “Love me, please!” It’s desperation. I get this surge of energy. From the very beginning of my career in performing, I’ve never been able to hold back. I’ll do anything to make the crowd smile or react or anything. It’s always been a part of it for me.
CK: We have learned how to watch Ian and react to what he’s doing. The songs definitely have a way of steering us. I think it’s a very honest of expression of how we’re feeling and how these songs make us feel. It’s been there from the beginning. If we planned it it would all deflate. It would be dishonest to do it that way.
One last thing. There’s flute on this album. I’m pro-flute.
IE: [Laughs.] How did you start playing the flute, Miles?
MJ: Me?
IE: Yeah.
MJ: I played saxophone in middle and high school and the fingerings are the same. We were in Boise, Idaho and [some members of our touring party] went to a pawn shop and I said, “If they have a flute, let me know.” And they had a flew. Our tour manager at that time is a great negotiator and he was able to get a flute for twenty bucks. That night it was in the show.
IE: And ever since.
CK: He started playing the tune to “Too Cold For Golf” at that show. It just materialized out of thin air.
A magic flute?
IE: Yes!
MJ: Sacred wind.
