Introducing: Jed And The Microwave – Ahead of the Curve, Behind the Times

No problem, thanks for having me! So far it’s just me and the auditory hallucinations in my head, but the dog sometimes sits with me when I record. It’s a power pop, punk rock project with a lot of classic stylings. Think the attitude of The Replacements matched with an attempt at a Phil Collis’ style of writing. Just beer flavoured sounds for the ears, really. There’ll be a band soon though!

It’s been a few years in the making. The song was done three years ago, I just kept putting off release because I keep going on other musical adventures with other bands I’m in or have been in (The Brislingtonez, Disruptive Influence, Red Terror). The music I make with these guys is fantastic by golly I’m going to keep making music with them, but I found I needed to write songs my own way again; egotistical guitar solos, rambling vox, enough gated reverb to shut out a field of sheep and basslines that give me RSI.

To me, the song’s more about how clean cut everything sounds these days, however. The bar for bands starting out has sky rocketed into the stratosphere, and now it’s expected everything is worked out from the formation. Once I played a show with my old band RainMen in a small pub in Brighton and people came up to us asking for Business cards. It’s frustrating. It really is plastic wrappers on the turntables to a lot of people who claim they want homegrown stuff. It’s stuff like this that’s destroying it for bands starting out, leaving the mediocre money’d hacks to step on them on the way up without having to be part of a local community of musicians. I hope we re-embrace the filth again soon, a proper pub-rock revival where we shatter the bar and just rock n’ roll without silly industry expectations. Bring everyone together again after the internet and lockdowns tore us apart.

So the song message overall is this; get back in the dirt and keep making what you love, don’t let the androids and the cyber corporations tell you to make the same, boring songs. We’re all out of step and just a little bit lame. It’s better seeing that celebrated instead of having to clean up our image.

There’s one track, but I do like French bulldogs. Not a fan of dog eugenics though, seems a bit weird we did that.

In general, Shaved off of Repeated Graffiti I love. Just a gay song about being depressed and non-binary. I haven’t actually had the urge to express that since, that song took it all out of me. I like being able to move on to the newer things that keep arising.

Well it’s just me writing so far. When I was doing this under the name Plain Microwave, I had Andrew Cheeseman of Stranger Girl there to slap my hands away from the mixing desk any time I thought of doing something stupid, and I trust everyone else around me to do the same.

What I learned though is, when I get other people in to record (Evie the drummer on the old Plain Microwave things, Dale and Emilio on AOTCBTT), is that it’s better to strip back and I think the new single reflects that. I have the habit of wanting to layer and layer and at that point it becomes impossible for anyone to mix. Ahead of the Curve I think strikes the perfect balance between being madman production and something comprehensible and plunging through with a bit of grit.

I’m excited to start actually writing with other people. Writing on your own can be fun since it’s all you baby, you can do what you want, but at a certain point you just become tired of having your trousers around your ankles. The best music I’ve made has always had someone else’s name in the writing credits, and I look forward to that happening with the Microwave.

I’ve been playing since I was a kid as a way to get me to talk properly (I was diagnosed with a processing disorder since I was very young). Queen really made me think about getting electric with the guitar, but I think my main inspiration is my uncle who’s a session drummer. For me, it was important seeing that it’s actually possible to have a career making music.

I suppose what I make now has more in common with the roots of me musically than anything else I’ve made, which I like. I feel like I change the angle I go for day by day, but for now I guess I’ve gone back to bands like Dire Straits and Dr Feelgood who I used to listen to a lot as a teen. I’m seeing Mr Bungle soon which will be wicked, an old bandmate of mine (Dan Pearse who is now in Gurf) got me hooked. The unstable and erratic genre shifts really get my eclectic tendencies.

I’m piecing together some live shows in Bristol. Not specifically a JATM, but just because there’s bands I like here and I want to do more in the scene, it’s a fantastic place to be with fantastic musicians.

Micro-wise, maybe an EP one day before the year ends? There’s plenty of demos that could do with some polishing on my computer, I love the songwriting process and I want to speed up my way through it so keep those ears peeled!

What’s the ultimate goal for the band? Headlining major festivals, playing a certain venue or just having as much fun as you can?

Getting the band together. Jenny Rascal Ramone (Brislingtonez) on synth, Ollie Pickett (Disruptive Influence) on guitar, and just getting out on the circuit on a mission from god. I want to hear these songs shredded through a beer-soaked speaker in a dive somewhere in Bristol, and then; the world.

My aim is to become a one hit wonder, then dip out. That’ll be fantastic. No expectations after the second major-label single flops, and a good stash of royalties. Just live calm and a bit anonymous.

My alarm for work when I have a job, but mostly the need to pee. I really like trains. I want to do a big tour of all the narrow gauge railways in Wales, and I am huge fan of Thomas the Tank Engine. The autism referral forms are on the desk next to me. They will stare me down until I fill them out.

Also I love gaming, Fallot New Vegas is the big one for me but I want to reinstall BG3 and give that a chance when I have the time again since that is the chaos that I live for.

Too many. Outside of projects I work in; Gurf, Silktape, MY-HI, Bozos, Grazed Knees, The Lovesicks, Slime CIty are ones that jump to my head. They’re all in a playlist called Chef Jed’s Bangers and Mash on the JATM Spotify. Have a scroll through and listen!

Thank you very much for having me! I hope what I’ve said makes sense, but that usually only happens on certain Tuesdays in Springtime.

Yeah, got a show with awful rocknrolla’s the Brislingtonez on the 16th March at the Exchange, and a show with Bristol veterans Disruptive Influence in Swindon on the 31st for Vicfest. Come grab a beer and say hi!