BJ: You seem to play many instruments. What do you play and how did you get interested in music?
Jubal:
When I was in junior high school a guy was getting the beat-up pretty badly on the playground. After the beating, I went over to the guy because I felt sorry for him. We ended up talking a bit and he invited me back to his house. To my delight his father was a musician, as was he, and he had a piano, drums, various guitars, and a bass, and could play them all. I was fascinated and immediately took an interest in learning to play the drums.
I progressed extremely fast and realized that I had an aptitude for music...well, at least rhythm.
I messed around with the guitar here and there, but did not pick up the instrument seriously until I was about fifteen, at which time I began spending as much as twelve hours a day practicing.
When I moved to Arizona my senior year in high school, the place at which I was staying had a piano and I began to mess around with it quite a bit. I took lessons for about a week, but decided I liked just being able to sit down and play whatever I wanted...mostly making stuff up. Also I was still playing my guitar a lot so I wasn't too keen on allowing something to get in the way of that pursuit.
I picked up the bass when I was about twenty-five during some recording sessions wherein the bass player couldn't make it and we needed to get the part done. So I played on the recording, and then dabbled here and there, but nothing to serious until, when I moved to Austin in '99, shortly thereafter I was hired to play bass for a Jamaican Ska band called "The Stingers." That was where I honed my bass skills and actually became a bass player and not just a guitar player that plays bass. Believe me there's a difference.
BJ: Your audience loves your solo work, and they notice your ability to sample and over dub during your live performances. How does that work?
Jubal:
I use a boomerang digital sampler (http://boomerangmusic.com) which allows me to create samples or loops live, in the moment. The way it works is that I play, say, a rhythm track and press record, when I am done recording that part, the boomerang will be playing the track and then I can record more tracks over that. So I will smack the top of the guitar to get a little percussion and then lay down a bass line by using a octave pedal which makes the guitar sound like a bass. When it's all set up I start singing, or playing lead and voila, the one man band is rolling. For the record there is nothing pre-programmed in the boomerang. It's all done in the moment so one has to be very conscious and pay close attention not to flub on a live sample or overdub because if you mess up one of the tracks, you cannot erase it without erasing all the other tracks and must therefore start all over. Though I do screw it up on occasion, it doesn't happen to me much anymore because I have been using the thing for five years or so, plus I was a drummer first so my rhythm is pretty solid.
BJ: Your writing ranges from rock and roll to jazz to funk, ska, and country. What's your favorite?
Jubal:
Exactly. Music is my favorite. Good music comes in all flavors. I actually took a lot of flack for my diversity in genre when I was being courted by producers in Los Angeles in the mid-nineties. They said I had to make a choice and that one couldn't play reggae and then blues, or jazz or Latin or whatever, on the same record. Well, I think that Los Angeles/the record industry is completely f…ked when it comes to making musical art. They see dollar signs and profit margins instead of the sound of somebody's soul. I mean just listen to the radio...any corporate station, and see if you are stirred or moved at all by anything the industry is putting out. It's all meaningless jabber for the most part; squeaky little girls that can barely carry a tune but happen to be endowed with a nice rack or a ghetto booty, and have the ability and/or the will to flaunt them all the way to the bank; hip-hopsters who's only seeming inspiration is themselves. I mean I don't get up on stage and tell everybody in my songs how many chics I’ve been banging and in what position, nor do I talk about my muscles or how much I can kick ass. All these kinds of "artists" to me are vain idiots, not artists in any sense of the word, and will fall through the cracks of time only to be forgotten, though not soon enough if you ask me. They will not be remembered because their music is not timeless. It simply consists of gimmicks, marketing schemes, slick production, and little else. The thing that sucks is that the record industry has a seemingly unlimited ability to keep producing more of these pretty faces to sing their soul-less rink-a-dink songs. Whenever one of these kinds of acts fails or slips into obscurity, you can rest assured there will be another hard body bimbo, or some self proclaimed "gangster" waiting in the wings to clog the airwaves with their trite and meaningless lolli-gaggin'.

BJ: You play with many other bands. Guitar, bass and even drums. You going to continue to do that?
Jubal:
If one really wants to make a living being a musician, one has to play with as many acts as one can afford. I don't really play the drums professionally any more, though I do sit in on occasion. I love playing the bass and hope to always have at least one project in which I can play bass. Guitar, being my forte instrument, is something that I will never give up. Guitar is my first love, and probably the purist love i've ever felt. If you think you could ever pry the thing outta my dead hands you are mistaken. So, basically you could say I am a musical whore. I'll play with anybody that makes it worthwhile ie., having really good tunes that I enjoy playing, or the money to pay me to play music I don't like. That's the thing. Being a musician, a professional musician, does not leave much room for musical choice sometimes. I mean, when the rent is due and the only gig on the table is a polka party that pays well, even if you hate polka, you better take it or get used to eating Ramen noodles because it is a trade after all. In order to survive sometimes one has to take gigs that one doesn't really prefer. I guess it just goes to show you that even when one can play music for a living there will still be moments that one is working and not simply playing. So yes, I will continue doing all that I can in music in whatever capacity that is available to me.

BJ: Do you have a label yet? How will it be distributed? When's it due to be released?
Jubal:
I started making this record out of my own pocket (with more than a little help from my mother) and after hearing the material, Cuezone Records has decided to give me a distribution deal, which means they will help me foot the remainder of the recording costs and get the record out to various radio stations in college towns across the country, and/or wherever I may be touring at the time. To be perfectly honest we've yet to sign the contracts so I am not exactly certain how vast this record will be distributed. Hopefully it will get noticed and receive a great deal of airplay. I'm not holding my breath though because it's not what's "in" right now. It won't be something that industry people will think could work, but then we know that they would make me into the boy version of Britney Spears if they had their way. So f..ck them. I'm happy flying just under the radar. I could see myself becoming successful as an underground artist or having a cult following. I don't think I have the ego to be able to deal with what is necessary in order to achieve mass worldwide fame. At least not in my living life. Who knows what can happen posthumously? I'll be happy if this record allows me to play to a nationwide audience, if only on the club circuit. I love to tour and now with this record, my first professionally recorded venture, it should prove to be much easier.

BJ: You're going into the studio to cut a CD. What type of music is going to be on it?
Jubal:
We've almost finished five tracks which are mostly reggae inspired. I plan to have some solo acoustic tracks on there as well as some funky stuff in a full band arrangement. Hopefully the album will be finished by summer's end. I haven't thought of a title yet, but I'm sure I will think of something that stings...if only a little. Something like "Basic Bullshit from the Brain-dead Continuum," though I doubt that would help boost sales very much. Maybe we'll call it "Real Music From the Land of the Doomed," or "Dumb Human Tunes for the Weak Minded," or better yet "Wake the F...k Up You Morons." The latter probably getting voted down by the label, again due to marketing concerns.
Even though I do have some songs that are designed just to be light-hearted and fun, much of what I compose has a deeper meaning. I'd like to think that my music could affect the masses by calling to their attention the fact that even though they do indeed have a choice, in their present situation, they are little more than programmed cattle with their cubical jobs and creature comforts that keep them locked away in their homes. It's easy to change the world if everybody participates. That's the trick; getting the masses to join together against the injustices we all suffer. A very difficult objective, though worthy because we are not united and nothing will ever change until we as a society can unite under the cause of a more just world for everybody, not just the educated or rich. it is not a very likely scenario, but even if listening to my music causes only a few people to get to thinking about life, their place in the world, and what life truly means, then I will feel like I have at least done something positive in a world that has few role models speaking about the truth of things as opposed to their own egos or material endeavors.
My guess is that 75 to 85 percent of human beings are complete idiots with no will of their own, following blindly and dutifully anybody that seems to speak with conviction. Unfortunately, those who are leading are self indulgent, self absorbed ego-maniacs that simply use the masses for their own aims. I mean what leader in this country has truly taken an interest in the trials and tribulations of the common citizen? Maybe Carter is the most recent exception. They only work to further their own lives and the lives of those with whom they conspire to outwit all their constituents. I think those 75 to 85 percent of human beings can be lead into a greater standard of living, but not by one who is only out for his/her own personal gain. Ah, but I digress. What the hell was the question again? Oh yeah, the record...it'll be a multi-genre compilation of original tunes and everybody will love it, except those who do not, naturally. Nudge nudge wink wink.