When we chatted, Jamin was “chilling in his truck” back home in Nashville, Tennessee, a few days before he and his bro were due to jet over for their tour of Australia. The last time they were here, in late 2010, the brothers had a blast. After a few raucous shows in Melbourne they befriended Aussie music agent Indra Adams and ended up dragging him along for their subsequent tour around the US. Jamin is rather excited to see what his Melbourne friends have planned for him when he returns to Oz.
The rest of us will get the chance to see JEFF play songs from new LP Hypnotic Nights. It is the band’s seventh album, although many only became aware of The Brotherhood upon the release of 2009’s Heavy Days. (Prior to this Jamin found success in post-punk four-piece Be Your Own Pet.) Recording their latest was the first time the brothers have worked with a producer, none other than Auerbach himself. The Black Keys guitarist approached the band’s manager, asked to work on one song, and ended up staying on for the whole project. The result is an accomplished album full of songs about good times and simple pleasures.
Having smiled to lyrics such as “I wanna cool out and get wasted” (on Sixpack) and “I want a place where I can smoke meats/Where I can drink and swim in the creek” (on Country Life), the final track is a somewhat unexpected version of Ozzy Osbourne’s contemplative Changes.
Swapping piano for a synthesiser and adding gospel-style backing vocals, the brothers saw the song as an ideal inclusion. “I can’t remember if it was mine or Jake’s idea, but we both talked about it and decided to do it because a lot of stuff was changing in our lives,” explains Jamin. “We signed a bigger deal, started working with a producer, became more confident. We just thought it seemed appropriate.”
The “bigger deal” is the one JEFF signed with Warner, after releasing previous material on its own Infinity Cat label. Is the major label influence stifling at all? “They don’t put very much pressure on us. They don’t feel like they really have to, because when they signed us we were already making records and putting them out every year and touring our butts off. We work with them on everything we put out but it’s up to us in the end.”
What about other pressures, those of living up to the hype, and of making Dad proud (father Robert Ellis Orrall was a successful singer-songwriter and has written for the likes of Taylor Swift)? “I don’t really think about that stuff. I just play.”
It’s hard to imagine much can dent Jamin’s relaxed demeanour but he gives a hint of the potential for JEFF to disintegrate as other successful groups built around siblings, like Oasis or Nashville’s own Kings Of Leon, have. “Yeah, we fight a lot. Not fist fights, we just argue a lot. Over everything.” While Jamin insists the pair are still good friends, it’s nice to get a bit of time apart. “We don’t really hang out much when we’re home,” he says. That is hardly surprising when you work as hard as JEFF do – they’re notorious for putting in the hard yards and deserve a break. “We’re going to have a little more time off this year. We did 180 to 200 shows last year.”
But Jamin concedes that JEFF The Brotherhood’s success cannot all be put down to graft. “I consider myself extremely lucky,” he admits, modestly, before revealing there was never a grand plan hatched between the two Orrall boys to be rock‘n’roll stars.
“I was always making music with my brother because it was the easiest thing to do because we were always together growing up. We never tried to get people to hear us until a few years ago. We liked the stuff we were playing and we were both at changing points in our lives, we wanted to do something else. So we just figured, fuck it, we’ll just try it and let’s see if it works out.”
It sure seems like it has.
BY DAVID WILD
