Jukebox the Ghost: Infusing Dark Themes with Pop Music and Why It Was Time for a Self-Titled Record

Brianne Nemiroff

Since 2006, Ben Thornewill’s soulful vocals have been permeating the airwaves with their piano-rock sound. The lead singer and pianist of Jukebox the Ghost, Thornewill plays alongside friends from George Washington University, Tommy Siegel (guitar and vocals) and Jesse Kristin (drums). Back in their school days, they called themselves “The Sunday Mail” but eventually settled on “Jukebox the Ghost”, based off of lyrics of a Captain Beefheart song.

Throughout their career, they’ve toured with some of the best names in indie rock, including the Barenaked Ladies, Jack’s Mannequin, Ben Folds and (of more recent fame) A Great Big World, and have made their mark with songs such as “Somebody,” released in 2012, and “The Great Unknown,” released in May 2014.

For their upcoming self-titled album, they worked with producers Dan Romer (Ingrid Michaelson, A Great Big World, Jenny Owen Youngs) and Andrew Dawson (fun., Kanye West). After working on 50 demos over a 10-month period, they decided on 11 tracks for the final record. As “Jukebox the Ghost” will be out Oct. 20, Ben Thornewill sat down with Entertainment Voice to talk about how they lose their minds on tour and why this album was created in a completely different way from than anything they’ve done before.

Entertainment Voice: Who or what were your influences for “Jukebox the Ghost”?
Jukebox the Ghost: It’s interesting, the way we developed as a band was accidental. We wrote the songs that we wrote, historically we sit in a room, and figured out how to play them. This time around, the whole process was a little different. We spent more time on the songs, had more songs to choose from, and spent months deconstructing them and essentially ripping them a new one, to make them what they are now. It’s very hard to draw a clean line of influences or inspirations, tiny riffs from hip-hop, snare rolls, it’s all pieced together. There wasn’t any, “Let’s make a record that sounds like this.” There was, “Let’s make a record that sounds as good as it can possibly sound.” 

EV: Why, on your fourth album, did you decide to have it be self-titled?
JG: We spent so much time reinventing the songs and just recrafting them to do something different. By the end, we almost felt we reinvented ourselves and [found] a different way to present ourselves. It felt honest. Any name that we came up with felt contrived and inauthentic. Naming it after the band, which we never had a chance to do, felt like we accomplished something and recreated and redefined who we are or were.

EV: On your last album, you made the jump to talk more about your own lives instead of writing from fictional perspectives. Are you continuing on with this idea? Or is it a little bit of both?
JG: It’s a little bit of both. There was less of an agenda. Our philosophy was instead of crafting a record that’s viewed as more serious, let’s look at all of the songs that we have, and let’s make a record that you can listen to at a party all the way through. Let the best songs win. It wasn’t about needing a song about death, or growing up. We let the songs speak for themselves and then we found a way to put them together.

EV:You’ve said you like to juxtapose upbeat music with darker lyrics. Why is that something that is so appealing to you? Is this a way to still provide happy music but sneak in darker themes?
JG: We’re working in the medium of a pop song. But without any depth or heart, it’s meaningless. You want to be saying something even if it’s a song you’re dancing to. We stand by that. As individuals, we’re all positive, upbeat people. Like in anything, you go through ups and downs. It would feel inauthentic doing bubbles all the time, [so] we like to sneak in a little bit of pessimism and darkness in a song you can listen to and still smile all the way through. Anyone that says that they’re happy all the time and doesn’t have any bullshit is completely lying. I’m fairly consistent as a person, but there’s darkness [in all of our lives] and you have to deal with that. The fact that one deals with it helps me maintain a positive attitude. You have to meet the darkness head on.

EV: For this album, you worked with Dan Romer and Andrew Dawson. What did they contribute to the album?
JG: We started out last fall with Andrew Dawson. We did one song in its entirety and another halfway with him. He set the tone for how we were going to work. We came in with a demo, he looked at it on the computer, completely destroyed it, and built it from the ground up. We really liked that process because we weren’t married to the live arrangements that we had in the rehearsal state. We brought the rest of the record to Dan Romer, who worked with us on the last record. We spent a good six to seven weeks with Dan just working on the computer, testing out sounds and arrangements before we even recorded any [live instruments]. We didn’t [work with] any real instruments until the last two weeks of the record-making process. Going about the recording process that way, was completely opposite of what we had done before. It’s pretty liberating. By the time we were recording drums and piano, we got to create without limitations and record the things that we knew 100% we wanted to record. 

EV: The first single off the record, “Sound of a Broken Heart,” is incredibly infectious. What’s the inspiration behind the song and the title itself?
JG: It’s funny. I should think about the actual answer to this because I have no idea. (laughing) The way I create any song is that I go in the world and experience it. I sit at a piano and it just happens. I remember playing this song. Originally, it had this Stevie Wonder funky groove [to it]. As I recall, [I came up with the title] line first, then I re-crafted the rest of it, talking about loneliness and the lack of communication. I try to let a song form itself and write itself as much as possible.

EV: The track, “The Great Unknown”, was released in May but is also on this record. I interpreted it as a song about making the most of the life that you have and not relying on the afterlife. Is that what it’s about?
JG: That’s a fine interpretation. I saw it as going into the world and making sure you take risks. But that’s the beauty of songs. It doesn’t matter. Your interpretation is no more right or wrong than my interpretation. The only thing that matters is what it means to you, as the listener. If someone listens to the song and feels that way, that’s fantastic. If you want to listen to it and get religious overtones, or non-religious overtones, it doesn’t matter as long it resonates for the listener.

EV: You’re about to start touring again. How does Jukebox the Ghost act on the road?
JG: We lose our minds. Tour turns us into crazy people. You start talking in voices, the language is all inside jokes. You spend two months in a confined space, working, eating, breathing and sleeping with the same people. It totally changes how you act and how you think. It’s both amazing and a total nightmare. Anyone that tours can say the same thing. You become the person that you are on the road. But we tour whenever we can and whenever it makes sense.

‘Jukebox the Ghost’s self titled album is out Oct. 21