Jimi Patterson has a lot of opinions and chooses his words carefully, especially when describing his relationship with his band — If Jesus Had Machine Guns — and his art.
“I am stubborn, easily agitated, strong-willed, brave, the most confident man you will ever meet, which can create some issues in a band,” he said. “It’s not a marriage, but it’s not prostitution either.”
Patterson laughed along with band mates Jon Watanabe and Jay Sirianni as we chatted before a performance this past Wednesday evening. The release of If Jesus Had Machine Guns’s latest record, Peasants, was to be celebrated later on at BAR along with the bands RYXNO and Co/ntry.
“My goal [with this record] was that my ex-girlfriend would listen to it. That was the original goal, and then the other goal was just to increase my output of creative product. I just think that we’re all gonna die, and I’m thirty one now and could be more prolific. I need to become more motivated. I want to be the higher-level man because in this society there are people who want you to be part of the group, and if you deviate from that they want to hammer you down. They say you can’t be the one with ideas. I want to make sure I’m not the one saying that when I can put records out.”
“I think this record is essentially put together in such a way that Jimi’s tracks that he had done for years, kind of his anthems, have come to light here, and there’s also another half of this album that’s completely new,” Sirianni said.
“We’ve taken a new approach to them,” said Watanabe, “and we rerecorded them and mixed them with new material that we developed as a result of our new way of working on them.”
“After the completion of this album we solidified the sound that we are trying to maintain. We’re fine-tuning every instrument so it comes together as a whole,” added Sirianni.
“I think it’s like a game of Russian roulette, and you pull the trigger, that’s what we’re aiming for here,” Patterson said. “I don’t know what it’s like not to write a hit. All I do is write hits, and if people are like ‘you know, that song’s okay, let’s just put it on the record,’ then I say shame on you. If you don’t believe in yourself, who’s going to?”
Karen Ponzio Photo
Patterson.
At BAR, If Jesus Had Machine Guns was the second act of the night, but Patterson was an active presence throughout the other two sets. He joined Frederic Kaiser, who was wrapped in an American flag as he was singing with RYXNO, in a dance up front with his own Don’t Tread on Me flag wrapped around him. He also recruited a party of women from the front bar area to come dance with him up by the stage during Co/ntry’s set.
Peasants plays like a soundtrack to an ‘80s movie that never existed, setting the tone for and creating the image of a night on the town at a dance party. The band’s live show brings that dance party to fruition. Patterson was in constant motion throughout the band’s seven-song set, even when behind the mic and keyboard for the song “Being Brutal.” He made his way back into the packed crowd during the rest of the band’s extended instrumentals to dance, or get another drink. He egged on each audience member he could connect with to respond and release themselves to the music and the moment. Many took his lead. Others simply watched with broad smiles.
It is difficult to not keep your eyes on Patterson when he’s performing, the epitome of the front man who is eager to become one with the music and his audience, offering each willing participant a gateway to their own personal experience with the songs. The rest of the band — Watanabe and Sirianni on guitars, Chris Serapiglia on bass, and Kaiser on drums — were tight throughout the set, the bass and drums expertly providing a steady back beat while the guitars remained consistently powerful yet lyrical, at times almost providing a vocal quality to the already heavily melodious music.
But the vocals of the set were all Patterson’s, his voice changing to match the song and the mood. He had mentioned earlier that he liked to “do voices. I have a lot of voices inside of me.”
At the show, he even releasing a primal scream every so often. Patterson said earlier that when he gets to a show, “there’s just something happening … or I see something … even the music itself … and I get triggered, and I can’t control it, but tonight I’m doing the straight man. I’m doing the two-step. I might do a shimmy. I might do a little anger. But ultimately I’m going to stay focused. I’m just trying to welcome them in. I’m just trying to explain to people that it’s okay.”
In short, he played the only part he can play: himself. He shimmied, he two-stepped, and yes, there was even a little anger, but ultimately, everyone felt welcomed.
Peasants album cover.
“I want our music to be a beautification of your highest desires. You need to listen to this record five times to get a full understanding of it.” Patterson said before the show. “And we will have a new record out in the next few months. We have a new process. All the kinks are worked out. We have a new system. We’re gonna put out an EP and try to do that every two months.”
When asked if they were moving forward, Watanabe said yes. Patterson disagreed.
“No, not moving forward, that sounds like we lost something. It’s something else.”
Patterson searched for the right words again. “I’m going to text you a metaphor when I think of it.”
I told him that I thought he had given me exactly what he had been searching for, and everyone laughed.
Peasants is out now on Bandcamp, Spotify, and iTunes. The next If Jesus Had Machine Guns show is at Cafe Nine on July 19 with Crunk Witch.
