Being political with music is so last natural disaster. So when we heard the three piece rock act The Jet Age decided to take on the government on their latest opus What Did You Do During the War, Daddy? we sighed and shuffled along. What we weren’t prepared for was an all our rocker album that ingeniously infuses a citizens call to action when he doesn’t agree with the government without being preachy. For the record: that’s tough. So we thought it best to sit down with lead Eric Tischler of The Jet Age to have him explain how he came up with a controversial idea (the main character plots an act of terrorism against his leaders) and how he controls those whaling solo needs.

Pensatos: How did the band start when you concocted The Jet Age?

Eric Tischler: When The Hurricane Lamps, my old band with Greg, wound down in 2004 I had a handful of songs that I really wanted to get out there. A friends of the Lamps, Dave Meyer, volunteered to play bass, and he brought with him the miraculous Pete Nuwayser on drums. When Dave moved to Colorado, I drafted Greg in time to finish writing the first record, Breathless.

I’m crazy about my family and horrified by the state of our country.

What did you learn from your underrated release Breathless that you carried over when you entered the studio for a follow-up?

First off, God bless you. Creatively, I felt ready to do more in the way of “production”; backing vocals, keyboards, etcetera. On Breathless, I really wanted to introduce the band as a band, so I didn’t want to distract with a lot of bells and whistles. I wanted to present the performances as performances, and say, “This is what the three of us do together,” - although that record has its share of overdubs.

With What Did You Do During the War, Daddy? I felt like I was free to add things like the harmonies and handclaps on the bridge in ‘O, Calendar.’ Having said that, though, I still think our primary strength is as a three piece, so I don’t feel like a lot of additional production is necessarily flattering.

Technically, I made some great upgrades to my studio, and Greg and I both discovered G&L guitars just in time to make this record, and that made a huge difference.

However, coming off this record, I have a lot of new ideas for what I want to do for the next one. I really love the “live in the studio” vibe that I think I’m pretty adept at capturing, but I think I’m ready to apply a more hi-fi approach; something I’ve resisted ‘til now. Of course, I seem to say that after every album…

With What Did You Do… did you go into the studio with a plan to make a statement about the war?

Absolutely. I don’t write in the studio, but, by the time I’d written the first three songs, I had the plot of the record; the remaining songs were written to flesh out the theme(s) of the record.

The main character throughout the album can be viewed as either a terrorist or a revolutionist. Are his views yours as a band to some degree?

You’re absolutely right about the duality of the main character. His views are mine only insofar as his frustration is certainly informed by my own. However, I really want to make it clear that I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT ENDORSE BLOWING THINGS UP. AT ALL.

We wouldn’t think otherwise. Only crazed conspiracy right wing folk would suggest such in my book.

The story in this record affords me a venue to discuss this stuff and ask, “If not violence, then what?” And that’s not a rhetorical question. If marches on Washington are ignored, and democracy is in the hands of Diebold, what DO we have to do to fix things? I genuinely don’t know. It frightens the hell out of me.

We’ve got another election coming up and I’m afraid I don’t share the optimism of a lot of my friends. I think we have been conditioned to be scared (see the song ‘Dumb’) and I worry that we’re not out of the woods yet. In these very scary times, a lot of people are going to vote for the candidate that they consider to be safe. This is something the three of us have been talking about a lot lately, and I look forward to being proven wrong.

I don’t think there’ll be any shortage of solos for me and, given how large Pete looms in my musical DNA, I’ve got to think some of them will Townshend-esque.

Your album is broken down like a play with acts. One of the underlined effects of the album is the almost jubilation sound of love in the first act to the creeping darker songs as it progresses into less cordial atmospheres on act two and three. Was this based off experience with your political views and a relationship?

Sort of, insofar as I’m crazy about my family and horrified by the state of our country. You’ve got the emotional trajectory dead on. The first act (the first batch of songs) is intended to establish a happy family, ideally so that, by the time the guy goes and gets himself killed, you understand why he did it (for love of his family), and how it impacts his family. The reason the album starts and ends with ‘Ladies, Don’t Cry Tonight’ is that it’s a widow’s lament. In its first iteration, it’s to establish that, in the background of the happy first act, there’s a war going on. At the end, it’s for the protagonist’s wife, who’s lost her husband.

The second act illustrates the father’s awakening to the reality that, while his home may be a happy place, his country is not, hence the darkening tone.

Christ, did I just say “hence the darkening tone”?

You did. You’re starting to sound like a panelist on Meet The Press. Just how tricky is it to make a political album without it being in-your-face or force-feeding beliefs and potentially alienating listeners?

Assuming I’ve done it (and thank you for implying that I have), the answer is “Very,” which is why I’ve never really done this before now. It’s taken me this long to find a vehicle I was comfortable with. ‘I Gave Up On Justice and Reason’, off of Breathless, was a trial run, and I think that worked out well. Believe me, having grown up in DC, I’m very wary of dogmatic lyrics.

Your sound fits snuggly between Superchunk and Yo La Tengo and has now for some time. Would there be any other sides of your music you still have yet to explore? Can we expect the funk side buried in your Motown hearts to emerge soon?

Well, for what it’s worth, the working title for ‘False Idols’ was ‘James Brown’. Actually, the second Hurricane Lamps record, You Deserve What You Want, has what I think is an EXCELLENT homage to Motown called ‘Baby’s Learned a Brand New Dance’. I don’t know if I can top it.

However, I do look forward to branching out, and we’ve got a nice four-on-the-floor, wah-wah workout that we’ve been toying with in practice. It feels like this band can do anything, so I hope we will branch out, although my allegiance is to the rawk.

Where did, and I do mean this jokingly (half joking), that blazing Pete Townsend guitar solo of ‘Dance’ come from and why don’t we hear more?

Buh-buh-but. What about the solo in ‘False Idols’? And ‘Maybe Love’s a Transmission’? And, and ‘Now We Are Three’? I’m really glad you like that solo; I’ve worried that it’s the weakest one on there! For better or worse, I don’t think there’ll be any shortage of solos for me and, given how large Pete looms in my musical DNA, I’ve got to think some of them will Townshend-esque. Hell, I should be so lucky!

+ review: The Jet Age - What Did You Do During The War, Daddy?
+ audio: The Jet Age ‘Maybe Love’s A Transmission’