by Amanda Davis

Last week, hometown heroes Less Than Jake returned to Gainesville to play Wake and Bake following the release of their Uncharted EP. After a weekend of beer and Florida sunshine, I had a chance to chat with J.R. Wasilewski, LTJ’s saxophone player. We talked music, changes in the industry, and this year’s upcoming Warped Tour…

AD: How did you get started playing music?

JR: I started singing in the church choir when I was like, six or seven, and I was also taking piano lessons around that time, because my parents wanted me to be a well-rounded individual. And we had a family friend, an extended family member, who taught piano to all of us, my cousins and me. So we all took piano lessons because that person was available. I enjoyed it, I didn’t really think much of it, and when I was in middle school I started playing saxophone. When I was trying to figure out what I was going to do in college, I didn’t really have a plan… I liked music, so I looked into music school. I ended up getting into Berkley College of Music in Boston and I went to school there for a music education degree. I have a Bachelor’s in music education… I don’t use it that much, I wish I did. And then right after I graduated from college I joined Less Than Jake, like two weeks later or something like that. Life just sets you up sometimes. And 24 years later, here I am, talking to you.

How did you end up joining Less Than Jake?

We had a mutual friend, their saxophone player at the time had quit, and our mutual friend reached out to me and said “you should reach out to these guys.” I didn’t really know much about Less Than Jake ‘cause I lived in the north east and Florida being the south—you know, the ‘90s were a different time. There wasn’t music so readily available where you can just pick up your phone or a laptop and give it a listen. I had to do some research—I didn’t have any of their CDs or tapes, I only knew like one or two songs… I think that probably worked to my advantage, that I wasn’t a fan. You approach it a little more professionally, I suppose. I guess the other person that tried out was a little bit of a fanboy, so that kind of works against you at times. I always feel like everyone is on an equal playing field, no matter what—musically speaking. When you’re trying out for something, no matter if it’s Green Day or Gorilla Biscuits, you have to treat it the same and try not to let your emotions get the best of you.

Do you feel like you brought any of your influences to the band, after you joined?

Probably… I’d like to think I was the missing piece of the puzzle, but you’d have to ask the other guys.

Do you have any favorite stories from playing shows or being on the road?

They’re all a blur… You know, there’s always moments each tour, every day, and you’re either bewildered at how something so ridiculous could happen or you find yourself laughing to calm yourself down from the ridiculousness of it all. It’s like Groundhog’s Day every day except the people, places, and things change. It’s basically the same series of patterns every day… you get up, you load in, you sound check, meet and greet, play the set, load out, take a shower, go to bed, do it again. I know that all sounds so mundane, but it is a job like anything else. The crazy days have probably reduced by more than half, ‘cause I just personally go to bed now. Years ago we used to go out and play the show and then you go out and find some trouble. Now the only trouble I find is scrolling on Twitter.

Can you talk a little bit about Uncharted, which came out last year?

Sure… We recorded it in Fort Collins, Colorado with Bill Stevenson, who’s the drummer of Descendents, Black Flag… he’s Bill Stevenson, you know. If you’re a fan of punk rock you know who that is. And it was an amazing experience. We only did seven songs, so it wasn’t a full album, it was like an EP, but our approach was a little different—we wanted them to all be singles, you know, so each one had its own release window. It was just a different approach for our band. And releasing songs in this new streaming world that we live in… you know, we kind of ride this weird line between a band that put out physical format for years and years, versus now you’re living in a streaming world, so a lot of our fans still pitch more toward the physical side of things. We try to find the balance of giving our fans what they want but also staying within modern technical society. It’s a lot to think about, because when we started as a band, the only way to get your music out was to have a cassette. ‘90s it was all cassettes… if you were making CDs, you were really doing something, ‘cause they were so expensive to make back then. Now it’s like, anybody can put out anything at any time; they don’t need distribution, they don’t need somebody to put it in record stores, you can just pick up one of these things [gesturing to his phone] and find whatever your heart desires. And because of that, the amount of music—the glut of music—that exists now is just… I think I read somewhere that it’s like 20,000 releases a week now or something, which is fucking crazy. We’re kind of watching the landscape of the world and how the industry has changed over the years. I always say that the industry and the world has to conform to Less Than Jake, we won’t conform to them, but… unfortunately that’s not the truth.

Do you think the industry is getting oversaturated?

I don’t know… there’s a lot of stuff that’s out there that’s not for me. So I can very easily ignore it, unless it’s just thrown in my face. But my music discovery’s not as fluid as it once was… I just don’t have as much time to go listen to playlists, you know what I mean? I’ve gotta take care of my house, clean the gutters.

Who is your favorite band or artist?

I guess the Beatles were a huge influence to me, musically speaking. I always said if it doesn’t have a good melody, I’m not really interested. But I still really love hardcore, and I really love metal, and I love rap and hip hop. I love everything. Favorite… I guess I’ll say the Beatles but that could change tomorrow. It just depends on the day and what I’m listening to.

Do you think that having a saxophone player sets you apart as a band?

Oh, I don’t know… that’s a question for somebody else. It certainly has kept me working for this many years. Maybe… I’m not so egotistical to think that I’m the most important part of this, I’m just a cog in the machine, you know? I’m happy that I’m able to continue to play after all these years and people still show up.

And you’re going to be playing Warped Tour this year, right?

Oh yeah… We’ve played more Warped Tour dates than any band ever. We’re at like 430 or 40 dates or something. No one’s ever gonna catch up.

That sounds exhausting.

I’m exhausted talking about it. But it’s also, we have a really good time on Warped Tour… and if it wasn’t for Warped Tour, Less Than Jake probably wouldn’t still have a career. So we’re very thankful for the time we’ve had there and we’re very thankful for the owner Kevin Lyman, and that he always calls us, always asks us to be a part of it. But it’s also, too, it’s kind of like going to a funeral five years after somebody died, you know what I mean? I understand why they’re doing it, it’s like an anniversary and there is generation now of kids that never went to Warped Tour and they don’t understand what it is… and they still will never understand what it is bc this isn’t Warped Tour, it’s just three shows that are gonna be like big festival shows. I’m as excited as I could be.

You just played the Wake and Bake show here in Gainesville, how was that?

As good as I could have wanted it to be. You can always sell more tickets, things can run a little smoother, but… overall, I was really pleased with how everything went. I think we as a band were good, all the other bands who played had a good time, I think. Local businesses did pretty well; friends of ours that we partnered with said it was great. Overall I couldn’t be happier, so hopefully we’ll do it again next year.

How did you come about doing the beer with First Magnitude?

We’ve had a good relationship with them in the past, you know… we had done an IPA or something not that long ago—we were just trying it out—and we reached out about doing something for the weekend, and they were very open to it. Then I thought maybe we can do an acoustic show… we tied in the Grace Marketplace kind of last minute ‘cause I was like, “well how do we impact a little bit more than just the brewery?” They were very open to the idea, and we got lucky, ‘cause we had a beautiful day and I think people had a really good time. In the past when we’ve done this weekend, the acoustic set always tends to be everybody’s favorite moment. So it all worked out this year. The beer was delicious, and they sold through all of it.