





{"id":37651,"date":"2019-08-08T11:54:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=37651"},"modified":"2019-08-08T11:57:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T16:57:50","slug":"interview-5-questions-around-5-with-jimbo-mathus-of-the-squirrel-nut-zippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=37651","title":{"rendered":"Interview: 5 questions (around 5!) with Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Cesar Glanville<\/p>\n<p>Forward: Cesar recently chatted to Squirrel Nut Zipper&#8217;s front man, singer and songwriter about his current tour, line up and what it means to be in the SNZ&#8217;s. Here&#8217;s the Q&amp;A that took place between them.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The Zippers have a loyal fan base and after a long absence many folks were longing for more live shows, what made you decide to revive SNZ?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Jimbo: \u201cThere were conversations about the 20<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of <em>\u2018Hot\u2019 <\/em>a few years back, I was approached about maybe doing some reunion shows. The more I go tot thinking about it the more I thought rather than have reunion shows was to put it back in action in a more permanent way. \u2026 So thats what I decided to do, completely revive it and keep it out in the public for people to enjoy like it was intended to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37654\" src=\"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1917271_96011224078_856202_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1917271_96011224078_856202_n.jpg 604w, http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1917271_96011224078_856202_n-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>You hit Alt Rock radio, you were a bit Alt, but certainly not rock \u2013 how did that happen?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Jimbo: \u201c&#8230;I have no idea! It\u2019s just the machinations of the industry \u2026 it was just at that time when radio was a little more open, much more so than it is now, there were some new things, some other groups that were along the same lines and some movies that promoted that: we were the \u2018alt\u2019 to that alt and it just broke on the song \u2018Hell\u2019 on KROQ in L.A. &#8230;they gave it a chance and the response was over the roof \u2026 other stations picked it up \u2026 and the next thing you knew we had sold a million records in a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Tell us about this touring band and how it came together\u2026.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Jimbo: \u201cI couldn\u2019t ask for a more talented, diverse, hard working, good head on their shoulders bunch of professional bunch of weirdos to rampage around with. We\u2019ve got everything form classically trained people to people with theatre backgrounds, people that have circus backgrounds, real jazz cats \u2013 just life long students of what they do in music, entertainment and theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37655\" src=\"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/JimboMaskcopy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/JimboMaskcopy.jpg 450w, http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/JimboMaskcopy-283x300.jpg 283w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You\u2019re playing Door County, which is a vacation destination, you\u2019ve also played places like Nappa Valley which is a resort area, do these shows differ from other shows?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Jimbo: \u201cWe\u2019ve got the same philosophy and presentation every time, we have the same show whether the background is Korea or Hawai\u2019i or in the country, city \u2013 it doesnt matter. We do our show and there\u2019s enough in there to interest everyone!\u201d<\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>You\u2019ve been out on the road for almost 3 years now and the shows just keep coming, what keeps you going?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Jimbo: \u201cRest! (laughs), staying focused and spending your energy uselessly. I have quite a busy solo career as well, I have a new record out that has gotten quite a great response, it has a great piece in Rolling Stone about it, I am also on tour for it so it is nonstop. I have been touring almost 40 years: it\u2019s my job to be engaged, to be active, to be energetic and be ready to be tonight\u2019s entertainment. That\u2019s my job. \u2026 you wont see me out unless its the shows, otherwise I am resting and regrouping and recharging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 And I can understand if this question is buried in the past and you don\u2019t have to answer if you don\u2019t want to, but have you talked with Tom Maxwell lately?<\/p>\n<p>Jimbo: \u201cHe was the reason for our first demise, he stripped us of our money with some backhanded procedures \u2013 and I could have persisted down the paths of lawsuits and acrimony but I chose not to. &#8230;he\u2019s not leading bands or touring, so I just let that speak for itself. &#8230;music is not the place to take that out on, I want a band of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>*answers edited for length<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-12659\" src=\"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Squirrel-Nut-Zippers-live-at-City-Winery-Chicago-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Squirrel-Nut-Zippers-live-at-City-Winery-Chicago-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Squirrel-Nut-Zippers-live-at-City-Winery-Chicago-1-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Squirrel-Nut-Zippers-live-at-City-Winery-Chicago-1-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Squirrel-Nut-Zippers-live-at-City-Winery-Chicago-1.jpg 1223w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Jimbo brings that joy with his Squirrel Nut Zippers for 2 area shows next week: Saturday Aug 10<sup>th<\/sup> at Shank Hall in Milwaukee and Sunday Aug 11<sup>th,<\/sup> at one of Chicago\u2019s favorite vacation destinations: Door County, at the Door County Auditorium in Fish Creek, WI. Jimbo Mathus also has a new solo record released this past Spring titled \u2018Incinerator\u2019 it is available on Amazon here: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Incinerator-Jimbo-Mathus\/dp\/B07MGJ6WP4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Incinerator-Jimbo-Mathus\/dp\/B07MGJ6WP4<\/em><\/a><em> and you can find him and follow him &amp; the Zippers on Twitter and Instagram @TheRealJimboMathus<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Cesar Glanville Forward: Cesar recently chatted to Squirrel Nut Zipper&#8217;s front man, singer and songwriter about his current tour, line up and what it means to be in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-features","category-interviews","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}