"I think it's obvious that I [had the bigger penis.]"
Sam Shiflett looked at me dead in the eyes and said, "You must see Body Of Light." We were in the basement of The Church On York and Some Ember had just finished playing. Mr. Shiflett has never guided me wrong in the past so I did it. I went upstairs and watched Body Of Light. And Body Of Light was good. Since then I've listened to their album Volontà di Amore regularly. A lot of punks seem to be putting down the guitar and picking up the synthesizer. Most of it is mediocre at best. Body Of Light is exceptional. So when their most recent show got announced at The Complex with Some Ember I made sure to come. And I came equipped with questions for Alex Jarson, the singer of the duo. He was expecting a serious interview and I gave him something so much more.
Listen to Body Of Light's Volontà di Amore via Bandcamp here.
Painful Burning:
When I propositioned you about doing this interview you seemed very hesitant with doing it solo, was there something you were afraid of?
Alex Jarson:
No, I respect my brother's opinions on the music and I want him to have his voice too.
Painful Burning:
That kind of leads me to my next question. How did you two meet?
Alex Jarson:
My mom met my father and some things happened. They got hot and heavy. We both were born.
Painful Burning:
Okay, but very specifically, what was your first memory of meeting Andrew?
Alex Jarson:
I remember thinking, "I'm going to have to share my toys with this kid." But also being really excited about it.
Painful Burning:
What's the age difference?
Alex Jarson:
About three years.
Painful Burning:
So you guys were friends growing up?
Alex Jarson:
Yeah.
Painful Burning:
I had a younger sibling growing up and I recall that we would bathe together. Did the two of you ever bathe together?
Alex Jarson:
I think there was some bathing together.
Painful Burning:
Do you remember anything specific from it?
Alex Jarson:
I remember turning the bathtub super hot. Which is super fucked up now thinking about it. But it's definitely a memory.
Painful Burning:
Do you two mess with each other now like that?
Alex Jarson:
Not really. Actually, we're pretty good friends. We used to pick on each other a lot when we were younger, sibling wars.
Painful Burning:
You're the older brother though, so did you do more of the picking on?
Alex Jarson:
Yeah, of course.
Painful Burning:
What's a specific picking on thing that you can recall?
Alex Jarson:
There's a home movie that we watch sometimes. It's from our third trip to Disneyland. We were taking the quintessential picture with Mickey Mouse. We're posing and it's really friendly. Then all of a sudden I take out a rubber knife I got from the Pirates of the Caribbean store and I put it up to my brother's neck and mimic cutting his throat. Mickey was just like, "Nuh uh uh, don't do that." It was super awkward. That's definitely one of the memories I have of picking on him.
Painful Burning:
How old were you then?
Alex Jarson:
I think I was eight.
Painful Burning:
That's dark. I don't know if you'd remember back then, but when you guys would bathe together and stuff, did one of you obviously have a bigger penis?
Alex Jarson:
I think it's obvious that I did.
Painful Burning:
Yeah?
Alex Jarson:
My wife seems to think the opposite.
Painful Burning:
Oh no.
Alex's wife, Erica, is listening to the interview and shaking her head.
Erica Jarson:
Your brother is going to be fucking pissed.
Alex Jarson:
I know, he's going to be so pissed.
Painful Burning:
Maybe these are the type of questions you were worried about answering without him being here?
Alex Jarson:
Yeah. I wasn't sure what you were going to ask me. Actually, I thought this was going to be a little more serious. I don't know why I would think that with questions coming from you.
Body Of Light playing Pacific Pop Festival. They blue my mind.
Painful Burning:
That was a mistaken thought.
Alex Jarson:
What have I gotten myself into?
Painful Burning:
A real important interview. Speaking of which, here's the next important question. Do you and your brother ever discuss the will?
Alex Jarson:
The will?
Painful Burning:
The potential will that your parents will have for you guys?
Alex Jarson:
We haven't discussed it yet.
Painful Burning:
Now that your mind is on it, who do you think is gonna get more stuff?
Alex Jarson:
I would assume it would be equal. My brother is the nicer brother so maybe he'll get more.
Painful Burning:
Do you think your parents love him more than you?
Alex Jarson:
I don't think so.
Painful Burning:
You think it's equal?
Alex Jarson:
Who knows.
Painful Burning:
I have some music related questions coming up, but one last family related one. Have you or your brother ever kissed your dad on the lips?
Alex Jarson:
Uh, no, I don't think so.
Painful Burning:
Do you know why I might be asking about this?
Alex Jarson:
No, I'm not sure.
Painful Burning:
Do you know a guy by the name of Speedboat?
Alex Jarson:
He outed me, he outed me so bad... Yes I know him.
Painful Burning:
Because there's a text you sent him about how you were unsure why I kissed my dad on the lips. Do you have more clarity about it at this point?
A private conversation between Alex Jarson and Speedboat.
Alex Jarson:
Yes. I approve of it now. It took me a little bit to approve it.
Painful Burning:
What does your brother think about kissing fathers on the lips?
Alex Jarson:
He'd probably find it funny. I don't think he'd care.
Painful Burning:
More into the music stuff, what's up with this band Dead Air?
Alex Jarson:
Oh. No. How did you even find it? How is that even possible. I don't know what that is.
Painful Burning:
You used to sing in it, right?
Alex Jarson:
Yeah. I used to sing in a band called Dead Air. It was one of my first hardcore bands. Back in 2007, 2008.
Painful Burning:
That's not that long ago.
Alex Jarson:
I guess not. But it seems long.
Painful Burning:
You seem embarrassed about it.
Alex Jarson:
It's not something I would listen to ever nowadays.
Painful Burning:
Most bands are traditionally guitars and drums. Why did you guys start a synthesizer based band?
Alex Jarson:
All of our friends bought synths so we all started listening to electronic type music. Eventually I bought one and messed around with it in 2010, 2011 maybe.
Painful Burning:
And that's when you started Body Of Light with Andrew?
Alex Jarson:
No, he wasn't in the project in the beginning. It was just me. It was just me trying to record on my own. I was always in bands but would get frustrated with the lack of control. So I just tried it on my own. It evolved from there.
Painful Burning:
Then is the control thing not so much of an issue because you and your brother can communicate so well?
Alex Jarson:
Definitely. It's definitely easier. If we get frustrated with each other we can just say it outright without it being a big blowout fight or something. We can get through it pretty easily.
Painful Burning:
It seems like you could read one another much better than other people.
Alex Jarson:
Yeah, definitely.
Painful Burning:
But if you do get into an argument it might be a lot heavier because you won't hold back since you've known each other for so long?
Alex Jarson:
That's true, but if it ever gets really heated it's pretty fast and then it blows over quickly. It could get potentially bad but it hasn't yet, so I'm glad about that.
Painful Burning:
For your upcoming songs that you're writing do you think there will be a strong Alanis Morissette influence?
Alex Jarson:
Why do you say that?
Painful Burning:
Why do you think I'm asking about Alanis Morissette?
Alex Jarson:
I think you either talked to my wife or my brother and found out that the first CD I ever bought was Alanis Morissete's Jagged Little Pill.
Painful Burning:
It's got some great singles on it for the time.
Alex Jarson:
I loved it. "Ironic." It's a great hit.
Painful Burning:
For a radio song, "You Oughta Know," has a high energy punk feel to it.
Alex Jarson:
She's badass.
Painful Burning:
Do you still listen to her?
Alex Jarson:
No I don't, unfortunately. I couldn't get into her later stuff.
Painful Burning:
I had no idea she had later stuff. So for the record, you're saying there will be little or no influence by Alanis Morissette?
Alex Jarson:
No, there won't be any influence from her.
Isn't it ironic that I included this photo in the interview?
Painful Burning:
What is the next thing you are working on right now?
Alex Jarson:
We're working on an LP. We've only written one and a half songs. I can't even really say what that's like. We're playing the new song tonight.
Painful Burning:
What's the song?
Alex Jarson:
There's no title yet.
Painful Burning:
For the sake of the interview what's the name?
Alex Jarson:
I can't even think about a name right now.
Painful Burning:
What do you write on the set list?
Alex Jarson:
We don't have a set list, it's just in our heads.
Painful Burning:
Do you have any plans for the record?
Alex Jarson:
We don't have any plans yet. We're just feeling it out.
Painful Burning:
Come on, give me the dirt.
Alex Jarson:
There's nothing yet.
Painful Burning:
You can't give me any dirt?
Alex Jarson:
I have no dirt.
Painful Burning:
What's your role with Ascetic House?
Alex Jarson:
We've been involved since the beginning. It's a core group of friends that were doing music in Arizona that has expanded to New York now, all over the West Coast, Europe as well.
Painful Burning:
In addition to releasing music on it, do you guys take an active role in it?
Alex Jarson:
Yeah, it's a big group of people that are active. There's no heads to it or anyone that runs it. It's just a group of people. Whatever makes sense at the time.
Painful Burning:
What significance does the phrase, "Weightless, endless, faithless," mean to you?
Alex Jarson:
Nooo. I think it holds significance to my high school self but at this point it's just...
Painful Burning:
There's no shame in an AFI tattoo with that phrase on it. I used to love AFI.
Alex Jarson:
They were my favorite band growing up. I used to beg my parents to go to shows all the time, from the age of eight and up. I remember I really wanted to go to this Offspring concert with The Living End and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. They finally agreed to take me and I went. They were handing out Nitro Records compilation CDs that had AFI's "A Single Second." I would just play that song on repeat. The harmonies were the best to me. I loved them.
Painful Burning:
Davey Havok and Nick 13.
Alex Jarson:
Exactly. At that point I bought every AFI CD I could find and I loved it. I would go to ever AFI show and would wait until the band came out and try to talk to them. It's mildly embarrassing.
Painful Burning:
That's not embarrassing, AFI was awesome.
AFI playing "A Single Second" at a completely unknown date.
Alex Jarson:
I loved them. I can't get into them now as much. But it had a place at that time in my life.
Painful Burning:
I feel like the third record holds up the best. The one with "A Single Second." It's their most aggressive album.
Alex Jarson:
Shut Your Mouth And Open Your Eyes.
Painful Burning:
You know the name.
Alex Jarson:
I know. I have every AFI record in every color. I have the whole collection.
Painful Burning:
So who would you rather tour with at this point, AFI or Alanis Morissette?
Alex Jarson:
Definitely AFI. I would tour with AFI just for the sheer fact that me being a kid fantasizing about playing on stage with AFI. I would download every AFI live video I could find on Kazaa. I thought it was insane. Kids were stage diving, I never saw that before.
Painful Burning:
There's a reason why out of all those hardcore bands of that era they got to be the biggest. How many hardcore bands have you seen that have energy like them?
Alex Jarson:
And melodies that people can latch onto.
Painful Burning:
When I've seen you guys, you have a good energy live. Most bands are so boring live, because they probably don't have a background in punk and hardcore.
Alex Jarson:
I was thinking about that the other day. A lot of the bands that really enjoy tend to have either listened to punk all their life or come from punk/hardcore. They bring a certain energy to the table. I like bands that are really cold live too, but sometimes it can get really boring if they don't push that limit.
Painful Burning:
At that point you can just sit at home and listen to the record.
Alex Jarson:
I like it when bands engage the crowd a little bit and get the crowd to interact.
-Z
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