Buffalo Tom discusses new album Jump Rope

Ahead of the release of their tenth studio album, Jump Rope, Boston legends Buffalo Tom spoke to Louder than War’s Sam Lambeth about their nearly forty-year career, honing their craft, and why they’re aging like crazy whiskey.

Since forming in 1986, Buffalo Tom have plowed a steady furrow of sparkling melodic rock that combines the vintage fuzz of the Rolling Stones and the folk sensibility of Bob Dylan. With new album Jump Rope, they continue to develop their songwriting process and move into more organic and acoustic waters. Louder than War caught up with Bill Janovitz, the band’s flame-haired singer and guitarist, as well as bassist and fellow introverted singer Chris Colbourn.

Louder than War (LTW): The writing process for Jump Rope started quite quickly after your previous record, 2018’s Quiet and Peace. Did the pandemic derail you?

Chris Colbourn (CC): For my part, I feel like I “found” time during the Covid lockdown rather than wasting time. Despite such a tragic and world-changing time, I found myself with lots of time for self-reflection, long walks and free time to delve into old songbooks, play guitar outside around the world. a campfire with friends and writing a lot of music. /Words. I also explored a number of very early demos – and created new material, as the Stones did on the Tattoo You album.

Bill Janvoitz (BJ): We hadn’t started anything at that point, and we were sort of in this cycle every five or six years where we made a record. But this time, after Quiet And Peace, I thought we should continue a bit and do something faster and faster. We’re all a little more aligned these days, whereas in the 2000s and 2010s we had kids growing up. Like Chris, being at home meant we wrote a lot of material.

We always write on acoustic guitar anyway, but with this album in particular, Tom suggested that maybe it would be more of an acoustic album. The songs sounded acoustic, but we are also all concerned about tinnitus and our hearing, especially Tom who is a little worried.

That was sort of the impetus and the philosophy to move forward. At one point we thought maybe there was no battery at all, but that’s not the case. We ended up adding a lot of layers until it probably sounded like other Buffalo Tom records!

Well, you say that, but I was actually very surprised at how streamlined the jump rope is. I know you’ve made more acoustic records in the past – and your previous two albums relied less on distortion – but this is very smooth and organic. Bill, was it interesting for you to approach guitars in a different, more textured way?

B.J.: I’ve always loved the recording process, period, and then I love it even more when it comes to guitar overdrubs, backing vocals, that sort of thing. I love making textured records, but I understand your point of view and I agree: it’s a different album for us.

The big difference on this album for me is that Tom doesn’t play drumsticks very often. He plays more with a splat than a crack. Even more upbeat songs like Helm and Pine For You have less of a rock drum sound, which is cool. It’s a little more pastoral and moody.

There has always been a melancholy atmosphere in Buffalo Tom’s songs, and I can hear it in Jump Rope. Without giving too much away, what influenced you as songwriters?

CC : I love listening to sad songs – but for me the subject matter of the songs comes out quite randomly. I don’t think about sitting down and writing about a particular feeling for the lyrics. Personally, I lean towards Bill’s more abstract and melancholic pieces – which I think he’s really mastered on the last few albums. I think ultimately we may be better known for our 1990s indie pop songs, but I hope we’ll be remembered later for Bill’s more thorny and poetic songs that we have recorded over the last ten years. This is ‘indie rock’ on a whole new level for BT – like a strong peated single malt whisky, not for everyone, but very powerful dark stuff. It takes years of life and decades of writing to reach this level. Impressive to me.

I look at your longevity and it’s quite rare to have the same squad. I think it’s something very special. As you’ve gotten older, have you realized how lucky you are to still have that chemistry and still make music with the same people?

B.J.: Yeah. We are no longer middle-aged. I’m going to be 58 next month and Chris will be 60 this year. Tom is somewhere in the middle. We hear more and more about mortality, about people and their spouses falling ill. From that perspective, being healthy and having a healthy family is a feeling I’m lucky for. But having these friends that I was friends with before we even formed, and then forming a band based on friendship and collaboration – I feel extremely lucky about that.

At the time, it was much more a matter of life and death for me. It was part of my identity and it was how we made our living. I’m a very competitive person and I was very involved in it. But then I gave that up and said it’s not my job anymore.

When I started doing other things and starting a family, it put everything into perspective. Buffalo Tom will probably be the first line of my obituary, and it has been one of the most important parts of my life.

What do you think has contributed to this longevity?

CC : Buffalo Tom, perhaps, keeps going through the years because we don’t really identify with being in a band. This is definitely a benefit in the end. Having only modest musical success suited my life perfectly. It might be different for other guys, but I identify as a father raising children. I was also part of a large family growing up (the youngest of five children) and spent most of my days in a book or movie rather than being a rock guy. Ultimately, I enjoy humor and jokes as much, if not more, than songwriting – this world is such a crazy and mysterious place, and there’s so little time to enjoy it.

Having children has been a big change in your life, and many other artists who have released albums this year – MGMT and Real Estate are two that come to mind – who have very young children and talk about the how it influenced their writing. Your children are all much older, but has that influenced you? The fact that they are now independent adults entering the real world?

CC : Seeing our children at the age we were when we formed our group is a great feeling in life. Oddly enough, I don’t feel ancient. I still more or less see life through the eyes of a twenty-something. Quite a shock when I pass in front of a mirror, of course. But I haven’t yet lost that excitement of plugging in a guitar, practicing new songs and playing gigs.

B.J.: I don’t know if their perspective or my perspective on them or their place in the world matters. I don’t know. I should go through my songs and try to remember specific things.

But elements of dialogue and feelings and things like that that come from them, I’m sure, are there. But what was I going to say about it here? I just lost my train of thought a little. Oh, but the way they influence me in songwriting is actually, like, real estate could have been one way or another.