Interview: Jade Ring

A pleasure to have you on The Sanctum, Jade Ring! Will you honor us with your real name and musical/artistic background? You’ve been quite cryptic about it on the internet!

Glad to be here, thanks for having me, this is rad. Cryptic is the name of my game so I’ll answer you with a quote from the late Raul Julia as Gomez Addams when Tully tries to catch him off guard in a fencing contest, “Dirty Pool, old man.” (Laughs). Sorry, I just haven’t been able to use that quote since the 90s. My real name is something I truly do keep private. In fact, I’ve used a pen name for most of my music career going back to the early 2000’s. I grew up before social media and I saw its privacy downsides early on so I’ve always been hesitant to chase personal notoriety. I prefer to move into alter-egos to express my art. So, even going back to my teen years as a backyard wrestler I’ve loved using an alias. I’m super influenced by Lucha Libre culture in Mexico where they go to great lengths to keep the person behind the mask a mystery. I think it’s more interesting that way. From a music standpoint though I’ve been playing music for 24 years and counting. Originally I started out playing punk music with my high school friends who were in established bands but were hesitant to sing. So I taught myself how to play guitar and sing Misfits songs. I didn’t have a mic stand so I duct taped a radio shack microphone on an old vacuum cleaner. It was raw. (Laughs) Over time, it morphed into more challenging guitar & vocal pieces by Megadeth, cKy, etc.. that inspired my first band that saw success, who killed Marilyn? which started around 2003 that fell stylistically near Mushroomhead, cKy and like, I don’t know, Joan Jett? It was a hybrid of styles that weren’t really big at the time. We were navigating the start of nu-metal and emo eras in America and ended up doing a bunch of small tours across the states, pre GPS and social media. During that same time I ended up playing in some hardcore bands, some established, some underground. Cleveland is home to bands like Integrity and Ringworm and I was lucky enough to play in bands with those dudes. Then I tried some folk acoustic stuff similar to City and Colour but that morphed into a party rock band known as The Missing. We had a lot of success as an independent band like playing Vans Warped Tour, opening for bands like Everytime I Die, The Donnas, Scott Weiland, even Corey Feldman, but that’s a story for another day (laughs). I’ve been lucky enough to play with so many different bands, learning along the way. When I wasn’t touring I was working somewhere in the music industry. I’ve done live sound for George Clinton, Gladys Knight, Mickey Hart. I’ve started an award winning indie record label and have stayed busy. I currently play bass with a respected artist named Zup and that experience gave me the motivation to start Jade Ring; something I scribbled in a notebook ten years ago. Jade Ring was originally going to be a Converge meets Between the Buried and Me but I’m not that talented so I shelved that idea. It was really after watching an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver covering the rise of generative AI bands that really forced me to explore what Jade Ring should be in this modern, uneasy era of art creation. I went to art school instead of high school and that’s where I learned how to design and create merch. I used to design zine’s by hand and print them at the library. I screen printed all my own shirts going back to my first band and still create all my designs and print as much as I can at home to this day. I’ve been an artist my whole life but I never knew why until recently. I struggled heavily with communicating and was a “bad kid” my whole early life but I’ve since been diagnosed with multiple disabilities and disorders that put some framework around my psyche. I use art, imagery, music to express my complicated mind. Jade Ring is the purest form of who I am and if you really want to know the real me, this is the closest I’ve come in 24 years to being myself. I love being able to now combine my love for visuals with music, hopefully creating an atmosphere for people to fall into. Maybe it will help them tap into a corner of their mind that they want to explore or encourage others to find who they really are. Who would’ve known all it took was for me to put on a mask to feel like myself? Quite strange innit? Bottom line is, over the years, for better or worse I’ve been able to remain independent even in the face of some really great offers over the years. I don’t regret anything, in fact I feel I’ve stayed true to my self, my ethics and integrity. That’s the true spirit of art because I can say and do what I want.

Can you name a few artists or albums that inspired you while growing up and maybe even contributed to the sound introduced in Pills?

I love this question. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio on a steady diet of my dad’s record collection. He had all the classics and I would study the record jackets front to back. Genesis, Zeppelin, Floyd, Zappa and a ton of obscure bands from the 70s. He got me hip to Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Outlaws and Motown. My mom loved Barbara Streisand and my sister listened to a lot of Madonna and Paula Abdul. I think I gravitated to a mix of Michael Jackson, all grunge bands, thrash metal, Dr Dre, and in Cleveland during the 90’s Mushroomhead was huge and they were from the same home town as me. They took me under their wing as a teenager and showed me what it was like to be a professional musician. A lot of people are stunned when they hear Nine Inch Nails started in Cleveland and as a teenager I worked for the print shop that made all their early merch. As I got older I started gravitating to bands like Alexisonfire but was firmly rooted in anything Mike Patton put out. The Mushroomhead guys turned me onto Mr. Bungle and that was the game changer for me. I think Mr. Bungle is the one band I still put on their records today and they still inspire me. So I think all of those really blended into “Pills” including the strange bends into the pop world. I love a good chorus and dance beat as much as a I love blast beats of detuned octave guitars.

How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard of you? Are there musicians you would like your audience to relate you to?

I’ve honestly struggled with describing my music. I can tell people, “these are the sounds my mind hears” but that doesn’t make much sense to anyone besides me. I get that. Best I can say is, it’s definitely avant garde for whatever that’s worth. It’s unconventional for today’s music industry. I don’t play by traditional rules or expectations, I just create what I’m feeling based on my personal experiences. I use minor chords and experiment with small key changes but the composition of Jade Ring songs are more exploratory in nature. I wrote these songs in a flow state and just let my thoughts move through my fingers as I composed them on a keyboard. If the song is over 8 minutes long, like the song “Brash” then so be it. It’s the way it was supposed to be. It’s not jazz, but I like to think of it as a form of jazz. It’s anti-establishment maybe? I think people who like groups like Mr. Bungle, Fat Dog, Oingo Boingo or even a band like Battles might find something interesting or familiar in my music? Someone recently said it gave them the Prodigy vibes which is a huge compliment because when I put together the synths on Pills, I was really channeling the Prodigy and NIN. People who struggle with addiction, identity or trying to find their way in the modern world might find a sympathetic partner in my music.

Since Jade Ring is a one-man-show, are there stages in the creative process that feel more enjoyable or natural than others? What do you struggle with the most?

You know what’s wild, this is my second attempt to do a solo project. My last attempt was an acoustic thing that gave me some of the worst anxiety imaginable. I give so much credit and love to anyone who gets on stage with just a guitar and pours their soul out. That was terrifying to me and it made me almost quit music entirely. I went back to my comfort zone of playing with bands because there is something unique in the bond of creating magic together. You do have to compromise in a band, especially if the band is known for a certain genre or type of music. I never felt handcuffed creatively but I also never really forced my weird ideas onto others. My bands would sneak in some off-kilter things but in limited doses. With Jade Ring I have the full freedom to express myself. It’s certainly harder to play all the instruments and I don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of but I think that’s what motivated me to do this project. I wanted to prove to myself that I could still create something fresh and challenging in my 40s.

Under what circumstances was Pills born and what were you hoping for during its creation?

Great question! It was a combination of different experiences and observations that pushed me to write this. I’ve been in various forms of therapy since the 1990s. Back then, my condition was just called “depression” and I was written my first prescription when I was 14 or 15. I wasn’t able to drive, I remember that. Even though I had a prescription I never turned it in. I grew up in a family that struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse so early on I saw what that did to people and I knew how it affected me. It scared the hell out of me. I actually didn’t start drinking until I was 22, which in retrospect might have been a good thing because I was touring at 18 and could have gotten myself into a lot more trouble than I already did. Turns out though, I am a dangerous alcoholic. I can say this from the bottom of my heart, I’m lucky to be alive. I think about that almost daily now that I’m 12 years sober from alcohol. I’ve been around all types of substances but I always avoided pills. I can’t tell you how many prescriptions I passed on over the years but it was a lot. What finally broke me was COVID. I was running a business during COVID and suffered mentally every day. I am still truly affected by what I experienced during that time. I felt like I was personally responsible for the health and welfare of over 200 people when our government literally did nothing to help us or guide us through that time. It was almost like they wanted to just wish it away but I was living in it. I’ll never shake the feeling of being spit on by one of my staff when I told him he couldn’t work because he was COVID positive. Spit right in my face. Now, I’m a bit of a germaphobe, maybe I should have led with that but it was horrible because this kid needed to work, he needed money but I couldn’t put my other people at risk. He was angry and took it out on me. I had no one to take it out on but I think about the system that let us all down. We live in a society that values profits over people and although I’ve always been disillusioned with the American facade but the dam broke during that time. I had to turn to prescription meds for the first time because I couldn’t medicate with alcohol and weed was so unregulated even a few years ago I cut that off too. I smoked way too many things that claimed to be weed but most certainly were not. So I guess that leads me to now. After taking prescription meds for years I started asking myself, “have I changed?” “Am I still the same person I was before?” “Am I in control?” Quite frankly, I didn’t know. Therapy didn’t help explore that. Psychiatry didn’t help explore that. Rather, I was told my medication was good for me. Are pharmaceuticals for profit in America? Sure are. I felt like my pain, my trauma was being exploited and I was trying to understand the cost of it all. One of the downfalls of a particular medication I take are extreme withdrawal symptoms only being described as similar to heroin withdrawal. I’ve suffered two accidental withdrawals from forgetting to take my medication and I was in pure hell. That’s when I decided to write about the taboo topic of prescriptions and it was incredibly therapeutic for me.

Even though this EP is extremely cohesive, Ghost Machine is a personal standout for the themes it shines a light on. Can you elaborate on this specific moment in Pills?

I appreciate that. When I was writing Pills in Atlanta I started coming across Waymo autonomous vehicles. It made me think more about AI and job replacement. It made me think of the unregulated AI industry. I thought about women and children being sexualized by AI without consequence and I just got really angry again. I went back to the hotel and wrote Ghost Machine. I love real world sounds and setting a scene so it starts in an elevator, which was inspired by that angry ride up to my room. I thought, what if the elevator was AI powered and I had no control. The song explores the failure of American society to deliver on what we were told was the American dream. We were flooded with anti-drug messaging as kids because people here in the states self-medicate to escape reality or hardships. I know that from my pain. So many people, generations are struggling right now with safety nets, lack of resources, support being stripped at every level. How can we consciously support people going hungry or impoverished children not being given free lunches? Our healthcare system? I can’t get into that without getting really upset. I don’t live in a prosperous city, in fact it’s one of the poorest large cities in America so I see this struggle first hand. I’m immersed in the failure of societal good. I am also deeply connected to European cultures and their human first cultures. So Ghost Machine allowed me to talk about the system being completely broken and needing to be rebuilt with human front and center. AI is a big piece of that. As it continues to go unregulated and sinks its teeth into more and more of our society without our consent its crucial we find our humanity, that we continue to push forward to find a common good for all. I don’t subscribe to identity politics and that’s been the main driver of American life the last ten years, my concern is MUCH deeper than that.

From the cover art to your lyrics, there’s a strong urge to reassure the listener that the project is not generated by AI. What are your thoughts on its impact in life and art?

I think humans are powerful engines of creativity. I don’t know if I believe in the common definition of a soul as some type of spiritual force but I do believe every living creature has a soul. That soul is shaped by our surroundings, our upbringing, our loves, our suffering, our wins and our failures. Humans are also naturally curious but there’s a mild obsession with perfection and being judged so it’s tough for someone to let their soul sing out loud in whatever form they want to express themselves. I want the listener to know that you CAN take risks. You CAN let your soul sing. Other humans need to hear peoples stories to help give meaning or a common bond to their own experiences. Have we shared this pain together? Have we felt love together? Shared experiences are human. Generative AI is soulless. It lacks the ability to feel. It lacks lived experience. So what is that worth? To some, they might not care to think about that. It might be too heavy or inconvenient of a thought. But the more we allow AI to influence our music, film, writing people will ultimately suffer. Individuality suffers. Our ability to learn about the world suffers. Outside of productivity gains, there is nothing that I find beneficial about AI, but then again I live in the real world with real people and the ones shaping AI live in a bubble void of humanity.

Every core song in Pills is structured in a way to never settle or feel safe. Do you agree? Is this intentional or just part of the experimentation?

What an awesome observation. I completely agree. I think it’s both intentional and experimental. I think the intention is to explore my own music which isn’t really safe. I like to be surprised. I think music should make you experience different emotions or thoughts. As far as experimental, I LOVE those little happy accidents that produce bits of ear candy. This was experimental for me in a sense of, “if I create something for me, that makes sense to me; would it be something others enjoy?” I originally wanted to do a full length but I had fear that I might have invested too much of my emotion in the project and if it completely flopped it would probably crush me. So I put out this smaller album and I actually love it. I think the micro album format is here to stay for Jade Ring!

The cover art of Pills is pretty much self-explanatory, but can we talk about the work behind it? Is it truly hand-made?

Oh yeah, absolutely! All my designs are either hand made or created using open source software. All my stage costumes are handmade. I actually recreated the May Queen dress from Midsommar for a halloween show last year using over 2000 hand glued flowers. I love working with my hands and real, tactile materials. The cover of Pills was hand cut and each pill capsule was hand glued. It took about three hours of constant gluing and was actually my second attempt. Originally the pills were yellow and green which is one of my favorite color combos but I changed the entire color theme after I wrote the lyrics and I realized that red, white and blue was the right choice. I treated my album release like an art exhibit and created an fully immersive room displaying my different masks, custom artwork, large format photos from my album session and one of the pieces I brought was my actual “Pills” album cover. It’s 3x4 foot and fragile but it made the drive from my house to the club. It was so cool having people realize it was real. For fun, I actually just posted a time lapse video of the cover making process on my instagram!

How does it feel to have your first piece of music out in the world and where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?

I gotta tell you, I’m relieved. Putting a solo album out is a lot of work. You’re the writer, musician, engineer, designer, producer, publisher, publicist, performer, distributor, etc.. So there’s relief that I got to a point where I said, yes, it’s ready. You can tinker with things forever but then that’s not a full art piece, it’s still just an idea. Only when it’s released to the world is when it becomes a real thing. I hope people discover something in it that resonates and makes them interested enough to follow along. I’d love for people to join my mailing list on jaderingmusic.com. Ten years from now I’ll be in my 50’s and will have been actively playing music for 35 years. I’d like to think I’m still playing music with good people even though it might look and feel different. I hope to be living in Europe after finding a fanbase over there though I’ve recently felt like I’ve accidentally moved into a mentorship role in my hometown and it actually feels really good. I love seeing people pursue their passion and if I can help or provide my perspective then I think that’s the best place to be. Being called “unc” or “legend” might have pissed me off when I was younger but I can feel grateful about life now and that’s changed my whole perspective on everything. Helping others discover their voice & rocking a little bit, yeah, I like that for my 50s.

Enjoy Jade Ring right here:

https://jadering.bandcamp.com/album/pills