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Interview with Jacob Lynam
(Vocals / Guitars - Lynam)


Interviewed by Brian Rademacher
Date: November 2006


Hi Brian, it’s Jacob of LYNAM. It’s an early day I went to bed at 5am and woke up about 10:30am to get caught up on some e-mails. I’m ready to go.

Tell us a little about the youth of Jacob Lynam (Jacob Bunton) ?
I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and as early as I can remember I watched MTV and music video and always obsessed over music. I always loved MOTLEY CRÜE and DEF LEPPARD. To me Nikki Sixx always looked like a comic book hero. I got my first guitar when I was eleven- I saved money from mowing lawns. I saved $60.00, went to the local music store, and bought a guitar called Memphis.

What kind of kid were you in school?
I made pretty good grades. When I was tested for SAT, I scored the highest in the country on math, and ended up getting a letter sent to my Mom from Washington. I got all kinds of press from radio and newspaper. The funny thing is, math was my worst subject and I was the luckiest person in the world because the answers were A, B, C or D. I didn’t know any of the answers and I was marking them randomly and just happened to get them all right.

Do you remember the first recording you bought and the first concert you attended?
Yeah, the CD was MOTLEY CRÜE’S “Girls, Girls, Girls” and BON JOVI'S “Slippery When Wet,” and the first concert I saw was when my mom took me to a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe thing. A week later, she took me to see WHITESNAKE. I barely remember, but it was awesome.

You were in a band called WISH in 1996. What was the first garage band you were in?
It was called ALLERGIC, and we wanted to be like POISON. I was eleven at the time and we were in a fifth grade talent show.

WISH was signed to Atlantic Records but the deal fell through and you signed with Portrait, correct?
WISH was signed to Atlantic and we did a record, which Atlantic spent a ton of money on and then never released. Afterwards we changed our name to MARS ELECTRIC and got signed to Columbia.


That CD was called “Beautiful Something” and on http://www.strutter.8m.com/ they ranked it 9.5/10.
That’s good, because it’s very hard to find a good review of that album. If you search for “Beautiful Something” on the internet, nine out of ten reviews are absolutely terrible. Everyone hated that record. When MARS ELECTRIC came out, bands like LIMP BIZKIT and KORN ruled the music scene, so we were way out of place.

In 2005, you put a CD out, Jacob Bunton and Barry Waldrep's "Six Ways ‘til Sunday," which was mainly bluegrass. Can you tell me anything about that release?
It’s a bluegrass CD and Barry Waldrep is a real deal bluegrass guy. He played with Bill Monroe before. He got me into bluegrass and I fell in love with it. I started listening to Ricky Skaggs and Del McCurry and bands like that. So we wrote a record together and put it out on our own. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sixwaystilsunday

The first LYNAM CD was “White Trash Superstar” in 2002. The CD featured a rap song called “The Party Starts Now.” What was that about?
Yeah, that’s the song that ended up doing the most for us and ended up on that 20th Century Fox movie Catch That Kid. “White Trash Superstar” was a fun record. What we wanted to do was make something really diverse. We didn’t want that album to flow well, which is wired because most bands always want an album to flow well. What we did with our first two records, we didn’t want any of the songs to flow together and that is exactly what we did.

On “Bling! Bling!” (2003) you had Jason Elgin from CREED producing, and it was mixed by Patrick Thrasher and Jimbo Barton (GODSMACK, MOTLEY CRÜE). The songs were diverse again with “Disco King” sounding like Elvis Costello and "Waste My Life" like the BEASTIE BOYS. Also, on the cover you had four band members.

When LYNAM started out, we were just a three piece. Then a couple of months went by and we got a singer in the band. He was with us for the first two releases and quit after that. We parted ways nicely because he wanted to do other things.

The next release was “Life in Reverse” (2004).You had heavier keyboards and the songs seemed to flow well, this time sounding a bit like WEEZER. Was that your intention?
That was the first record we wanted everything flowing, and it ended up being one of my favorite LYNAM records.

You had two songs on there that were on the previous release- “Tanis” and “By Your Side.”
That was the record company's call. When we signed our deal they heard “Life in Reverse” and “Bling, Bling” and pulled two songs off each record and put them on “Slave to the Machine” and took off a few of the new songs.

You played The Vans Warped Tour?
Only a few dates… One thing about this band-we learned how to go over in most genres.

You are signed to DRT Entertainment by legendary A&R guru Derek Shulman (BON JOVI, PANTERA). How did that happen?

A good friend of ours named Lisa Case would call the radio station everyday asking to play “Disco King” until they finally played. After they played the song, the phones went through the roof and they ended up adding it to the rotation and it ended up getting a lot of interest from labels. We ended up not signing a deal because we were comfortable doing our own thing at the time. We got management from Union Entertainment Group who manages NICKELBACK and CINDERELLA, and we signed a deal with them. Soon after that, we got our deal with DRT.

Do you feel that your music has changed with the times?
I don’t think our music has changed at all. It’s just a little different. So I guess I would say with each album we’re growing.

Seems “Tanis” is # 1 on a lot of indie radio stations.
That’s awesome.

What does LYNAM ask for on their rider?
That’s funny; I just drew up the list last night. Deli turkey meat, two bags of honey wheat and whole wheat, mayo, mustard, Chips Ahoy cookies, cheese, 100% grape juice, 5 cans of Campbell’s vegetable soup, 2 bottles of Coffee-mate French vanilla creamer, Starbucks morning blend coffee and two cases of water.

No Liquor?
No! Most bands give up food for liquor but I'd rather eat. I am the only one in the band that doesn’t drink. So I want to make sure everyone in the band and crew eats. Liquor is always free anyway at the venue but I have to make sure my guys eat.

How was it opening for CINDERELLA and POISON?
Amazing, because both bands were absolutely a huge influence on David and myself.

Has MySpace helped the band at all?
MySpace has helped the band tremendously. There is no other venue on the net that helped us as much as MySpace.

The site that helps me the most with research on bands has to be CD Baby which is a great site and informative. www.cdbaby.com
That’s cool

What are your expectations of the record?
Our goal was to put the record out on a national level and gain as many fans as possible and we are doing that every night with sell out crowds. We take it to the next level.

Have you started the next record yet?

Yes, the next record is already written.

You have a title yet?
No not yet.

Do you have a favorite guitar player?
My absolute favorite is Steve Vai, love him.

Jacob it’s been great. Would you like to say anything in conclusion?
Thanks so much for the interview and support, have a good day.

Special thanks to Doug Weber New Ocean Media and Lisa Case. Photos courtesy Lisa Case www.lovinglynam.com

 

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