All Over The Place: A Conversation With Ian Devaney of Westfield's The Static Jacks

No matter the era, Americans will always love young men with guitars. Westfield’s own The Static Jacks carry on that tradition. Their full-length debut If You’re Young was released in August on Fearless Records. It’s 38 minutes of pop-punk fun, mostly brash and loud, but at the same time, it’s not afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve.

The Static Jacks are:

Ian Devaney – vocals

Henry Kaye – guitar

Michael Sue-Poi – guitar, bass

Nick Brennan – drums

WP: The entire band is from Westfield, right?

ID: Kind of. Three of us were raised in Westfield. Mike grew up in Roselle Park and moved to Westfield two years ago.

WP: Fearless Records is your label. How did they find you?

ID: They found us. I believe they came to a number of shows of ours without telling us. They had spoken to our management about the possibility of coming to see us, but they didn’t contact us directly. When they approached us and told us how much they enjoyed the show, the conversation evolved into them offering us the record deal. We’re pretty different from most of the bands on their roster. They acknowledged that right up front. They said, “We’re just big fans and we just want to help you put out a record.” That sounded good to us.

WP: How is the relationship so far?

ID: I’m very much a person that is skeptical of the business side of the music industry. Every time I expect that we will have to battle it out, they generally say, “Do whatever you want. We signed you for a reason.” They’re really respectful of our process and the amount of control and information we like to have. That, in turn, makes us not so skeptical of them. We went to their offices the last time we were in California. They’re all just really great people.

WP: You went on tour recently. Where did you go?

ID: You could describe it as an “s” pattern. We started going south and went down through Texas, came up through the middle of the country, then out to the Pacific Northwest and down through California.

WP: You also played a few shows in the UK recently. You even played on Thanksgiving!

ID: It was pretty funny. We would run into a couple of Americans from time to time, desperately searching for turkey. The dates were really good. People there were a captive audience for us. We played with Mazes, a band that we toured with here. Ryan Jarman from The Cribs was at our final UK show, which was amazing, because he’s one of my heroes. We also did an acoustic performance on radio and some interviews.

WP: In an era where it’s hard to get noticed, how did you do it?

ID: I think the obvious kind of social networking answer is to spread it around on Facebook and places like that. Before signing to Fearless, we did some unusual things. We would take acoustic guitars and go into Union Square and just play our music. That’s how we paid for our van. That really helped us get a lot of our EPs out there. It brings the music directly to the people without the filter of anyone telling them what’s cool or worth listening to. They can judge for themselves.

WP: Is it difficult to be a band from the suburbs?

ID: I don’t find it to be difficult. I’ve always wondered how bands from the city were able to make things work. They need practice space, which must be expensive. We can go right into the basement and play all day. It’s pretty easy coming from the type of place where most people have cars. It’s easy to get gear around from place to place. We all live very close to each other.

WP: Which of the songs from the album do you most enjoy playing live?

ID: “Walls” is one that I really enjoy playing. It’s generally in the middle of our set. It’s a really fast one. To be honest, it gives me a vocal break from the higher-pitched fast songs. It’s a nice chance to throw around my physical energy a little bit more, which is one of my favorite things to do.

WP: What are the future plans for The Static Jacks?

ID: First and foremost, we will continue to tour as much as possible once the new year rolls around. We’ve recorded some follow-up material for an EP and now we’re writing for the second album. Writing-wise, we’ll probably stay the same and see what feelers we can put out in terms of new directions and sounds. Once we get a good collection of songs going, that’s when we’ll realize what we’ve done rather than trying too much.

You can hear an extended version of this interview, including some songs from the album, on All Over The Place on Sunday, December 11, Friday, December 16 and Saturday, December 17 at 7 p.m.

There is also a Spotify playlist available that contains songs from the album and some other songs suggested by Ian Devaney.