FEBRUARY, 2008 - Fans of the heavy psych and acid rock jams of the late 60s or early 70s can rattle off their favorites with enthusiasm; BLUE CHEER, HENDRIX, CREAM, ZEP, and maybe some GRAND FUNK are usually in the mix somewhere. Unfortunately, many will not dig any deeper despite their love for the genre. It's quite a shame, because a few fathoms below these legends lurk names demanding investigation like DUST, CACTUS, POOBAH, TRUTH & JANEY, and Kansas City's JPT SCARE BAND. Over the last ten years, the band has been busier than ever, rescuing master tapes and scrambling to get their colossal acid jams into the hands of the music-buying populous. Their latest disc, 2007's "Jamm Vapour" is is a representation of JPT here and now, featuring newly recorded material from front to back. In this interview, Peacedogman's Will Broadbent took some time to discuss the trials and tribulations of creating and distributing this type of music in the year 2008.

WILL BROADBENT: Hey guys! It's an honor to get the chance to interview you. You guys have been creating music for a long time… To give the readers an idea of longevity, when did you guys first get together to pummel the world with your heavy, psychedelic jams?

PAUL GRIGSBY : I met Terry and Jeff at the Heat Rash Bash at the junior college in 1971 I was 18. We finally started playing in a band together in 1973. We were the Cruisers, me, Terry, Jeff, Frank and Carol.

JEFF LITTRELL : In 1973, we were in a country-rock band backing up Carol Cruise and I was the keyboard player. Terry and Paul and I would jam around while waiting for the drummer to show up for rehearsals. I would play Frank's drums and we soon figured out that we had an amazing telepathic connection when the three of us jammed. At some point, we quit Carol and the three of us moved into the Electric House with a sound engineer named Greg Gassman. We set up our gear in the basement and we would jam and jam and jam. Greg recorded many of these jams and those fairly primitive recordings became the basis for the LPs and CDs that Monster Records released in the 1990s.

BROADBENT: The connection that you guys have shared has outlasted most marriages. What's that like? Do you guys still get along well, or are you just "staying together for the kids" so to speak?

TERRY SWOPE: We're good friends who've shared much more than just playing in a band. There would be no music without the friendship.

JEFF: We have always been the best of friends. Terry and I have been good friends since the seventh grade. Paul just kind of materialized in 1973 and stayed. We have managed to keep our egos pretty much at bay. Paul and I are very comfortable in our role as the rhythm section in the band. We have no problem with Terry getting a lot of the glory. He's the lead guitar and he does most of the vocals, so he is naturally the focus of attention for a lot of the freaks who dig the band. There is plenty of room for everybody to have fun in a jamming type group like JPT.

PAUL: Personally, I think we get along nicely. We don't have any band ego stuff and get down to business pretty easily. There is no doubt that the music is a big influence in our meetings. We never know what our sessions will produce. Every one has a bit of a surprise element.

BROADBENT: Forgive me, but I have to ask: what puts the scare in the JPT SCARE BAND?

TERRY: Personally I've got a few demons that thrive in the spaced-out jam environment. It seems to be their only non-lethal outlet.

PAUL: Oh, I don't know, put on "Theme from the Monster's Holiday" or "Acid Acetate" and see if you can figure out what it is. I think it's some kind of a chemical reaction.

JEFF: When we were in the early days in 1973 - 74, we would listen to the tapes we made and the music just sounded scary. Very dark and Terry would play very weird solos that were not conventional and would kind of make you freak out. We also thought that it was just so naturally tight that it was scary. Certain psychoactive substances may also have played a role. Some freaks are convinced that Scare Band music is best enjoyed in expanded consciousness mode.

BROADBENT: I "highly" recommend that, as well (no pun intended!) As I mentioned, you guys have been around for a long time… Underground rock n' roll fans like me certainly salute you, but how do you maintain your resolve to keep going in light of the little mainstream commercial success you've been able to achieve?

BROADBENT: Monster Records reissued some of your classic 70's material. How did you hook up with them, and have you been in touch with current Monster incarnation Rockadrome Records?

JEFF: I received a phone call from Phil one night in 1993, totally out of the blue. He said he was a record producer and he and his partner had purchased a vinyl LP album by the band Prisoner at a used record store in Indianapolis. He had somehow tracked me down, but I thought he was just pimping me. He wanted to know if we had done other records and especially wanted to know about the tune, "Burn In Hell," from the Prisoner record. We told him that "Burn In Hell" was a JPT SCARE BAND tune. He asked if JPT did any records and I said no, but I had this big box of reel-to-reel tapes from the 70s. He had me put one on and hold the phone up to the speaker. He said, put everything you have on cassette and send it to us in Texas. We did, and the rest is history. All bands have love/hate relationships with their record company. We love Dennis and Phil because they believed in JPT and put out two vinyl LPs and a CD of our 1970s recordings that introduced us to an unsuspecting world. We hated them because they were totally uninterested in releasing any of the music we did in the present, plus they neglected to pay us royalties for several years. Phil is gone (RIP), Monster Records vanished and we have had on and off communication with Dennis at Rockadrome, but there is just too much bad baggage for us to get together, so far. You never know, though. Life is strange.

PAUL: I talk with Dennis once in a while but at this point we have spun off on our own and with our record company, Kung Bomar Records, we seem to have found a way to do our own music and keep more control over what we do and how we do it. Phil and Dennis are no doubt the single most contributing factor in our longevity and I am quite grateful for their keen interest in our madness.

BROADBENT: It was great to hear you guys still jamming on your current record, ""Jamm Vapour"." It's disappointing when a lot of classic old bands reunite, the chops simply aren't there like they once were, but I'm happy to report that that was not the case with you guys. Your musicianship is as strong as it ever was. To what do you attribute this prolonged vitality?

JEFF: It's not from clean living, let me assure you. Except that we all became fierce vitamin freaks from way back, especially antioxidants. The universe is a total mystery to me; there are many things that I do not understand. The brain gets a lot of wear and tear in outer space. It's somewhat miraculous that we can still function at all… yet we do and we are actually doing rather well. I share your disappointment in many reunions, but some are totally great, like the CREAM reunion at Albert Hall in 2005. I was able to catch STEELY DAN at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis last summer. Totally blew me away. Fantastic!! I just read that Robin Trower and Jack Bruce have put out a new album. Have to check that out. I am constantly amazed at how well Terry and Paul still play and Terry can still sing like crazy.

PAUL: We all stay busy playing, doing separate projects, recordings and gigs so when we get together to get down to scare band business we are usually ready to roll. It tends to heighten the senses when we crank it up together too.

TERRY: There's no question that things change as far as technique and stamina are concerned. But we've never been too worried about the fine points of our music making. Our stuff starts and ends with feel. In other words: if there's no emotion and groove the rest of the process is irrelevant.

BROADBENT: Well said, Terry. I think it's that intangible, organic quality that draws people to the JPT SCARE BAND over everything else. What is the writing process for you guys like currently? Is it the same chemistry that you guys have always had, or have things evolved with time?

PAUL: Yeah, no big changes. Terry wrote a bunch of songs for "Jamm Vapour", our 2001 stuff, but generally, we just make it up as we go. Terry has a real knack for making up lyrics as we jam.

TERRY: Sometimes we just start playing and let things happen in the moment. We also use traditional song forms as well. We like simplicity.

BROADBENT: As Paul mentioned earlier, ""Jamm Vapour"" was released on your own Kung Bomar Record label. How did you like releasing your own material? Was it nice not having to answer to anyone, or did it create more problems?

PAUL: It is more work but I like doing the stuff ourselves. We don't have any Yoko problems, no manager, so there's no management problems, no label, other than our own, so we don't have label problems. We don't have PR or any employees or any of the other issues that tend to plague bands. It's not so bad.

JEFF: It is basically a gigantic pain in the ass.

BROADBENT: Want to reconsider your answer, Paul?

JEFF: We are pretty good at making scary music, but not so hot at being record moguls. We were forced to create Kung Bomar when Dennis and Phil absolutely refused to consider putting out any of our new stuff on Monster. No other labels have ever indicated the slightest interest, so that was very hard to accept. We did Kung Bomar out of total frustration. Our first effort was the Past Is Prologue CD, released in December 2001. That has taken a long long time to have an impact, but today it is actually doing quite well at amazon.com and CD Baby. We recorded the basic tracks for "Jamm Vapour" in 2001. It took us until 2007 to finally release the first disc. There is at least another disc worth of material from the "Jamm Vapour" sessions. Then there is all the stuff we did for the Rum Dum Daddy sessions in 2004. Two more CDs of Rum Dum Daddy sitting in the can. Not to mention five or six CDs worth of twisted insanity from the big box of 1970s reel-to-reel recordings that have never been released. So what's that, like nine or ten CDs worth of kick ass just sitting there? The reel-to-reel tapes from the 1970s are deteriorating and one of these days, they will just crumble to dust. The new stuff is in Pro Tools, so that is pretty safe. I have one reel to reel that is covered in mold on the outside, so I'm afraid to try to play it. I have no idea at all what is on it. It isn't in a box and there is no label. Could be great, could be shit, but we don't know how to properly remove mold from a reel-to-reel tape. We just don't have the resources to produce and promote more than one CD every few years. Very frustrating and a total pain in the ass.

BROADBENT: I hope a record label is reading this, and takes action. There is still a huge market for great, unreleased 70's rock material, and anyone who doesn't capitalize on the JPT SCARE BAND is really missing out on a great opportunity. Moving along, what is your take on the current music scene? Is there any hope? Are there any current bands out there that you guys are following?

JEFF: Hell, there is always hope. I don't really listen to a lot of new stuff, but I've had a subscription to Rolling Stone since 1971, so I read about all this new stuff. I really like MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE and WOLFMOTHER. Of course, there are plenty of old geezers like us still out there slugging away. GOV'T MULE is great and I can't really understand why the GOV'T MULE freaks don't flock to buy JPT records. But… like I said, the universe is a total mystery and I am constantly dumbfounded by reality.

PAUL: The music scene is just fine; it's the fucks that are pushing the bad acts that mess things up. Big money tries to make more big money and they don't necessarily know what talent is, only what they think will make them more money. There are lots of kick ass bands that are great! I tend to stay close to the tracks and enjoy bands with attitude. Technique is nice but if the feeling's gone it just sounds like Muzak. So I tend to lean towards bands that kick ass. I am more into throwing some shit at the wall and seeing how it splatters rather than putting it on one brush stroke at a time. Rock and Roll has always been about attitude. If you can write good tunes and your lyrics resonate with people's gut, you got it.

TERRY: My two sons are into groups like SYMPHONY X, and DREAM THEATER so that's what I'm familiar with as far as modern rock. I enjoy listening to virtuoso players do their thing. Lately that's been groups like JING CHI, MONDO TRIO and SLAUGHTERHOUSE 3. Modern corporate pop/rock/rap doesn't interest me.

BROADBENT: What does the future hold for the JPT SCARE BAND? Is there a finish line in sight, or do we fans have more future projects to look forward to?

PAUL: I'm just enjoying the ride. I got nowhere to go, no lofty goal other than getting the three of us together to make some more gut wrenching, loud ass craziness, and get it on tape.

JEFF: Believe in yourself. Never give up. Never surrender. That's our motto. Like I said, we could all get polio tomorrow and we still have enough stuff in the can to do another ten CDs, maybe more. Barring a sudden polio infection, we will most surely record more loud scary music. Tell you what my big fantasy is… the phone rings and someone says, "Hey we want you guys to play at Bonaroo next year." We haven't played a live gig in a long time. We can still play like crazy, but the phone never rings. We have always had this strange lack of drive to make money and promote ourselves, and nobody else seems to want to score that gig for us. Maybe someone will read this interview and get a wild hair and give us a call.

TERRY: Hard to say. We've been finished before but then it rubs off and we have to get refinished.

BROADBENT: Great words to end on! Thanks once again for talking with us, guys. I really hope someone gets in touch with you about reissuing your unreleased material.

JEFF : Thank you!

JPT SCARE BAND are Paul Grigsby (bass), Jeff Littrell (drums), and Terry Swope (guitar/vocals). Th album "Jamm Vapour" is available throug their site, www.jptscareband.com or myspace.com/jptscareband.

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