The last time I hung out with JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound was probably a year ago. They were in town to play a show at El Corazon and I was lucky enough to secure an in person interview at the venue mere hours before showtime. The guys played a couple of songs during sound check that I was able to use to top and tail the interview and our discussion consisted of a variety of topics including but not limited to: limits to creativity, being pegged as a soul band, why Bayonne, NJ, sucks and drawings of the male anatomy. If you’re interested at all you can listen to that chat here.

All of that brings me to today. JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound are back in our city of Seattle and this time around the guys are hitting up The Triple Door. Their new record, Howl, is out now and it’s a bit darker in tone and more of a personal album for JC Brooks than the band’s previous LP, Want More. I had the chance to talk with JC and below you’ll find a small portion of our interview.

the mixtape: Thanks for talking with me today. When you have a chance to relax what is it that JC Brooks likes to do? Do you hang out with The Uptown Sound or do you just hang out with some friends?

JC Brooks: (Laughs) Today I went out and shot some head shots for a friend of mine and grabbed some lunch and I just kind of chilled out. Yesterday, I attempted to clean my living room and got about half way done before I got too bored to continue.

tm: There’s a scene in your music video for ‘Rouse Yourself’ where you’re fighting someone and what I want to ask you is if you’re a fighter? As a kid did you get into a lot of fights? Did you pull from some real life experience?

JCB: I’ve been in fights as a kid but I haven’t had to fight as an adult. Usually I’ve been able to intimidate my way out of a situation before punches have to be thrown.

tm: What’s one of the craziest moments you’ve experienced while on tour? Something that has kind of spun your head around.

JCB: We tend to have pretty tame experiences. Nothing particularly crazy has ever happened. Actually, I got to hang out with one of my favorite porn stars while we were in Toronto.

tm: That’s cool. How did that come about?

JCB: Well, I’d been following his Tumblr for a while and I hit him up via Facebook and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m in town, I’m a fan, if you wanna come and see the show I’ll get you comp’ed.’ And he said that he was hosting a show that night, too, and that I should come by afterward. So I did and he was a really nice guy.

JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound w/ John Lee Spectre
$12 advance // $15 DOS
Wednesday, August 14
7:30 PM (All ages)
Doors open at 6:30 PM

Buy tickets here