Ballistic Test > Who's in the band now?
Jagged Doctrine >
Gary Baker: Keyboards/Programming/Vocals
Rod Middleton: Guitars/Bass/Vocals
What is the significance of the name Jagged Doctrine?
Gary: The name Jagged Doctrine was created while on the way to a Larry
Norman concert in North Carolina in 1996. The original members of Jagged
Doctrine (Gary & J. Gates) were trying to think of a new name for our music.
We had just started doing Experimental Industrial (leaving techno/club
behind) and wanted to come up with a name to describe our new sound. After
many brainstorming suggestions, I came up with Jagged Doctrine. Jagged
describing the importance of the sound and Doctrine describing the
importance of the lyrics. I try to make all my lyrics have some worthwhile
statement.
You have a number of side projects happening yet are active with Jagged Doctrine. Tell us about your music activities and what your main focus is.
Both: Our main focus is Jagged Doctrine
Gary: I'm currently working on a few projects. Royal Façade is a trip-hop
styled solo project that I started quite awhile ago. Unfortunately, every
time I do something musically, Royal Façade gets put on the back burner.
http://www.mp3.com/RoyalFacade.
Ti Mo is another side project that I am doing with Morella's Forest's
guitarist Shawn Johnson. We sound like a trip-hop/retro band ala Air.
Sidney from Morella's Forest has dropped by and done some vocals with the
project also. http://www.mp3.com/Ti_Mo
I am currently recording/engineering the latest Morella's Forest CD.
http://www.morellasforest.com
I also recently recorded RHE, a Tori Amos styled band that focuses on
piano/female vocals.
http://www.mp3.com/rhe
There are 2 other side projects I am working on, but they haven't developed
far enough to even mention at this time.
Rod: My current side projects are Perspective and Outer Limits.
Perspective is a progressive metal band and we are currently working on our
second CD. You can check out our first CD at MP3.Com -
http://www.mp3.com/Perspective.
Outer Limits is a hard rock/metal band and we are in the final stages of a 6
song ep. The band name may change by the time the EP is finished though.
What is Blownspeaker.com about?
Gary: Blownspeaker has morphed from one thing to the next. I originally planned on making it an ultimate music resource center. With an indie label, music reviews, gear reviews and who knows what else..But with all the other stuff I am doing, and the fact that I have a 4 month old at home, I haven't found the time to develop anything with it. At this point it will be the central location of my projects and a few other projects. Who knows, there may be more things to come from it!
The latest Jagged Doctrine album It's a Jagged World has been released not too long after the previous album Welcome to the Playground. You guys seem to be pretty inspired and motivated. Where do you think this is coming from?
Rod: Work ethic.. We also have a specific schedule for getting together and
recording. By doing that, we know what is expected of each other and are
better prepared for each session.
Gary: Another thing is that we don't get together TOO often. Some bands
get together 5 times a week and then get burned out 6 months down the road.
We get together 1 time every other week.. Rarely do we meet more than that.
That way, we have all these ideas to bounce off of each other and we end up
just as productive (or more in some cases) as bands who meet much more
frequently.
What bands / artists do you guys like to listen to?
Rod: Kings X, GC, Dream Theater, Rush, Megadeth
Gary: Massivivid, DAS, Larry Norman, Collective Soul, Level9, Saviour
Machine, Morella's Forest
One of your fans wants to know: "In the recording of your music, are the keyboard parts mostly loops, live playing or MIDI sequencing, or a combo of all three? How about the drums? Bass?"
Rod: They can be any of the three..but one rule is that all guitars are REAL-they can be manipuled by any effect to make them different, but not precanned guitars exist on Jagged Doctrine..
You have almost the whole Jagged Doctrine collection freely available for streaming and downloads at http://www.mp3.com/jaggeddoctrine. Some would argue that this is not a good idea since people will download the mp3s and make their own CD. What do you think?
Gary: I believe those who usually will download the music and burn their own CD's probably wouldn't have gotten around to buying the disc anyway. Those who are out to support the indie scene will buy a disc if they feel the material is worth it. Also, we've actually sold more discs when we have had more songs for free. The more songs we have for free, the more chances we have of a song ending up in the charts, which gets more exposure for the band. The more exposure, the better the chance of selling a disc. If we dropped all of our songs out except for 5 or 6, we may only get 10-20 downloads a day. That's a maxiumum of 20 people hearing our music. If we have 33 songs out there, we may get 100 to 200 downloads a day.. with a decent chance of 50 different people being exposed to Jagged Doctrine.
Do you have any opinions on the Napster issue?
Rod "Lars Olrick couldn't be more wrong" Indies are better off with internet exposure. I don't know how much money napster has taken away from the music industry, but odds are the ones who are downloading the music wouldn't be purchasing the disc anyway.
You seem to be doing fairly well on mp3.com. Any tips for bands/artists on mp3.com just starting out?
Gary: The more categories you can be in, the better off I think you are. Other than that, we haven't done a whole lot of marketing tricks to get us in the charts.
I heard you got noticed by Rolling Stone magazine and even licensed one of your songs to MTV. Tell us about that.
Gary: I actually found out about the Rolling Stone thing from you, Richard
(Editor Note: I heard about it from someone else and pass the info to the band)
I had put a few songs up on the Rolling Stone MP3 site. I never
went and checked to see how we were doing on the charts, but they have 3
editors that randomly (?) review material submitted. "Dirty" was chosen as
a song of the day one day and then it was chosen as one of the top tunes by
unsigned bands. It stayed on that chart for 6 weeks at the number 5
position. (there is no voting on this, it's just what the 3 editors decide)
As for MTV, Mp3.com had a send in to submit material to MTV for use in the
show "making the video". I sent in some music, but by talking to the
representative from MTV, I found out they were looking for music with a
dance vibe. I finished the remix J. Gates and I were working on of "You
Don't Know Me" and sent it in. About 1 week later, I was contacted by MTV,
sent a contract to sign and was told the song will be in an upcoming show
of Making the Video.
Is there more new Jagged Doctrine material in store for us? More remixes? What are your short term and long term plans?
Gary: We are working on a bunch of new ideas. We already have 8 tracks and plenty to work on.. Our short term goal is to finish the next disc and shop for a label. We really haven't looked for a label yet, so if any of the readers out there have connections, drop us an email! We have talked with a few labels but nothing is concrete at this time. If we don't get signed, it's no biggie. We have done alright with the indie scene. We are always talking about doing the live thing, also. I could see Jagged Doctrine doing a C'stone 01 show! After this next CD is finished, we may take a break from writing and possible live shows may come from that. Long term? Who knows..
Visit the Jagged Doctrine website at: