FUSE TV - Fuse Q&A: JEFF the Brotherhood Talk Breaking Jack White's Amp, Drunk Karaoke

In that fuzz-rock sweet spot where garage meets psych meets punk meets Zeppelin, you can find brothers Jake and Jamin Orral crafting mind-melting rock as JEFF the Brotherhood. Although they've been together for 10 years and have seven albums to their name, they just started gathering national attention within the last couple years. But thanks to a deal inked between the Nashville label they run and Warner Bros., not to mention their excellent 2012 album Hypnotic Nights (produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach), that's probably going to change.

On the day of their record release, I sat down with JEFF the Brotherhood and talked about the benefits of a major label, meeting Insane Clown Posse (thanks to a bizarre ICP/Mozart/Jack White collaboration) and why they would never want to be as big as the Black Keys.

So I hear you guys went out for karaoke late last night. How are you feeling?

Jake: I really feel like sh*t. Also, we started drinking at 11am.

Jamin: I did a song which I didn’t think I knew, but I ended up actually knowing the whole song. It was [Monica & Brandy's] “The Boy Is Mine.”

You're on your seventh album, but a lot of outlets still refer to you as a new band. Does that get annoying?

Jamin: A lot of people call [Hypnotic Nights] our first album. It’s kind of cool because people keep talking about us and giving us new chances.

Jake: We have people who have liked us for ten years who don’t like this album. I’ve read a couple negative reviews of the record and they were both people comparing it to our previous records, saying it wasn’t as good.

That's strange. It's not radically different from anything you've done before.

Jamin: Yeah, it’s not that different.

I love that you covered that Black Sabbath ballad "Changes" on your album. What brought you guys to that song?

Jake: I just had the idea to do it and we did it and it sounded good so we threw it on there. I think it thematically works with the record. It’s a strange song.

Jamin: Jake kind of did that one while me and Dan [Auerbach] went to lunch and we came back and it was pretty much done.

Jake: You were gone for an hour and a half. You get lunch in Nashville, you have to drive to the place and it takes a long time.

Hypnotic Nights marks the first time you've produced one of your albums with someone else. Were you nervous sharing control with Dan Auerbach?

Jake: Yeah. The main thing was, we were nervous about was whether we’d be able to work with him. You don’t want to get yourself into a situation where you have to worry about him talking over your opinion, like, if his opinion is so overbearing. But Dan was not like that at all; he was hilarious to work with.

This is also the first album to come out since you joined forces with Warner Bros. Were you reticent to work with a major label?

Jamin: Totally.

Jake: It took us a year and a half to get the deal we have. It’s very complicated. The lawyer said it was the longest deal he’d ever seen.

How has working with a major changed things?

Jamin: There are a lot more people involved. It’s not just us: There’s like 30 people behind us. It makes it more complicated getting stuff like artwork done.

Jake: It’s a lot more official. You can’t just put whatever on the record cover: It has to be licensed properly. Other than that it’s made everything definitely better.

In "Country Life" you sing, "I want a dog and I want a gun." Are you actually interested in hunting?

Jake: I’m interested in hunting [smiles wryly]. I'm an aspiring hunter.

Jamin: I like shooting guns, but I don’t like shooting at things. It’s fun. I bought a raffle ticket for a gun the other day. I don’t know if I’m going to win. There’s a place you can shoot at clay pigeons close to my house.