From Under The Counter: The He-Jobs - No Pity in the Forest City

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: THE HE-JOBS
Recorded live, The He-Jobs' debut release No Pity in the Forest City best demonstrates what talent comes out of London.

The He-Jobs debut release No Pity in the Forest City is something fans of garage rock and proto-punk will certainly enjoy.

For a bit of background, the band is a trio featuring Jake Jackman and Mike Hansford from Molly Drag and Rob Brake.

Between Jackman and Brake, the two focus on writing some killer tunes and trade off between drums and guitar in the process. Hansford was recruited shortly after Jackman and Brake began to jam, and he takes on the role of the bass player as well as lead vocals on one track “Lucky Gal.” The other song’s vocal parts are held on by Brake for the first half roughly with his spacey vocals. The rest of the album is handled by Jackman, whose glam-rock style really drives the band in a different but still consistent direction.

The recording process was actually one of the smoothest sessions I’ve done so far. Everything, except for the vocals, was done live off the floor. This means there was no overdubbing of the instruments as you typically see in most sessions. Usually, drums are recorded first, then bass, then guitars and so on.

This is often the case because it’s easier to control each individual element that way. However, in the spirit of keeping it old school, we all decided that live off the floor would be best as it captures the essence of the music way easier. The real trick for this was working within the environment that they jam in. Off Horton Street, there are storage units that many bands jam in.

These are cool spots to jam, but recording in them can be difficult due to everything being concrete and steel. Sound bounces around all over the place there, causing some nasty reflections. With live off the floor recordings, you have to be aware of all the intricacies going on at once and be able to work with what you got. From setting up minimal drum/guitar mics to using a guitar amplifier for vocals, the end result came out really good and surprisingly decent quality considering the circumstances.

At some point this week, give The He-Jobs a listen at the band’s Bandcamp page, thehe-jobs.bandcamp.com. Their artwork may look familiar to some who were around three years ago when a particularly pointless incident occurred.