Andras Jones
“Cold ’98”
Pretty Good Judge
Kindling Girl
Hurri-Kane*
What Happened
Let Go Slowly**
All songs written, performed and produced by Andras Jones except:
*Produced by John Nason who plays all of the instruments on this track.
** Recorded by Carl Dexter
From Andras Jones;
The Previous ended in 1996. I’m not exactly sure how.
Me and John Nason and a new drummer, Chad Austinson, toured for about a year after the release of “UnPop…” but it was different. It felt more like a solo act by then. Maybe I even wanted that.
The end probably began for the band when Marshall had his awesome rock and roll meltdown at the big NACA (National Association of College Activities) showcase in ‘95. Threw down his mike and just stopped playing his keyboard right in the middle of the set we’d worked and schmoozed for over a year to get. The rest of the band was furious. I thought it was cool in a poetic kinda way. We still booked a bunch of college gigs and started barely making money for the first time in our career, right before we broke up. But then, when Marshall took a swing at me in Brian Schey’s parent’s kitchen, I could tell he needed some space. He was about to start making babies anyway, with a gal he met and brought on the road with us for a while, so the timing was probably right for him.
Brian Schey (who I always kind of saw as Marshall’s buddy) joined the band and traveled with us for about two and half years after Walt quit the second time. I first met Brian when he was in Randy Kaplan’s band “i” back in LA in the early 90’s. We were playing shows together at places like The Central (later The Viper Room) and the old Highland Grounds. Brian was a fan of the band, and joined The Previous right around the time I was in LA for the Fair City Shows/Hard Feelings recording when my dad died in early ’95.
Brian was one of those big cuddly acid bears you occasionally meet, who enjoys life and appears to be enjoyed by it. He was definitely one of the funnest people I’ve ever played with. A gifted musician who knows his instrument inside and out, he’s really more of a composer/arranger than a bass player. Still, there was nothing he couldn’t do on his axe. He visibly loved playing with The Previous, and that made the rest of us, who had been doing it for a lot longer, enjoy it more. Brian didn’t really sing much, but he’d groove real hard, with a big smile on his face, and shout rhythmically in the background at the perfect times. In this way, he made the gigs feel a little more urgent…in a good way, like a sporting event, a psychedelic trip, or sex. (Oh, baby!)
Actually, now that I think of it, Brian falling out of love with the band is probably what ended it for our drummer, Colin, and with him gone, there went whatever we were as a live band, as far as being Previous. John stuck around in Olympia, moving to bass guitar, and then to other choices entirely. He still lives here, though I never see him, which is weird. There’s a story there but I’m not gonna tell it. Not sure I even fully understand it.
John Nason was kind of the wizard of the band. He wasn’t obviously impressive. In fact, there was nothing obvious about him but he had a strange charisma. The most impressive people we worked with always seemed to gravitate to John and whether they were big stars or sound guys, John had a way of recognizing them. He also had this weird knack of simply being good at anything he tried. Guitar. Saxophone. Yoga. Frisbee. Whatever it was, if he did it, he was going to get good at it, and yet he never looked particularly good doing it.
John was the master of the just-out-of-earshot aside and, in a way, that’s how he played. I mean, he was sneaky smart. Definitely a big old wanker, like a lot of the folks who were attracted to my songs at the time but he was also one of those rare guitarists so deeply integrated with his instrument that he could bend it to his communication, literally and on a subconscious level. Although, you could never be too sure what was literal and what was sub-literal with John. That was part of his charm. You had to be inside to get him.
Sometimes, as we drove into some new midwestern town on one of our many heroically pointless tours, he would roll down the window of one of our many ludicrous vehicles and shout “Religion!!” at random people. I think that’s hilarious but I can’t tell if anyone else would think so, and that’s John. He created a seductive trickster mystique that made him kind of the emotional power broker of the band or, as a said, the wizard.
John produced “Hurri-Kane” from the Cold ’98 e.p. between tours sometime in 96/97, when he was playing bass with me in something we were calling The Previous. I wrote the song for the film “Hurricane Festival” and John played all the instruments. The movie didn’t use the song but they paid for “UnPop..” , so it’s all good and I’m almost grateful.
“Pretty Good Judge” was written for and about Mary Lou Lord. I had a massive artist-crush on her when she was living in Olympia. We met at an open mike at Evergreen in ’94 and started hanging out a little. One day I went over to her place to “maybe write a song together or something” and when I showed up she said she couldn’t write because a friend of hers had just died. It turned out he killed himself. It turned out she was talking about Kurt Cobain.
“Kindling Girl” is going to be a hit for somebody someday. I wrote it while living in the Noses house on Franklin Street in Olympia, when the heater wasn’t working but inspiration was.
“What Happened” was produced on acid in the very same house as “Kindling Girl”, after The Noses moved out and Heidi and The Previous moved in, bringing all that good-intentioned 1990’s vegan energy with them. It was my birthday. August 12th, 1994. A Who box set Heidi gave me was on the desk in my studio as I lay these tracks down on the Tascam 8-track Josh Clayton-Felt recommended to me. The band was still together. My marriage was still together. Josh was still alive. My dad was still alive, though nearly gone. Things were mostly good with a chance of bad that day. Years later, when those “events” happened in NYC on September 11th, this song made a lot more sense to me.
“Let Go Slowly” was recorded by Carl Dexter at his Dream Kitchen studios. He was a trippy dude. It’s a trippy song. He and I will work together far less than I would have liked, considering the time invested and the aggravation achieved, but whenever he and I did work together…we struck gold.
The series of recordings that are Cold ’98, Religious ’99 and Complicated ’00 will document my collaborations with some (though not nearly all) of my favorite musicians.
Listen HERE