‘THE DREAM’Y INTERVIEW WITH JESSE LANDRY OF IN THIS MOMENT
Interview/Photos by Kim Stock

www.myspace.com/inthismoment
Jesse Landry Fan Site

It’s no secret that I love Jesse Landry. I even went so far as to hop on a plane to see him...and I am terrified of heights. I’ve shot In This Moment several times now. While on Warped Tour this year, they booked a somewhat, last minute set at Northern Lights in Clifton Park. After their set, I patiently waited for him to finish his meet n’ greets, in which many of you upstate fans posed for a photo with him. ^-^ Afterwards, he led me to the parking lot. There, I sarcastically told him the interview would be brief, as I only wanted to ask him all about his entire life! If I had my way, I’d have kept him there “Forever”. This is part one of the interview. You can bet your a** there will be a sequel!

How long have you been with In This Moment?
In 2005 I was in a band called New Dead Radio and my singer Sam and Maria were friends, and basically, I booked tours for my own band and I was gonna book a tour with New Dead Radio headlining and ITM opening up. It was gonna be their first tour and right up to the point where we were about to leave together, ITM's bass player, Josh couldn't leave his job to go on tour and I was pretty much done with my band. So I offered to just play bass temporarily with the band to get them through the tour and I ended up really falling in love with the music and everything and wanted to stay and it just worked out.

So were you a bass player first, or a guitar player that got stuck playing bass?
I wouldn't put it like that, because I love playing bass but I definitely was a guitar player first and now I'm a bass player.

You have filled in with Bury Your Dead and Filter?
Yes, BYD and Filter, on guitar.

How was that?
That was awesome! The Filter thing was a little bitter-sweet because the reason why their guitar player went home was due to a death in the family so that kinda sucked, but it was still rad playing those songs anyway cause I kinda grew up on Filter, ya know, so to be able to share the stage with them was kinda rad.

What other bands did you grow up listening to?
How long do you have? (laughs) Zeppelin, Pantera, Cro-bar, Sepultura...one of my big favorites in High School...My Dad kinda got me into music with Zeppelin. My introduction to rock was through Zeppelin, so he has all the vinyl in like pristine condition and I used to play them all the time and shit with him. Ya know, Zeppelin's like heavy to mellow. It was great.

You’re from Louisiana, then you moved to CA. Was that because of music?
Yes. Like every idiot that wants to be rock star. Let's go to LA or NY!

You've toured the world a few times now?
I've basically been touring the US since 2002 because of my previous bands and then with ITM and then the world including Japan, China. Basically, all of Western Europe. We haven't done any of the Nordic countries yet which we're very excited about going to like Sweden and Norway. We haven't done Spain, and Italy yet, and obviously bands do go to Russia and I'm excited about possibly going there one day and obviously Australia and New Zealand and no South America yet either, but we have like, maybe 1/5 of the world covered.

What were your favorite places so far and why?
Hands down, Tokyo. HANDS DOWN!

Because they love the music?
They love the music and it's not only just because of the shows, it's because, their culture is, I like the peacefulness of it and also how efficient everything is. Like a lot of the things that they have aren't for any other reason besides the fact that it helps their society and makes them get through the day easier, if that's any way to explain it. It's a really cramped city, but for being so cramped, everybody is really nice. It's like going into Manhattan and having everybody be really cool, instead of having cab drivers almost run you over and getting shot in the street, and uh, the food's good depending on where you go. You've gotta be careful because it's not like you can get sushi here and expect it to be the same over there, and then the shows are ridiculous. They are so fun.

So what's your favorite food?
I basically like - let's put it this way. I like everything except for curry. I HATE curry. I hate yellow curry. I hate every kind of curry and I don't like paprika (laughs) and I don't like cauliflower. Put anything else in front of me and I'll eat it. Obviously Cajun food. Gumbo and ya know, Crawfish and Crawfish Etoufee and Bubba Gump and Bubba Gump Shrimp and…….

So what's your craziest fan story? Don't say me!
Well this girl hung out all day and wanted to interview me (laughs). NO! Craziest fan story? Um well, people get our faces tattooed on them, which is, I mean it's flattering and it's awesome that they do that but it's also like, CRAZY!

I just put your picture right here...(I motion to my backside as Jesse looks for his mug and laughs)
...To think that somebody respects our band and us as people enough to get our faces tattooed on them. Uh I have to say that the guy that runs my fan site, L.J. He's awesome and crazy. It’s like the minute that we do something, he's so on top of it.

I know he swiped my whole page of your pics!
Unbelievable. I know. There's so many Kim Stock Photographs on his space. It's unbelievable how fast he is. So he's definitely up there. I had a lot of girls do weird, crazy stuff on tour which I'm not really gonna talk about. So we'll just leave it at that...

The music industry has changed a great deal over the years. Tell me your opinion on record labels.
I think sometimes when people get down on the music business. You still gotta take a look at the economy, you know what I mean. They're just a business trying to make money, as well. You can't blame the record company for making cuts and trying to save money where they can to stay afloat because a band is a business too and ya know, business is about everybody coming out on top rather than somebody stepping on somebody else and that's what I can't stand. Whether it be a band or a label and uh, it seems like nowadays a lot of labels are doing 360 deals, ya know and personally I don't think it's fair for a label to get a chunk of money for a band to do a show, a guarantee, or merchandise. I think that's pretty ridiculous. So, as far as that goes, I'm kind of against that. We don't have that kind of a deal and hopefully we'll stay that way, so I'll cross my fingers.

You told me once that touring hurts. What do you mean?
Touring hurts! (laughs)

Maybe it was a bad day.
No - Well, it coulda been. (laughs)
Touring hurts physically and mentally. I mean I love it and I hate it at the same time. I love it because I'm passionate about playing music and I love to travel and honestly, it's really weird to go to different places in the country and see people I know from touring. Like to go to, like Virginia Beach and see somebody I’m friends with or Seattle and see somebody I'm friends with from touring. So I love that about it and I love to be on the road and play shows. But it hurts because obviously it takes a toll on your body. You sleep in basically a thing the size of a coffin.

I've seen your 'concrete' bed...
Yeah! (laughs) But thank God we have a bus. Could be worse, we could be in a van. All I did was tour in a van until about 2006/2007. And also, it hurts because, ya know, people that you love are at home and then you're gone and taken apart from your family and stuff really sucks. So that's also sort of the other way to describe it.

Do you see yourself doing this another 10-20 years from now?
Well...(laughs). Do you want the honest answer or do you want the fake?

I want the real one!
(laughs) No. Honestly, I love music so much that I would hope that we can still do this for that long. Ya know?

What else would you be doing if you couldn't play.
Right now I'm getting my pilot's license and I really want a career in aviation. So, I'm gonna try and get my initial certificate, which is a private certificate, when we have off after this tour and then with the little bit of time that we have off, keep working my way up and working my way up as much as I can get and then hopefully one day I can actually fly for hire, which is cool.

You had told me once that you were afraid of heights.
That's funny, because I got over that pretty quickly. I've been going up (training) many times, so I'm over it now. Because I'm in control. It's when I'm outta control, that’s when I freak out, but I have control of the plane, so it doesn't bother me.

So you're a control freak?
Sort of. (laughs)

What’s it like being in a female-fronted band?
It's the same as a dude, except for once a month, we just have to be really quiet and let her yell at everybody. (both laugh) Because, oh does it happen! I love Maria and being in a band with her is great and the only thing different, honestly is just that, if we get in fights we can't beat each other up and the next day hug it out like dudes can, ya know? And not like it even happens that often...kind of a dumb example, but she's more tough than a lot of guys that I know so it doesn't really - I don't even really think about it.

What's a typical day off for you?
A typical day off is basically sitting around in my underwear and watching movies and eating a lot of food and not really doing much.

What's a typical tour day?
A typical day? Well, a Warped Tour day is up at 7:30, moving gear for a couple of hours, then having a little bit of down time, and then doing press for a couple of hours, and then a little bit of downtime and then the show, and then moving gear, basically until about 7:30 at night, and then moving the merch back from the merch tent to the bus til about 8:00. So it's about a twelve hour work day with only about 2 or 3 hours of downtime the whole time.

So that's why 'touring hurts'!
Yeah, Warped Tour. We're calling it the bands weight loss program. (laughs) But a club tour is a lot easier because you have crew. You can pull up and the load in is later. You can sleep in, ya know. This was like, so relaxing and nice and fun and we had tons of energy on stage cause we didn't have to go through a bunch of bs to get through the day.

With the knowledge you have now, if you could go back ten years, what would you do differently?
(laughs) Uh, well, I think...to be honest with you, I think I probably would have...that's a tough one, because there's a couple of different answers that I could use, but it's not exactly the full truth. I would probably do it the same, honestly, with the exception of, if I knew then what I know now, I probably would've started out faster and at an earlier age and so hopefully by the time I was like 25, I could be at this point now instead of me being 31, ya know. I could've gotten a lot of stuff done quicker had I known what to do. But you know how it is, that's life. You know, You just do what you think you're supposed to do and then you just learn as you go.

Anything else you'd like to add that I didn't think to ask?
I love Kim. She's really super cool and cute!

Aww! You just made my year! Keep talkin'! (both laugh)
To fans, we honestly appreciate everyone that comes to our shows because it's flattering that they want to see us and to stay in touch with us and come hang out with us at the merch table and we love 'em! ?