Welcome to a brand new feature where we sit down and talk to bands and artists about their latest albums to find out all about it. Today we speak to the Boston based rock band Jean Paul Jean Paul about the album It Comes Back.

Hello nice to meet you, tell us about yourself!

We’re Jean Paul Jean Paul, a rock band out of Boston. We make high energy, quick-paced songs that make you want to dance. Our shows are all about having fun, meeting people and dancing around.

Tell us about the new album

Andy Gelb: The new album is a fun collection of songs that we’ve been playing around Boston the last two years. After our first album we added on a second guitarist, so this album is filled with guitar harmonies, trading solos and really cool depth.

Warren Forbes: We spent a lot of time coming up with our parts and refining these songs while playing them live all over Boston. I think if you’re a fan of rock music at all, there’s a very good chance you’ll find a song on this album that resonates with you. We somehow were able to cover many landscapes and sub-genres within rock that keeps the listener on their toes throughout. From upbeat-punk anthems with epic guitar solos to woeful ballads, we really cover a wide range of musical taste.

Favourite track in new album and why?

Gelb: “OTTR” is my personal favourite. It’s got a unique, almost reggae feeling verse and a really fun and energetic ending.

Steve Harding: Probably “Jai alai” – it was a fun one to write and everyone else took the idea and elevated it to the next level. It’s a real collaborative effort, that song, and showcases each of our talents pretty well.

Chris Cornell: I love listening to all of them but maybe from a production value perspective, l Iove how “Secrets” came out. Every single instrument and the overall mix in general is perfection.

Forbes: I think “Secrets” is my favourite track on the album. The instrumentation that our producer Benny G added really brings the song to life. I especially love the build-up and climax of the song during the end of the second verse.

Cornish: “Little Did You Know” is my favourite track on the album. I’ve loved that song since the very first scratchy demo we recorded many months ago on someone’s phone. There was something so special about how that song came together, and how everyone’s part evolved as we refined it. 

Tell us a bit about the recording process, was it fun to do?

Gelb: Tons of fun. We started with tracking drums, then bass, then guitars and vocals. We work really well as a team and love bouncing ideas off each other. Rather than debating whether or not something will sound good, we always lead with the mindset of ‘f*** it, lets try it and find out’.

Harding: It was super fun. A hell of a way to start 2024. We recorded this album at Mad Oak Studios, right down the street from our rehearsal studio in Allston. Working with our producer/mixing engineer/recording engineer Benny Grotto was inspiring. We learned, we laughed, we rocked. 

Cornell: It was a blast! Recording everything in just 10 days really took the pressure off, allowing us to genuinely enjoy the experience. I believe this made us perform at our best.

Forbes: Oh man, it was such a blast. Being surrounded by boutique musical equipment that I’ve only ever heard/read about, and getting to use whatever we wanted was a dream come true. I think the drum and guitar tones that you hear on our album speak to how good the equipment was. Shoutout to the Original Boss CE-1 preamp and the 1964 Vox AC30!!

Cornish: I felt like a kid in a candy shop. Benny Grotto (our producer) gave us access to the incredible gear at Mad Oak Studio, which was incredibly fun to experiment and record with. Working with such a professional engineer was an amazing experience in itself. He brought out the best in all of our playing, and helped us truly achieve the sound and energy that we were all aiming for. Only time in my life I’ve ever used a Diezel amp, and it won’t be the last.

What inspired the album name?

Gelb: “It Comes Back” is a lyric from “Jai alai.”

Forbes: We toyed with the idea of naming it after one of the songs on the album, but then we listed out a bunch of song lyrics and found that this title really fit the album artwork in a weird and captivating way.

Tell us the idea behind the album cover?

Forbes: I think Steve took it in Boston during one of his hot girl walks. It freaked Andy and I out but we also couldn’t stop looking at it? Alas, we knew it’s a good album cover.

What one of your songs on the new album do you think will be the most difficult to rehearse for a live audience?

Gelb: The ending of “Little Did You Know” has taken a bunch of practice to make sure we’re all lined up, but when it hits, it hits.

Cornell: We have been playing/practicing these songs every week for almost over a year now so most, if not all, comes second nature at this point. I will say the hardest song to perform for me is “All My Heroes.” While it’s not overly complicated, Andy and I have to make sure we are 100% locked in.

Forbes: Well since we’ve rehearsed and played all of these songs now, I’ll give it to “Girl You Like.” The rhythm of the main melody that Chris, Andrew and I sync up on requires all of us to have perfect timing, otherwise it just won’t sound good. So, we dug deep and aligned our strumming patterns to make sure that we sounded tight as we played along to Andy’s beat.

Cornish: “Girl You Like” is the hardest to execute live. It’s usually very tight during rehearsals (when we can all hear each other well), but that’s hardly ever the case in a live setting. The main riff of the song requires really accurate timing and rhythm, otherwise it sounds sloppy. Plus, that’s the song where I do my most intricate dance on my pedalboard, which I often f*** up on stage.

Why should people listen to the album?

Gelb: This album gives a fun feeling and plays well in the car with the windows down. It’s a fun burner with some catchy riffs that we want people to dance to, smile to and have a drink to.

Harding: It’s interesting, since the album’s been released I’ve heard from a few people that some of the music is quite cinematic, which is just a really cool compliment. Anything that evokes some emotion, or inspires a vision, is significant. So if people are feeling this way, with luck the new music will be meaningful enough for them to create some fun, new memories with. 

Cornell: The album has something for everyone. It features happy-pop, angst-filled grunge, and even, to everyone’s surprise, a little bit of country. People don’t fall into one specific category, and neither should an album.

Forbes: I think about it like this, imagine if humans were able to put their experiences and emotions into a bottle and could then share them with others. This album does that while being a summation of all 5 of our expressions. Listening to this album will give you an idea of how it feels to be on top of the world, surrounded by your closest friends, and also what broken hearts feel like while covering lots of ground in between.

Cornish: It Comes Back is a huge burst of energy, and simply a fun album to listen to. I think you will be able to hear and feel the excitement we felt in the studio, as I believe it was perfectly captured in these recordings. Plus, you will want to replay this album over and over again. There are clever lyrics, absurd vocal harmonies, drum fills, bass runs, guitar riffs and gong hits that you probably won’t even notice the first few times through! We spent a lot of time crafting these songs, making them unique and complex. Listeners will be uplifted by the energy, and astounded by the attention to detail.