August 5, 2025 • 6 mins
Jammin' Jessie sat down with Jack from AJR ahead of their show in Camden, NJ. They chatted about everything going down on tour, all about Adam's climate change activism, the making of their stop-motion music video for "Betty," and even spilled some tea about their song "The Big Goodbye" being released on the New EP (out August 29).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All on a four or five. It's Jesse. I got Jack?
Is it Jack and Ryan?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
You have just Jack for this one? If that's all right?
Speaker 1 (00:05):
No, that's great. It's so good to talk to you.
How's it going.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's going really well. How about you great?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
So you guys, what city are you in right now?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We are in Detroit, just outside of Detroit.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Ope? Okay, so you just kicked off the tour. How's
it been going so far?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's been really really great. This is like our favorite
thing to do in the world. Touring for us is
sort of as important as making the music, and we
love it just as much. So we have such a
blast whom we're out here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I know, I'm following the pictures of the Instagram stories.
I see a marching band. Are we getting a marching
band for the Philly show August sixth?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I believe you guys are Yeah, we gotta bring it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You gotta do it everywhere? Are you?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Are you doing that every show where? Do you have
different unique surprises for each tour?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Stop marching? Man wise? We find a different marching band,
a high school marching ban and every single city, so
every single night it's a different.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Group dude, that's amazing. Okay, well we'll put the call
out there that you guys might somebody from the high
schools around here might be getting a call from AJAR.
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Honestly, there's a lot of kids. Sometimes there's like one
hundred hits that come on stage.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Dude, it's epic. I love it. All right, So you
got some tour. How did you guys go about selecting
your tour openers? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
A lot of them were friends with and a lot
of them were fans of Honestly, we kind of carefully
chose some of our favorite groups. You know, we've known
Quinn ninety two and Chelsea Cutler and Lawrence for a
really long time, big fans of goth Babe and others,
Madeline May and we really love all them.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, so that's gonna be fun too. It's probably really
great because you got your friends with you on tour.
You guys are probably having a blast.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, it's been so fun and it's like this cool
little night of music almost like a cool little festival
for the fans.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Absolutely all right. So we got the new EP coming
out August twenty ninth. What no One's thinking? Five songs
and I read you guys were not planning on releasing
music this year, but you got all the ideas rushing
at once. When did that happen? Was there anything that
triggered the ideas out of nowhere?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah? Yeah, Like you said, we weren't supposed to write
this year, and I think at just some point I
was like, I was just sort of curious what would
happen if we sat down and tried to write like
one song. And so we did and it was bad,
Like nothing really came out, and I think that got
us a little frustrated, like, oh God, maybe we have
to do like let's still know that we're good at this.
(02:22):
So we kind of kept writing and it wasn't so good,
and then I think Ryan and I just had this
moment of realization of like, hold on, we're not digging
deep enough. And I think we realized pretty quickly we
were like suppressing some stuff that was going on because
we've had a interesting emotional couple of years. We dealt
with loss and friendship stuff and career stuff, and as
soon as we kind of started talking about it, all
(02:44):
the ideas came rushing out and we were like, Okay, yes,
this is the stuff we have to put it to
the music, and that's what the EP is about.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
That is so great. Who needs a therapist when you
guys have each other and you can write music.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
That's a great point. I mean, I still need the therapist,
but it's a good point.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
We all do. It's totally cool. Okay. So the also,
when did that happen? How long ago? And how much
time in between the writing and the recording of these
new songs to now?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh, that's a great question. I think it was this
past winter that we started, like at the end of
the year. Last year is when we actually sat down
and said, okay, let's try to do something here.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh that's so awesome. That was not long ago at all.
Really cool. All right, so you've you announced the Big
The Big Goodbye was supposed to be the thirteenth song
from Maybe Man. It never got released, so it is
included on this upcoming EP. Can you give us a
little more insight what it's about, because fans are speculating
and going nuts on the ajar reddit page. So I
(03:39):
think I need to confirm this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, I feel like I don't want to confirm how
vague can I make this? Yes, it was we haven't
said that it was the thirteenth song. Yeah, that's that's interesting.
This was the idea for the thirteenth song, and we
couldn't quite get it, and we finally did get it
the big goodbye. It's it's God. It's very personal feeling
(04:02):
that we taught that. Ryan and I've talked about. It's
just one of the things that we've been thinking about
this year. I'm going to keep it super vague because
I like people speculating and I can't. I can't quite give.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
It a totally understandable Oh, okay, there you go. I
lost you for a little Hey, you know what. I
lost you actually in the middle of you explaining it.
So that's totally fine. That works, Okay, thank you. It
was fate. Nobody's supposed to know. Okay, all right, so
you just gave us Betty, this is the coolest music
video ever filmed by using over four thousand pictures. How
(04:32):
did you come up with that? Whose idea was that?
Another brilliant music video from AJR?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Thanks so much? Yeah, I think initially, Ryan Zandia, we've
always wanted to do a stop motion video. We just
like love the concept and the look is so you know, intoxicant,
if that's the right word. But yeah, but uh it,
I think it really felt like the song felt very
di Y to us, super personal and stripped down and acoustic,
(05:00):
like we it sounded like we made it in our
bedroom to us, kind of throwing these instruments together. And
the stop motion video in our attic is like the
most DIY video you could make, so we thought it
matched the song.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Dude, it is so cool. We know Adam's focusing on
climate change, not going to be touring, but doing some
select shows. How's that been for you guys adapting to that?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Oh it's been all right. Obviously it feels like there's
someone missing, but we're super proud of what Adam's doing.
And at this point he's so busily got this great
goal in mind, so he kind of felt like he
had to focus on that.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, that's amazing. You guys are very supportive family. So okay,
so the tour production top notch again again, you guys
absolutely kill it from the beginning to the end. Are
there any cool new like techniques that you guys implemented
for this tour?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, it's always new. We we have like this, we've
already talked about the marching band. Yeah, we have this
really cool back video utilizing we have Giant Jack's coming in,
we have we're we're also performing. We also ever single
time now do a little pop up in the audience,
so we sort of you know, Ryan does a little
song and then all of a sudden among the fans,
(06:06):
which we did on the last one. We loved it
so much so have to bring it back every time.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
No, it's so cool the pictures of videos. I love
seeing it. All right, So we're going to see you
guys August sixth. We're really excited for the EP. And yeah, dude,
thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Thanks for talking. All right, bye, all right, byebye
All on a four or five. It's Jesse. I got Jack?
Is it Jack and Ryan?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
You have just Jack for this one? If that's all right?
Speaker 1 (00:05):
No, that's great. It's so good to talk to you.
How's it going.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's going really well. How about you great?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
So you guys, what city are you in right now?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We are in Detroit, just outside of Detroit.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Ope? Okay, so you just kicked off the tour. How's
it been going so far?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's been really really great. This is like our favorite
thing to do in the world. Touring for us is
sort of as important as making the music, and we
love it just as much. So we have such a
blast whom we're out here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I know, I'm following the pictures of the Instagram stories.
I see a marching band. Are we getting a marching
band for the Philly show August sixth?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I believe you guys are Yeah, we gotta bring it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You gotta do it everywhere? Are you?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Are you doing that every show where? Do you have
different unique surprises for each tour?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Stop marching? Man wise? We find a different marching band,
a high school marching ban and every single city, so
every single night it's a different.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Group dude, that's amazing. Okay, well we'll put the call
out there that you guys might somebody from the high
schools around here might be getting a call from AJAR.
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Honestly, there's a lot of kids. Sometimes there's like one
hundred hits that come on stage.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Dude, it's epic. I love it. All right, So you
got some tour. How did you guys go about selecting
your tour openers? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
A lot of them were friends with and a lot
of them were fans of Honestly, we kind of carefully
chose some of our favorite groups. You know, we've known
Quinn ninety two and Chelsea Cutler and Lawrence for a
really long time, big fans of goth Babe and others,
Madeline May and we really love all them.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, so that's gonna be fun too. It's probably really
great because you got your friends with you on tour.
You guys are probably having a blast.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, it's been so fun and it's like this cool
little night of music almost like a cool little festival
for the fans.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Absolutely all right. So we got the new EP coming
out August twenty ninth. What no One's thinking? Five songs
and I read you guys were not planning on releasing
music this year, but you got all the ideas rushing
at once. When did that happen? Was there anything that
triggered the ideas out of nowhere?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah? Yeah, Like you said, we weren't supposed to write
this year, and I think at just some point I
was like, I was just sort of curious what would
happen if we sat down and tried to write like
one song. And so we did and it was bad,
Like nothing really came out, and I think that got
us a little frustrated, like, oh God, maybe we have
to do like let's still know that we're good at this.
(02:22):
So we kind of kept writing and it wasn't so good,
and then I think Ryan and I just had this
moment of realization of like, hold on, we're not digging
deep enough. And I think we realized pretty quickly we
were like suppressing some stuff that was going on because
we've had a interesting emotional couple of years. We dealt
with loss and friendship stuff and career stuff, and as
soon as we kind of started talking about it, all
(02:44):
the ideas came rushing out and we were like, Okay, yes,
this is the stuff we have to put it to
the music, and that's what the EP is about.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
That is so great. Who needs a therapist when you
guys have each other and you can write music.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
That's a great point. I mean, I still need the therapist,
but it's a good point.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
We all do. It's totally cool. Okay. So the also,
when did that happen? How long ago? And how much
time in between the writing and the recording of these
new songs to now?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh, that's a great question. I think it was this
past winter that we started, like at the end of
the year. Last year is when we actually sat down
and said, okay, let's try to do something here.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh that's so awesome. That was not long ago at all.
Really cool. All right, so you've you announced the Big
The Big Goodbye was supposed to be the thirteenth song
from Maybe Man. It never got released, so it is
included on this upcoming EP. Can you give us a
little more insight what it's about, because fans are speculating
and going nuts on the ajar reddit page. So I
(03:39):
think I need to confirm this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, I feel like I don't want to confirm how
vague can I make this? Yes, it was we haven't
said that it was the thirteenth song. Yeah, that's that's interesting.
This was the idea for the thirteenth song, and we
couldn't quite get it, and we finally did get it
the big goodbye. It's it's God. It's very personal feeling
(04:02):
that we taught that. Ryan and I've talked about. It's
just one of the things that we've been thinking about
this year. I'm going to keep it super vague because
I like people speculating and I can't. I can't quite give.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
It a totally understandable Oh, okay, there you go. I
lost you for a little Hey, you know what. I
lost you actually in the middle of you explaining it.
So that's totally fine. That works, Okay, thank you. It
was fate. Nobody's supposed to know. Okay, all right, so
you just gave us Betty, this is the coolest music
video ever filmed by using over four thousand pictures. How
(04:32):
did you come up with that? Whose idea was that?
Another brilliant music video from AJR?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Thanks so much? Yeah, I think initially, Ryan Zandia, we've
always wanted to do a stop motion video. We just
like love the concept and the look is so you know, intoxicant,
if that's the right word. But yeah, but uh it,
I think it really felt like the song felt very
di Y to us, super personal and stripped down and acoustic,
(05:00):
like we it sounded like we made it in our
bedroom to us, kind of throwing these instruments together. And
the stop motion video in our attic is like the
most DIY video you could make, so we thought it
matched the song.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Dude, it is so cool. We know Adam's focusing on
climate change, not going to be touring, but doing some
select shows. How's that been for you guys adapting to that?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Oh it's been all right. Obviously it feels like there's
someone missing, but we're super proud of what Adam's doing.
And at this point he's so busily got this great
goal in mind, so he kind of felt like he
had to focus on that.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, that's amazing. You guys are very supportive family. So okay,
so the tour production top notch again again, you guys
absolutely kill it from the beginning to the end. Are
there any cool new like techniques that you guys implemented
for this tour?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, it's always new. We we have like this, we've
already talked about the marching band. Yeah, we have this
really cool back video utilizing we have Giant Jack's coming in,
we have we're we're also performing. We also ever single
time now do a little pop up in the audience,
so we sort of you know, Ryan does a little
song and then all of a sudden among the fans,
(06:06):
which we did on the last one. We loved it
so much so have to bring it back every time.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
No, it's so cool the pictures of videos. I love
seeing it. All right, So we're going to see you
guys August sixth. We're really excited for the EP. And yeah, dude,
thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Thanks for talking. All right, bye, all right, byebye
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