The Juice Is Okay

I caught yet another show at The Handlebar in Pensacola, Florida last Tuesday to see SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and MSPAINT, and to my delight, there was a last-minute addition to the bill: The Juice Is Okay. I was pleasantly surprised by their skill and showmanship, and was lucky enough to get a post-set interview with bassist Adam Davis, one of the founding members of this local band.

As described in my review of the show, the five piece filled the stage with a real authority and presence, but Adam was certainly the most chatty member, sharing jokes with the audience between songs, and acting as the group’s charismatic spokesman. He also looked awfully familiar to me. I could have sworn I had seen him before, and in fact I had—he had been the interviewer who was strangled by a security guard for a skit in DIE YUPPIE SCUM!, a show I had attended the week prior.

We spoke of course about his band—three quarters of whom are currently located up in Boston, with Adam being the odd man out for now; the wild structures present in many of their charts from time signatures to grooves, and the casual yet serious attitude of this jam-esque band. I initially intended to interview Adam as a supplement to my review of the show as a whole, but wound up very pleased with the comprehensiveness of our discussion, so I decided to transcribe and publish the full conversation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

(From left to right) Mac Wilson (drums) and Adam Davis (bass) at TJIO’s last show at The Handlebar, August, 2022. Photo by @deedeekohl.

YY: What did you think of the crowd tonight?

AD: They showed up in droves, honestly. Whenever a bigger act like this comes to The Handlebar, it can sell out. The crowd is [typically] pretty fluid, because a lot of people get off work late, so they’ll come for the later bands, but the early people are great too. Really, it can get like this no matter who is playing — it just depends on the advertising and all that. The scene here is good, and The Handlebar is saving it.

I’m really glad to see that — I didn’t know what to make of the scene when I moved here, so that’s good to hear.

Absolutely. There’s another place called The Bug House which is another hive for people to play at, and there’s some good shows that happen there. MSPAINT actually played there the last time they were here.

How would you describe the sound of The Juice Is Okay?

We’re kind of a fusion of everything, really. Our first album was like indie rock, and then we just went every other direction, and we want to explore everything. But the best way to describe it is like a loose togetherness.

I like that.

Yeah, it’s very whimsical in nature, but it’s still structured — we change our time signatures, like you said—we take it seriously but we also don’t, and that’s basically what happens.

There’s a lot of you guys, so does each of you bring a different musical influence to the table?

Oh, a hundred percent. I’m a bassist second — I play guitar first — but whenever I’m writing it’s more funky, so I’m definitely more of a funk guy. Mac is just the best drummer I know — he’s literally insane — so we get together, and the rhythm section is just locked in. But Matt’s playing these incredible, complex verses and chord changes, and things I would never think of, so Matt’s just an incredible songwriter. He can pump those out — we made six albums in one year.

Wow, a year?

Yeah, 2021.

That’s insane. So is most of it his writing?

Yeah, Mac and Matt would write most most of it. But they didn’t let me take the back seat either — [Matt] made everyone get involved. It was a lot, and Cameron’s got these insane leads. He listens to a lot of King Gizzard and XTC, so he’s well-rounded, and he’ll just add flavor to everything. And then Cole has only played a couple of shows with us, but he’s been our friend for a long time, so we got him in there and he filled in on guitar. He does a great job because he thinks like us and he plays like us too.

That sounds perfect. We talked about jamming a little bit before this, and being so far apart I would imagine you can’t really jam that often, so would you consider yourselves to be a jam band, or not so much?

I would say there is the element of the jam band, because we’re energy-based of course, and the songs will sound different based on what we feel that day. But Matt is writing structures, and then Mac and I are really jamming over it, and the rhythm section is all jam. So [the band] writes everything, but it’s born out of a jam. That’s just the most fun way to do it, so we do it that way. And that’s why we’ve stayed together for so long — we just have fun with it.

Matt Masuca (vocals/guitar) at The Handlebar, August, 2022. Photo by @deedeekohl.

We talked earlier too about some of the jokes you had up on stage, and also considering your role in last Friday’s event, would you describe your stage presence as more hands-on, and interacting with the audience?

I would say so. Interaction is definitely at the foundation of what we’re doing as a band, especially whenever the crowd is more energetic. Today, we were the opener, and we’re not really in a place to get everyone tired, so we weren’t like, “do a mosh right now,” but last time we were here there was a pit, and you saw MSPAINT — they went crazy. And [MSPAINT] were great — they’re the nicest guys ever.

Right, and I don’t love it when opening bands tell the audience what to do so much — it just feels forced.

Oh yeah, we know our place [laughs] — it just sends the wrong message. It really turns you off from listening to somebody.

[laughs] Oh, I completely agree.

And we’ve been [opening] for a long time — we know exactly what would be embarrassing for us to do, so we kind of refrain from that and just do the rest.

[laughter]

So last question: what do you think is next for you guys?

Well, we’re going to try to tour some. We’ve been on one tour, but it was very brief and it was right before the pandemic. We want to get going around at least the northeast first, and then the rest of the United States, and one day, overseas. We have listeners in a lot of places. Our stuff’s on Spotify, and our first album has a ton of plays for no reason.

[laughs] Well there must be some reason.

I mean yeah, it’s something [laughs]. There’s one song that has over a million plays — it’s insane, it doesn’t make any sense. But the rest of [our music] is on there too, and that stuff is way better than the first album. But what’s next for us is: the rest of the band is all up [in Boston], and I’m the only one in the south, so they’re definitely going to be playing shows, and I’m going to fly up there and play with them. We had a plan for a tour last summer, but then they decided to move [laughs].

Well, I feel like doing the northeast shouldn’t be too hard with most of you in Boston.

That’s exactly right, like, they took a train down to New York and we played there immediately.

Oh yeah, pretty much unlimited spots to play in New York.

Yeah, but Boston I think is cooler for sure.

I’ve never been to Boston — is the scene any good up there?

I would say yes. We originate from Pensacola, so we like the small-town vibe, but also being in a big city. So [Boston] has more people that are able to come to stuff, while also being not over the top. It’s also not the most cliche thing, like playing in New York City.

Right [laughs].

It’s a little bit less so, and they’ve always loved Boston so it really just makes sense for them to be there.