The Jones Machine

Very soon Greenville, S.C. and the outlying area will get a chance to hear The Jones Machine live, fronted by a hometown boy who made out very well on Season 7 of American Idol, Josh Jones.

Thanks to that performance on America’s most popular show, Fox Carolina offered Jones a chance to audition for the rest of his band, The Jones Machine. Dusty Johnson (drums), Jason Hudson (lead and bass guitar) and Matt Geib (bass and electric guitar) won out and impressed Jones through the audition process, and three months later, they’re set to release a four-track EP showing how they’ve come along.

Jones already had some of his own music available online, some he told CrankIt Entertainment he’s been working on since 2000. After making it to the top 30 in Idol, the 27-year-old musician said he tried to get a band going in Atlanta, but that “it proved very difficult” to get a solid act going. He made his way back to Greenville with “no plan, no nothing ... very low hopes for everything,” he said, when the television station approached him with the audition idea.

But when listening to a track like “The South Florida Dream,” which Jones said he recorded all the instrumentation by himself, the bouncy sound and the bizarre imagery come together for a highly memorable first impression. Although he said the grind of the Atlanta music scene was starting to wear on him, fans have much to look forward to since Jones came back to Upstate South Carolina to chase the music dream.
CrankIt spent some more time with Jones, filling in readers on what they can expect from The Jones Machine in the near-future.

CrankIt Entertainment: Do you get recognized a lot from Idol?

Josh Jones: I got recognized by a Vietnamese mail man the other day. When I go in the grocery store, people say ‘Hey, you’re that guy off TV!’ That is a plus. It’s publicity that there’s no way to buy it. It’s awesome. We have immediately come up over night, because people around Greenville know about us. And there are other bands around town that people don’t know. Now people are gonna know ... can they walk the walk? We’re ready to bring it.

CrankIt: Do fans really expect a band like yours to have such a distinct, strong keyboard sound on their tracks nowadays?

Jones: In the plans for the future, whenever we play a large gig, we’ll have (our guest pianist Justin Michels). Like Dave Matthews, it’s going to be one of those things. The Bi-Lo Center (in Greenville) is huge. If an act comes to town and there’s a (gig available), I’d have Justin Michels. It’s nice to have a little something in there. I would love to have him full-time, but it just doesn’t work out with his schedule.

CrankIt: Who in the band comes up with the songwriting?

Jones: At this point, the early stage, I guess most of the ideas and lyrics come from me. But what’s invaluable that everyone contributes, I don’t write every single part. We’re still trying to fill up all the space between the four (EP) songs with all of our contributions. What’s so invaluable with (The Jones Machine band now), is them coming in with preparing the meat and potatoes of the show right, and then bringing the gravy. They’re very heavily involved with the composition of the songs. Dusty the drummer would have a unique beat for a song, and Matt would follow in the kick of the drum, and come up with an idea that would make the lyrics and the verses sound totally different, but it would be gold.

CrankIt: How far outside of Greenville have you all ventured in your live performances?

Jones: Columbia. We actually played at a biker club, for The Warlocks biker gang. It was like a big Warlock, motorcycle June Jam. It was pretty scary. ... (Earlier) we played a show at an amphitheatre downtown in Greenville for a Susan G. Komen benefit, not bad for a first show. It was a huge stage with an enormous tent over it, it was great.

CrankIt: In your song “The South Florida Dream,” where does one come up with the idea for an elephant to be inside a bar?

Jones: It was a dream that I had. I had a dream that animals came alive and just kind of took over this bar. I was a fly on the wall and I saw the whole thing. I said ‘Holy cow, I have to make a song about this.’ ... Whenever I sing it live, I sing ‘Damn those magic mushrooms, I’m seeing shit again.’

CrankIt: What’s something bizarre, funny or crazy y’all have experienced lately?

Jones: I’d have to say (playing a recent concert sponsored by) The Warlocks. It was, shew. Just because those guys, I believe they are constantly monitored by police, I can’t say any names. They had scary names, scary outfits. They were all pretty big and pretty mean looking, not anybody you’d want to mess with.

To catch some of The Jones Machine’s live performances, head on over to their official Web site at www.thejonesmachine.com. You can look them up on MySpace as well, at www.myspace.com/jonesmachine. And keep those pages turning in CrankIt Entertainment Magazine and online at www.crankitmag.com!

Actual Article: http://www.crankitmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130:the-jones-machine&catid=3:interviews&Itemid=6
- CrankIt Magazine