An Interview with Squirrel Nut Zippers' Jimbo Mathus

The Squirrel Nut Zippers reached critical acclaim more than 20 years ago, with their neo-swing sound and sizzling album, Hot. Since then, the band has opened for Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall as well as playing the 1996 Olympics and Bill Clinton’s second Inaugural Ball. They had their ups and downs, with tensions ultimately leading to a split by the early 2000s. But around the 20th anniversary of the release of Hot, founding member, songwriter, and band leader Jimbo Mathus put together a new group of swinging musicians from New Orleans for a revival tour.

The rest, as they say, is history. Invigorated by the creative spirit of the new members, Mathus and the Squirrel Nut Zippers went into Nappy’s Dugout studio (an old wine cellar in New Orleans’ French Quarter, rumored to be one of the hideouts of the pirate Jean Pierre Lafitte) and recorded the first new album of Squirrel Nut Zippers tunes in 17 years, Beasts of Burgundy. We got a chance to catch up with Jimbo, and talk about the new band and album, the place of swing and Americana music in today’s culture, and the Zippers’ upcoming stop at the Homer Center for the Arts.

Triple Cities Carousel: You got a brand-new lineup that you started with around the 20th anniversary of Hot. What brought the revival to its full potential? What made you want to keep going past the anniversary concerts?

JIMBO MATHUS: I realized it was a great opportunity to start a new chapter in the band, ya know? I didn’t know how it would go over. I didn’t know if anybody still cared. After the concerts started, there was a huge fan base, and people were so excited to see us. I realized the talent pool I could draw from for the orchestra, and it’s really been taking off on the second launch.

TCC: It really seems to be something quite awesome; I was listening to the new single this morning. “Karnival Joe” seems to have a real cabaret, vaudeville vibe to it.

JM: Totally! It’s really gelled; there’s so much talent in the band, and a real unity of purpose. We’re just trying to fit in and add to it. I feel like lightning striking twice in the same place.

TCC: Can you tell me where the name Beasts of Burgundy came from? It seems like a lot of the songs have themes that come from an older place.

JM: Yeah, well the whole thing came from…there’s a street in New Orleans called Burgundy. Of course, they pronounce everything different down there. That’s where the band held the rehearsals for the revival. It’s in a place called the Marigny. A lot of the players in the band played in the jazz clubs in the Marigny. It’s where Burgundy runs through. A lot of it draws from my love of history. I read a great book called The World That Made New Orleans by Ned Sublette that really turned me on to a lot of really cool old stories and a lot of the history there. “Karnival Joe”—and pretty much every song—has some sort of tie-in to a New Orleans troupe—a musical troupe, a theatrical troupe or something. Everyone ties into some weird New Orleans history. And also to modern ties that still hold. The cast of the town, the living history that you can see and hear down here. It’s a key component. Of course, New Orleans has always been a key component of our sound, I’ve just [recently] been able to refine it with more skill, knowledge, and possibilities.

TCC: Well, you—the Squirrel Nut Zippers—have been an outfit now for 25 years with some hiatuses. That’s incredible, the long history that you’ve had playing, and the ability you’ve had to play with some really great jazz cats over the years.

JM: I learned with great jazz players, with great blues players; I grew up at the knee of many greats. I always was inclined to listen to what they had to say, ya know? But this whole thing, man, this whole revival—it’s so cool. I never saw it coming, I really didn’t. But it seemed like the right thing to do. The concerts are so joyous, and so open, and everyone’s just having a ball.

They’re seeing a band that a lot of people never thought they’d see. We could have been a myth or something, ya know, not really exist. But we’re there and it’s bigger than life. It’s super exciting to me. Like I said, lightning isn’t supposed to strike the same spot twice. But, it can.

TCC: It’s funny that you say ‘like a myth.’ I remember picking up Perennial Favorites when I was 13, and popping it in and being like ‘WOW! Where the heck does this kind of music come from?’ and then not hearing any of it again until a few years ago. Some new swing and string bands playing your tunes, actually. There’s a group called the Vine Brothers, and they do a great rendition of your song “Hell.”

JM: [laughing heartily] That’s one thing I’m proud of. We were able to step in and be a link in the chain, and get some people juiced on the weird old American music that’s so great—to explore and be curious about it. Even some of the cats I have in the band now, they’re younger…I mean, I’m fifty; I just turned fifty last year. Some of these cats are in your boat, hearing the weird old American stuff from listening to the Zippers when they were teenagers. Now they’re coming forward, and helping forge another link in the chain.

TCC: I remember listening my grandma and grandpa playing the old swing records, Benny Goodman, when I was younger. Finding someone who was making swing music when I was younger was really cool. I was wondering if there was reason you went into the swing style as opposed to a different form of jazz. What led you to record in the swing style, as opposed to the different things that were going on in the early ‘90s?

JM: It stems from a lifelong obsession of mine to know the roots of American music. I’m from Mississippi. It was a pretty backwards place; there wasn’t a lot of options when it came to knowledge when I was growing up. Even Memphis, Tennessee, and Sun Records: the birth of rock n roll. That wasn’t really discussed down here. It was after moving to Carolina and getting access to bookstores, record stores, and other ways of thinking and other ways artists were looking back, and reevaluating things that I was able to research and find the roots of what I was so passionate about.

Then, naturally we just started easing in, ’cause I’m a writer, that’s one of my main components. I learned this form; I started writing in this form. That involved a lot of music that involved Appalachian music, Deep South blues, and our repertoire was pretty varied. Right around the time we did The Inevitable, there was a conscious decision to focus in on the 30s. There was enough there to keep us busy forever. There was so much done: vaudeville, hot band, swing, big band swing, cabaret, theatrical stuff, cartoons. It was all a big piece of the puzzle. We narrowed it down and said, ‘this is the kind of record we’re going to make.’ It ended up being we were right, ’cause there’s enough to keep us busy for at least one lifetime.

TCC: So it was a concerted effort for you to continue this tradition of music that started back in the early 20th century, and really push it and bring it to a new audience.

JM: Yeah, to celebrate it. To laugh at it. To participate in it! It’s one of those things, you go back through old pictures, through your grandparents’ record collection, and you see a Benny Goodman record: Live at Carnegie Hall or something. To think that you could actually participate in something like that, you know, it’s pretty wild to think about that. That’s all we wanted to do, to participate in it, to have fun with it. Then of course it turned very artistic very quickly. But it was really just for the joy of it.

TCC: What’s the most fun that you had while recording this album? I saw you recorded it in a wine cellar that was the hideout of a pirate?!

JM: [very heartily laughing] Well, our recording technique hasn’t changed; we like to get into cool spaces and use the old ribbon mics, the old-timey RCA mics. All of our recording equipment is tubes and wires, just like they did up until really the ‘80s. We’re involved in the recording technique, too. I like to create a unique vibe, and just put everyone on the spot, kind of like lighting a firecracker and then waiting on it to pop.

We get into a room, and we don’t have any headphones, just recording like they did for the last 50 years of the Golden Age, ya know? So, it’s quite unique, but I think other cats are onto it. The old styles of recording will come back over time.

TCC: Definitely. Some of my favorite albums have been done in just that style, with three or four players playing and singing around a mic, and just getting those tunes out.

JM: Cool, and the thing with the Zippers is that it’s nine or 10 of us. So, it’s even more tricky to get the sound balanced and play properly. It’s even cooler to have all those jokers in one room…

TCC: Yeah, stick the horns in the corner!

JM: Yeah, stick the horns in the corner and put some blankets on the piano! Close the door to the kitchen where the drums are at! Or open it, ya know. Yeah, the recording is a big part of our sound. It keeps it a timeless feel. If you go back and listen to Hot and Perennial Favorites and the other stuff we did when we had control over recording. Hot is just on two tracks. We lost all the multi-tracks through a studio accident. It’s just a live room mic made stereo. That’s all. That definitely legitimizes what we’re doing; it’s part of it; it’s a whole different art form. You gotta be tight, you gotta be practiced, and you can’t go back and fix everything.

TCC: You gotta leave room for the pearls.

JM: Leave room for the room! It’s the screw-ups that are so cool, on most records that everybody likes. If you fix everything, you ruin it.

TCC: How do you see swing’s place in the modern era? How do you see it moving forward?

JM: As far as what we do, it’s a real amalgamation of old American stuff. I don’t see how it can ever not be cool. Because, we’re an American band, we’re incredibly talented, we bring a lot of joy, a lot of silliness, a little seriousness, and a lot of wild momentum: I just don’t think you see a lot of that on stage anymore. And definitely not in capturing that weird old America. Just keeping that live, and showing people ‘You can participate in this!’ I think it’s very liberating to see something that’s so out of whack with the world. Something that’s so convincing, something that’s so obviously well thought-out. Something that’s so exuberant. I don’t see how it will [ever] not be cool.

TCC: Before you go, I was wondering if you could tell me the story of the Squirrel Nut Zippers name.

JM: Well, it all started when I moved to Carolina and I got a job driving a backhoe at an airport, on a construction site. There was this little store out there where we would break for lunch. They sold Squirrel Nut Zippers, a little five-cent, wrapped candy. You could buy 50 cents of them, stick them in your pocket, and suck on them all day, the rest of the afternoon to keep that sugar fix going.

I never really thought about it. I’ve always been attracted to, wanted to buy out-of-the-way shit. Fast forward a year and a half, two years, and we’re sitting around the old house, and we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to name this band we just started. Somebody said, mentioned something about a candy name, and then the whole conversation lasted about 10 minutes. I said, “Oh my god, Squirrel Nut Zippers!” And it was just a few of us then: Katharine [Whalen], Don Raleigh, and Ken Mosher. And they were like “What the hell is that? It’s perfect!” And I said “It’s a candy! I got some in my pockets!” And it just stuck, so to speak.

We immediately, as soon as we started having a lot of success and it seemed like we were really going to do something, we contacted the company. They were a very old-fashioned company, much aligned with what we were doing, a family business that’s just crazy. They loved our music, they were all in their 70s and 80s. It was a fading, dying company that just worked a couple days a week in this little old factory.

They said, “We think this is the coolest thing—you can have the name,” and we just launched it from there. The owner was this man named Ted Garish—he’s dead now, he died back about ’99. But he lived to see his company have a second life because of our band. They were working five days a week and hiring more people, pumping out Squirrel Nut Zippers to the kiddos. Couldn’t have picked a better name.

TCC: Is there anything you’d like to say to the world? JM: Man, let’s make America weird again. Let’s have a ball. Let’s bring the joy back.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers will play the Homer Center for the Arts at 72 S. Main St. in Homer on Sunday, March 25 at 8pm (two days after the release of Beasts of Burgundy!) Tickets are available at center4arts.org or by calling (607) 749-4900. For more information about the Squirrel Nut Zippers, visit snzippers.com.