Jackie Kean Q&A
By: Tosin Faseemo
Jackie Kean is a Minneapolis-based indie rock band that was formed in 2016 at the now-closed McNally Smith College of Music. It’s comprised of vocalist Trenton Skalicky, guitarists Gabriel Vasquez and Michael Sousa, as well as drummer Linus Hennessee. Keep reading to find out about the band’s origin story, songwriting process, and musical influences.
How did you guys pick your band name?
L: We wanted something that sounded cool, y’know? Something kinda like vague, that didn’t put too specific of imagery in anyone’s mind. When someone hears Jackie Kean the first thing they should think of is us.
How did you guys all meet?
M: Trent and I met at McNally. The first time we ever played together was when Craig invited us to a party, which is where I met Trent as friends for the first time as opposed to just spectating his existence. I think there was a band that was set to play that basement. It was kind of sad because they were down there playing and everyone was upstairs. They just kind of gave up and went to join the party. We took over their instruments and started playing and jamming; we didn't have any form. Then the party just kinda migrated downstairs once we picked it up.
T: After that we were like, Craig’s the bassist, Mike’s the guitarist, I'm the singer, let's start a band. What established this band for all the members was actually McNally Smith closing. It basically closed down due to lack of funding. I decided right away I was gonna go to IPR, and that's actually where Gabe was. It’s a different music school in downtown Minneapolis.
G: I met Craig first during my first semester there; he was in one of my classes and then I met Trent in a photoshop class. We kind of talked a little bit but we weren’t close. Then Craig found out that I was a guitar player and they were looking for another guitar player.
M: The thing is, when we were at McNally we had a full line up. We had Craig on bass. We had another roommate of ours, Brian, playing guitar. But there were vibe problems with Brian. Brian would always talk about how he didn’t feel like he was a good fit. He ended up moving back home after McNally closed. We lost Craig, and at the same time we lost Brian, we lost Whit. It was a thing you couldn't plan for.
G: Craig invited me over to jam and it was a really good fit. I was looking to get into a band because I just wanted to play music. My friend Robbie told me about Linus, who I had met once at a party.
L: I was in like a high school band but that fizzled out, so I was open for business. I had just met Gabe that summer and ever since then we've been going. It took us a few months to get me acclimated and get our set list really down, but after four months we started playing shows.
How do you guys feel about being part of the Minneapolis music scene?
G: It’s a hidden gem. If you go to other places, they’re not necessarily going to talk about Minneapolis, but it’s one of the best music cities.
M: And I think it’s a hotbed for up-and-coming artists. I feel like Nashville, LA, and New York have a lot more of a corporate stronghold on who’s gonna be successful there. But here, I don’t think it’s like that. That is something about the Twin Cities music scene that I do think is really good. There’s a community of bands. We’ve played with a lot of the same bands at hole-in-the-wall bars. We’re all just trying to do the same thing; we’re all just trying to come up and make it ourselves and put Minneapolis on the map as an established music city in the process.
What’s been your biggest challenge as a band so far?
M: Right now the venues aren’t putting bills together. That’s a big change that has happened in recent decades. It used to be that you’d hit a venue up about getting a show and they would have a bill that’s organized that they could incorporate you into. The bill is now incumbent upon us to put together, so it’d be really good to have an interconnectivity between different bands.
L: That's one of our biggest challenges right now, expanding that social network among bands. If we’re being honest, we aren’t the most socially interconnected people. We hang out with each other a lot. So now we have to really be active when we’re at these shows. We gotta really talk to bands and put ourselves out there more so we can, like Mike said, put together our own bills more effectively.
M: I do think that bands are talking to one another. That exists here more than in other cities, and we’re trying to become more of a part of that.
So does it feel like being outgoing and social in that way is the way to find success here in Minneapolis?
T: Yeah, that’s the music industry in general. Connections is really a huge thing.
M: It’s always who you know. Here, it’s who do you know in other bands? Who do you know as a local club owner? In a city like New York, someone huge is always rolling through there, and their team is always setting it up. That’s not always the case here. I think that a lot of bigger touring artists might pass up the Twin Cities on a tour and it just leaves a lot of room for people like us to come in and fill that space. I think we’re doing a really good job at it, and I want to talk to other people who are trying to do the same thing.
In terms of the future, what do you guys want for Jackie Kean?
G: I think we all want to put out music that a lot of people love, earn enough to make a living, and then just travel the country. Personally, I just want to see it all.
T: I’d say the main goal that we all have is basically just to support ourselves so we can live comfortably.
L: That’s what you hope for, y’know? But what we all think about a lot more is what we’re doing right now. Right now, we’re putting together an album; it’s gonna be like 7 or 8 songs. It has yet to have a name. The goal is to put out an album within... I don’t really want to put a timeline on it, but sometime in the next few months.
G: What I want for Jackie Kean is that people hear our music. And, not only do they dig it, but they hear the time, effort, care, and love that we put into it.
M: Just making the music as good and as competitive as it can possibly be. And I mean shit, dude, everybody wants to blow up. I think everybody would be lying if we didn’t say that we talked about how crazy would it be to look one day and we have 10,000 plays or something that we didn’t have the other day. But yeah I think that Linus is right, I think we’re just looking day to day.
What is it like when you guys get together and write songs?
L: It kind of varies from song to song. It depends on where the song comes from.
M: Linus always writes his own drum part; I don’t think that we’ve ever given him any input on that. But as far as the music chords and lyrics goes, I think a lot of the time, Trent, Gabe, and I are coming together to work on that. Obviously, there are some exceptions, where somebody will have a more fleshed-out idea that they’re bringing to the table, or maybe an idea is more special to them personally, so tampering with it is gonna be something that’s a little more sensitive. Sometimes I’ll bring an incomplete idea, just because I’ve got the lines, but if I bring it to them, it’ll fill out better. If one of us has a lyric idea that we wanna bring, Trent’s really receptive to that. Trent writes a lot of the lyrics if nobody has anything. It’s just space that’s left up for him to fill, and I think he does a really good job. We’re all comfortable giving him the breathing room to do that, because I know that’s a really important part of how our things are received. As an instrumentalist, I’m primarily focused on how I can make cool sounds.
L: To sum it all up, all of it is really collaborative. I feel like some of the most unique music comes from collaboration in multiple music perspectives coming together.
Who is your greatest musical inspiration?
T: Well for me, The Beatles. They’re always gonna have a spot in my heart. They’re just so diverse and it’s just a great criteria for song-writing, lyrics, melody, really anything you’re looking at for a song. I’d say The Beatles are fucking phenomonal.
M & G: Jimi Hendrix.
G: For me, it’s Jimi Hendrix because he was able to make the most beautiful sounds and songs, and then also just the gnarliest, most raw, era-defining rock and roll. He just completely pushed the boundaries of what that music was at the time.
M: Yeah, I think, tagging onto that, sometimes I just marvel at Jimi. For me, I know a lot about the nuts and bolts of theory and whatnot, and I don’t really think that Jimi did. But I think that, Jimi, has managed to become, in a lot of people’s minds, and in my mind for sure, the best guitar player of all time. And that’s the thing I stand back in awe of.
L: I just kind of try to pull inspiration from whatever I listen to. I can’t pick one, I’m sorry.
Jackie Kean will be performing at Acadia Cafe on Nov. 21.