Having made a career out of brass-blasted euphoria, Less Than Jake are some of the undisputed kings of ska-punk.
For more than three decades, the Florida lifers have balanced their unstoppable energy with the kind of candour that sneaks up on you. Writing songs built for sweaty sing-alongs but anchored by lyrics that have always understood the underdogs and the oddballs, their words have documented growing up in real time, soundtracking the chaos whilst having plenty of fun along the way.
From the sleep-deprived, beer-fuelled reality of their early years in Gainesville to the long haul of crossing borders and killing time in backstage rooms, their story has unfolded across nine studio albums and countless explosive live shows around the world. Whether they’re singing about the universal want to belong, calling out the ways in which we stereotype each other, or simply navigating life’s many inevitable changes, every line comes straight from the heart, rooted in the hard-earned understanding that you can be a work in progress and still mean every word you sing.
Almost 35 years since their formation, Less Than Jake have created a legacy that will remain a part of rock history forever, and their story is still being written. Sitting down with guitarist and vocalist Chris DeMakes, we traced the band’s journey so far through ten defining lyrics, each serving as a vivid snapshot of a life lived to the fullest.
“You know, it may be me // But the parking lot with all those creeps // Keeps me convincing myself I’m completely sane // With sleep overrated and my ideals outdated // I know that I wouldn’t want it any other way”, ‘107’ – ‘Losing Streak’ (1996)
Vinnie [Fiorello, ex-drummer] was our Phil Collins. He wrote the lyrics, and he, Roger and I all lived together in apartment 107 of Park 16th Apartments in Gainesville. Park 16th Apartments has also been referenced in the song ‘Suburban Myth’ from ‘Borders & Boundaries’. It was a college apartment complex, so there were people coming and going 24/7. Cars were driving by with noise and bass at all hours of the night, dogs were barking, and there’d be sketchy people hanging out there. We lived right behind a convenience store called Pat’s Quick Stop that sold cigarettes, and it attracted a lot of sketchy people. They sold liquor there, too, so of course, we would go there to buy our beer. I felt like we never slept, but we were living it, and we didn’t want it any other way.
They were tearing down that apartment complex in 2017, and as I drove by, I got out and started talking to the crew. They were Mexican and didn’t speak English, but they went to get their foreman, who spoke great English. I said to him, ‘I know this is crazy, but I used to live here about 20 years ago. Could I get the door if it’s not demolished?’ He sent his team down there, they took the thing off, and they brought it back to my trunk. When I pulled up to the next rehearsal with it and showed the guys, they lost their minds. Roger [Lima, vocalist/bassist] still lives in Gainesville, so he has it in his garage.
“Do you know about his strength in convictions? // Or how she puts all her faith in religion? // Did we take the time to really discover // How little we know about each other?”, ‘All My Best Friends Are Metalheads’ – ‘Hello Rockview’ (1998)
We all grew up loving metal, and it wasn’t a schtick with us. We were always very proud of that. It was a play on words about how we judge each other, though. You don’t know what’s going on in someone else’s head, and you don’t know what they’re feeling. Someone may put all their faith in religion, and that might work for them even if it doesn’t work for the next person. Someone may only listen to disco or rap music, but does that make them any less? Often, we don’t take the time to discover what people are all about. They might be wearing different clothes to you or giving you a funny look, but have you tried to discover what they’re about?
That’s what that lyric means to me, and I don’t know if I would have been able to articulate that back in 1998. It’s taken time for it to sink in, but to me it’s about erasing stereotypes. There are people who will put somebody down because they go to church or they believe in God, but that’s just as silly to me as laughing at an atheist. Who am I to judge other folks?
“Sometimes, you just want to belong // At any loss or any cost”, ‘Faction’ – ‘Borders & Boundaries’ (2000)
When we got the script for the Scream 2 movie, the first song we recorded for the soundtrack was the original version of ‘Faction’. That’s not the version that’s on ‘Borders & Boundaries’, it’s way different. We ended up doing a song called ‘I Think I Love You’ for the soundtrack in the end, though.
Aside from the movie, it’s simply about wanting to belong. I’ve felt that plenty of times before. When you’re in a room with pretty girls and you don’t know how to talk to them, or you don’t know anybody there… It can be hard. We ended up re-recording the song to become the version that people know from the album. That lyric, and the part from the bridge that says, ‘Strike a match and hope it lasts’, are important ones for us. I’ve written those lyrics on people so that they can get them tattooed a bunch of times.
“We rode across that bridge all night // We talked our way through city lights // Traced all the lines, we’re killing time // Under those buzzing signs”, ‘Look What Happened’ – ‘Borders & Boundaries’ (2000)
This song was originally on ‘Borders & Boundaries’, but we re-recorded it for ‘Anthem’. The original version has a little more soul to it, and I don’t like the re-recorded version much. I didn’t actually want to re-record it, and you can tell. When I went to sing the version for ‘Anthem’, I just wanted to get it over with, and I can hear that in my performance.
The quintessential version of this song is the one from ‘Borders & Boundaries’, and I think this line is about us being on tour. The album was called ‘Borders & Boundaries’, and we were going through borders and boundaries all the time. Our passports were full of stamps from everywhere, and we were on the road all the time. It’s possible that the lyric was Vinnie harkening back to when he was 16 and riding with his parents across the bridge, but I would like to think that it was about us. We were killing time on the road.
“Welcome home, outcasts // Because I know how you have felt over the years // The truth is that looking at me is like looking in the mirror”, ‘Welcome To The New South’ – ‘Anthem’ (2003)
I don’t know whether Vinnie wrote this about himself or about me, but we always felt like the underdogs growing up. Vinnie and I were cut from the same cloth. We came from working-class families, and we were middle-class kids, so to speak. We felt like we didn’t fit in, and this was about us saying to everyone, ‘Welcome home. You can hang out with us. We’re just as confused as you are, and we’re probably even weirder than you are’. We knew how they felt.
“Lion City’s closed and locked // While the pop of feet crack on sidewalks // The haves and the have-nots // Fade to backdrops of drums and gunshots”, ‘Does The Lion City Still Roar?’ – ‘GNV FLA’ (2008)
We recorded this album in Chicago, and America had been a volatile place for a long time. We were in dangerous places all the time on tour, especially in the early days, but around 2008, people were starting to wake up to what was happening. People were texting at that point and starting to get into social media, so you were able to go online and hear about some guy that got shot in Chicago. I think that was on Vinnie’s mind at the time.
I’ve actually never asked him what the Lion City is. There were times when I would ask what the things he wrote meant, and times where I just didn’t need to. There’s a song on ‘Anthem’ called ‘Escape From The A-Bomb House’, and that was a particularly obvious one. It’s about his parents’ divorce, and I lived that through him. I knew his parents when they were together, and I knew them when they were not together. There are times when you just don’t need to ask.
“We were born into // Believing that it’s true // What’s been good enough for them // Should be good enough for you”, ‘Good Enough’ – ‘See The Light’ (2013)
This one is about Vinnie’s parents, too. His dad gets up every day and works his fingers to the bone. He’s up at 6am, he works until 6pm, and he comes home pissed off. He pets the dog, takes a shower, and goes to bed. Rinse, lather, repeat. We’re born into believing that what’s been good enough for them should be good enough for us. But is it good enough?
What I love about lyrics is that they can be written about one thing and mean something entirely different to other people. I don’t have much of an eye for art, but you see people buying paintings for $13.8 million. I don’t get it, but that’s the same with lyrics. There are some bands with these out there, esoteric lyrics, and I don’t get it. Other people gravitate towards that. That’s the beauty of prose.
“This is a call to arms, sound the alarm // To all the times I swung and missed // This is a call to arms, sound the alarm // I can’t keep breaking, breaking myself down like this”, ‘Call To Arms’ – ‘Sound The Alarm EP’ (2017)
Again, the beauty of lyrics is that Vinnie wrote this, but I was living it at the time. This record was conceived in 2016, and that’s when my son was born. I was going through all kinds of emotions and learning who I was. I was 43 when I had my son, and up until then, I had been living this musician lifestyle. I’ll never forget one time when I was breaking up with an ex, and she said to me, ‘You never unpack your toiletries bag.’ At the time, I didn’t realise the levity of what she was saying with that, but now I do. At a moment’s notice, I was ready to grab my stuff and head out the door. Having my son was a wake-up call for me. I’m not 20 anymore, even though I’m running around onstage. I’m still a work in progress, but it was time to get my act together.
“I’m feeling like I am lost at home // Feeling like I haven’t been blown away // By a single day that I’m all alone // ‘Maybe that’s just life’, that’s what they say”, ‘Lost At Home – ‘Silver Linings’ (2020)
I love this song, and I’d love to play it as a full band sometime. I think Roger and I have played it during an acoustic set, but never at a full band show. This is a tune that JR [Wasilewski, saxophonist] brought to the table. He wrote the music, and he also wrote the lyrics. JR has written a lot of stuff for the band over the years. Even back when Vinnie was writing the lyrics, there were always little things we’d change, and everyone had their say with ideas. Usually, we’d go with Vinnie’s vision, though, so when he stepped back from the band, we all had to step up.
This lyric came out during the pandemic, but the record was completed before the pandemic. It felt like JR had a crystal ball or something. Everybody felt like they were lost at home for those 18 months, or however long it was. We were all feeling like we hadn’t been blown away by excitement.
The last part of that lyric is so Less Than Jake to me, though. ‘Maybe that’s just life, that’s what they say’… Sometimes we throw our hands up and just sit back and take it. We’re always going to be the underdogs, and that’s okay. We were a band from Florida, but everyone pegged us for Southern California. We’re from white trash California, the part on the other side of the US that’s a little cheaper to live. And with way more old people.
People thought we were from Southern California, but we never got included in that club. What do you do, though? Do you fold your cards, or do you just take it? We take it, and we mostly take it with a smile on our face. It’s not lost on me that I still get to do this after 34 years. To still have people that love the band, and to know that our lyrics mean something to people… There are musicians who would give their left eye for that. None of the other stuff really matters.
“There are moments, there are sounds // When I wish you were still around // But when I play the whole tape through // The scenes have changed and so have you // Cause over time it’s your self-serving // Left a trail of bridges burning // All there was for you to do // Stick to a plan and follow through”, ‘Not My Problem’ – ‘Uncharted EP’ (2024)
This was a song that I brought to the record, and that lyric came flying out of my mouth whilst I was writing the bridge. I have a podcast called Chris DeMakes A Podcast, and the premise of it is that I take one iconic song from an artist’s career and break it down, top to bottom. A lot of the time I’ll have guests come on and say, ‘This song took me three years to write’. Other times, they tell me that it took them ten seconds. This is a part that took me ten seconds.
I was reading Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses’ autobiography, and there was a section where he was talking about harbouring a bit of guilt. He was in Manhattan, and he looked across the street and saw the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman standing there. He was looking strung out, but Duff was in a hurry, and he didn’t really know him. He recognised him, knew he was in a bad way, but he didn’t go over and talk to him. Addiction is a nightmare, and this line could be a reference to substances or whatever else is troubling you. It’s about sticking to that one idea of, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore’. In a weird roundabout way, it came from the way that Duff explained that encounter in the book.
Less Than Jake are set to tour the UK with support coming from The Bouncing Souls, The Aquabats and The Barstool Preachers. Here are the dates.
FEBRUARY
27 – BRISTOL The Prospect Building
28 – BIRMINGHAM Academy
MARCH
01 – London, Brixton Academy
03 – NOTTINGHAM Rock City
05 – MANCHESTERAcademy
06 – LEEDS Academy
07 – GLASGOW Barrowland Ballroom
