Conspiracy theory: An interview with AM Conspiracy’s Jason ‘Gong’ Jones

	AM CONSPIRACY

January 10, 2010

Jason “Gong” Jones came to the attention of the music world when he became the singer of Drowning Pool following the 2002 death of Dave Williams. He’s spent more time, though, in his new band, AM Conspiracy, whose self-titled debut comes your way Jan. 12 via Burnhill Union Records. The record stands out from the pack due to its surprising diversity, while always remaining firmly in the realm of hard rock and metal. In a recent interview with Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki, Jones, who makes his living as a tattoo artist in Orlando, Fla., discussed the band’s formation, the new album, why his previous band was not a good match, touring with Dimebag Darrell Abbott and more.

Live-Metal.net: AM Conspiracy has been together almost five years now, but you’re just about to put out your first album and you’re new to a lot of people. So how did the band get together?

Jason “Gong” Jones: I was on tour with my old band—actually, I had time off from tour with my old band—and I just ended up in a club they were playing. I thought the band was really good, thought the singer was not right for the band. The guitar player came up to me after the show and was like, “What did you think?” I’m like, “Eh, I think you should fire the singer.” First, I grabbed his drink out of his hand and drank the whole thing, and then I told him, “I think you should fire the singer and I’ll start singing.” And it just happened, man.

There have been some lineup changes since then. Do you think you’ve got the steady, stable lineup now?

Man, I hope to god so, because if I have to watch somebody learn these songs again, I’m gonna blow my head off. [laughs]

Who came up with the name of the band and how did that happen?

I did. I lived in Venice, California. I tattoo and I got tired of doing black and gray tattoos all day long, which was the majority of what I was doing at Venice. So I started driving to Costa Mesa, California—either there or Anaheim—working for Autumn Moon Tattoos so I could learn different techniques and stuff with color and all that. I just really got sick of all the CDs I had, ‘cause it was a hour each way every day. So I was in the car for quite some time. I don’t like regular radio too much, so I turned it one day to AM radio and I got stuck on it. They always have some crazy people calling up with conspiracy theories and it just kind of stuck.

A few years ago—it may have been when I first heard of the band—you signed with Corporate Punishment Records. I guess that kind of fell apart. What happened there?

You know, Thom Hazaert’s a very nice guy. They just weren’t really well organized, I guess, at the time. They were going through a distribution change, and all this and that and the other, and it just seemed like it would be better to just kind of pull out rather than just get lost in the shuffle.

Now you’re signed to Burnhill Union Records. You’re their first signing and first release. How did you end up with them and what is it like working with those people?

They’re all great. [Dirge Within guitarist/former Soil guitarist/Burnhill Union partner] Shaun Glass, I’ve known for eight, nine years now. Been that long? Damn. Probably nine or 10 years—something like that. Somebody had contacted me about singing on something, and I met with them and they were somehow involved with Burnhill Union. I started talking to the people from the label and I gave them a CD of the AM Conspiracy stuff, and they were like, “OK, let’s do it.” And that’s where we are.

I’ve had the album for a couple weeks now and I’ve been listening to it a lot. But for someone who hasn’t heard AM Conspiracy, how would you describe what you do?

It’s just rock music, man. At times, it’s pissed off. At times, it’s pretty depressing or whatever. It’s just what it is. It’s not your typical record that you would go buy today where it’s the same song over and over and over. It’s just trying to take you on a little journey and see how it works.

Are the songs on it, do they come from throughout the four or five years the band has been together or were they written just before going into the studio?

You know, people always bitch about bands’ sophomore efforts. That’s because normally, like we did, we have five years to go over the first record, figure out what we like and want to put out, instead of like a year to cram it all in there and get it done. So yeah, it was a five-year process of destroying songs, bringing ‘em back. It was pretty grueling.

When you’re writing the lyrics to the songs, where do you get your inspiration?

I have no idea, dude. We’ll work out the arrangement of the music, and I have a little setup, so I’ll just throw it up and roll tape, record it and whatever I do I usually just keep.

It was earlier in the year when you recorded the album out in Wisconsin. What was it like working out there?

The engineer, Chris Wisco, he’s great. I couldn’t ask for anyone better. Being in Racine, Wisconsin, in whatever month we were there—like February or March or whatever—for us sucked. We’re all from Florida . It was snowing, like blizzards to us. We met some cool people, but I would’ve much rather been in a sunny place.

Is there anything to do out there besides work?

There’s a bar around every corner, which for us worked out great ‘cause that’s pretty much all we do. Actually, when we went to go up there, I packed my flip-flops and forgot my jacket because I had been drinking quite profusely.

I’ve seen you have some tour dates in the Midwest set up for January. Are there plans for a full coast-to-coast tour sometime soon?

It’s definitely gonna happen. We don’t know when, but we are trying to do it as soon as humanly possible.

How would you describe the AM Conspiracy live show?

Well, we’re probably gonna come to your town, drink up most of the bar, throw a bunch of water and stuff at you, and hopefully you’ll have a good time in the process.

Is there someone that would be your dream tour, a band you’re just dying to go out with?

There’s so many bands that I’d like to go out with. I’d love to go out with the Deftones. I’d like to go out with Sevendust. HellYeah would be great. Tool would be amazing, except for we’d get our asses smoked every night—that would get old.

You’ve got a couple songs in the movie Bitch Slap that’s coming out in January. How did you get hooked up with that?

Actually, man, it’s kinda weird. My ex-wife, her law firm was representing the movie and that’s how we ended up there. That’s why you should always keep good relationships with your exes.

Have you gotten to see the movie?

Man, you know what, I hate to say it, but I’m gonna tell you, yes I have because someone has leaked the movie. So me being the kind of guy I am, I had to go check it out, and it’s really cool, man.

Going back a little bit, why didn’t it work out for you in your previous band, Drowning Pool?

You know, man, honestly, I never really liked those guys, they never really liked me. They weren’t really ready at the time because of the Dave thing. I think they were still healing from that. It just didn’t work, man. It’s like sometimes you meet a girl, you think, “She’s hot.” Then you go have sex with her and you’re like, “What the hell was that all about?” It was like that.

Did you learn anything during your time in that band that sort of helped prepare you to be—

Always, always have your own lawyer. Always. No matter what, have your own lawyer. That’s what I learned.

Your first tour in that band was the one with Damageplan, right?

Yes.

Do you have any good Dimebag stories?

Man, Dimebag is just one big, good story. There’s so many of them—who knows. We had the same manager and he was telling Dime, “You two cannot hang out. You gotta stay away from each other.” So that, of course, didn’t work out too well for that guy. Dime would call him up and he’d be like, “We gotta get out of here! The cops are coming!” Just all kinds of crazy stuff. I was coming off the bus one day and it was like 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Dime was pretty already lit up and I normally don’t drink before we play. So he’s like, “Where’s the vodka?” I’m like, “There’s a bottle in there.” He’s like, “Well, go get it.” I’m like, “Man, I ain’t drinkin’ that shit. I don’t drink before I play.” And he’s like, “You do today!” So then we drank that bottle of vodka, and then he’s like, “Where’s the fireworks?” So I went and got the fireworks. He had got some local band that he met in the strip club the night before and told them that they could open the whole show. So they did. We were duct-taping huge bottle rockets—not the little ones, the big ones—to the guy’s cymbals and shooting fireworks off, blowing up everything while they’re playing and Dime’s dumping crushed up bags of Doritos and Tostitos and all kind of crap on them. Man, it was hilarious. [laughs]

Do you have influences or are you a fan of any bands that might surprise someone who knows you or knows your music?

Yeah, probably so. I listen to this dude, Mark Curry, who had Mark Curry and the Hell House Band, Mark Curry and the Tenpin Trio. I listen to that stuff, and lyrically, I’m actually influenced a lot by Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows. That first record, those lyrics are genius. They’re great.

Links:
www.amconspiracy.com
www.myspace.com/amconspiracy
www.drowningpool.com
www.bitchslapmovie.com

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