Jawbone | Defining Our Subculture
Written By: Jeremy Seick

The Hardcore scene is overcrowded and Clint Vaught, vox-man for Jawbone, will be the first one to admit it. However, you can’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Jawbone is what allows this genre to not implode on itself, keeping what makes this music great at the forefront of who they are. With a vinyl release of their new Loss Of Innocence EP and hopes of touring the greater 48, Jawbone’s Vaught weighs in for us on the scene as well as gives us an inside look into their newest record.

What is it that has drawn you all into creating Hardcore music? So often I feel that it is not as much about the music as it is about what the Hardcore scene stands for…

Clint Vaught: I can’t speak for everyone in the band wholly, but to some extent I know that a big thing that drew all of us to hardcore in the first place was the sense of community, we’ve all been involved in the Evansville scene in one way or another for years. We all come from pretty different musical backgrounds and our taste in music really does differ a lot. I know a lot of bands say that but we all listen to totally different music, so you’re totally right it’s not just the music itself that drew us to be in a hardcore band. The camaraderie  that exists between Christians heavily rooted in Hardcore is incredible as well, being involved in an extensive subculture and belong, a believer can change a lot of peoples minds about who Jesus is.

Do you feel that the scene has strayed from what it once was?

CV: I absolutely do no feel like the scene is what it was, when I was drawn to it, or could be. I don’t want to speak for everyone but personally I feel as if there’s a huge division between the DIY ideals and the practice. There are way too many artificially big “hardcore” bands that are really just indebted to a management contract, a merch order or a van loan. None of those things are inherently bad, but when your band has never been on a single small or larger tour and all of a sudden is buying or singing their way onto a huge full US tour, there’s something wrong. I also feel like bands get to a point where instead of trying to figure out to share a message through their music, or meet more people, their goal turns to, “how can we turn this into a full time job simply for the sake of it.” We all love hanging out and having a good time, don’t get me wrong, but touting yourself as a hardcore band and playing music for money is far from what the music should and could be about. I may have a romantic view of hardcore, but I feel like someone needs to speak about this, and this is not a direct attack on any band or bands, it’s just what I see in the current state of hardcore.

Your first track, Histemi, on the new EP repeats over and over the lyric “I am just a man.” Would you take us deeper into your thought process behind this lyric and this song?

CV: The word hístemi is a Greek word meaning: “to cause or make to stand, to place, put, or set.”  The context in which the song was written in reference to was specifically Ephesians 6. The Greek word is used 12 times just in this chapter alone, the roughly translated means, in many instances in that famous passage to “stand your ground”. It’s incredible because what Paul is saying is not for us as believers in Christ to stand our ground on our own, but to stand our ground IN CHRIST. The repetition of the lyric really stresses the fact that were just people, I am just a sinful, silly creature that God created. At the end of the song it says “I am just a man, but I stand in Him, I am just a man but I stand in The Great Overcomer”. I’m gonna mess up and make mistakes, but Christ won’t.

There seems to be a theme to the five tracks that deals with a lot of imperfection. What are you hoping we pull from this EP?

CV: Kind’ve along the lines of my explanation of Histemi and with the title of the EP, loss of innocence. There are a lot of people within culture now and throughout history, scientists, philosophers, celebrity psychologists, etc., who are or have been claiming that culture has been getting better and better. The record speaks of the fact that we are not getting better, we have nothing to offer each other apart from God, there is no truth without The Truth, there is no hope apart from the Gospel of Salvation and we will continue in our path of death without accepting who Christ is and what he has done. There’s a lot of messed up stuff going on in the world, arguing with that is ludicrous, but there is an answer. We just need to open our eyes and see it. “There’s a lot of messed up stuff going on in the world, arguing with that is ludicrous, but there is an answer. We just need to open our eyes and see it.”

So you are releasing Loss Of Innocence on 7” vinyl. We are seeing more and more releases like this. Why did you guys choose to go this direction?

CV: When we first started talking the idea over, we were incredibly excited that the Blood & Ink dudes were on board. Vinyl is just way cooler than CD’s or digital only releases. No one wants to buy a CD anymore, when we do buy them we just rip them onto iTunes and throw the CD on a shelf never to be touched or seen again. You can press vinyl on different colors, it’s super easy to do different covers or cover art, it sounds great and it’s collectible! The options are endless with vinyl and it’s also always been a hardcore staple. Vinyl never really went away in hardcore, it’s gone through ups and downs but hardcore kids have always bought vinyl.

How has it been working with Blood & Ink?

CV: Like I said, working with B & I has been great, it’s absolutely unreal to be able to be on a label that understands hardcore, is willing to work with bands that are more under the radar and are just fun to hang out with. We couldn’t be happier with our experience with Sean and Daniel and all the other current Blood & Ink bands. We’re stoked #TFSB

Got any tour plans for this summer?

CV: We’ve got some weekend stuff booked here and there coming up, so look out for that. We’re trying to do something bigger in late July or early August, and most importantly we’ll be at Cornerstone. None of us have ever played at Cornerstone before but we’ve all attended in years past, we’re so excited for the opportunity to play at the fest and couldn’t be more excited to hang out with our brothers and sisters. Also you might wanna watch our for a few cover songs thrown into one of our sets this year.  Our goal is to eventually play in every state in the continental US. If we haven’t played in your city or state, keep bugging us, we’ll get there!