Jesse Leach

All musicians are known to have a secret life, alter egos past the rockstar image that we see, a life that is as normal as it is for most of us. But it’s not everyday that you see the vocalist of one of the biggest metalcore acts in the world travel around to local pubs and clubs, hanging out with the general public and playing some of his favourite tunes – that’s Jesse Leach for you! This legend has some pretty awesome shows lined up for the Aussies and in addition to that he’s also making it a ‘Spoken Word’ night where he’ll be sharing some insight into his life, music and other tidbits you wouldn’t want to miss out on. I had the absolute pleasure of catching up with Jesse a couple of days ago ahead of his tour and we had such a good conversation, it was like talking to an old mate after ages!

The man is a total charmer which I learnt the moment he greeted me. Hey! I wanted to say your name but then I didn’t want to ruin such a beautiful name by saying it wrong! (come on now, I couldn’t leave that out, could I?) Right now I’m sipping Tequila and going through three hours of press from your country. It’s actually a lot of fun though because I’m extremely excited to come back to Australia!

I could tell that he really did love Australia to bits and I asked him why it was his country of choice to kick off his first solo DJ tour. My friendship with Anthony is what made me want to come back. My buddy who runs a great shop called Eureka Rebellion Trading – we hit it off really well the first time we came through on the ‘Disarm Through Descent’ tour and our first ever listening party there – he was just so generous and sweet and the next time we came when we played our headlining tour I spent the day with him bar-hopping and going to restaurants and we just became really fast friends and he sort of pitched the idea to me. He knew I had been DJ’ing for six years on and off and told me to come over and do a few shows!

Like I said, it’s not everyday you speak to a metalcore vocalist who is also a pro DJ – Jesse shared the story of how he became one. ” I actually started DJ’ing just for fun and then I turned it into a job when I was between bands and trying to find a way to make money and I thought to myself ‘What better way than to do it playing music that I already love?’. I’d go to these bars all the time in New York City and they would never play music that I’d want to hear. So on Saturday nights i would go to this famous bar called the 3 of clubs for Punk Rock nights and I became pretty successful with what I did and it kinda just went from there. So for me it’s a good way to showcase underground bands, bands that people may not know from the 70’s, 80’s some obscure stuff, and a little bit of modern stuff but I’m primarily a throwback guy.

I was keen to hear about some of these obscure bands that Jesse’s into which he gladly spoke about. I come from mainly the hardcore scene so I’ll start with bands that were doing the mixture of hardcore and metal early on – a band called Integrity from  Cleveland, Ohio, band called Dead Guy from New York who were blending styles before anyone else was doing it. Then bands like Infest from the DC area – they play really fast, aggressive hardcore. To me it’s really fun to mix that type of music in with the Metallica’s and the Pantera’s. I really enjoy giving people something that I know they’re going to sing along to and then throwing curveballs. But my favourite thing is interacting with people and having them come up to me and say ” What was that you played, it was amazing, I need to know what it is!” So it’s kinda my way to point back to my roots of why i do what I do.

And Jesse really does love getting to know his fans being very active on social media as well as his constant virtual presence by means of his website where he offers a lot of insight and talks all about music which is what inspired the ‘Spoken Words’ element of his tour. I gotta pass that back to Anthony from Eureka – that dude is like the catalyst for it.  It’s not that I really wanted to do it, between writing my columns and having my website – I really appreciate being able to do what I do for a living so the only way I can think of to give back is to give people insight on who I am and why I do what I do. He told me about doing this night and at first I was a little intimidated but then I thought I have been through a lot. From my roots to where I am now and everything in between and everything I’ve done to survive I do have a story to tell.

So what exactly can fans expect from these shows? A lot of fun man! Honestly my DJ nights – I just want people to have a good time, kick back with some drinks, forget about their work with and just get rowdy, that’s my whole thing with it. When I DJ, I headbang, interact on a whole new level with the crowd, I don’t stand still. If I’m on a stage I jump off of it, I have a lot of fun and it’s a way for me to just get face to face with people!At the end of the day, I’m a fan of music just like everyone else is and it’s kind of my way to connect, get off the stage and just hang out. You want a picture? Come on over, get your selfie, I don’t care. I want to do my best to just recreate me hanging out with people, with fans, everybody who’s there”. Sounds like one hell of time hey?

Being a DJ and the frontman of a huge metalcore band, Jesse also talked about the rush that he gets from both. It’s similar in a way but definitely different. I think it’s with my own words and my own personal catharsis, people know the words that I’m saying and sing the words back to me, that’s something special. But I still get a pretty heavy buzz off of DJ’ing and seeing people react. For me, mixing in a track they love as soon as they hear that first note they start going nuts, that’s a buzz too!

Jesse is also has another alter ego – he’s a poet! I’ve been writing poetry since I was 15 years old. I’ve got stacks of books of all the poetry I’ve written. I went through a pretty heavy drug phase and even kept a journal about that as well, for better or for worse, more for worse! I won’t be reading any of those during my spoken word tour! But writing poetry was my first love. I was a writer, a poet before anything else. I’ve selected some of the journals and poetry that I thought would be good to share with people and help tell my story!”

I poked a little further to ask what exactly he thinks about when writing his poetry. ” Everything! It could be personal, it could be observational, basically anything that strikes me at the time.As soon as inspiration hits, I’ll write, no matter where I am or what I have to use, I’ve got some of my best poetry written on bar napkins. It’s years of compiling that I’ve got a box of scrap paper and napkins with all my poetry. It’s kinda chaotic but I think that’s my way of doing things. almost like a therapy. when the thought hits me i want to scream it but i dont always have the platform so I write it down

I also got some info on the upcoming Killswitch Engage album and the band’s composition for the famous Game of Thrones compilation. “We’re just in the demo phases right now, we’re actually going to get together and  be in the same room and exchange ideas soon but we will be premiering a new song in April. The folks at Game of Thrones  asked us to write a song and it all just came together. We worked on it for a few days, recorded it and were pretty stoked with the result. It is a big deal and I don’t think it hit us until we actually went to the studio and there was a crew of so many people with cameras and a make up department – HBO was in our studio! It was pretty insane especially when they filmed us jamming. It definitely was a great opportunity for us with exposure to potentially new fans as well.

This next thing that Jesse says was probably the highlight of the interview because it really helped me realize that I’m not a nutcase for doing all the things that I do. So cheers for that mate. I’m partially insane – I’m not a normal person. I can’t help it because I need more than one outlet ,I can’t be just one thing. Even though Killswitch took up so much of my time, it  also allowed me a lot of free time and I’m so used to just go go go and my work ethic is pretty high from working blue collar jobs so I constantly have a need to express myself. That’s just the way I am!

Believe it or not this man is also a budding MasterChef much to my pleasure because we started talking spaghetti and curry, a language besides music that I know all too well. I love cooking man! When I’m home I go to the farmers market everyday and get farm fresh ingredients – I’m a total food dude! My favourite thing probably because I’ve been doing it since I was eight is making pizza from scratch – my own base, sauce. But my recent thing and it’s a generic word coming from an American is curry. Holy shit do I love a good curry. Coconut Thai-style curry or a good red curry, so I’ve actually been making curry pizzas offlate! It’s all about the cheese, you need to be really careful what cheese you use! I friggin love this guy!

Catch the insane DJ Leach on his Spoken Word & DJ  shows on the dates below!

THURSDAY 15 JANUARY – HOT DAMN, SYDNEY – 18+

Tickets available on the door

FRIDAY 16 JANUARY – BRIGHTSIDE, BRISBANE – 18+

Tickets available on the door

**NEW SHOW ADDED!

SUNDAY 18 JANUARY – THE ELEPHANT HOTEL, BRISBANE – 18+ FREE ENTRY!

Every Time I Die Official After Party

With DJ performances from Jesse Leach from Killswitch Engage and Keith Buckley from Every Time I Die

Battling out 90’s house party tunes on the decks from 11:30pm ‘til late

Support DJ’s featuring Jimmy Kixx, Gaudion and Toddy Spitfire kick off at 6:30pm

WEDNESDAY 21 JANUARY – SPOKEN WORD NIGHT AT EUREKA REBELLION TRADING, MELBOURNE

Tickets available at www.moshtix.com.au

SATURDAY 24 JANUARY – THE GASOMETER, MELBOURNE

Tickets available at www.oztix.com.au

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