Sacramento’s very own rock outfit Jamies Elsewhere have found themselves in a situation many young musicians dream of. They signed to Victory Records at the end of ’07, they’ve got a new full-length album coming out on May 27 entitled Guidebook for Sinners Turned Saints, they just finished shooting a music video in L.A. for their single, “I Didn’t Mean to Interrupt,” and they are set to embark on a nationwide tour this spring that will bring them through Orangevale on May 17. Amongst everything they have going on, Submerge was able to get in touch with them and chat with one of the founding members, Matt Scarpelli [guitar] about recording, touring and partying with porn stars.

How did you guys get your start? When did the current line up come to be?
We started out in Dec. 2005. Me and my brother Anthony wanted to start a new project. We started writing a bit while auditioning members; we did the usual, posting ads on Myspace, Craigslist and in the press. We auditioned a ton of people and finally met up with Anthony Carioscia who flew out from Chicago to audition and we hit it off pretty quick. Nick [Rodriguez, bass] and Mike [Spearman, keys/vocals], who had been in a local band that dismembered, came out and auditioned as a duo and we all really meshed. The five of us started writing together and jamming while looking for a vocalist. We knew from experience a solid vocalist was the key to any band, so we were very choosy. We auditioned over 30 vocalists from all over the country over an 18-month period and finally came across Chris Paterson. Chris was at a get together that Anthony C and Mike attended; Chris had an acoustic guitar and was singing original songs along with some covers of Saosin, Chiodos and others. Mike liked what he heard and the next night we had him audition and that evening we had him in the vocal booth laying down tracks for the EP.
The final line up was complete in May 2007 and we self-released our EP in June 2007.

How is it being in a full time band with your brother?
It’s awesome. Being on the road away from home is tough and having my brother in the band is like having a piece of home with me all the time. My brother also handles a lot of the business side of things, and he’s really good at that.

How old are all of you guys?
Well I am the youngest at 18; everyone else is over 21 ranging from 22-26 years old.

How many tours have you embarked on thus far?
We have done a few regional tours, but this upcoming tour will be our first full U.S. tour. We are really looking forward to getting on the road and sharing the new music with everyone! I think the upcoming tour with Emarosa, Lower Definition, Take the Crown and Dead & Divine will be the best tour yet. All the bands on this tour are young and fresh, and I think people are going to be blown away by all the talent.

Got any crazy stories from the road?
I don’t know if this is really that crazy but we were in L.A. recently and we were walking down Hollywood Blvd. during the red carpet event for Iron Man. It was pretty late and they where wrapping things up, and we noticed the Highland Club located next to the Chinese Theatre had some kind of party going on, so we decided to check it out. We went up to the penthouse floor and noticed a lot of security and figured it must be some kind of party so our guitarist Anthony C went up to the security guard and talked him into thinking that we were with the light crew for the red carpet event and our boss told us to come up and talk to them about letting us in. The guard was a little skeptical at first but ended up letting us go into the party, he said it was a private party and that we would need to behave ourselves. We ended up getting into the party and realized it was hosted by Ron Jeremy. We got to mingle with some celebs that night, which was pretty rad, and they had an open bar.

How has your experience been with Victory Records?
It’s been great. We feel so blessed to be working with Victory. It’s like having an army behind you; they are so supportive and have made it possible for us to make music our full time career.

How hard was it to choose whom you would record the new album with? Why did you ultimately decide on Casey Bates?
It’s tough because you are putting your sound in someone else’s hands; you have to trust them 100 percent. We chose Casey because we loved his work on all the Fear Before the March of Flames albums and the newest Chiodos album. Casey brings out the energy and the sound is raw, not over produced like some. We shopped producers for a few months and we just really hit it off with Casey and he became part of the band.

Sum up the experience of recording with him. Was it a pleasant one?
The recording went extremely well, everything turned out better than we could have ever imagined! Casey was like part of the band and knew exactly what we were going for. We learned that you can never be too prepared. We really grew as a band working with Casey; it was our first time with a producer, and we learned so much about music, the band and ourselves.

You just finished shooting a new video in L.A. How was that? Who did you work with? When will it be ready to view and what can fans expect?
Yes we just finished shooting a video for the song, “I Didn’t Mean to Interrupt.” It was a blast! This was our first video, and we didn’t really know what to expect. We worked with 1171 Productions and director Todd Waters. 1171 is a pretty big company and have done some amazing videos for bands like Angels and Airwaves, Taking Back Sunday, As I Lay Dying, Def Leppard, Eminem and more so we were really excited work with them. 1171 far exceeded our expectations; they took really good care of us going above and beyond. The sets they built where amazing and we got the all-star treatment. The video should be done in about two weeks so keep an eye out for it.

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