Roll of the Dice: 9 questions with Jimmy Montague

Features, Interviews, Roll of the Dice

Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.

Multi-instrumentalist performer is preparing to release Tomorrow's Coffee but first, let's roll the dice with the man and see what makes him vibe!

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congratulations on the upcoming release of  Tomorrow's Coffee! What can you tell us about yourselves, your sound and what makes you tick?

Thank you! I'm a New Englander, been hopping around New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Boston, New Hampshire etc. all my life. I came up playing in a diy punk and emo scene, but my musical taste has always been classic rock, folk and singer songwriter-centric. Not sure what makes me tick, I just like the work. 

Let's talk a little bit about how Tomorrow's Coffee came into existence. What was going on at the time that helped kickstart the songwriting process?

A handful of these songs I had coming off writing Casual Use back in 2019/2020, so they're just getting to see the light of day now. But some of the newer ones and even ones that came during the recording and demoing process seem to have a theme of overcoming indecision and wrestling with just how mundane life can get once you've supposedly “figured yourself out”. The record fell together over a stressful and way too long recording process due to scheduling and budgetary hurdles, but has always felt like a more focused and attentive study of arrangement and feel. Tomorrow's Coffee just came from the idea of not painting the wall with your brains because There's Always Tomorrow's Coffee, something I needed to reassure myself of when I start to lose it. 

What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do”  Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?

There were definitely a few albums that I leaned on hard for what I would call Quality Control. Countdown To Ecstasy was one I constantly would reassess with, mostly for that feel of: These are denser arrangements but it's still a rock band playing them. Sometimes I get really close to wanting to explore that modern take on the 70's sound, with how far people are able to go with close micing and playing extremely soft, that sort of Mile Thick Snare Sound and too perfect computer wurlitzer sound, but I keep falling back on the fact that I just fuckin love when a band is Loud and Live. However, some records I found recently that made me want to keep up and play better were Brad Goodall‘s Made In America and Christian Lee Hutson‘s Quitters. I also employed a general rule of thumb to pick up any Cal Tjader record I see any time i come across it. I try not to get too bogged down in Sound and try harder to capture Feel, even if that is sometimes detrimental to recording. 

We've all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn't take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

There are small regrets, mostly in recording, where i'll listen to the finished masters and notice a slightly wonky kick drum edit, or a brass entrance that could have been stronger that I wish I fixed or paid more attention to in editing. But honestly what seems to be my most nagging regret is naming the project. Don't get me wrong, i love singer songwriters, I love stage names. It never deters me from listening to a persons music. But whenever I toy with the idea of putting a band together, I feel like it would be easier to convince people to play in a group that felt more like everyone had ownership, rather than playing in Some Guy's band. If I had given this a band name instead of a solo moniker, maybe I would feel better or have an easier time recruiting members who feel equally driven for it. But I also let that mix of shame and embarrassment prevent me from asking people in the first place, so maybe I'm projecting. 

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences as a touring musician so far? What's been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

Touring on the level I have for so long feels exciting at first and then mundane. So much of your time gets eaten up by drives to get from point a to b with increasingly earlier soundcheck times. Couple that with maybe a few hours in a coffee shop or charging your phone in a green room, you're left with the occasional offday or maybe a slightly later night out than usual. Most times you just want to sleep. But there's the occasional moments that make it feel more interesting. Sleeping in your own puke under a palm tree at a strangers house party in California on PALHTH (Perspective, A Lovely Hand To Hold) tours, chasing stolen laptops across Ohio with skateboards and crowbars on Meds tours, getting to split off to swim in lakes, ropeswings, oceans etc. At least as of yet, the shows tend to feel the same and run together in my memory like some weird dream, but the occasional moments where touring feels like a vacation stand out. 

You worked with on the single, “All The Same.” How did that collaboration come into being? What did his presence bring to the single/record?

Chris responded to some stupid meme I made on the PALHTH twitter back in 2019 and then I relentlessly bugged him with my solo music for a couple months. After a few back and forths, mostly just silly ribbing, he asked me to play piano on his James Bond-esque Thriller Soundtrack “Death Don't Wait”, where I play an accompaniment to himself as well as Laura Stevenson. After that, I asked him if he'd be interested in playing on one of my tracks, wrote “All The Same,” gave him the second verse and carte blanche for the guitar across the whole song. Honestly it's one of my favorite moments on the entire record. He nailed the sort of Mark Knopfler “Time Out Of Mind” feeling I was looking for. I love Chris and will continue to bug him until we finally meet in person and he kills me with his bare hands.

One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?

Half of my backing studio musicians are members of an Art Rock band called The Most from CT/NY. I went to high school with all of the members and are massive inspirations and pushed me to try and be a better musician and songwriter. They're also the first band I learned to cut records for, and produce as a teen/early twentier. Incredible musicians. This record also features Jess Hall of Massachusetts' Oldsoul, an amazing pop/arena rock band. My rotation of listening music tends to be well known  70's rock and folk legends, but in terms of the contemporary, I spend a great deal of time listening to Christian Lee Hutson, Greg Mendez, Slaughter Beach, Dog, and Brad Goodall. 

What's next for Jimmy Montague?

I think I want to put down horns for a moment and go back to my roots in orchestra. I have a handful of songs I wrote with that in mind, and I think i'd like to take a crack at recording a backing group live (drums bass piano and classical guitar) and then write a score and hopefully con a community or college orchestra into playing for $50 and a lunch. Other than that, maybe find a way to do a couple shows full band. One day. 

Was there anything I missed that you'd like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?

I'm broke. Please buy the record