A KXSU Interview with Bumbershoot’s Jason McCue but only Using Questions He Has Asked in Other KXSU Interviews

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Photo by Julia Olson

As the title suggests, Head Music Reporter Julia and I teamed up to do a quickie interview with our own Promotions Director, Jason McCue, ahead of his performance at Bumbershoot. Earlier this year, Jason won SoundOff!, the PNW’s premier under 21 Battle of the Bands, and secured a slot on the Bumbershoot lineup, so we caught up with him to discuss all of this; but because we aren’t booooring, we added a little twist. Many moons ago, Jason too was a music reporter here on the KXSU blog, so Julia and I proceeded to collect all of the questions he has asked artists in his own articles, and ask them to him instead. Read along to see how long it took him to realize it, and you can also hear about the time he peed on his dad’s laptop while sleepwalking.


KXSU: 90’s Tom Hanks is the Best Tom Hanks, how did the name Jason McCue come about?

Jason: A lot of thinking on my parents’ part. It’s funny though…I had someone ask me the other night if Jason McCue was my real name or a stage name. Obviously I said it was a stage name, and that my real name was Jaque Laplamaha.

KXSU: Thank you for opening up with us on that one, I can tell that it came from a deep place. What musical acts have influenced your sound the most?

JM: Definitely the Beatles. I was into the Beatles for such a long time, and the way they wrote songs really made an impact on how I took an approach to making songs. After the Beatles I got into a singer from the ‘90s named Jeff Buckley, and that kind-of style seeped into how my brain works. After him Tom Waits, Elliot Smith and Modest Mouse.

KXSU: That’s awesome, I can definitely hear a lot of those influences in your sound. Talk to me about the album you are releasing…wait do you have an album you are releasing?

JM: Well, I am always trying to record a little bit of something. This summer I had a good amount of time to actually sit down and not play too many shows and try focus on writing a little bit. I’ve got a good amount of stuff on my laptop and at this point it’s kind of figuring out a strategic time to put it out in the universe.

KXSU: Respectable, are there any aspects about your music that you really want your listeners to understand?

JM: That’s a really great question… I wonder who wrote it?

KXSU: … 

JM: Yeah, a lot of the time I am really just trying to tell a story. A lot of the lyrics that I write are some kind of a fiction or a chapter of a longer thing, even if it is not represented in the album or the show as a whole. I just like to tell stories through music, and I think it is really fun to do so. Also when I record stuff it’s just me, so if ah… people don’t like something It’s important they can’t blame anybody but me.

KXSU: We are all stoked to hear it. What’s you writing process like? Do you collaborate after you record?

JM: I usually get a semi-mixed version of an album or a project down. Then I send it to my friend Dan, and he tells me where I screw up in the recoding process, and where I can do better. But he also tells me the parts he liked, which I can then emphasize more. Then after him I usually send it to my friend Katie, and maybe my brother sometimes too. So it’s usually like three or four people I give my naked copy of something to before getting them mastered and putting them out to the universe.

KXSU: Do you find that it is easier to write lyrics when you can base them off of characters?

JM: Ahh… did I ask that to Alex G?

KXSU: … 

JM: Sometimes, it really depends on what the theme of the song I want to be is. If I am trying to say something, like more of a commentary on something, not particularly. But if I can just start out with a character and have an endless buffet of possible storylines to go down then it does help a lot.

KXSU: How long is the period between writing a song and recording it on your computer, do you have a lot of room to experiment with different instruments or do you go straight to recoding right away?

JM: Usually I try to record it as quick as possible, that way I don’t lose it. That’s something I have been working on lately too. Allowing a song to sit for a little more time before going to the computer, that way it sounds a little more refined. It also depends on the song.

KXSU: You started out in the Philly DIY Music scene…

[Collective laughter because we know Jason moved from Philly and that question was a dead on match]

KXSU: I was wondering, how did that scene shape you as an artist, how would your music be different had you come from a different city

JM: Actually, I am originally from Westchester PA, which is about 30 minutes outside of Philly. In high school a lot of us got bands together and threw house shows there. None of us were really good, we all thought we were really good, but we were really just messing around with music. It was really the most fun that anyone in high school was having at the time. I think it was just realizing that we can put stuff on ourselves. We didn’t have to rely on commercial spaces, or studios or anything really where people have to pay money to do what they love. That helped me out a lot to realize that. That sparked the love of DIY in me, for lack of a better term. There will probably be a point soon where if I want things to sound better than they are, I will have to turn to one of those entities, but for now I am happy to be doing it all with my own control.

KXSU: What’s a cool, interesting fact about you that most of your fans don’t know?

JM: Well, I don’t know if it is cool, but when I was like 11 I peed on my dad’s computer while sleepwalking. Every night before going to bed I would watch a live ACDC concert on my dad’s computer…

KXSU: The same one every night or…?

JM: No it was the same one, it was ACDC live at Donington in 1990.

JM: It was totally my own thing, a family friend gave it to me and it was like an hour long. My theory was that ACDC slowly possessed me, and I had a terrible sleepwalking problem too. The peak of my sleepwalking was when I went into my dad’s office to watch the ACDC concert, but I also had to pee really badly. My dad’s computer was white and folded up, like other things that are also white and folded up. My dad had his hands over his head. The worst part was I woke up midstream.

KXSU: We have one original question—based on your position on the Bumbershoot lineup you are technically opening for everyone. What artist are you most excited to be opening for?

JM: Gucci Mane. But honestly, if we are going to say that I am opening up for every artist I am super excited to say I am opening for the Roots, Solange, Weezer.

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Photo by Julia Olsen


JULIA OLSON | Smulia Smolson | KXSU Head Music Reporter

ANNA KAPLAN | Sleepy | KXSU Music Reporter

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