In Conversation with Sean Bonnette from AJJ

12 July 2024 / by Amber Ranson
AJJ Interview

Sean Bonnette is the lead singer, guitarist and co-founder of American folk-punk band, AJJ (formerly Andrew Jackson Jihad). Since the release of their debut album in 2005, (Candy Cigarettes, Capguns, Issue Problems! And Such) AJJ have gained a steady following – winning fans over with their clever and honest lyrics and playful yet mildly abrasive instrumentation. Consistently releasing albums ever since, their music has matured while simultaneously staying true to their core sound. 

 

On June 14th, 2024, AJJ released Disposable Everything Else – an album featuring remixes and demos from their previous release, Disposable Everything, which came out in May of 2023. 

A couple of weeks prior to the release of Disposable Everything Else, Met Radio had the opportunity to chat with Sean Bonnette.

 

Check it out. 

 

 

Amber Ranson: I just want to say thank you so much for meeting with me. I’ve been such a big fan of AJJ for a really long time, like People Who Can Eat People… is probably one of my favorite albums of all time. 

 

Sean Bonnette: That’s so rad. Cool, thanks.

 

AR: It’s really great to meet with you today. Well, just starting us off, I’d like to chat a little bit about one of the most striking aspects of your music: the lyrics. Do you think you could tell me a bit about your writing process? 

 

SB: I try to approach lyric writing like an economy. I try not to waste any lines. And generally, I think you can get the best results if you try to write lyrics that amuse yourself. I think those ones kind of, if you can connect with it, and other people do too, usually. I don’t know. Yeah. What else do you wanna know about lyrics?

 

AR: Well, I find your lyrics are very poetic and very interestingly written. So where do you draw inspiration from when you’re writing lyrics?

 

SB: I try to keep myself open to kind of everything, because any little moment can turn into a song if you kind of let it. Do you ever get like a little jingle stuck in your head or some kind of little tune? Those kind of come around all the time, and people just ignore them. But then every once in a while, you can kind of snatch one out of the air. And if you kind of feed it, and water it and provide a lot of sunlight for it then it can turn into a song. And you know, little lyrics, little striking moments always ended up kind of turning into like, the bigger cruxes of any of the songs, lyrically speaking. And then also, I really like authors like Kurt Vonnegut, and lately, the last decade I’ve been really into Haruki Murakami. He’s very good at being able to take mundane things and turn them into like, really interesting, kind of almost like psychedelic meditations.

 

AR: Yeah, I had wondered if you had kind of drawn inspiration from books and things, because I find that with a lot of musicians that kind of write lyrics similar to the way AJJ does, it comes from books a lot of the time. So in terms of musical inspirations, you’ve mentioned in previous interviews that you started off listening to a lot more hardcore music, like metal and all that. So how did you decide on folk punk? 

 

SB: That was mostly out of necessity, because as far as the equipment I had: I had an acoustic guitar. It was easier to write songs and deliver them that way. Because when you have an electric guitar, you then have to have an amp. And I didn’t want to have two things. I just kind of wanted to have one thing to write with. Yeah, I think that was kind of the earliest thing that pointed us in the direction of folk punk. Later on, it was certainly like community and the reciprocity of being able to book shows for other bands in that scene.

 

AR: Absolutely. I also wanted to touch on how long you guys have kind of been in the scene and been together. So you guys have been together for almost 20 years now. How does it feel to be one of the last remaining bands of that very first, folk punk modern push?

 

SB: It feels pretty cool, especially getting to meet younger people that are making music today who used to listen to our band or that still do. Yeah, it fills me with a good sense of pride. Hopefully a healthy sense of pride [laughs]. I think we’ve definitely gotten to influence people who then have turned around and made music that influences us, which is really cool.

 

AR: That’s amazing – that’s such a good full circle. How do you feel you guys have changed over the years? I guess, different band members and things and also new instruments?

 

SB: Yeah, it’s different people, sometimes it’s different instrumentation. We usually always try to embrace change as a means of recording, and we try to approach every record in a different way. So that’s like, that’s where we kind of factor change into that as a thing that is constant. Our newest record we made in an environment where we like stayed on the premises of the recording studio and didn’t leave for a whole week. And we’ve never done that before. As far as our approach or in some other ways, I feel like we’ve not changed and that I think that’s kind of a good thing. 

 

AR: Actually, could you talk a little bit more about that recording process of your latest album?

 

SB: We stayed at this studio in Texas, they have all the lodging there. You just kind of sleep there and have access to a recording studio 24/7. And so that’s what we got most of like, you know, 80% of the album done there. And then we took those tracks and then spent the next year kind of listening to them and writing parts over it for our overdubs. And yeah, just kind of like spent a lot of time like, crafting and kind of shining it up. We’d never done it that way before. 

 

AR: Speaking of your new album, what were you listening to when you were writing? What kind of [music] was in your ear? 

 

SB: I remember Sparks was on my mind a lot writing like, Strawberry (Probably) or Dissonance. Yeah, there’s something about that band. Especially their album Angst In My Pants, where it’s very concise power pop songs. So yeah, looking back on it, they’re definitely an influence. Also the Heavy Metal soundtrack. Yeah, I was listening to that a lot. It’s got some good songs, and some good-bad songs. Who else…I was listening to a lot of George Jones at the time, and I think you can kind of hear that in the song “I Had a Thought of You,” I sorta sing like him (not totally on purpose).

 

AR: What has the experience been like now, a year later, doing the remixes and everything? How is that process? How did it come about?

 

SB: We had a couple strays, a couple of spare parts. There’s this one song that we had, where at the time, it was just me and Cool Keith. We got [him] to write and perform a verse on one of our songs, but we hadn’t finished the song yet. So we had to figure that out. And so for that, we enlisted the help of our friend Kimya Dawson. So that was kind of the catalyst, like, “We should finish this song.” But then we also had a lot of nice little things kind of leftover, and we weren’t sure whether we should save them for some kind of like 30-year-anniversary bullsh*t or just put it out now as quickly as possible and maybe try to milk another year out of this record. So that’s what we’re doing [laughs].

 

AR: I’m excited to hear you guys also venturing into some other genres too, like with Open Mike Eagle. I think that’s super interesting. It sounds really good.

 

SB: The first time I heard the beat was incredible. But then hearing their verses on top of it…they took the meaning of the song and brought it to a whole other place that’s so much deeper in my opinion. It’s fantastic. I’m really, really amazed at what they did.

 

AR: And you guys have known each other for a while now, right? 

 

SB: Yeah, a couple years. 

 

AR: Nice. It’s such a cool little intersection of artists that I never would have thought would come together.

 

SB: Yeah, something our band thrives on is creating random moments that one would not expect.

 

AR: I feel like you can definitely hear that in the lyrics, which is something that I personally love about it. Speaking of lyrics, you’ve always been very transparent in your lyrics, but on Disposable Everything, you kind of add another level of personal intimacy and openness. What was that experience like? 

 

SB: I mean, it felt necessary to write those lyrics, because that’s a great therapeutic value that I get out of songs. 

 

AR: How did it feel to like, put that out there? 

 

SB: I would say, uncomfortable, but necessary. Artistically [and] personally fulfilling. And maybe therapeutically necessary I could say. 

 

AR: Okay, so: 30 years from now. What do you want people to remember AJJ by? 

 

SB: Oh man, that’s a generous question [laughs]. You know, I hope we get recognized for being a band that was not afraid to follow their interests, wherever it took them. I would [also] hate for us ever to be remembered as cynical. Like, yeah, [we] want to be a band of positive discovery.

 

AR: What about what about a particular album? If someone in like 30 years is like, “Oh, you hear this band, AJJ?” and then someone was like, “What album did you hear?” What album would you want to be remembered by? 

 

SB: [laughs] Whatever the newest one is!

 

AR: So I’m gonna take that as 30 years from now, you guys are still gonna be making music? 

 

SB: Yeah. That’d be cool.

 

AR: It’d be really cool. I mean, I’m hoping for that at least. Well, what’s next for you personally, with AJJ or aside from AJJ? 

 

SB: I’m writing new AJJ tunes. We are going to do some shows in the fall as a two-piece…we really need to get back to Canada, because it’s been just a very long time since we’ve been to Canada, since before COVID. So I’m gonna pencil that in as a light plan, although I couldn’t speak to any specifics. On a personal note, I’m producing a band called Sewerbitch that’s really good – I have to get started mixing the record while I’m on this tour. Thanks for asking.

 

AR: Yeah, no worries. Well, yeah, I was gonna use this opportunity to try and convince you to come to Toronto i. If that Canada tour’s somewhat in the books. 

 

SB: Yeah. I’ll push for it. 

 

AR: I appreciate it. Well, thank you so much. Do you have any final thoughts or words for the Met Radio audience?

 

SB: Yeah. I mean, I think I should probably use this opportunity to say Free Palestine and the genocide. Thanks, Amber.

 

AR: Thank you so much.

 

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.