It wasn’t too long ago that G. Love and Donavon Frankenreiter decided they wanted to team up for the ultimate good-time backyard barbecue record. Rather than tackling the jam session project on their own, the duo asked Cisco Adler — SoCal’s king of summer vibes and good times — to help out and produce the album. But after scheduling issues kept G. Love and Frankenreiter from stepping into the studio on the same days, it became apparent that Adler was going to be a bigger part of the record than just the producer.
“We all fell in the river, and we decided to let it take us instead of swimming to the shore,” Adler says. “It was totally natural as three homies getting together. I was approached first as a producer, but it became apparent that this was a project for all three of us.”
“We didn’t go into it with expectations or anything, but once we started doing it, we knew we had something,” G. Love adds. “We’re always plugging away on new music, and once in a while you just hit gold.”
With the newly formed trio firmly in place, Jamtown became the group’s unofficial — and then official — name. Although they’d all known each other for years, the first three-way collaboration of Jamtown likely couldn’t have happened 5 or 10 years ago. Aside from the shared musical visions, the Megazord of a band benefits from the fact that everyone already knows what they’re doing and is in a solid place in their lives.
“This has been a really magical musical experience for me, because I’m used to being the main guy in my band, and it just feels so great to share the load with two of my best friends,” G. Love says. “The vibe that we all have together on and off the court is just great. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of excitement. Certain things happen at certain moments of people’s lives, and that’s what this is.”
“The only reason this makes any sense is that we’re three pros and three people with our own audiences that overlap but not completely,” Adler adds. “It’s almost like a Voltron thing. If we all get together, can we get all of the good time people in the world to dance with us? We’re not going to go tour the fuck out of this thing. This is something special. When we come to your town, you’re getting the three of us and some of our friends for a real badass show.”
As for the music the three amigos created in during their studio time together, it’s a fusion of their three sounds. While the common threads of sunshine and chill vibes reverberate through everything they do, Jamtown is looking to capitalize on the best aspects of each member and bring them to both the audience that already loves them and those who only know one or two of the veteran songwriters.
“We made a collection of songs that speak for themselves,” Adler says. “The best thing about it is the music. It’s a fucking musical explosion. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted if you like the three of us, but it might not be what you think it is.”
“I think this has the potential to be bigger than all three of our solo careers,” G. Love adds. “It’s something that we just stumbled upon, but it’s so great that I can’t believe it.”
But even before the music hit the (digital) shelves last Friday, Jamtown was gearing up for their summer shows — recently they took the stage at the inaugural Arroyo Seco Weekend and the Monterey International Pop Festival and are looking forward to dates with Jack Johnson.
“We have the three of us and our core band, but every show is going to be something special,” Adler says. “If there are three nights of Jamtown, you might have to come to all three nights because it’s never going to be the same shit.”
“It’s always going to be something different,” G. Love adds. “We don’t know what the fuck is going to happen, but we know it’s going to be good.”
Josh Chesler used to play baseball for some pretty cool teams, but now he just writes about awesome stuff like tattoos, music, MMA and sneakers. He enjoys injuring himself by skateboarding, training for fights, and playing musical instruments in his off time.