Why is Love Punk? Jammerzine Q&A with lyricist JP Kennedy.

First of all, why is love punk? How did that idea first come to you guys?

It’s an idea that grew – rather than us being struck by lightning. The core of the band has been around the Asheville music scene for 10 years – and being in bands is like being in a relationship. Tons of emotions. Bands break apart and bands come back together. But it’s all worth it. It’s worth picking yourself up and trying again, putting yourself out there. The song “Love Is Punk” was written last summer after two guitar players left and Merlin joined on guitar and Kyrie joined on violin. It’s a wordy narrative song and doesn’t have a lot of melody and people sometimes get up and get a drink when we play it – but it stuck around and we recorded it. The idea slowly grew on us – yeah – love is punk. Love is DIY. Love is noisy and love is trying to be yourself and trying to find someone else and jumping around on stage and just trying to connect. Especially in this world, yeah, love is rebellion. So… Love is PUNK! We finished the recording and Kevin Moloney said: “I hope the album is called Love Is Punk.”

What was working with Kevin Moloney like?

On August 21, 2023, Kevin Moloney reached out to us. “Hi guys! Tis Kevin Moloney here. I’m a record producer from Ireland now resident here in Asheville… I’m digging your raw beautiful songs & will make it along to one of your upcoming gigs soon….” That’s the producer of Sinead O’Connor’s first two albums and engineer of U2’s first five albums. It was crazy. He came to our shows and hung out with us. Craig lives in an old homestead on a dirt road up in the mountains, with small rooms, low ceilings, and a wood fireplace. We’d practice there and Kevin would sit in the doorway with his small book and take notes. He looks like a wizard and speaks with a heavy Irish accent with lots of Irish idioms. If we played “Party Clothes” he’d get up and dance. We played music and drank beers and Irish whiskey into the night. He made us believe in ourselves. It was the sweetest most magical thing.

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