Jordan Esker needs to gain some weight. Especially if his dreams of becoming the husky soul singer he says lives inside of him on a new song, “Taking An Office Day,” are going come true.
“I picture Paul Janeway of St. Paul & the Broken Bones or William McDowell,” Esker, who is all of 132 pounds, told CL in a message. “I’ve joked before that I’ll one day get fat for an album just so I can get a different sound from my voice.”
He’s going for it on the almost six-minute cut, and his band The Hundred Percent seems hell bent on taking him there. The song was recorded almost entirely live at St. Pete’s Yoko Phono Recordings (apparently one of the busiest DIY studios in town) and mixed by Orlando, Florida’s Kyle Hoffer, who plays in Ocala emo band False Narrative.
“People always talk about what you lose when you don’t record a band all live in the studio, but no one ever mentions how you literally lose the interaction between the instruments,” Esker added. His guitar plays hot, and will feedback in seconds; he says overdubbing guitars wouldn’t work for what the band is trying to achieve. Singing in the same room as the drums lends itself to having the drum overhead mics pick up a lot of the bass guitar, tactile sounds of the keyboard and even the vocals in the room.
“I basically am just keeping it from feeding back all of the time,” said Esker. “So when Vincent hits certain drums during practice, or someone even talks in a certain frequency, the guitar will react in a certain way.”
The band recently got in a van and embarked on an almost three-week tour that dropped them in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. They’re now back home for the holidays, and will play St. Pete’s Green Bench Brewing Co. on December 30. Next year already looks busy for The Hundred Percent with confirmed plans for a new single, plus the possibility of an additional double single with another Bay area band. They also hope to be featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series after sending application videos two years in a row.
“I think, strangely enough, that both were too polished. So this year I want to do a very broken down version of one of our songs,” Esker said. “Tiny Desk Concerts are all about capturing the raw state of being a musician doing something you are uncomfortable with, which is where the magic happens. I’m a big believer in the beginner’s mind being the ultimate creative state.”
Listen to “Taking An Office Day” and see the tour dates below. Follow the boys on Facebook. Jordan Esker and the Hundred Percent play Green Bench on Dec. 30. Psych-rock outfit House of I open the free show, which starts at 8 p.m. EST. Get more info via local.cltampa.com.
This article appears in Sep 15-22, 2016.