Singled Out: Hero Jr.'s Jump Ship

Hero Jr. have made a name for themselves playing with artists like Alice Cooper, Tom Petty, Queensryche, John 5, Offspring, Saliva, we asked Evan Haughey to tell us about the song "Jump Ship" from their album "Sometimes You Just Gotta Give It The Business." Here is the story:

Jump Ship was written more than two years before it was released on our Sometimes You Just Gotta Give It The Business album. As with all our songs we road test them before we go into the studio because we record live as a band and do not overdub. In a catalog of over 25 "A" songs that we play on tour Jump Ship has been in the set almost non-stop. Jump Ship is about re?ection, growth and not always following the "norms" and conditioning of our society. It's literally about Jumping Ship from the way we are told we have to be. We are not a band interested in preaching but the theme of change, growth and getting on with life pops up a lot. As with a lot of our songs we have found they have different meanings to many different fans and we love the room for individual interpretation. A lot of the time Ken and I can weave our two individual stories in one lyric, giving it two meanings from the start! Once Ken and I write the song on acoustic guitars. We bring it into the band and when everyone plugs in and plays it instantly becomes Hero Jr. Jump Ship was written in about 45 minutes. Ken and I had a basic chord progression and we knew we wanted to write our take on visual and print media and the control it has over the mass population. In addition to what we experience by reading the press and being a part of social media we travel over 150 days a year and we notice similar stereotypes in many of the people we work with and how they are a product of the "sheep" phenomenon. Through observation it's amazing how many people just "do" things because that's "what you are supposed to do". No thought. No introspection. No realization on how what you do will play out with others. I think the "Smoking dirty ashes" line and metaphor is a fun way of talking about the pointlessness of the way we receive and act upon information. It's my favorite line in the song. "Put it in a test tube" relates to the way the disseminators of information calculate the way the public will react to their information upon delivery. The test tube part was loosely inspired from a documentary I watched about how scientists "create" chemical essences for food companies to make their products smell like the "real" food. "When the rust divides and you're left in your own skin" is the point where you've had enough and you need to take the leap of faith and trust ("Look into the sky she's gonna answer with a smile") before you "Jump Ship". When Ken and I write we have that same "trust" and we are lucky to sit down, have a laugh and let the song compose itself. We have known each other for twice as long as we have been in a band and we can ?nish each others sentences the same way our guitars usually sound like one big fat guitar monster. Being in a band is awesome!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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