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While he was home for the holidays, I spoke with Omaha native Mike Jaworski, founder of Mt. Fuji Records and of the bands The Cops, Virgin Islands and Hello from Waveland.
After growing up in Omaha, Jaworski moved to Seattle in 1997, but he's kept up with the Nebraska music scene ever since. Bands like Cursive have welcomed Jaworski's bands on tours, and others like Desaparecidos welcomed Jaworski to open shows in Seattle and Portland.
About a year ago, Jaworski moved to Philadelphia, and in that transition, he began writing songs that will make their debut this weekend. Under the name Shocking Waves, Jaworski plays The Sydney in Omaha this Saturday with The Sons of the Sydney and Weldon Keys.
Read on for an interview in which Jaworski talks about what it's like to play songs for the first time and how the Nebraska music scene now compares with the years he spent in bands growing up in Omaha.
Hear Nebraska: First off, I just want to ask how the show came together.
Mike Jaworski: It came together rather last-minute. I’m good friends with the guys who play in the band The Sons Of: Kelly Maxwell, Mike Tulis, Mike Loftus, Matt Rutledge. Those guys are old friends of mine. Seems like whenever I come to town, we’ve generally tried to do something together musically.
In the past, I’ve joined the Sons Of onstage for a show, and in talking to Kelly — we talk on the phone frequently — he said, “Do you wanna play a show when you come to Omaha over the holidays,” and I was kind of like, “If you can put something together, sure.” So he called our friend Jamie who runs The Sydney and managed to put something together.
He also contacted the band Weldon Keys from Lincoln, who made a really cool record from what I understand. They’re joining us on the bill as well. It kind of came together in the last week, and because of that, we’re making it a free show. It’ll be a holiday, free-for-all fun time thing.
HN: Sounds good. Now, could you give me a synopsis of your time as a musician moving from Omaha to Seattle and to Philly?
MJ: I lived in Seattle for approximately 15 years, and in that time, I played in a few different bands. Most recently, I was in a band called Virgin Islands, and before that, I was in another band called The Cops. The very first band I played in Seattle was called Hello from Waveland. That sort of summarizes the majority of the past 15 or 16 years.
A little over a year ago, my wife and I moved from Seattle to Philadelphia. In that time, I’ve been spending the majority of my free time working on writing songs, not really certain about what will happen with music. It takes a little bit of time to get a project off the ground. Eventually in Philadelphia, after seven or eight months, I started playing with a drummer, and now I’ve got a couple other guys I’m playing with.
The songs from SoundCloud I recorded those in Seattle back in July with a couple friends of mine. Trying to put this new project together, tentatively calling it Shocking Waves. I’m just seeing how things will pan out with the guys in Philly. We just started playing together a couple months ago. It feels pretty positive. I have a feeling that it’s going to morph into a new band.
It’s interesting, though, because I’ve been writing a lot of songs, and certain songs might be better for other projects. I have a lot of stuff that I’m not sure where it will end up just yet. As far as what I’ll play on Saturday, it’ll be super loose. I’ll play a couple songs from The Cops or Virgin Islands, but mostly, it’ll be songs that have never have been performed. Who knows? Maybe it will be the first and only time they’ll be performed publicly, maybe it’ll be the start of something good.
HN: All right. Tell me a little about what that’s like to play songs for the first time publicly for you?
MJ: It’s really exciting to play the songs for the first time, especially if it’s something you’ve worked on with a band for a long time. At some point, you have to do it. You have to let it go and, let people hear it, anyone in the universe who wants to hear it. It’s an interesting process. Some of the songs I’ll play probably aren’t quite ready, but I’ll play them anyway. I just figure why not, it’ll be a fun time with friends. Depending on who plays with them, the songs will probably end up sounding vastly different when recorded.
This performance is nerve-wracking for me because I’m going to do at least four or five songs by myself, maybe with one or two other people. But I haven’t done a solo performance in several years. People do it all the time, but I’m not one of those people. The show is free, and I expect people will get their money’s worth. It might be a bit of a train wreck, but that’s OK, as long as no one’s recording it (laughs).
HN: You say you wrote these songs during the transition from Seattle to Philly. Take me back to that time, and what the transition was like for you.
MJ: I mean, it’s interesting. With the change of living in Seattle for so long and going to a place on the East Coast, I’ve been several times but I didn’t know anybody. It’s not unfamiliar territory. It’s intimidating. I’ve lived in three cities: Omaha, Seattle and Philly. I think people are creatures of habit. We get accustomed to certain environments. I was excited to get out of my comfort zone, and with that, you go through a lot of personal changes.
It was interesting, I came up with the name Shocking Waves after bass player from Virgin Islands used the phrase in talking about something unrelated. It stuck out to me and represented something symbolically in my life at the time. I was moving across the country to the East Coast right at the same time that Hurricane Sandy had just hit New York and New Jersey, and I was moving to a close proximity to that, the name represented these waves of upheaval, and it forces you to become more introspective. I think that’s been reflected in the songwriting. I’ve always combined the personal and the political in my lyrics. In my mind, they always overlap. Perhaps some of the newer songs have become more personal, though some of them touch on overarching political themes.
HN: Do you know how the bassist would have defined "shocking waves" in the context of how he said it?
MJ: He was just talking about something that happened that day. His name is Ryan Devlin, and he’s an awesome person. For our last two shows as Virgin Islands, we were fortunate to open up for Desaparecidos in Seattle and Portland. We were just rehearsing for those shows. Something happened, wasn’t anything tragic, but someone had said something to him, and he said, “I was overcome with shocking waves,” and I just thought it was powerful and it took on its own meaning to me at that time.
HN: From what you can tell, how does Nebraska music now compare with the time you lived here?
MJ: There seems to be a bigger, healthier scene. With the amazing capabilities of the internet and sites like Hear Nebraska and Tim McMahan’s blog. With social media, it’s so easy to access all this information. I feel like it’s encouraged more people to play music. There’s more outlets to get your creative work out there.
At the same time, I felt like when I left Nebraska in ’97, there was a great music scene. I grew up with Tim Kasher, Matt Maginn and Ted Stevens, and a lot of the Saddle Creek guys. They’d been working really hard for several years to get to the point where, right after I left, the Omaha scene blew up. I’ve been really good friends with those guys. Cursive’s been good to me, and have had my bands go on tour with them. It’s cool. I definitely will always feel like a part of the Nebraska music scene.
At the same time, there are so many new bands doing cool shit that I find via Hear Nebraska or through friends. Bands like See Through Dresses, Oliver Morgan’s new band Twinsmith. So much good stuff happening here. And others who have done it forever like Simon Joyner. He’s such an amazing artist, and it’s good to see him continue to make great music. It’s very inspiring.
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He wonders what he'd be like if his last name were something like Jaworski instead of Todd. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.