Jack O' The Clock
The greatest ideas often happen by accident. Formed in Oakland, California in 2007, Jack O’ The Clock have become one of American prog’s best kept secrets. Founder, frontman and chief songwriter Damon Waitkus never really intended to form a prog band, absorbed as he was in studying classical composition at music college. But after being exposed to the musical ingenuity of one of his tutors – Henry Cow’s Fred Frith - Waitkus embarked on a creative voyage that has produced some of the most startling and imaginative prog music of the last 20 years, Cow-esque bassoon parts included.
“We all knew about Henry Cow, and we were studying with Fred, and so the bassoon from Henry Cow was always in our ears,” he tells 'Prog'. “I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to add bassoon to this? Emily (violinist and Waitkus’s spouse) ran into an old youth orchestra friend who happened to be a bassoonist, so we asked if she wanted to join the band. At the same time, a couple of other people heard the music and said it was cool, and they joined as well. So we picked up bassoon and a rhythm section at the same time. I realised that this was going to be a rock band, and all my prog rock background came forward.”
A low-key project that evolved into something much more, Jack O’ The Clock have had several line-ups and numerous changes in direction. From the tentative, progged-out folk rock of their earliest recordings, and the breakthrough splurge of 'Repetitions Of The Old City Parts I' and 'II', everything Waitkus’s band have produced has been fascinating. While increasingly rooted in left-field prog and its penchant for unusual instrumentation, Jack O’ The Clock songs are so full of ideas that it is impossible to pin them down to a single genre. Their latest album, 'Portraits', is another curveball. Pieced together from songs written by Waitkus at the dawn of the millennium, with all-new lyrics and arrangements, it is arguably the most accessible and straightforward record the band have made.
“When I wrote these songs, I was trying to be a serious composer,” he chuckles. “I applied to grad school, and I thought I didn’t want to write songs anymore. It was always ‘I’m just doing this for fun!’, sitting on the front porch with a guitar and messing around. So there’s not a lot of conceit in these songs. Musically, it’s just what sounds good and what’s fun to play. There are some people that like the poppier songs, that aspect of Jack O’ The Clock. But it’s never been so concentrated before.”
Jack O’ The Clock have only been a sporadic live force over the last two decades, but with 'Portraits' receiving significantly more attention than any previous album, Waitkus is hoping to return to the stage more regularly in the near future. But anyone who has experienced his band’s sumptuously detailed music in the past will have concluded that Jack O’ The Clock is very much an entity that thrives in the studio. It comes as no surprise, then, that their next move will be another studio record, and it will not be anything like 'Portraits'… and that’s the way Waitkus likes it.
“I got obsessed with writing sets of intertwined songs during the pandemic, so rather than single big pieces or short songs, the new songs are more interrelated,” he explains. “We did a few albums without the bassoon, but the bassoon is now back! It’s all more guitar focused, and I got this thing called the Taishogoto, which I’ve used a lot more recently. Everything has been written for the live band. Like //Portraits//, it’s about different intentions, different aims, and a different mood.”
- Dom Lawson
PROG FILE
LINE-UP: Damon Waitkus (vocals/guitar/piano/dulcimer), Kate McLoughlin (bassoon), Emily Packard (violin), Victor Reynolds (bass/guitar/piano/vocals), Ben James (drums)
SOUNDS LIKE: Wildly melodic, folk-fuelled avant-prog with no limitations
CURRENT RELEASE: //Portraits// is available now via Bandcamp
WEBSITE: jackotheclock.bandcamp.com