First I’d like to start off by congratulating you on your newest Single release “Blessings In Disguise”, we just love the music video! So thank you for taking the time to chat with us JIMKATA , we’re fans already! Can you actually start off by telling us where the group’s name comes from?
Thank YOU! The three of us go way back, all the way to middle school when we first met and started our own punk/grunge cover band. Sometime later in high school we started writing our own music and experimenting with recording at our friend Garrett’s house. One day while we were taking a break from tracking whatever weird kind of music we were making at that time, he showed us this ridiculous movie called Gymkata. It’s kind of a so-bad-its-good type of movie starring 1984 olympic gold medal gymnast Kurt Thomas performing his own brand of martial arts, a blend of gymnastics and karate, in order to save the world. Hilarity ensues and yet this was a serious movie, seriously marketed as an action movie for the masses. Anyways, we had our first gig coming up and needed a name and that one just stuck.
What was shooting the music video for the song like?
This one was created during the pandemic so actually getting together to film a music video seemed impossible. We were, however, able to shoot a few things ourselves and send it to the brilliant animator Ben Clarkson. He created this entire video by hand using collage. So everything you see are selected cutouts that he spliced together. We just sent him a couple of videos of us singing or playing instruments and he was able to seamlessly blend them in with the ever changing array of landscapes he created. You can even see some footage from one of our live shows in there. It was exciting to watch the finished product. I watched it 10 times in a row, just kind of mesmerized by all the detail. It seems like theres something new to discover every time.
Were there any recording challenges during the making of the song?
I’m really thankful we were able to all get together in the studio before this whole pandemic happened. I think one of the challenges was that we hadn’t all played together in quite a while since we had only just reunited as a band before getting in the studio. In the past we’ve been used to touring and being pretty warmed up as a group before hitting the studio. Sometimes we’d have already played the songs live quite a bit before recording them. This time I had to teach myself how to play the guitar parts that I created on the original demos before tracking them officially in the studio. I had basically forgotten what I wrote.
Name the proudest moment when you released “Blessings In Disguise”?
This is gonna sound weird as a proudest moment but I got a lot of feedback from family members- uncles, aunts, cousins – saying this was their favorite song so far. A lot of them are musicians and I trust their opinion so seeing their approval made me think, “hmm maybe it is actually pretty good”. It’s weird how no matter how many fans or critics tell you it’s great, it takes certain family members or musicians you respect showing you some love to convince you it’s actually good.
Is there anyone you would just LOVE to collaborate on a single with?
I can’t think of anyone in particular but there’s definitely people I’d like to just be around during the creation process. I’d love to make beats for Kendrick Lamar and witness his writing process. Or be in the studio while Radiohead is writing. Or be a collaborative writer for someone with a totally different voice than mine. I think Lizzo is pretty badass. Or Kacey Musgraves who I think is an incredible songwriter and singer. It would just be cool to be able to expand the horizon by creating something for someone with a different voice and energy. But you know maybe I’m shooting a little high dropping these kinds of names haha…
We can’t wait to see what you have in store next! Please tell us where we can follow YOU and also watch and listen to “Blessings In Disguise”!!!
Follow us EVERYWHERE! We’re on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and I even just started a Tik Tok account… Follow us on Spotify to stay tuned for the next release. Lots more new stuff on the way. Thanks!
