JACOB REINHART

 

JACOB REINHART

I first became aware of you through your YouTube channel, where you've uploaded shitloads of cool guitar covers of mostly punk and skate punk songs. Then I noticed a few where you were posting your own material and got stoked. Can you give the readers a proper introduction to yourself and your band The Stinky Meatballs?

Absolutely! My name is Jacob Reinhart, and I’ve been listening to Punk ever since I played the Tony Hawk‘s Pro skater games. I have been involved in my local scene for about 3 or 4 years, and I have been playing music in the stinky meatballs for about 2 of them. It started off with me making home recorded demos in audacity playing all the instruments. I released a four song EP that had a lot of positive reviews, so I decided to turn the solo project into a full band, and recruited a couple friends from our scene. The lineup has been consistent ever since.

Congrats on releasing your first official album "Emotional Rollercoaster". I read that the album was based on songs you recorded all by yourself at first, and then you recruited friends to play on newly recorded versions? What was the process like for creating this album start to finish?

Well first I wanna start off by saying that recording the album in an actual studio has got to be one of the most fun things I’ve ever done, and it has a lot to do with our producer, JC Griffin at lakebottom recording house. The process was basically everybody Learning the songs to play live for about the first year of us being a band, and then going into the studio. I’m very open to new ideas, so I had no problem with our drummer and bass player introducing different basslines or drum fills. If they enhance the songs, then I was all for them (and enhance them they did). We recorded the drums first, with me doing scratch guitar, then we recorded the guitars, then the bass, then the vocals. A little re-amping and a couple things being punched in, and it was done.

What's your songwriting background? When did you first break down that barrier between "player" and "composer"?

I always kind of wanted to write songs even when I was growing up but nothing ever really came to fruition until my high school days. I had a very cringy rapper phase in high school where I would make mediocre beats and wrap over them, but I never actually went anywhere with it and got made fun of for it. When it came to me getting into Punk a lot more, I would always come up with stuff here and there but again they would never really go anywhere. That was until I started getting into local scene and that’s when I actually started putting my ideas into recordings. The first song I ever wrote for the stinking meatballs was “you’re too young to bitch about being old” and The next thing I know I have three demo EPs and a professional studio album.

Your pages are proudly emblazoned with the slogan "DEFEND SKATE PUNK". I am a huge fan of that style of punk but find it hard to believe that it remains relevant to people younger than 40! How did you get into it originally, and what are your favorite all-time skate punk bands/albums?

4 words: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Those games were a huge stepping stone for me getting into Punk. My favorite songs from the soundtrack’s were always the ones with the 1-2 skate Punk beat (Seneca Falls, Blackball, etc.). I really like looking into stuff that I really like to the point where I become borderline obsessed with it, so even though I listen to a lot of other sub genres of Punk besides skate Punk, it remains my favorite sub genre. A lot of my favorite skate punk bands are Millencolin, Frenzal Rhomb, mi6, Guttermouth, Pennywise, and Bad Religion.

You also skate and seem to have a deep appreciation for old school skating (not unlike your musical tastes). How deep into skating are you, and are there any good spots/skateparks where you live?

Admittedly I don’t necessarily skate as much as I used to, but if I get on the board I can still do what I’m able to do. I can’t necessarily do real life 1 million point combos, but for what it is I can definitely make it look like I know what I’m doing. Again, the Tony hawk games inspired that. A couple spots that I can name off the top of my head are Parmalee park in Lambertville, pacesetter Park and Sylvania, and the DIY park off Central and Buckeye. I really need to go to that last one because I see videos of it nowadays and it looks a lot more intricate.

My take on Ohio is that it's always had a very fertile and diverse musical culture. Lots of great punk and metal seem to come out of different parts of Ohio as well. Do you feel that there's a vital scene where you live?

Oh absolutely. There’s a lot of bands outside of the Punk scene that I absolutely love. Variety is the spice of life, so if there was just a punk scene it would kind of get boring. Everyone’s friends with each other and supports each other. I’ve even had people outside of the Punk scene share our album, and I would do the same for them.

Do you feel more connected to the punk/pop punk scenes via the Internet and your YouTube channel? Do you think that technology has opened more doors for you as an artist with respect to networking and building community?

100%. With my guitar covers I like to cover smaller bands based on the fact that they’re more likely to see it. I appreciate the music so I wanted to show my appreciation to them, and in a sense that’s how I get their attention. I’ve made a lot of good friends doing that. Despite my love-hate relationship for it, and a lot of older punks not liking this take, I feel that the Internet really helps your band if you’re marketing it correctly. So long as you’re a friendly person, don’t have an ego, and your music doesn’t suck, you should be OK.

What's next for you? What are your ultimate goals for The Stinky Meatballs and for your music in general?

To be completely honest, I’m not exactly sure. I’m definitely up for making more and more music as the years go by since I’m always thinking about songs to write, and when corona ceases to exist in the near future, we’ll see if we can definitely play out of town shows. I feel also some ultimate goals like becoming famous aren’t necessarily something you can plan out, so we’re kind of taking this one goal at a time. (The most recent goal being the album.) We’re still practicing as well so we’re preparing to get back out there when everything is back to normal, whatever that may be.

Any final words/shout-outs?

I wanna give a shout out to my buddies in the bands the Robinsons, Scooped Up, Atomic Treehouse, Take Weight, as well as our entire local scene, Punk and all. And the biggest shout out of all I wanna give is to our full band, Brandon, Eddie and Benji. You guys fucking rule for playing with me.