Review Fix Exclusive: Scientist’s Jesse Schaefer Talks ‘World EP: Mobile Lab Remix Edition’

Review Fix chats with Scientist’s Jesse Schaefer who discusses the band’s new EP, “World EP: Mobile Lab Remix Edition.” Schaefer also breaks down the band’s obsession with everything pop culture and their goals for the future.

Get your gameboys ready, this is going to be fun.

Review Fix: What was the creation process like for this album?

Jesse Schaefer: Gameboys. Well, gameboys and pop music. We grew up loving both, and wanted to incorporate the things we loved about fun pop music with the catchy and unique sounds of Gameboys we all grew up playing. Concerning the remixes, we have an element on our website called The Experiment, where we encourage nerds to cover one of our songs in their own style in a video, and we’d do the same in return. That sparked an interest in us to hear what some of our favorite artists’ takes would be on our songs. Thus, the Mobile Lab Remix EP was born.

Review Fix: What do you think you’ve learned through the production of the album?

Schaefer: We’ve learned to continue to work on and improve songs. When we were 14 year old kids and writing songs in our room, when it was finished, it was finished. Constant evaluation and improvement on a song not only makes it better, but it keeps it fun and fresh for us as the band. Come to a live show and you’ll hear slight differences in the songs, as well as seeing us run around like idiots switching instruments and throwing drums at each other.

Review Fix: How has the band’s older work influenced this album?

Schaefer: One song in particular, “Forest,” has been around for years before this album came out. It was one that never quite clicked and then in the process of writing for this album, it all came together. And directly, the remixes were influenced by the original versions of the songs BUT even more so, we can already see the remixes influencing new songs we’re writing now. It’s an endless cycle!

Review Fix: Is there a song on the album you’re particularly proud of? One you feel must be listened to?

Schaefer: As a pop music fan, “Coming Up” is my favorite on the album. It just makes you feel happy. That being said, it changes day to day. Forest is one of the more emotionally transparent songs on the record and musically reminds us of a movie score. We wrote it as such. Life is full of ups and downs, excitement and tranquility, and we wanted the dynamics in the song to reflect that.

Review Fix: What’s the band’s creative process like?

Schaefer: Voice memo, after voice memo, after voice memo. We send ideas for melodies, lyrics, riffs, everything back and forth constantly. It’s a community effort to improve and piece together a song. Sometimes a song will come all at once; lyrics, melody, the whole thing. Other times, just one line will come, or a melody, and you build on that over time. We could show you 6 different versions/stages of almost every song we’ve ever written.

Review Fix: What do you think you have to do to get to that next level as a band?

Schaefer: We’ve challenged ourselves to get more personal in our writing; lyrically and musically. We’re working on a few songs right now that are some of the most direct lyrics we’ve ever written about our thoughts and lives. More than anything, we want people to be happy and have fun. The fact that we’re even alive is reason to be joyful, and we want our new music to reflect that. Let’s have a party, y’all. We deserve it.

Review Fix: How do you want this album to affect the music scene?

Schaefer: Scientists change peoples perception on how things work and should be. IE – the world’s view of communication changed with the telephone, and furthermore with the internet. The same can be said about the lightbulb. THAT is why we called ourselves Scientist. We want to change the worlds perception of what pop music look and sounds like. We area always looking for ways to incorporate different instruments and cool sounds in to our songs. We want to change what live shows look like. Come see us on the road and we’ll be switching instruments, coming out in to the crowd, all sorts of stuff; high energy, Gameboys, danger, it’s all there.

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*