INTERVIEW WITH JEPHA BY SAMMIE STAR
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HUNTER GARRETT
It’s a warm and breezy Friday morning. Jepha, the bassist for The Used, is standing outdoors wearing black sunglasses during a tour stop, and he’s getting ready for a show. He’s smiling with youthful exuberance, radiating with over-caffeinated joy and excitement that is as bright as the band’s early beginnings back in 2000. Now, 10 albums later, their dreams have been realized. The post-hardcore darlings have reached the pinnacle of success, not only playing a large part in shaping the genre as we know it today, but also establishing themselves as one of the biggest names within the alternative scene.
While each album birthed something different and beyond the scope of one’s musical expectation, The Used’s big and bold, evolving sound opened the gates to more layered experiences within their edgy musical exterior on 2020’s Heartwork and 2023’s Toxic Positivity. Despite having clocked more than 24 years in the music business, Jeph not only looks rejuvenated from purging a lot of the darkness that 2020 had brought upon us, but embracing what years of experience have given him to create albums such as Toxic Positivity and new B-sides record, Medz. However, calling this album a B-sides hardly seems accurate. Medz continues the successful predecessor, feeling like a breath of fresh air for the band.
“We have been around for close to 24 years. It was April or May that made it the official 24-year mark. Woo-hoo, we’re getting up there,” Jeph laughs and smiles. “This record is part two, a continuation of Toxic Positivity. It’s pretty much all the B-sides from that record that didn’t make that record, but we wanted this to be a bit more fun. We didn’t want to release something and say, ‘Here’s the rest of the songs.’ We wanted to release this as a minor record, like a full release but with fun, new stuff. Honestly, the way the band has stuck so long together is that we are friends first. We love touring, we love playing together, we love being together. We are best friends. I’ve known Bert [McCracken, vocals], for 27, 28 years now. It feels like forever.“
“THE WAY THE BAND HAS STUCK SO LONG TOGETHER IS THAT WE ARE FRIENDS FIRST. WE LOVE TOURING, WE LOVE PLAYING TOGETHER, WE LOVE BEING TOGETHER.”
“Musically, we get along for so many different reasons. Especially with the new edition of Joey [Bradford, guitar], he brings a newer vibe. He was a Used fan growing up, so he brings a little bit of the older ideas of The Used into our sound. Sometimes you jam long enough, and you get stuck in your own brain. Joey comes in and recalibrates that. Everyone has their place here, and I am very lucky to have all these guys in the band with me.”
While Medz is meant to be the successor to Toxic Positivity, such soundscapes reflect a sharper pop and more melodic texture wrapped around their staple vile and refined grit that have defined The Used for more than two decades. To keep such a sound intact, yet give them the freedom to explore other sounds, The Used worked with John Feldman as their producer, someone who not only understands the band intimately, but has worked closely with the band for over 20 years.
“THE COOL PART ABOUT THIS WAS THAT THERE WAS THIS INCREDIBLE VIBE, WHICH WASN’T REALLY POSITIVE”
“This one was different. Right before Toxic Positivity, we had done The Canyon with Ross Robinson right before that. Backing all the way up to The Canyon, it was the most fun I ever had recording,” Jeph enthusiastically answers. “I looked up to Ross so much, and it was fun recording with him. It took forever to record, about six months. After that, we got a little burnt out on doing things, because it was taking so long. So, it was nice to finally get back into the studio with Feldman for Heartwork. Coming in for Heartwork, we did the opposite. We moved the recording process as quickly as we could and jammed out as many songs as we could. Whatever stuck, stuck; whatever didn’t, didn’t. We flowed through them quickly. It was a really fast recording process, and it turned out oddly good. So, we tried it again. Toxic Positivity was in the middle of Covid. We were recording Toxic Positivity in and out within Covid. We spent two weeks at John’s house. In 10 days, we recorded 12 or 13 songs, something insane. Right before Toxic Positivity was released, like a couple of months before, we decided to go back into the studio again for like another 14 days. We recorded 10 songs as quickly as we could. The cool part about this was that there was this incredible vibe, which wasn’t really positive,” he pauses.
“Bert was going through a lot of addiction stuff in the first recording session. He was pulling all this emotion—a lot of anger and frustration—from the stuff he was going through, plus us being stuck in Covid, not being able to tour, and friends and family were going through similar problems. There was this long, unknown state. We were thinking, ’What are we going to do?’ We can’t make money anymore, we can’t survive, and all these other people were going through the same thing. We couldn’t do anything. It was a weird and scary time for all of us.“
“IT’S A GREAT RECORD WITH GREAT SONGS THAT FIT WITHIN THE SAME VIBE AS TOXIC POSITIVITY.”
“Bert was having trouble living, in so many ways. When you listen to Toxic Positivity, you can hear a lot of that. You can feel how dark and negative it is. Bert was on medication from doctors that were making it worse. He wasn’t getting better. He was living through this and trying to come off of medication. He was going through withdrawals. Then you come into what we are releasing now, Medz, which is all the B-sides to Toxic Positivity. When I say B-sides, this isn’t to say these are any less important than what we selected for the record before. When we pick songs for a record, we pick the vibe first. What fits that vibe? Some songs are better than others to fit that specific vibe, even if the songs are really good. One of my favorite songs of all time we have ever done is “Pain,” it didn’t make any of the records, but it’s a B-side. Just because it’s a B-side, it doesn’t make them lesser songs. It’s a great record with great songs that fit within the same vibe as Toxic Positivity.”
From the depths of an emotionally intense experience, Toxic Positivity emerged in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic and the unprecedented turmoil that resulted from such sentient devastation. In the midst of this, Medz sprung up, embodying residual themes of loneliness, depression, and a profound aversion to humanity, yet finding love and acceptance within imperfection. For Jeph, this process became an opportunity to embrace his vulnerabilities, ultimately shaping him into a more whole and content individual.
“THAT’S THE BEST PART ABOUT LIFE, ABOUT TOURING, ABOUT BEING A MUSICIAN—THOSE LITTLE IMPERFECTIONS. THEY MAKE EVERYTHING. THAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART ABOUT ART.”
“I love what you said. That’s really important to me,” Jeph emphasizes. “I don’t talk about it enough. Love of imperfections—I thrive off of things not being perfect. Mistakes are important. Playing live shows everyone makes mistakes. It shows that you are human. You’re not a computer, you’re not just tracks being played. The whole vibe about a show is imperfection. Everyone in the crowd is singing, and maybe half of the crowd is in one direction and the other half is in another, but as a whole, it sounds huge. I make a mistake on bass, or at the same time Dan [Whitesides] makes a mistake on drums, somehow it makes a new fill that we never thought of before. Now, for the rest of the time, we keep playing that because we are so excited about the perfect mistake. Even those little crackles when you hear someone sing, and their voice squeaks or cracks a little bit, and they leave it in the recording. That’s the best part about life, about touring, about being a musician—those little imperfections. They make everything. That’s the most important part about art. Those imperfections are the humanity of it all. The amount of friendship from this band and being excited to be together, even going back to Feldman, I don’t have any brothers or sisters, but it’s the closest thing to having a close brother or relative. Seeing a close brother or relative that you haven’t seen in a long time, you get along so well and you almost forget, because it’s been so long. It’s become this family vibe. Going through this record and Bert going through his struggles, and us all being around, trying to help him, trying to figure it out together—the way we created these last few records, all in the same room, we all grew stronger together from that process.”
