Goddamn Electric Bill | The Official Website

We have been listening to Topics For Gossip for the last two months and it still blows us away! We talked with Jason Torbert about how it all came to be.

Hello how are you doing?

I’m doing well. Thanks!

Could you please shortly introduce yourselves for our readers as this is your first interview for us (hopefully one of the many to come)?

My name is Jason Torbert and I am the evil mastermind behind the band, Goddamn Electric Bill from sunny San Diego, California.

We’re rather curious about the name of the band? What is the story behind it? A smart marketing technique perhaps, because we noticed that quite often we exclaim the name of the band whenever the electric bill arrives (especially in this time of the crisis)?

I was in another band back in 1995 and was making music on my own, in a non-serious way – more of a way to relax. The drummer and I were coming up with different band names that involved things people yell about. “Goddamn Electric Bill” was the winner. It’s funny because the name occasionally gets me some hate mail, but turned out to be an amazing marketing technique. Most people are so intrigued by the name that they have to listen. So, hopefully that keeps happening!

So was the name the curse or the blessing in the end? Personally speaking, I didn’t expect such truly beautiful music behind such a name. I was expecting more of a punk trash band.

Thank you! And, you’re not the only one. I love that and try to take full advantage of the confusion. Check out the “Swallowed by the Machines” album – with the T-Rex on the cover. So Metal.

Keep Reading… (English)

The next time some stranger from the gray depths of Middle America messages you on Facebook with visions of surf, sun and palms in the eyes to say, “Hey! We don’t know each other but I’m moving to San Diego soon and would really appreciate any advice on what to expect,” introduce them to the music of one-man band Jason Torbert, 32, better known as Goddamn Electric Bill.

An echoey hybrid of folk and ambient electronica, Torbert’s music sets the scene for the true Southern California: a faded, scorched bed of dust where two deserts, one of sea and one of stark, cactus-studded sand, collide. It’s an image that shares little in common with the lush, leafy endless summer facade Main Street marketing firms use to sell board shorts to Kansans, but hey, sometimes the truth burns.

Judging by the contemplativeness of his quiet riots, you’d never guess Torbert totes an extended history of playing in punk bands. September brought his third and latest effort, “Topics for Gossip,” released on 99X/10 Records (former Cure keyboardist Roger O’Donnell’s label), but his music has been turning up on shows like “The Real World” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” not to mention San Diego Music Award ballots, shortly after it first made its way out of his Ocean Beach studio in 2005.

“I make music that calms my mind, he says. “Put everything else behind and relax, drive to work, eat some pasta, ride a bike in my mellow world.

Describe yourself as a musician in three sentences.

Hyper-focused perfectionist with a messy studio. Lanky guy with way too many instruments and not enough time. Kid at heart.

Now the same story in three words?

Man-child perfectionist.

Tell us the tale of how GDEB got its name.

It wasn’t a well thought out decision and in hindsight I probably wouldn’t have named the project that. I was just brainstorming funny band names with a friend. Most had expletives. Seemed to be the nature of the naming quest. I thought of (way too) many phrases that contain expletives and then moved on to phrases like “Ouch, my toe!” and “Use a turn signal!”

Define “folktronica.”

Acoustic electronica. Add some unplugged instruments to the keyboards and bam.

Continue reading “STREET PEOPLE: Goddamn Electric Bill” »

(Pick up the Thursday, December 11th, paper for the print version)