Anyone who's heard the music of Jabid knows that there's no one else in Lincoln creating music anything like what he's doing. Bizarre lyrics that are frequently based around medical topics, like Hepatitus B, etc. Most of the songs are REALLY short, like less than 1:30, which is really cool for the ADD addled among us. Jabid is, of course, Javid Dabestani from Bright Calm Blue and other Lincoln bands, but when he performs as Jabid, he actually becomes Jabid, you can see a physical change come over him as he performs. Known for standing on stage throughout his whole show with a bottle of been in one hand and a cigarrette in the other, I started out by asking Jabid about he recent smoking ban.

SCS: First off, I gotta ask, now that there’s no smoking in bars anymore, will Jabid ever perform live again, and if so will you just have a beer bottle in both hands now?

Jabid: You know, they shouldn't have passed that law against smoking cigarettes in public buildings. It's not the cigarette that is the problem. It's the thousands of chemicals inside cigarettes that everyone is crying about. What people forget is that a) these chemicals make you feel good and have positive effects for smokers (such as enhanced peripheral vision, faster reaction time when driving, and a calming effect that attacks those damn jittery feelings), and b) we breathe in billions and billions of harmful microorganisms every single day...you can't escape them! A better law would have been to make non-smokers wear those stupid silk masks around their mouths in public for being such babies.

SCS: How long have you been writing and performing as Jabid?

Jabid: I recorded my first album with Mike Bredehoft sometime in 2002. I played my first show a year or so later. Then I took a long break, and now I have six new songs that I recorded with Brendan McGinn and I play a lot more.

SCS: As I think I’ve mentioned in a review I did of one of your shows, I hear a lot of Zappa influence in your stuff, a little Ween, a little Residents, and lots of other things as well. What types of music and which musicians/groups influenced your Jabid writing?

Jabid: Yeah, I've never really listened to Zappa but I used to have "The Pod" by Ween (the only good album they wrote) but I stopped listening to them around 10 years ago. I didn't really consider any influences when I wrote my first album...Mike and I did it in two hours or so...I wrote the music as Mike recorded (except for courage under strength which I wrote on Adam2000's computer), and it was all 'push record and play'...all improvised, no practice. However, I am sure The Residents and all of that Ralph Records stuff like Renaldo and the Loaf were subconsciously influential...I was listening to a lot of that stuff at that time.

SCS: Where do you get your bizarre medical lyrics from?

Jabid: Research.

SCS: You had mentioned Mike recording some of your stuff. Do you record your own stuff on a computer? If not, where/how do you do it?

Jabid: Brendan does it at his house, and, on the newer stuff, he even contributes. He is responsible for a lot of the noisy stuff on the album. He's fun to record with...very innovative. On a few tracks, he made me sing into a sauce pan, and it sounded great. You should record with him if he has time.

SCS: Do you program all the music yourself?

Jabid: Yeah, well, it's also the keyboard. I have a cheap Yamaha that Dutch gave me (he's a river guide). I record stuff at random and speed it up, play along with it, as it's recorded.

SCS: You just released a disk which contains, if I’m not mistaken, everything you’ve recorded so far, and you mentioned some new songs. Is there a new CD in the works?

Jabid: Yeah, I'm going to record some more material and then Josh in Idaho is going to put everything out on his label called "Terrordactyl" records.

SCS: Do you take this pretty seriously, or do you think of it as a side project to Bright Calm Blue (or whatever it’s morphing into) and other stuff you’ve done?

Jabid: It started as one little virus and then multiplied in my cells, so what can I do? Viral infections can't be cured.

SCS: Speaking of Bright Calm Blue, how’s it going with whatever that band is morphing into? Does the band have a new name yet?

Jabid: Fine. No.

SCS: Anything else you want to share with our readers?

Jabid: Don't touch me unless you wash your hands with anti-bacterial soap first.






- Tery Daly