Boys Go To Jupiter talk band dynamics and “Wish U Were Here”

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Three-piece band Boys Go To Jupiter sat down with me to talk all about their lives and music. Not only are they extraordinary musicians, but they’re also extraordinary people with an incredibly unique and rare dynamic. The New York based band spoke on their origins, the music making process, and much more.

Introduce yourselves and tell me what you do in the band.

Jess: I’m Jess and I’m the singer, I’m also one of the songwriters.

Caleb: I’m Caleb, I play keys, and I’m also a songwriter.

Luke: I’m Luke, I play guitar, and I’m also a songwriter!

Awesome, lots of writers, love to see it. How did you begin and how did you get to the point that you’re at now?

Caleb: Luke has it.

Luke: Okay, Jess and I like to alternate telling the origin story so that we can both spin it in our own way. Two, almost three years ago, Jess and I met on a little app called Hinge. We went on a date, and it was a very good first date. We bonded over music and How I Met Your Mother and all sorts of things happening in our lives. We went on another date, also good, but by the third date, I was like “I feel like we’re on the same page and this is more of a friend vibe,” and I had just moved to the city but Jess had been there for a while. So I asked her if she wanted to hang out again but as friends. Okay, I’ll hand it off to Jess.

Jess: I was really not into that, I told him that it wasn’t going to work for me. But, I don’t know, something in me felt connected to Luke in a way that kind of surpassed the Hinge thing. I came over and met Caleb who he had been living with at the time, and it was kind of from that moment that the three of us started making music together. I knew Luke and I would figure it out because the three of us had to be in a band, it was inevitable.

Caleb: It was a whirlwind, it was crazy. They hated each other, Cece, I can’t even explain. 

This might be the best origin story I’ve heard so far!

Caleb: Okay, they didn’t actually hate each other but it was like they were at a crossroads. There was passion, and that passion was either going to go in a negative way or positive way, and luckily it went in a positive way. But the strong feelings were there either way, and it all worked out. 

Luke: Now we’re all a big happy family!

That’s great, and seriously the funniest and craziest origin story I’ve heard. Not kidding! Okay, you said that all three of you are songwriters in the band. I love the line in “Wall St” that says, “They’re saving up and I’m spending common cents on you.” When you’re writing lyrics, where do you start?

Jess: It’s so funny you say that because that song and that line was written about Luke. That song goes to show how we write music. A week or two after meeting Luke, I wrote that as a response to the excitement that I felt about meeting this person. But, it had nowhere to go because we weren’t a band yet. That was the thing I was most excited about when we started hanging out as a trio. Caleb and Luke’s individual songwriting abilities mixed with mine and I just felt like we had a cool opportunity where we spoke a very similar language in terms of songwriting. We were all different and yet completely understood how each other wrote. 

Caleb: “Wall St” was interesting from a technical perspective, Jess writes her lyrics in her notes app. She’s definitely a big lyric writer, like she’ll come and she’ll have clouds of lyrics that are great but need a little massaging, a little order. “Wall St” was the first song that we all sat down and worked on, there was a melody that was completely done which was strange because there weren't a lot of chords or instrumentation. Luke and I sat and put some scaffolding behind that. It set us on a track of making the band feel like an open songwriting playground. 

Luke: It's kind of fun because we all have our distinct voices. Every song was clear to us, probably not to everyone else, who had written each piece. 

It seems like you have a great dynamic which segues well into my next question. Obviously, the relationship started differently between Jess and Luke, but also, how does friendship play a role in the creation and collaboration process?

Caleb: That’s a nice question. Well, I wish we were friends but unfortunately-- (laughter) No we’re friends. We were just talking about this. Last weekend we went away with some other friends and we were all in Massachusetts. We wanted to bring a guitar but we forgot, and we realized it was one of the maybe four consecutive days we've been together but haven’t done any music. It was wonderful, they’re two of my best friends. Makes the music better when you feel like you can give ideas and know you aren’t going to be judged too hard.

Luke: All of us have worked with friends before collaborating on music, it can be kind of like murky waters. Just because you’re friends with someone doesn’t mean it's necessarily a good collaboration. We have a perfect, kind of rare moment. It’s not often that you meet people like that. 

Jess: I think we have an intimacy that’s been there from the beginning between the three of us. I feel like we’re more like siblings than friends. The way we care for each other is very familial despite Luke and I meeting the way we did. 

Caleb: It’s like-- do you have any siblings?

I don’t!

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Caleb: Okay, so you’ll have to imagine. I grew up with three other siblings. The feelings of love and hate are right next to each other. They’re the same feeling. It’s like every emotion is “I want to wring your neck. I can't believe you said that I hate you!” But you know you would never do that and actually you don’t hate them. It sort of allows you to feel more intense things because you’re in the framework of, like Jess said, familial love. 

Jess: I think good art comes out of people being able to push each other to their limit in terms of what they’re willing to give. 

Caleb: No one here is incredibly agreeable and will be like, “Oh, yes! Whatever you say!” We all have really strong opinions and the inability to not say them, but you know, it works out. 

That’s such a good thing. It helps a lot that you’re able to not hold back what you want to say, just like having siblings. Which, obviously, I can’t talk from experience but I can imagine. You guys are playing the Mercury Lounge in a few days, so in anticipation for that show, what are your favorite parts of sharing music with a live audience?

Luke: It’s a very different experience, and in many ways it’s easier. Another funny piece of our origin is we decided to start this band before we had any songs written and before we had ever played together. We booked our first show and lied to the venue. We told them that we were signed to a label and that we had played a bunch of sold out shows in New York. Completely untrue. 

Caleb: Highly recommend by the way, it worked like a charm. 

Luke: It was so fun and we learned so much while being in the room and playing songs, it gives you so much energy. Shows are so nice because you can onstage and get instant feedback from the audience, and you get a lot of energy from it, but then it’s over and you never have to think about it again. It’s kind of a fleeting moment. Shows are their own special thing.

Caleb: The songs are things that will last forever, that’s why they’re important, but the show will not last forever and that’s why it’s amazing. It’ll be just one moment, and you have to make decisions that are less about forever and more about that night.

You brought up the single that’s coming out this week, can you tell me a little bit about what to expect with it?

Jess: Yeah, this is like the sixth single we’re putting out off of this first project. It’s a project we’ve been releasing over the past year that’s like an anthology of songs that will all culminate in a single piece. It’s kind of hard to call it an album in the way that we’ve released it. However, this song is one that we’ve been playing for a decent amount of time. It’s a song that Luke wrote that the band immediately made a very personal, strong connection to. We have a video that’s coming out with it too, it was shot on film and has a really cool visual story to it. This somehow feels like the most professional release that we’ve done. 

Caleb: We’re trying, we’re doing it all ourselves and every song is a big learning experience. What works changes from song to song, it’s kind of like a whack-a-mole. Agreeing with Jess, this song might be whacking the most moles at once. 

I like that comparison a lot, I’m really pumped to hear it.

Jess: It’s funny because online people have said it’s such a different sound, but I feel like every song has a different sound so I’m kind of surprised people are having that reaction to it. It’s probably the most similar to “Lovers Always Lose”, I’m excited for people to hear it. 

I think sometimes people get attached to artists for one sound and then they almost don’t like it when the artist strays from that. I like the fact that you’re… Well, not throwing curveballs because it’s still your sound, but making something that they wouldn’t expect is a good way to find your true fans. If they don’t like it, too bad. 

Caleb: That’s exactly what I was going to say, we’ve been aware from the beginning that, given there’s three songwriters, coherency is there in a lot of ways and not there in a lot of ways. As the band continues to grow it’s going to be a matter of finding the people who do love the curveball, sort of whiplash feeling. If anything, this zig-zagging is a good way to find our true fans. 

Making something different can also bring a new crowd to you as well so it’ll be interesting to see how people receive it. You mentioned that you’re in New York. In a place as high-spirited as NYC, it’s hard not to be sucked into the world it creates. Do you find inspiration in location or through being in the city?

Jess: Yes and no. I’m constantly inspired by the magnitude and amount that’s coming out of a place like this. I’m in such a research phase of this band where I’m really picking up what works and what makes me leave a show feeling good, and how we can bring that into our version of that. I’ve been here my whole life, it’s in my songwriting, but I’ve been seeing it more now. I’m more inspired by new inputs or have an experience with someone that I haven’t had before. There’s an energy and pacing to our songs that’s very New York, but we’re inspired by things that are less about the city. 

Caleb: I feel inspired by the people here and all the different subcultures. Just the other week, Luke and I stumbled upon a really weird show. I left and got on the subway thinking, “Nowhere else would I have seen that in such a true form.” This guy had found a way, because they’re in New York and because there are so many people here, to amass a strange following for his really weird thing. You’re always surprised here. 

Something I really appreciate about your band is just how vibrant everything is. I can see the personality and I can feel it in your music when I’m listening to it. But also, just looking at the single covers and what’s on your social media, all of that, I can see it in you. Are there any specific parts of modern day media, whether that be books, movies, or other music, that inspire you aesthetically?

Jess: In terms of the art we’ve been putting out and how it feels, we’re very interested in the old becoming new. All those images and the cover art are photos of our moms that we’ve repurposed and recontextualized with paper mache. I’m finding that’s sort of a theme in our music. We really are inspired by all the things that came before us in a “Let’s pay homage to it” sort of way. 

Luke: There’s a lot of nostalgia in it. A lot of the things that inspire us are things from when we were kids. Even the band name is a schoolyard king of phrase. We geek out about the song “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas and things like that. The base is old VHS movies. 

Caleb: We should list some! We’re big musical theater people, we love Wizard of Oz. Oh, and the “Lovers” video is ripped from Back To The Future, that scene in the dance. 

Jess: Peter Pan too. 

Caleb: We love Billy Joel and Elton John, everything feels like a cinematic universe, it’s all genre-y, or like David Bowie. Underneath there was a human underpinning. I love the idea of putting out all these little worlds but underneath there being a core feeling. 

I like that you mentioned that because it’s a side of your music I hadn’t really thought about, like the nostalgic feeling. I’m going to go back and listen to your songs from that perspective, I’m glad you brought that up. It’s very unique to you as well. To finish us out, what’s on the agenda for the rest of the year?

Caleb: We have a show coming upon the 19th and a song coming out the day before, the 18th. We’ll be releasing the anthology which will tie it all together, and after that, we’re going on a little tour. Then the second record and lots of music!