Jimmy Eat World On Approaching 30 From Newly Independent Path

Following two years forced off the road amidst the lock down of early pandemic, Arizona alternative act Jimmy Eat World made their return to the stage last summer at Lollapalooza. Tour dates with Dashboard Confessional as well as a headlining tour of their own came earlier this year and the group returned to Chicago this summer as part of Riot Fest, performing an intimate Saturday night aftershow at Chicago’s Metro ahead of a Sunday afternoon festival performance.

“It’s been great. It’s been great to get back. And it feels like people are sort of excited for live music,” said Jimmy Eat World drummer Zach Lind backstage prior to the group’s festival set. “Kind of getting back to a normal rhythm of touring has been amazing and really great.”

Following the release of their latest studio album Surviving, Jimmy Eat World made a return to the independent ranks, their raucous new single “Something Loud” marking the first independent release of their career.

“There’s not a lot of difference,” said singer and guitarist Jim Adkins of how the group handles its business as an independent act today compared to their time on a label. “We learned early on in our time as a band that the less you need to rely on an outside entity, the better off you’re going to be as a band. Over the years, we’ve sort of learned what’s helpful for us to delegate and what’s going to be a better product if we stay closely involved with it. So, from our perspective, with the ways that labels have been slowly being picked apart over the last ten years while trying to make their quarterly profits… there’s just really not a lot of difference not having a label from where labels were at.”

Following the rise of online streaming services like Spotify and current major label release strategies which focus more and more on areas like TikTok, a strong single has become more important than ever before. For now, Jimmy Eat World will focus their efforts on singles, part of a new independent release strategy that reflects changing trends.

“We’re just sort of experimenting with something different – trying to meet people where they’re at with how they consume music. And we’ll just see what happens,” said Adkins. “I think in October we’re going to put out another single. There’s still a couple of extra things we’ve got lined up around ‘Something Loud’ before that. So we’re going to be consistently putting out less stuff but more often.”

After forming in 1993, the group broke through to the mainstream following the release of their fourth studio album Bleed American in 2001, a record driven to platinum status and sales of nearly two million copies in the U.S. thanks to the strength of singles like “The Middle,” “A Praise Chorus” and “Sweetness.”

Their followup release Futures went gold and to date the group has released ten studio albums, successfully navigating the crash of the major label system that began taking place just as their profile began to rise.

Unlike many bands around them in the 90s, Jimmy Eat World has never been forced to focus wholly on nostalgia, consistently releasing strong, thoughtful new music.

Last week at Riot Fest, the group drew from throughout their catalog during a one hour performance in front of a massive crowd, kicking off with a number of hits in “Futures,” “Pain” and “Bleed American” before moving to deeper cuts like “Big Casino,” crowd surfers surging toward the stage as the group closed with “Sweetness” and “The Middle.”

Staring down their 30th year together next year, Jimmy Eat World remains in a terrific place as they forge ahead on a newly independent path.

“We’re not on the casino circuit yet, guys. We’re still putting out new stuff,” joked Adkins.

“It’s a little bit wild to think about 30 years, because it’s such a huge number. But it is something that we’re thinking about a little bit. I think we want to recognize it but not dwell on it too much,” added Lind.

“Like Zach said, we want to recognize it because it is kind of special – not a whole lot of people get to this point. And I think fans would appreciate something special for us to give them who’ve been around for all 30 years in some cases,” said Adkins. “You’ve just got to find the balance of how much do you celebrate versus how much do you lean on that? Because we don’t want to lean on that.”