Queef Jerky X Fresh Off The Scene
Interview by Destiny Ross and photos by kevmacks
How does collaborating on the process of making music play a part in the project Queef Jerky?
The nature of Queef Jerky is extremely collaborative. We constantly inspire each other whether it’s directly or subconsciously. We love to make music with friends too. Even if people are in the room and not adding to the music itself, the energy of those people in the room makes it so that the song sounds different than it would have if they weren’t there.
How would you describe Queef Jerky’s genre as to first-time listeners?
Queef Jerky is post-music music. It’s the kind of music that will happen after music happens. We make the kind of music that happens when everyone runs out of ideas for modern music as we know it. Obviously we don’t know what will happen after music because it hasn’t happened yet, but we’d like to think that after all is said and done, those who survive will be playing Queef.
What would be the one song you would suggest for someone to listen to, to get a full understanding of what Queef Jerky “Is”?
Hmmm… I think that the song that really encapsulates what Queef is would be “DON’T TALK BACK TO LADIES”. It kind of touches on all of the quirks that make Queef Jerky the way it is. Especially the part where we just start talking after the song is over. Sometimes we just talk about nonsense. Seriously, I don’t know who would want to listen to some of the stuff we say.
I know you’ve mentioned artists such as Daft Punk being where you draw inspiration from… Could you tell us a few more artists that have played a part in the inspiration behind Queef Jerky?
Oh man, where do I start? System of a Down, JPEGMAFIA, Death Grips, Twenty-One Pilots, Bring Me The Horizon, Eminem, and I could go on and on. So many influences from every corner of the music industry continue to inspire what we are making and that list just gets longer every day. It’s cool being able to pull inspiration from people that you’d never expect.
Dev, what inspires you for Queef Jerky and how does that differ from what inspires you for your solo project?
I feel like I can really let loose on the queef stuff. I try to let my stream of consciousness flow out of me whenever I make music in general, but I feel like the Queef stuff lets me really trust my gut instincts and focus on coming up with different cadences, deliveries, and melodies without being too caught up in writing lyrics. I draw inspiration from really random thoughts and things about my life when it does come to writing lyrics for the queef stuff. Like my fear of getting rabies from a bat, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the fact that I never had to read The Giver in school. Super random stuff. But when I write Dev Lemons stuff, I use it more as a way to process my emotions and draw from more serious experiences in my life. Arguably the queef jerky stuff also works as a coping mechanism, but more in the sense that it distracts from my problems and negative emotions and just lets me goof off and laugh through all the pain.
Can you walk us through the process of filming a music video together and what goes on behind the scenes?
Sometimes we just rent out a cheap studio we can find on peer space and just run around with our camera and goof off. That’s what we did for LIVER and DON’T TALK BACK TO LADIES (which hasn’t come out yet but that’s gonna be a Christmas-themed music video). ABSOLUTE MADNESS We filmed in our garage and Nick took the lead on coming up with the mad scientist concept. Originally we were gonna have an octopus man be in it but we couldn’t figure out how. For THE GATE we actually filmed a completely different music video but the day of the song release we decided we didn’t like it so we filmed a new one and drove around a random neighborhood about 3 hours before the song came out and somehow managed to finish editing the video 10 minutes before the song dropped and had it out on time.
Nick, what's your favorite song from Twenty One Pilot’s latest album, Clancy?
What a perfect question for me, I’ve been waiting for someone to ask. I love so many of the songs on that album, but the one that stands out for me is “At The Risk of Feeling Dumb”.
You’ve already done some collaborations with artists such as HIVEMIND and Ethan is online, who would be your next top artist to do a collab with? Whether it be a feature or a smaller focused collaboration.
We’re thinking Cardi B. Cardi B would be nice. Yeah, I think we would do really nice with Cardi B on a song. I just think it would be nice.
