[All photos by Rachel Rubenstein]

For more ZapTown coverage of Jascha, check out our live photo recaps:

http://www.zaptownmag.com/2009/10/jascha-radio-radio
http://www.zaptownmag.com/2009/10/the-subjects-jascha

Take a drive down College Avenue from Broad Ripple and you experience the essence of So-Bro fill out almost on what seems to be a daily basis. Empty shells of buildings become more inhabitable and built up as people flock south of the strip to get their urban kicks.

You cross the threshold of 38th Street and the sands of time keep the neighborhoods practically untouched even with what feels like the archeological remnants of something like Dharma Emporium and their alien-like nature symbols still hanging over the front window, at least for now. This area feels like the So-Bro circa 1995 when most of the local bands used to line the Avenue’s homes and the Flat Earth scene was vibrantly alive. It’s an area where the past becomes the future.

Sure these consistently new and improved intersections of the Meridian-Kessler area still relic in the ritual of front porch gatherings; it is the ideal of community that this neighborhood has experienced for decades and continues to bring people together.  Maybe not as noticeable until you get away from the glow of storefront signage and down to a neighborhood like the one I’m talking about, a place where you can find a band like Jascha.

(from left) Nathan Lucas, Jascha, Bryan Unruh, and Jordan Updike.

Step on their porch and you experience the familiar. A couch accompanies some chairs and makes for a great place to have a smoke or sit amongst friends and watch time move by. These are the things small towns are made of. It’s the essence of community that Jascha. incorporates into every fiber of the band. They intermingle real life conversation with band business and a chance to sit back and let it all soak in. This is a band who is completely aware of their Indianapolis surroundings as they take it all in while breathing it out into their music — slowly and with a faint oaken tinge of fine whiskey permeating their sounds.

This is what makes Jascha. click. That front porch energy where you can blow up your amps, grab your instruments and in that rustic moment, it brings people together. It’s this comaradarie that weaves a tight bond between his current and most incredulous line-up yet, featuring drummer Bryan Unruh, guitarist Jordan Updike, bassist Nathan Lucas and Jascha himself.

When you listen to the band perform, your mind tends to wander and explore the vast stretches of Jascha’s storytelling, a craft that has developed since he was five years old. He makes you feel encapsulated within the lost art of expression. Their music has gone from Appalachian haunts to back alley solitude to exploratory indie folk that glows like the carpet of moss in a forest and leading back to the saloon.

But we are right in the middle of a bustling metropolis, and if you pay attention to the construct of the band more intently, you begin to hear the hectic scheduling that make Jascha. who they are. Listening to their music, they make it seem so effortlessly, but the work behind the scenes tell a different story. They have even converted the living room into a makeshift stage to put on the occasional home show.

“We love the house shows,” said Unruh. “It’s an experience you cannot get in a bar. Everyone who comes to a house show is there specifically to see that band. One of the best shows we played was at the house on 46th and College. Everyone is right in front of you and into the music.”

“We try to play as many shows as we can,” continues Updike. “Our goals when we formed the current lineup is that we wanted to get in front of as many people as we could.”

As the band continues to urbanize themselves from the city outward and preach the gospel of Jascha., it does not deter from the grass-roots ethics the band has, and that is to maintain a close connection with not only themselves, but their fans as well.

When they played their record release show to a sold out crowd at Radio Radio for their debut There’s Nothing Like Love For Making You Miserable there was a point when the band removed themselves from the stage and became one with the audience.

“There happened to be a stool nearby and we went out into the audience,” said Updike. “Jascha got up on the stool, and it felt like friends gathering around a campfire.”

That community element to the band began early when Jascha would grab whoever he could find to share the stage with him. Updike recalls, “It really was a community project until last spring.”

More and more opportunities took form and Jascha knew that stability would be the future. Updike had been playing with the band for a while. Jascha scouted Lucas out at one of their shows. Unruh was captured by a Craigslist ad and once the lineup became solid, there was no stopping the band.

“Two weeks after the band started playing together in this context, we began tracking for the debut album,” said Lucas. “It was all very fast moving.”

The tracking was done at Jascha’s house. During this time, someone was moving into the duplex next to him. According to Jascha, they would track the album up until 3 in the morning with no complaints whatsoever from his neighbors.

“I baked them cookies and took them over to them as a sign of goodwill,” said Jascha. “I make some amazing cookies.”

Even though the debut was done in May of 2009, the album did not officially release until October. It was not until they got David Hazel from Beta Male, spending three or four weeks to concentrate on mixing the album, did it fully take shape and become the fixture to what we know Jascha. to be.

After overcoming the issues and learning from their mistakes, they set out to record two EPs, finishing up on the first one this month. The EP has a double title: an A: At The Mouth Of The Well Of The Twisted Serpent and B: Indianapolis: Paris of the Midwest.

“I was doing research on the 2012 phenomena and wrote some songs about it,” explains Jascha about the reasoning behind the double title. “The other songs are about Indianapolis, with one song inspired by the junk man on the corner.”

Instead of pre-planning demos and intense tracking as was done with the first album, this EP was recorded live to tape.

“We felt that the dynamics that are included in our live show was not represented on the debut album, and we wanted to have that feeling there so we decided to record it live in the studio,” he continued.

Even though it took a greater deal of practice, the experience of this EP has meant a lot to the band.

“With this recording, we really felt the brotherhood of making music together,” said Updike. “We still butted heads and disagreed, but we feel like we found the pocket where we can do this and be bigger and better after it’s done.”

“I prefer recording live,” said Unruh. “With the first album we were playing together a lot and getting to know each other and our musical tendencies. With this EP, it felt like we were able to capture the songs better and more true to form.”

An additional perk for the band was having Kate LaMont lend guest vocals on one of the songs, and experience the band will never forget as they claim that her participation took the EP to a brand new level.

The second EP, which will be recorded later this year will feature songs that did not make it on the album. Like the debut, the ideology of the EPs have become an extension to what the band is and the diversity of their craft.

“What is great about this band is that we can cater the set list to the audience or venue and make the songs work to the mood of the show,” said Lucas. “I remember when I first started playing I had pretty bad stage fright. I had to watch the frets at all times. If I got lost I couldn’t jump back in. I would have to wait until I caught another important part of the song. Now I don’t feel as nervous and by loosening up, we can play the same songs differently from night to night.”

The audience is a large part to this, according to Unruh. “If the crowd is really into it that night, we feel the energy. For me I stop thinking about how I am playing and focus more on how much fun we are having.”

“We are so hard on ourselves,” said Updike. “People come up to us after a show and say how great the show was while we would be shitting on ourselves, finding the mistakes that the crowd would not have noticed.”

But when it comes down to it, it goes back to the give and take of the band with the audience and that community-driven openness they have. For them, it only blows the doors wide open as they continue to make their way out of the city and play more and more shows in the Midwest, something they hope to further accomplish as the year progresses.

“I’m excited to play with these guys, and we are looking forward to the journey of where this band will take us,” said Jascha.

And whether it’s down the Avenue or along some country road, Indianapolis will always have a warm spot in this band’s heart.