OF LIMBO – A COOL CONVERSATION WITH JAKE DAVIES

Of LImbo is an outrageous hard hitting three piece from Long Beach, Cali. The band is comprised of brothers Jake (Vocals/Guitar) and Luke (Guitar/Vocals) Davies with Rob Gaveley (Bass/Vocals). The three musketeers make hellfire music that completely destroys. Their sound is fiery with a touch of unbridled revelry. Of LImbo‘s music is outright fun. It’s full of addictive riffs, powerful bass lines and rampaging vocals.

The band just released their new single entitled “Let’s Go”. The track is a real banger and the video plainly rocks. “Let’s Go” is like being on speed with a taste of pure adrenalin. It’s fast, furious and totally groove laden. Of Limbo hits you with a huge uppercut of a riff while Jake’s vocals are audacious and incendiary. Graveley’s bass is gutsy with stellar flourishes. And the video cranks with cinematic energy. If it doesn’t put a smile on your face, nothing will. I predict that Of Limbo will have a breakout year in 2023. If you haven’t heard of them yet, I promise you will. They make the rock show a party again.

Jake Davies sat down with AMP for this captivating and entertaining interview.

AMP: Can you give the AMP readers a brief history of the band?

JAKE: My brother and I started playing music in Long Beach. We were raised in Melbourne, Australia. He started school at the Berkeley School of Music and I was doing my graphics arts thing here in Ca. He came to visit me after his first semester and we just started writing riffs. Shortly after that we decided we wanted to make music together. He did what any good Berkeley student does and dropped out. We haven’t looked back since. We formed a band. I think our first show was in 2016. There were different members then. A few people have come and gone but the Davies brothers have remained the same. Things are cooking with gas nowadays. It’s going pretty well.

AMP: How would you best describe your music?

JAKE: We get that one a lot. The one I usually say may not be the most appropriate but I believe we are like Alice In Chains. Just take away the heroin and add a lot more booze. “Alice Unchained”, maybe.

AMP: What is the Of Limbo creative process like?

JAKE: It usually starts with a riff, be it Luke’s or mine. From there we connect it to other riffs in our mental riffs book. When the song starts taking shape, we put rough melodies of gibberish over it. Then the gibberish starts forming concrete words. As an example, the gibberish starts sounding like “it happened again”. We start asking what does “it happened again” mean. It turns into –  “it happened again and I fucked up.” It’s the beginning of our lyric. Occasionally, we start with a lyric or vocal first. That happened with our song “Nothing But Now”. We then write the riff around the lyrics but mostly our songs start with the riffs.

AMP: Your new single, “Let’s Go”, is a banger and the video is great. Who came up with the storyboard and how much fun was it to film?

JAKE: The filming was tons of fun. I did the storyboard. I do graphic stuff to keep the lights on. So, I’m the one who is given the task of drawing things and making cover art. Even though I did the storyboard, it was my little brother Luke’s idea. He said we should make a video putting up a 360 cam in our beat up shitty 2013 Hyundai Accent while we drive around town. He added we could get some beer and drive fast and speed up the footage.

But when I started getting into it, it took on a whole different life. I had us hanging out windows and riding on the roof. I realized we shouldn’t film this practically. We definitely needed a green screen. Luckingly our friend Tony Vercelli, who has directed a few of our videos, had the means and the know how to make it happen.

AMP: The band has toured with an elite group of artists. Is there a best and worst gig ever?

JAKE: Oh shit! I’ll give you a couple. We were in Billings, Montana in direct support of Hinder. I strike the first chord of our first song which is “Running Out Of Time”. It’s a fairly high energy song. It starting to cook when about 30 seconds in I feel something hit my head. I look down and I see a glass bottle. Someone had bottled me. Our tour manager grabbed the culprit in a full nelson and the rest of the crowd helped her and booted him out.

Throughout the set I kept thinking this dude really wanted to hear “Lips Of An Angel”. He didn’t want to wait for our songs. He wanted “LIps Of An Angel”, NOW! The dude was a burly guy with face tattoos. If we were opening for Lamb Of God or Meshuggah I could understand the bottle. All in all it was a great gig. Afterwards, a fan came up to us and said he knew the dude who threw the bottle. He continued to say that he wouldn’t be smiling if he saw him in town. We told him he didn’t have to go that far. I still wonder if the thrower eventually lost his teeth.

There have been so many great gigs. We really enjoyed playing with Buckcherry. The moment the gates of the center of the country opened, Buckcherry was on the road. Other bands were saying no but we were happy to say yes. So, we got out immediately. It was such a high. All the bars and clubs in L.A. were locked down but boom!, the middle of the country was ready to rock. Everything was wide open. That was such a great tour.

AMP: Who are the band’s major influences?

JAKE: Everybody in the band would say something different. For me, it’s Metallica and surely Alice In Chains. One that should be mentioned more often is Faith No More. One of the things we pride ourselves with is the fact that we try not to repeat ourselves. We always want to sound innovative. If you like that song of ours, listen to that song. We don’t need to put out ten of the same song. Faith No More has always impressed me with their massive diversity and the ability to paint so many colors. That is what we strive for.

AMP: What is the one message you would like your fans to take away from your music?

JAKE: Sharing is caring! We’ve seen a pretty good growth with the “Let’s Go” video. And I believe it’s largely due to our fans sharing it to their friends. It really helped a lot. If there is a song or band you really enjoy, share it. It’s nice to hit the like button or leave a comment but the best thing to do is to let your friend group know. Send it to all your buddies. That’s how a band grows.

AMP: What is your favorite song to play live?

JAKE: We have a song that we practically close with every night unless we throw in a cover. It’s the dumbest song I’ve ever written but it hits hard. It’s called “Lets Get Fucked Up”. By the time we play it, everybody is wasted.

A story from one of our shows at the Viper Room. Throughout the night, there was a girl in the front row grabbing our dicks.One time is cool but she kept doing it the entire show. It was getting very annoying. After the show while we were loading up we spied her face down on the pavement on Sunset Blvd. with several friends trying to pick her up. We definitely got her fucked up. It’s always a fun song to play.

AMP: You guys look like you like to party. What’s the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into to?

JAKE: Shit! We have gotten puled over by cops a few times. They were very curious what we were doing in their small town in the dead of the night. We’ve been really lucky, They usually let us off when we explain we are a rock band on tour. When we offer them a sticker, they seem to mellow a bit.

The really worse trouble was when we were in a serious van accident in 2018. Kinda the reason several of our band members don’t play with us anymore. We shouldn’t have survived. It was only by the grace of god that we are still here. Our bass player decided he didn’t want his life on the line and I don’t blame him. He had kids. It was pretty bad.

AMP: What’s next for Of Limbo?

JAKE: We have to talk with our people to figure out what our next single should be. I’m going to let the cat out of the bag. There are two choices. The first one is a song called “Somebody Else” which is about when a significant other comes into your life and loves everything about you. Yet, they still want to change everything. If they succeed, they probably won’t love you anymore since they have already conquered you. The other song is “California Demon”. which deals with selling your soul for fame, literally. Also we plan to tour a lot in 2023.

JAKE: I have to give you one more touring story! When you tour with a larger act there are dates that don’t connect. If that band is playing a festival and you’re not invited, you are on your own. Sometimes you have to find a fill in show for the off days. One tour we found ourselves in that situation. Luckingly our friends, oddfellas, hooked us up with a gig.

So, we rock up to the place and it’s this weird compound that’s being used as a hotel. When you looked at the walls there was a picture of this one dude and about 50 pictures of different women dressed alike. Holy shit! We are in a polygamist’s house of depravity. It was really awkward since there was only two staff members in the whole place.

When we get ready to play, we get led down this windy dirt road. We come to a gate and we are met by two guys. They lead us further down the road and suddenly we see a sign that says “Peacemaker” with a sniper rifle hanging from it. We drive for about 45 minutes and I begin to look for shit we can defend ourselves with. I feel we are either getting robbed, murdered or “Deliveranced”. Hopefully not the last.

Eventually we came to a clearing with a big old house and a stage setup on hay bales. About 8, it starts to get populated as fuck. Everybody knew everybody. They all seemed to be related to each other. It was wild. That’s rock and roll.

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To learn more about Of LImbo, check out their website

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