MP: Did you have a complete band at that point?
GCJ: I was playing with two neighborhood friends a drummer and a bassist. I really liked them but they weren't the most punk drummer and bassist. The drummer was going to college and things weren't syncing up. I needed to find somebody who was a little more committed. Instantly one of the drummers I was recording in my basement loved the songs I had and was in. At first we were playing any shows we could get to be in front of people. We didn't care if we had two people or 200 in the crowd we were just playing some songs. Over the next couple years as we grew we felt like we might actually have a future at it. And then we got the great idea that we were going to change names. We felt like we outgrew the name that we had and unfortunately when we did that man we just lost all traction. We didn't have any press release to say Bare Essentials is now North Coast High. We just switched names. All of a sudden people were saying we don't want to book this new band we want Bare Essentials. The whole thing sputtered out at that point and it was really frustrating.
MP: I could see that but you changed your whole identity with the name change. If people don't follow you closely then you need to figure out how to convert the casual fans.
GCJ: Yeah. And we didn't do it well. There were a couple other things that happened during that time too but that was the biggest thing. We changed names. I also lost my brother and my mom within eight months of each other and I burned out. I didn't wanna be on stage anymore. We had no traction with the new name and everything so I just quit.
MP: How did the passion come back and The Sublets begin?
GCJ: I ran a bar out of college and wasn't performing music but I still wanted to be involved in the music scene. I bought a very very small local neighborhood bar with the intention that I was going to run it as a juice bar coffee shop and book bands. It never really took off and I had some scares at the bar. A guy pulled a gun on me. There were a lot of late nights and stupid situations that I was finding myself in. I handed the bar off to my general manager and started doing daytime restaurants that were salad wraps soup and smoothies. I catered an outdoor music festival. One of the acts didn't show up and I opened my big fat mouth and said "You guys need a 40 minute acoustic set? I could do that." They agree to let me do it and I realize I have not been on stage and played music in eight years. I don't know that I remember all these songs that I used to know. I did the show and it was incredible. It woke this feeling in me and made me question why I had stopped so I started playing acoustic gigs again and then I needed to get a band together and in 2018 we officially named ourselves The Sublets. And then COVID hit.