CHART ATTACK: JACKSON RATHBONE TALKS ‘TWILIGHT’ AND 100 MONKEYS

Chart Attack has a brief interview with Jackson Rathbone where he talks about life in the midst of Twilight, and his band 100 Monkeys.

CHARTattack: Twilight came out last year, you’re doing press for New Moon and you’re working on next year’s Eclipse. You don’t feel like your life has just become about Twilight all the time?

Jackson Rathbone: I don’t, actually. I have a lot of things going on outside of the Twilight world. Being a musician, I have my band 100 Monkeys, so whenever I’m not working on a film, I work with them. We make music constantly and we’re constantly on tour. It’s a pleasure to be part of the Twilight books, but I’ve got a lot of other stuff going on.

As well with film, I’ve got some other movies going on. I’m actually producing my first film this year with my production company. It’s going great because of the wide Twilight fanbase I’ve been able to have people follow my other projects, which is just such an honour. They’re so supportive of all the movies and of us as individuals.

Do you see Twilight as a blessing, or are you afraid of typecasting with such a huge franchise? Any reservations with being part of such a cultural phenomenon?

At first, I was a little bit worried. It was one of my first conversations with my manager when they offered me the role of Jasper — “Is this the right move? Will I get stuck in it?”

But we’ve tried to establish all throughout my career different looks every time I play a character. Not just in terms of hair and eye colour, but the way I walk and the way I talk.

I’ve always been a character actor. When I was in theatre and was learning how to act as a child, I was a character actor. It’s always going to be a struggle, to not be identified as one of the brat pack from the Twilight movies, but at the same time, it’s all about what you do next, I think.

I’m not one character, even in my personal life. I’m a very multi-faceted person — I have my band, I have my music, and I have my movie career. I consider myself an artist more than I do an actor.

Twilight isn’t the worst place to be as the singer in a rock ‘n’ roll band. Vampires are pretty rock n’ roll, aren’t they? Those broody kids who watch Twilight probably are very into the fact that you’re a musician.

All of the fans have been very supportive of 100 Monkeys. We have a lot of Twilight fans, but we have a lot of fans who aren’t into Twilight, too.

We aren’t a tweeny-bop rock group. We’re not the Jonas Brothers. Our songs aren’t about loving the girl next door. Our songs are about drinking and the devil and women who cheat and steal.

When you look at our songs, we sing kind of more blues-oriented songs. We idolize bands like The Doors and The Rolling Stones. Our sound is often compared to The Doors and Tom Waits and Coldplay. We hope our music is acceptable, but we play music that we love, we really do. And because we play music that we love, we find that other people like our music, too.

Read more here.

(Thanks Kaly!)

Hmm, I don’t consider myself broody or a kid. It’s nice so many Twilighters do support 100 Monkeys.

Did you like this interview with Jackson? Have you seen his band 100 Monkeys yet?