Jack Xander and The Gerrymanders Take Over the Indie Music Scene

By Mark Benjamin

Photography by Kaishui; styling by Martin Metcalf; grooming by Shuyu Xiong

In the world of music, there occasionally comes along an artist that cuts through the contemporary sonic landscape. Across the vaguely defined spheres of modern music, whether it be streaming, premium streaming, TikTok, or more conventional mediums such as radio or word-of-mouth, thoughtful music has an infectious way of spreading. While music industry titans sharpen their formulas and marketing efforts, the independent music scene is quietly experiencing its own renaissance. Free from the constraints of stadium tours and global domination, musicians in the underground music scene are enjoying connecting with audiences through cyberspace which they fill with musical releases, tour dates, and surprises. 

Jack Xander and his band The Gerrymanders of Los Angeles is one such artist breaking the mold of the tired Millennial term “indie artist,” which has been ingloriously dragged through the cyber mud by the indie sleaze movement. If Lady Gaga became the poster child of postmodernism for her medley of Aughts electronic ballads, hip hop influences, and experimental vocals then what should music sound like in metamodernism? Recording and releasing music since high school, punk rock prodigy Jack Xander is aware of the internal conflict afflicting artists. Reflecting on making the best music he possibly can, “I saw a TikTok that said, ‘your taste never catches up to your talent, or something like that.’” In the end, “I try to make music that I would like to listen to.” 

Xander’s indie rock arrangements can feel at times like following a maniacal idea akin to listening to Bach scale a Baroque movement so ambitious, intricate, and strange, it somehow works, except with rock chords. Rather than appropriating musical influences, Xander “goes into [his songs] with the purpose of finding more than one vibe.”

“I wanted ‘Lay Lines’ to be open and spacious. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go more jazzy or more country, but I ended up putting a lot of drum machines and synths in, which kind of wasn't either of those directions. It became a shuffle electronic song, and I thought, ‘oh, it's really interesting.’ The xylophone and flute were only meant to be a background element but took the place of the main melody. There’s a medieval element to it, but it’s also got its own sound going on.” Arranged neatly like a club sandwich or a Jenga tower, each song channels musical epochs, from Pink Floyd to The Red Hot Chili Peppers to The Flaming Lips, all while successfully forming its own unique musical structure and sound. 

“The Seventies—I had a huge phase where I was all about soul and funk, and Chaka Khan. One of my favorites of all time is Björk, because she does her own thing and she's got great strings. There's nothing that feels soulless in her music.” With an edge for experimentation and performance, perhaps a predecessor for Lady Gaga can be found in the multi-faceted David Bowie. In fact, Bowie is often cited by Gaga as an outsized influence, even paying a red-hot tribute to him at the 2016 Grammys. 

“Bowie was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I had a little boombox and I would put on a David Bowie CD or Sting’s ‘The Dream of the Blue Turtles,’” Xander recalls as a few of his numerous and wide ranging musical influences. Whether it’s the richly-layered introspective psych-pop ballad, “Sun Up My Sleeve,” or the neatly-produced cheeky single, “Therapy Whistle,” Xander always has a surprise in store. Take the navel gazing track, “Doin Fine” where Xander sardonically harps on his contentment and invites listeners to join him with a hit from his Stizzy vape pen—a call to arms if there ever was one for a generation far too self aware and Nihilistic to resist such a temptation. 

Yet, perhaps it is Jack Xander and the Gerrymanders’ latest release that truly captures the premise, sound, and spirit of the band. Entitled, “Trunk Punk,” the four track EP takes listeners on a punk themed journey where Xander belts on “Another Man,” “no point in mistaking a corporation for just another man!” When it comes to Xander, there always seems to be a method to the madness albeit tucked dexterously beneath his sleeve and even still, occasionally breaking free. Described as a story about a truck that wants to be a punk, the album’s title is brought full circle as Xander emphasizes, “at shows we put ourselves in situations that make people get on their toes. There’s an element of ‘will this work?’ So, we rented a truck and drove out to the desert,” where the band recorded their album live and found themselves in the bed of the truck, in a desert, and out of luck—much like the chaotic cinematic thriller, “Mad Max.”`

“It was raining. It was colder than we anticipated. The camera gear didn’t work. We didn't actually record the third track. We played it many times, got great takes and something happened where the files were lost. And if we didn’t do the truck, it defeats the purpose. So, we rented it the following week for the vision to be complete. I see it complete, but things go wrong all the time. And yet I love it when shit goes wrong.”

As the band returns from their international tour, beginning in L.A. with a live show on KXLU 88.9 before taking to the gritty alleyways of New York’s Lower East Side and finishing in London’s trendy Peckham neighborhood, Xander’s journey in music begins as many of the trailblazers in music before him. A cosmic echo of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmore as Xander riffs his truncated title track “Fa Fa Away,” a proverbial distance between music history and the present times—and one that fittingly recalls a time when experimentation in music and its commercial success dovetailed. 

As Xander fires the last of his fuzzy worms and ping pong balls from the leaf blower at his live shows, he is resolute about his band’s purpose, “I want to have fun. I want people at the shows to have fun and have a memorable experience.” While he admits the occasional challenge can seem like a setback—after all, what kind of a punk would a truck punk be without character development, a fact not lost on the best producers of truck commercials and their jingles—it’s these unexpected and defining moments that lend the band its greatest strength.

“[At our last New York concert], I accidentally confirmed multiple drummers for a show. They were all excited to play. And I thought, ‘okay, well, we're just going to—fuck it—let’s all play. And so we had three drummers. Then my friend was in town, and he said, ‘Hey, if you need another percussionist, hit me up.’ So, I said, ‘Hell yes, let's do it.’ So, in the end, we had four drummers at one show.”

It’s in these serendipitous moments where the vision for the band feels most complete. “We’ve seen a lot of changes to The Gerrymanders lineup. We’ve had drummers, a saxophonist, a trumpeter—with my brother as a core member and drummer.” With a band so determined to be heard, no matter the obstacles, Xander recalls some of the stranger moments thus far, “We’ve been asked to play Bernie rallies and even in someone’s backyard. We can fit any situation and bring the house down, no matter what. It could be in a parking lot or in an abandoned dam. We’d be fine there.”

And yet in the modern era where accessible and formulaic music is rewarded with jet set ticket prices, music that challenges its listeners has its own silver lining: intimate and surprising performances. Amid a cacophonous music landscape overrun by branded music, overly packaged, over produced, and void of lyrical substance, it’s sometimes the smaller voices that have something to say. As Jack Xander and The Gerrymanders conclude this spontaneous world tour, which Xander finds its global reach as cheeky as it is revelatory, it seems by now difficult to imagine that both Lady Gaga and David Bowie also played in small, near empty venues at the start of their careers. Determined to share his music with interested audiences, Xander seems to reach back in time to the days where court audiences might be asked to follow a dash of madness from Bach’s harpsichord. “Or maybe it could even be at a little cafe where there are little tables and people get little candles. The band and I bring the same energy to every venue. We make sure everyone always feels surprised and involved.”