The songs comprising Sunshower—produced by the band and noted engineer Chris Ribando (The Black Crowes, Priestbird, Mary J. Blige)—blend contemporary styles with a myriad of classic influences, from Dylan and The Beatles to Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac to The Police and Talking Heads. But you wouldn’t immediately hear them. The band has a knack for combining all of those influences into something utterly vital and wholly their own, as they’ve done on first single “Flaming Arrow,” a shimmering, ringing acoustic folk tune shot through with a bumping bassline and New Orleans inspired drum groove.
Sunshower dazzles on tracks like the dancefloor-friendly “Simple Stones,” filled with handclaps and soulful economic riffing that boasts a bass line for the ages while blending ‘80s Stones and MGMT. The epic opener “Volcano” melds The Beach Boys with The Flaming Lips, while delivering one of the disc’s best choruses. If Ishibashi conjures The Shins on “Find Me a Place,” he drops vintage, finger-picking folk on disc-closer “People in the Mountain.” As guitarist Zac Colwell puts it: “We can sound like Simon & Garfunkel, The Kooks, or even from a webisode of Yacht Rock.”
If they had their way, listeners would ingest each track on Sunshower as they would a new chapter in a never-boring book. Says singer/multi-instrumentalist K Ishibashi, “We approach every song like, ‘Will people be able to listen to this over and over again?’ ”
“Each song is like a little world,” adds Colwell. “We’re the same four guys playing the music on each track, but we just like to get way down in there and explore that little world.”
What K Ishibashi (lead vocals), Zac Colwell (lead guitar), Dave Heilman (drums) and Pat Dougherty (bass) have created as a result is a hook-heavy album tailor-made for our ADD times. And that mix-it-up mentality suits the band, as its songs are written by either Colwell or Ishibashi, each of whom have opposing approaches to lyric and melody.
“K leaves things a little more open for the listener,” says Colwell, who also plays keyboards and flute and adds backing vocals. “I consciously try to have a little narrative, and tell a story.” Counters Ishibashi, who plays guitar and violin in addition to singing lead on Sunshower: “His songs are pretty dark. I write bright, fun stuff, a lot of it stemming from one really big emotional experience. I’m more analytical, more left brain, he’s more right.”
“If there’s a theme to the album, it would definitely be bittersweetness,” Colwell continues.
“There’s definitely some humor, playfulness, but there’s also this twenty-something, we-have-to-temper-our-excitement sort of thing, especially being New Yorkers. Our elation is always checked, and some of the lyrics reflect that.” Bittersweet can be contradictory in terms, but in this case, these four unique personalities colorfully complement one another.
Although officially formed in 2003, the seeds for Jupiter One were planted in 2000 when Austin native Colwell and Ishibashi (raised in Virginia) met while working as touring musicians with a traveling circus, the Barnum Kaleidoscope. Bonding over their love for all music from soul to classical Indian, the duo began performing instrumental music in New York in the early 2000s, gradually working their way toward pop music incorporating vocals, and gigs at Pianos, Arlene’s Grocery and other reputable venues around Manhattan. “We noticed that once we started singing, girls started coming to shows,” laughs Colwell.
A former member of the popular STOMP performance collective, New Jersey-born drummer Heilman, caught an early incarnation of Jupiter One at a now-defunct bar in New York’s Lower East Side. “There was a unique, analog keyboard sound, something you don’t really hear anymore, especially then, in 2004,” he says, “and it just created this incredible sense of nostalgia. It made me feel like the band’s music was already history. It totally felt classic, and it made me sit up on the edge of my seat.” The current incarnation of the band coalesced with the addition of Delaware-raised bassist Pat Dougherty.
Taking its name from the spaceship in the ‘60s television show Lost in Space, Jupiter One made its recorded debut in 2005 with a self-titled EP, three songs from which made the transition—albeit in re-recorded form—to the group’s official self-titled debut album. The songs on Jupiter One scored the band a slew of high-level song-placements in TV and film projects (including the upcoming indie film Broken Windows, MLB Opening Day ‘09, NASCAR Talladega Race ’09 NBC’s Heroes Tribute, and the Sci-Fi channel’s Flash Gordon), as well as a number of video games (Madden NFL ’08, NHL ’08, etc.), and commercials (Payless‘09, Mazda ‘08).
Behind the new wave-inspired Jupiter One, the band members—having quit their day jobs—criss-crossed the States, building a fan base and surviving on Subway’s five-dollar footlong special, laughs Heilman. “We spent 14 months sluggin’ it out in the clubs,” he says. “We did not want to be some sort of boring web sensation. We wanted to meet our fans face to face.” And the work has paid off. “It’s definitely a show we’ve put time into, so it’s not just four guys playing a song, it’s supposed to be a spectacle,” says Colwell.
With producer/engineer Ribando at the controls, Sunshower embraces warmer, analog sounds and vintage recording techniques. “It’s the sound of the four of us playing together, rather than layering in the studio,” says Colwell. “Instead of piecemeal, it’s the way we actually sound live.”
Forgetting the sound for a minute, and thinking about the songs, Ishibashi adds: “We just want people to internalize them. We want Sunshower to be a journey.”
Mystery Man
Jupiter One Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Candied at the seams
Tucked under my arm
As I heard the alarm
Woke up in a daze
Followed by a blaze
Of golden afternoon
Put it to my lips
Chilled like a blade
Cuts Trough my cheek
The price I pay
A little bit closer
Try a bit deeper
Look under the sink
Cause there I am
Filled with plaster
The same fucking bastard
Mystery man
So can you guess my color
More famous than others
Not oak or a wooden hue
But could you guess blue?
Cool like sheets of sand
Wrinkled like my hand
Find it in the sky
Watching us when we die
A little bit closer
Try a bit deeper
Look under the sink
Cause there I am
Filled with plaster
The same fucking bastard
Mystery man
Why the gloomy face?
Was it a disgrace?
Cause I was only joking
The debts they all will fade
Consider them repaid
Ooh la la la
Your stories are so old
They can be untold or sold
A little bit closer
Try a bit deeper
Look under the sink
Cause there I am
Filled with plaster
The same fucking bastard
Mystery man
A little bit closer
Try a bit deeper
Look under the sink
Cause there I am
Filled with plaster
The same fucking bastard
Mystery man
The lyrics to "Mystery Man" by Jupiter One are enigmatic, poetic, and a little bit surreal. The song speaks to the idea that each person has a private self, full of secrets and unknown depths, but that this aspect of our identity is often hidden away, buried beneath the surface. The first verse sets up the dreamlike quality of the song, with the singer holding onto "pieces of a dream" that are "candied at the seams." There is a sense of disorientation, as the singer wakes up in a daze and follows a "blaze of golden afternoon."
In the chorus, the singer urges the listener to look deeper, both literally (suggesting we check under the sink, where we might find the "same fucking bastard") and metaphorically. This is reinforced by the imagery of the "plaster" filling the mystery man, as if he is made of layers that need to be peeled back to reveal his true substance. There is also a passage where the singer seems to be questioning their own identity, asking if the listener can "guess my color" and suggesting it might be "blue."
Overall, the lyrics to "Mystery Man" are open to interpretation, suggesting that the search for self-knowledge is ongoing and never fully resolved.
Line by Line Meaning
Pieces of a dream
Fragments of an aspiration
Candied at the seams
Sweetened with potential
Tucked under my arm
Held close to my side
As I heard the alarm
Upon waking abruptly
Woke up in a daze
Regained consciousness disoriented
Followed by a blaze
Pursued by an intense light
Of golden afternoon
Of late day warmth and radiance
I picked up my spoon
I resumed my mundane routine
Put it to my lips
Inserted it into my mouth
Chilled like a blade
Frigid like a sharp knife
Cuts trough my cheek
Lacerates my face
The price I pay
The cost of my actions
A little bit closer
Draw nearer
Try a bit deeper
Investigate further
Look under the sink
Inspect the concealed location
Cause there I am
Because I am present
Filled with plaster
Stuffed with gypsum
The same fucking bastard
The identical despicable person
Mystery man
Elusive figure
So can you guess my color
Can you determine my nature
More famous than others
More renowned than normal
Not oak or a wooden hue
Not resembling the color of wood
But could you guess blue?
Could you speculate that it is blue?
Cool like sheets of sand
Refreshing like covers of sand
Wrinkled like my hand
Creased like my palm
Find it in the sky
Discover it in the heavens
Watching us when we die
Observing us in our final moments
Why the gloomy face?
What's the reason for the despondent expression?
Was it a disgrace?
Was it a shame?
Cause I was only joking
Because I was merely teasing
The debts they all will fade
All financial obligations will wane
Consider them repaid
Regard them as settled
Ooh la la la
Vocal refrain
Your stories are so old
Your accounts are very aged
They can be untold or sold
They can be forgotten or exchanged for gain
Contributed by Elizabeth P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@theMrELiTeGaMeR
Miss these guys listened to them growing up. I haven't heard anything recently but maybe that's what makes it awesome. It'll live on with me... it's just mine
@eaglesfan0226
I totally agree, they just feel very personal to me.
@Hugo04CrMdz
¿Quién en 2021? 🥺
Esta rola me gusta mucho ❤️me hace llorar 😭me pone triste 😕
Me hace creer que en la vida hay que aprender a seguir adelante, para estar preparado, y a seguir adelante sin las personas que alguna vez estuvieron a mi lado, sin estar preparado.
Excelente banda! 💯✨📸
@ajconlin8525
Yo escucho en 2023!! Hablo un pequeño Español.
@ilovebooks49
Beautiful song
@VillainousVoxx
Saw them live just a while ago...they were great. Thanks for posting the song :D
@eqwanixgaming4916
Hey how are you
@pukarj
underrated band.......hope they get noticed!!!
@crystalmangle1995
I need this album on vinyl. 🥰
@wizkalifafan1
im gonna send their songs to everybody on facebook, they need to be noticed!! u rock jupiter one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they better still have these songs in the future