Premiere: Jolson & The Fear of Snakes kick back into disco with ‘Tell Me You Love Me’

Jolson & The Fear of Snakes. // photo by Haley Mullenix

Anyone who’s ever met Jolson Robert feels the gravitational pull of his charisma. His charm conveys the vibrancy with which he cultivates life. This energy infuses his music.

I first saw Robert’s band live at Manor Fest this past Spring. When performing, he’s a roaring ball of energy, honed in on his craft. During the performance, I wondered whether the keys clipped to his belt loop were a contrived part of an indie-rocker outfit or if they were dangling as a truly natural addition to the band’s ambiance. When I asked what was up with the keys that afternoon, he laughed and said his mind completely spaced on taking them off. It’s a side effect of precision he brings to his performance: so wholly engaged in the moment that external matters don’t breach his rolling guitar riffs and ripping vocals.

Self-proclaimed “multi-instrumentalist from a nowhere town in a flyover state,” Robert fronts Jolson & The Fear of Snakes. He’s releasing a trio of EPs this year, with the second coming out this October: Dance, and Sweat It Out. I first heard an unreleased single from the forthcoming EP previewed during the Manor Fest set. “TELL ME YOU LOVE ME” is available here as a pre-release for Pitch readers.

Fans of the cover band Quite Frankly may recognize Jolson Robert’s name. On guitar and vocals, he and Quite Frankly once snagged the attention of both music editor Nick Spacek and editor-in-chief Brock Wilbur at Boulevardia with a dazzling rendition of The Strokes “Reptilia.”

I spoke with him about where his musical journey began. For Robert, the process of forming Jolson & The Fear of Snakes (also known as JATFOS) was as non-linear as it is to get from a nowhere town in a flyover state to its’ big city. Coming from Osage City, Kansas—a small town of under 3000 people—he had different initial opportunities growing in his backyard. The stepping stones towards JATFOS first emerged when he started a half-formed middle school band with some friends. They could each play a handful of chords. He then hopped over to being the drummer with his father and his father’s friends, playing with them at bars before he could drink. Matching bowling shirts were their band outfit of choice. Quite Frankly came next, forming after Overland Park School of Rock students put together their own act.

Joining and forming bands was the by-product of the wide variety of instruments Jolson Robert plays. He first stumbled into his musical passion in fifth grade school band after following in his older sisters’ footsteps. Previously, he only participated in sports and enjoyed them but did not find them fully fulfilling; he spoke to the glow of finding music.

“It felt like, ‘oh, that’s what I’ve been supposed to be doing the whole time.’”

Jolson Robert. // photo by Haley Mullenix

He chose not the flute nor the clarinet of his sisters, but alto sax—kicking off the first of what would become many instruments, and taking to it with such gusto that he flew through an entire year’s worth of music in a few months. When first beginning to write music for what would become JATFOS, Robert gravitated towards grunge-y Midwest emo. He expressed being stuck in a small town with no out—the perfect storm for a brooding youth—and also wanted to impress a girl who had a Midwest emo band in Chicago.

“When I first started writing music, it was because I first had something to say,” he laughs. “I just wanted to learn other people’s music for so much of my musical upbringing. Because I just loved hearing songs, so being able to recreate it was a joy in and of itself.”

Robert speaks to bands like Parcels and The Strokes as current musical inspirations of his. He came across The Strokes after Addie Sartino of The Greeting Committee told him he had a Julian Casablancas feel when providing mentor feedback. After later listening to The Strokes’ music for the first time, he was thrilled to find a new favorite sound and a high compliment wrapped up in it. Before his current interest in indie-rock and pop-disco-funk, Robert’s early music tastes were shaped by Americana folk-rock artists. They influenced the next instrument he picked up after saxophone.

“I hear the Avett Brothers, I hear Mumford and Sons, and I fall in love. But, I’m a contrarian by nature, so I was like, I don’t want to learn how to play the guitar. I really want to learn how to play the banjo; that’s way cooler.”

After saving up for a year to pay for half of his Christmas banjo, Robert took to it as quickly as the saxophone, soon picking up more instruments with swift proficiency: bass, drums, keys, ukulele, guitar, and mandolin.

“Guitar came post-ukulele, pre-mandolin. I basically tried to learn everything else before getting to guitar. Once I touched a guitar, I was like, of course—that’s why everyone plays it. This is the fucking coolest thing on earth.”

When he learned what’s now his primary instrument as JATFOS frontman, Robert spoke to realizing it was a way to play the songs he actually wanted to play—ones like “Hail to the King” by Avenged Sevenfold that don’t translate as well to banjo (the first song he asked his banjo teacher to teach him). Procuring one new instrument after another, the addiction to the minutiae of acquiring new sounds continued.

“The fire was the same. I think that’s why I wanted to learn so many instruments, because the discovery part was so intriguing to me—starting with making a horrible goose-honk-sound on the saxophone to being able to play a recognizable tune.”

That sonic, exploratory love reverberates throughout the instruments Robert plays on his records—and he plays most. Building a strong instrumental foundation lets him shape every element of his songs, from start to finish. Robert expresses outspoken gratitude for his band members during our conversation, same as he did on stage when I saw him at Manor Fest. His bandmates—Jackson Broadwater on bass, Garrett Aiken on drums, Garret Branson on guitar, and Gavin Robert (his brother) on keys—give new shine to the tracks he thinks up solitary.

The upcoming EP sees Robert return to the brass-tinged sounds of his saxophone beginnings. Jolson & The Fear of Snakes’ EP release show on October 1 broke out a 12-piece band, complete with background singers and horns. A disco ball sparkled overhead.

Robert’s non-linear musical journey converges in downtown Kansas City, where our conversation begins and ends. As composer and frontman of his own band, he’s far from the small-town days and goose-honk sounds that kickstarted his journey. When I ask what he hopes people will take away from the EP, he unwittingly calls back to his own love of music, ever-present at the core of his being, speaking to his desire that everyone feel it: “If the world is ending, fucking let’s play some disco. Let’s dance for four hours straight.”