Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is a DCist first. We've been doing Three Stars long enough that we're profiling a band with members from a disbanded former Three Stars subject. Michael Medlock was the frontman for The Sentiment, a hard rocking group we covered in 2006. Two years, several shows and an EP later, he's now at the helm of the Black & White Jacksons, a punk-inspired four-piece that's making quite a name for themselves around local rock clubs.

The Black & White Jacksons are an affable bunch of guys who love to have fun, but are very serious about music. Drawing from their considerable educations and influences from every corner of the rock universe, their songs are sparse, to the point, high energy and infectious. It can be a lot harder to write a simple-sounding, 3-minute rock song than it is to write a complicated, orchestral opus with everything you can imagine thrown into it. Black & White Jacksons think about what they're doing, and it shows, both on their highly-listenable EP and in their live shows. Taking cues from Medlock's explosive stage presence (that often explodes right off the stage and into the audience), the entire band plays with heart and energy and a sense of pure enjoyment that's often hard to find. We chatted with all four members of the band — vocalist Michael Medlock, guitarist Tim George, drummer Zacky Onassis, and bassist Lucas Oswalt — in their Mt Pleasant practice space about all things B&WJ.

Visit the Black & White Jacksons online at: myspace.com/blackandwhitejacksons

See them next: on April 18 at the Rock & Roll Hotel

Questions for the Black & White Jacksons:

How did this group come together?

Z: Tim and I had been playing in a band since the middle of college, which never went anywhere. Then that broke up and Tim and I started playing together. Then I got invited to play in a band that Lucas was in, and I asked him to play with us. And then one day, we auditioned Michael to come in as lead singer.

L: There was this kind of awkward period where it was two guitars and drums — I had never played bass until this band. So I'm still kind of feeling my way.

T: Pretty much each of us have been seriously interested in music for several years now, and it just happened that one day, everything aligned.

Were you guys in bands around here before?

M: I was in the Sentiment, but everybody else's other projects were just practice bands.

Did you have a musical direction you wanted to go? Was there a certain sound you were going for?

T: I kinda think that Zack and I had wanted to do more experimental stuff, with a lot of instruments on it. Eventually we just sort of got sick of it — let's just play in a straight-up rock band.

Z: We were going to write everything, and then have other people come in and add instruments. No rules, really orchestral. And then just the more we started playing, it kept coming down to let's keep it simple. When the three of us got together and started playing, we just ended up going in the direction that we did. In keeping it really simple and straight ahead.

T: It's not like we have a ton of rules, but I guess we have more rules than we had before. It's better.

L: I think things got more solidified when I permanently moved to bass.

T: We both played guitar at first, then we decided to move to a more traditional guitar-bass-drums.

L: I got demoted.

What bands do you guys like?

L: We all like really different stuff.

M: I was primarily influenced by Brit rock. I was a child of the '90s, so you know the whole Oasis, Blur thing. At the same time, on the other end of the spectrum, Nirvana and Pearl Jam and stuff like that. I think I bring a lot of that kind of influence when I come up with melodies. It's always been the same, no matter what band I've ever been in it's that same style of singing. I just yell a little bit more in this one.

T: I, in my guitar playing, I try to pretend to be Sleater-Kinney as much as possible.

Z: That was kind of a rallying point for the two of us.

T: "Let's sound like them!"

Z: Well, we kind of did for a while.

T: We sound less like them now.

M: Thank God it didn't go in that Blood Brothers direction.

Z: Thank God? I would have to say there is a lot of stuff that I really like that just doesn't apply here. I really, really like Nine Inch Nails, as well as Fiona Apple and Rufus Wainwright, but it just doesn't apply here. So, drumming-wise, I come from more of a perspective of Pretty Girls Make Graves, Hot Snakes, Blood Brothers... I would even say Travis Barker. And Q and not U. I absolutely love John Davis.

L: I think for this band, especially when I started playing bass, I started doing some research. I started listening to a lot of really bass-heavy rock stuff, like The Who. Or reggae and hip hop. I think I approach it more like a guitar player. I really like just punk rock -- '70s, '80s, '90s, today.

T: Also, completely irrelevant, I love Robert Johnson. We wouldn't be playing if it weren't for Robert Johnson. Just because of rock originating from blues. This is for you, Robert.

So how do you guys go about writing songs? Is there a central song writer, do you do it together...?

Z: It is starting to change. We are all working and live in different places. Tim and I would write a skeleton to something... just to have a framework, and all four of us would get together and see what we want to do. Or just take an idea in its simplest form, and then Michael would come in and say well that works, but can we change this part.I think we're more moving in a direction of all of us writing at the same time.

M: I think all of us will have an idea of a riff or some part, and we'll work on it all together to make it make sense.

L: I think if we were a publishing house, those two (Tim & Zacky) would write the magazine, and we (Lucas & Michael) would make the collage.

Z: Would we be like Penguin of Vintage? 'Cause I love both those houses.

T: I drove by the Penguin Vintage house in Pennsylvania...

L: What's your next question? We don't care about what Tim has to say.

M: I love gruyere! It's my favorite cheese!

T: I really do love gruyere. It's delicious!

Your live shows are very high energy — lots of antics and stuff. Is that something you consciously include, or is it more a product of just being on stage and how you're feeling when you play?

M: Uh, it's called alcohol.

L: Well, not for all of us. We don't want to be known as a drinking band.

Z: I would say more, I know for me... it is loud and aggressive from the start. When we are playing live, there is a small element of putting on a decent show, but I think the majority of it... it just comes out. We really like our parts, and we make sure that when we write them, that there are those parts. Even when we're practicing, you can see us "rocking out." Then, in a show, there is the former energy there, it just gets magnified.

T: We've also played like 14 shows now or something like that, and I think we've also just gotten more comfortable. When we first played, I didn't get too aggressive on stage. Our last show, I ended up humping my guitar at the end.

M: Playing shows is ultimately why we're doing this. It's the most fun we ever have, so it just really comes out when we play.

T: Plus we sound better live.

L: I still have bruises on my knees from the show 2 weeks ago.

When you're writing songs, are you mainly focused on the live performance?

M: Just writing the best song we can.

T: We definitely focus on making the song itself really good and appealing.

L: There is very little improvisation.

Z: We're pretty careful with our songwriting. I know for me, I am very aware of the fact that this may be fun to play while I'm playing it right now, but I try to lock in. I try to keep aware of that fact, in a sense of being aware of what you're playing live and make sure you can pull it off.

How did you first start booking gigs? Did you record first?

M: I joined the band in October or November of 2006, and we didn't play our first show until April because we were working on... they already had a lot of material written, and I was just coming in and trying to add what I could and making a set so we could play a show. I had connections from booking people from my last band, so I already knew people to call. I asked the guys from New Rock and Caverns to play with us at our first show, and it just went from there.

Where was that first show?

M: Velvet Lounge. In fact, we're doing our one year anniversary of that kind of thing. One year and a month or so. We're playing with New Rock and Caverns on May 2 at Velvet Lounge.

Do you play much outside of D.C.?

M: No, not at all. We really want to start.

Z: Well, we played Maryland once.

M: That's true, the University of Maryland. I forgot about that. We really want to start playing New York, just for the experience of it, not really to build a fan base or anything. Just to live the dream.

Z: I think that we've got a pretty sufficient buzz going right here, but we haven't broken out of that bubble yet.

M: We're huge in Japan, by the way. We really want to, just for the fun of it, play Philly or New York or Richmond or something, just to do it.

T: We're also just really busy, each of us.

L: Well when we started, the three of us (Lucas, Tim, Zacky) were all in grad school.

T: I still am in grad school.

L: Yeah, I don't know if our mentality just goes straight to no-frills rock as a byproduct of the fact that we're really busy elsewhere? It's brainpower, but it's not the same as if you were trying to do something like Bjork — spending three days trying to get the tone right on the guitar.

What's your favorite place to play a show?

M: It's apples and oranges. Some places are better for some reasons than others. Velvet Lounge had the best sound; Black Cat gives you a bunch of pitchers of beer, and they have this cool backstage room. Right now, I think my favorite place to play is Rock & Roll hotel.

Z: I've got to agree with him. Just being there. It is such a cool place. But when we played at Black Cat... I've been here for seven years now, and playing there... Two people could have showed up, and I would have said it was the best gig ever.

T: My favorite is still actually still Velvet, but that is probably because of Rob. Also, last time we played Black Cat, they had an excellent sound guy there that they didn't before. I don't think they really did much engineering on the backstage before.

M: Yeah, the bartender was the sound guy.

T: They even recorded out last gig there.

L: I think the most fun I've had at a show is DC9, because there's not really a stage. There's less of a boundary. I don't feel like I'm in an aquarium. You're interacting with people. Personally, I would play every show that way. That's why I don't make the decisions. If I were, we'd play basement shows with three people there every time.

M: I'd say that's my favorite show we've ever done.

You just released an EP. Where'd you record it?

T: I was an audio technology minor at AU, and because of that I have this connection to other audio students. Our friend Sarah offered to do it for us, in the recording studio there.

How long did that take?

M: We tracked all the instruments in one weekend, and I'd come back and do vocals every other day. We did two or three takes. The whole recording process only took a couple weeks, but the mixing process took longer — whenever Sarah had time to get in there. The whole thing took two or three months.

Have you written anything new lately?

M: Yeah, we are working on two new songs. They are still in the infant stage. Hopefully two new songs will be debuted pretty soon.

T: The latest one, I intentionally tried to sound like Chuck Berry.

M: We're referring to it as the Chuck Berry riff. Chuck, it's your cousin Marvin! Marvin Berry! Sorry, that's what I think every time we talk about this.

Z: I like that in Back to the Future 2, they refer back to that scene.

T: Our flux capacitor's broken right now.

M: I hate manure.

L: ...Great Scott.

So what do you think are the pluses and minuses of the D.C. music scene?

Z: As we've gotten more into it, we've kind of established our little corner of bands we hang out with. The whole Dischord idea is cool and not cool at the same time. There are a lot of bands that came out of there that were really cool, but the whole, like, bowing — for me personally — bowing to Ian MacKaye and all that, I...

T: (whispers) He lives right down the street!

Z: We (Lucas and I) totally disagree on this. I respect him or whatever, and I think it's really cool or whatever, but I think people are kind of crazy with that whole scene.

L: I disagree. I grew up with that stuff, and it's still a go-to for me. I started listening to those bands and realizing there's something going on here... oh, that's dub music, so it got me into a bunch of different music. I still love all that stuff.

M: I think the pros of the D.C. music scene are that, over the past few years, there have been more venues sprouting up, so there is definitely more support for local bands. I can't really speak for other major cities, because I really only have ever lived in D.C., but there seems to be a real good support amongst other bands for each other here. We're friends with so many bands who really support us. Like, Caverns comes out to every one of our shows. I don't really know that you would see that so much in New York or somewhere else necessarily, but there's a real good camaraderie here. It's kind of like a little teamsters union of bands.

Z: I'm from Los Angeles, and I remember being in high school and I felt a very great divide between a lot of those bands... total competition and stuff like that. And here, because D.C. is so small, and there are so many experiences that we all equally share — major stuff like that building burning in Mt. Pleasant is only in this area, but everybody was talking about it. When Eastern Market burned, it was like everybody felt that, and I don't know if you have that in New York. Maybe in one area, one neighborhood. But because it's so small, you can't help but run into the same people all the time, and develop a camaraderie or friendship.

M: And everyone benefits from that camaraderie. If we get lucky enough to get a Saturday night at the [Rock and Roll] Hotel, we'll invite our good friends to come play with us, and no one else. That helps them, and vice versa.

L: We're getting to the point now where we're actually turning down shows, which is kind of a good thing.

M: They're not all gems, mind you... As far as the cons, honestly I am hard-pressed to think of many, but I think my problem with the D.C. music scene right now is that there aren't as many bands as I personally would like to see in the genre of music that I like to hear. There are a lot of Northern Virginia redneck rock bands, like Creed cover bands...

T: You don't like that?

M: There is a good pool of bands, but I would really like to see it blow up, and really that's not even a con. It's just not as big of a scene as Austin or New York or whatever.

T: People are in and out of D.C. all the time.

M: So many good bands break up because someone is going off...

Z: It was really weird because I was here when Q and not U and Black Eyes were still doing the Dischord thing, it just seemed like there was a drop off, where nothing was going on. There was no major D.C. band. I guess now, maybe Georgie James, but it was really fun to have a couple of bands be major D.C. people.

M: Washington Social Club just broke up.

L: They did? This is what I get for living in Maryland. My internet's slow out there.

M: You know, twin towers burned down, too. Did you hear about that?

L: I just heard about that last week.

T: I don't think I pay attention much anymore personally. I don't know what's going on.

M: I don't think it is important to have an opinion on the D.C. music scene quite honestly. If you're just true to what you do and true to your friends, the scene will just follow I suppose.

What do you hope happens with this band?

M: Well I would like to hook up with him (Tim) at some point.

T: You're gonna have to try harder.

M: But seriously, we do things day by day. I don't think we have any grand goals. Our immediate plan is to book good gigs, and maybe play New York. That's really as far ahead as we've thought. Maybe do a full-length this year.

L: I'd like to do that, and do it live.

T: I'd like to do another EP. Possibly record it live. Possibly by this summer.

M: My immediate goal is to build a fucking website. I just can't find anyone that knows how to do it. I would love to have us have a website just for my own entertainment.

T: I just hope people like us.

Z: When we play, the majority is friends of ours, and they really love us, and they are fun to be around, but I really want to see someone show up to our show and have absolutely zero, and start word-of-mouth. You know, my friend so and so told me about you guys, and you're awesome! Every now and then, there are people that just happen to be drinking and be there...

L: I put about as much time into a solo project as I do into this. And nobody hears that. I just kind of do it for doing it. I guess the idea is to do and not be done.

Any other parting statement?

M: Sic semper tyrannis.