American Hi-Fi's Stacy Jones Talks About the Band's New Album and How He Became Miley Cyrus' Musical Director

To say Stacy Jones has had a unique career in music is like saying Ray Rice might not be the best person to babysit your kid. Jones got his start playing drums in 90s alternative acts like Letters To Cleo and Veruca Salt before forming and fronting his own band, American Hi-Fi, who had a hit in the early 00s with "Flavor Of The Weak."

When they went on hiatus in 2005, Jones started producing bands like Meg & Dia and that lead him to a gig as the musical director and drummer for Miley Cyrus when she began performing live. That's right, Jones—who enlisted Hi-Fi guitarist Jamie Arentzen on guitar—has been with her ever since. Oh, and when Miley's on hiatus, he acts as the tour drummer for a little band called Matchbox Twenty. Not too bad.

We caught up with Jones to talk about American Hi-Fi's new album Blood & Lemonade, how the reality show Laguna Beach led to one of his biggest musical breaks, and why Miley is "the most punk rock person" he knows.

Noisey: It's been five years since the last album from American Hi-Fi. Is scheduling anything within this band a complete nightmare?
Stacey Jones: Yeah, that’s definitely the main challenge of Hi-Fi these days. Jaime and I are pretty busy playing with Miley and for the last couple of years while she was taking a break, I was playing drums with Matchbox Twenty. We all do these very active things outside of the band and we’re older and people have families and run businesses. When I had some downtime, I was sitting around writing songs in my living room and wrote a couple tunes and thought, “This could be a Hi-Fi song.” So I demoed and emailed them to the guys, and they responded really positively so we decided, “OK, let’s keep the dream alive one more time.” I think because there was no label or anyone else involved, it felt like it did before we made our first album, which was the four of us getting in a room and making music that we liked. Back in those days, we had no idea if anyone was going to hear it and this album was the same way in the sense that we had no idea if it would ever come out. It was a really great experience because with the last couple records on Island, there was so much pressure to have another song like "Flavor of The Weak." We weren’t really being authentic to who we are. So that’s one of the greatest things about the record, it’s way more authentic.

You guys recently played your first show in a while as a one-off in London, right?

We played the 100 Club, which is basically the UK equivalent of CBGB. Back in the day, The Clash played there, Paul McCartney played there, Blur did a show there getting ready for their Hyde Park show, so it’s just a place that has a lot of history. Jamie and I were already in London with Miley and we had four days in between shows and I looked at the schedule and said to Jamie, “See this little window?” and he said, “Dude, let’s fly [drummer, Brian] Nolan and [bassist] Drew [Parsons] over for a show!” We got a rehearsal space in London and ran the set two times, including a couple new songs, and then played. Of all the shows we’ve played in our lives, it was one of the best. Going into that show, I told the guys, “Look, if 50 people show up, we’re gonna have a good time, drink some beers, and call it a day. If it sells out and people are stoked for us, then it gives us something to build on.” It sold out weeks in advance and it was a real thrill for us.

Speaking of Miley, how did you and Jamie start playing with her?
We've been with her since the beginning when Hi-Fi took a hiatus in 2005. American Hi-Fi toured non-stop since right before our first album came out which was in January of 2001 so for a solid five or six years, we were on the road playing 250 shows a year. We hit a wall in 2005 and all decided we wanted a break. I built a studio in LA and I produced the first Meg & Dia record and other stuff. Through that, I got an offer to be staff producer and A&R guy at Sony with Epic and it seemed like a good thing to do while I was off the road so I took the job. During that time, I was producing a band, you remember that show Laguna Beach?

Of course.
There was a band on that show called Open Air Stereo, they were kids in high school and they were a real band who were auxiliary characters on the show. They got invited to play on TRL in New York and their manager said, “Hey, can you go down to Laguna and get these guys ready for their TRL show?” So I helped them rehearse and get gear together and ended up playing guitar and singing backgrounds with on the show them but I was off-camera. I set up a Marshall and a mic in the janitor’s closet next to the stage and I was standing next to a mop and one of those silver buckets playing along. In doing that, their management sort of took a shine to me and a couple months later, I got a call from them saying, “Hey, we’ve got a job for you. We have this artist Hannah Montana and her dad’s Billy Ray Cyrus, she’s got this TV show.” The show hadn’t become this global phenomenon that it was going to become, it was just starting and I didn’t know anything about it. They asked me to be the musical director and I didn’t know what that was. I was like, “I don’t know how to write charts for the bands or anything” and they were like, “No, we want you to put together a real band of real musicians around her.” It’s still the same five guys I put together eight years ago, which is pretty cool for the pop game. What were those first performances with her like?
Originally, there was one show and a Good Morning America performance. The first show was at Hollywood and Highland at the mall in LA. They had no idea how many people were going to show up, so there was just this little stage with barely any production, no barricade. I don’t know what they were expecting but it was an absolute madhouse. Fifteen thousand people descended upon the mall and police helicopters were flying over and the streets were totally clogged. That was the start of it. Literally a few months later, we were playing Staples Center.

What does Miley think of the new American Hi-Fi album?
I don’t know if she’s heard it but she came to the show in London and loved it. Her and her mom were rocking out. She’s always been a big supporter of us and it was fun to have her there.

What’s it like for you having this huge pop hit in 2001 with your own act and now playing modern hits with someone else? How do you think the pop landscape has changed?
It’s changed dramatically. It’s interesting because "Flavor Of The Weak" was one of the first songs of its era to cross over to pop. When it came out, it was on all the alternative stations and we were playing shows with other bands like us, such as Sum 41 and Good Charlotte. So we really started in the sort of punk/alternative world and all of a sudden one day, we get a phone call from our label and they’re like, "Hey, your song’s getting played on Z100 in New York,” which is the biggest pop station on the planet. We went from playing shows with Sum 41 to playing with Willa Ford. Maybe Aerosmith would be the headliner and we’d be on there, but there’d be a bunch of track acts and artists like Christina Aguilera. We were thinking to ourselves like, “What the fuck is going on here?" That must have been an especially weird transition considering your pedigree.
Yeah, it was a strange feeling. The radio stations would speed the song up and do their own edits. It was really weird. I think it exposed us to a wider audience that we didn’t have but it also took away our connection to the rock world. Because "Flavor of the Weak" was such a hit, when we put our second record out, alternative radio wouldn’t play us cause they were like, “Oh, they’re a pop band now.” There was really nothing we could do about it.

How surreal is it for you to be where you are today with your career?
It’s totally surreal and I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position I’m in. My first band was Letters to Cleo and that was around '93 and we sort of had real success in '94, so I’ve been doing this for 20 years. It’s been an amazing journey and I’ve seen parts of the world I never thought I’d see and met so many amazing people. That being said, I work really hard and I always have. When I go on stage with Miley every night, it might as well be my name on the marquee because that’s how much I care about it. I’ve always been like that. When I take a job in music, I’m all in because I feel so passionately about it and that's especially true with her. I love her so much, we have a real family sort of bond with the band and Miley and even the crew. I look forward to seeing what she does and what ends up happening with me. I just got married and I’m ready to start a family. It’ll be interesting to see what the next 10 or 15 years is like because the last 10 or 15 have been absolutely incredible.

It's also so cool you've been able to bring people like Jamie with you on this journey.
It’s funny that you say that. We played a gig at Clive Davis’ party for the Grammys in LA. with Miley and the Foo Fighters played with John Fogerty at the same event. We ran into Dave [Grohl] backstage and he was like, "Dude! We saw you guys on SNL with Miley! We were watching and I knew that you were doing that gig but I kept looking at a guitar player like, ‘Man, who is that guy I recognize?’ We think that’s so cool that you and Jamie are doing this gig and that you brought him in on this.”

It's funny, we get hated on a little bit in the punk rock community for playing in her band. The thing that I always tell people is, "Miley is the most punk rock person that I know because she doesn’t give a fuck and is totally authentic.” To me, that’s the definition of punk.

Jonah Bayer is available to play guitar in Avril Lavigne's band unless those dudes from Grade are still occupying that spot. Follow him on Twitter - @mynameisjonah