aaamusic | On 24, Jun 2010

My Jerusalem announce the release of their debut album ‘Gone For Good’ on 6^th September through One Little Indian. A single, ‘Love You When You Leave’, a bone-dry bittersweet love song of sorts in which bassist Ashley Dzerigian plays Nancy Sinatra to Jeff’s Lee Hazelwood, precedes it.

The recently coalesced collective met through critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Jeff Klein, who had played with each member at individually at different times in his travels as a solo artist. Jeff met guitarist Dave Rosser, a touring member of the Twilight Singers through producer, Mike Napolitano. Bassist Ashley Dzerigian was in Great Northern and toured with Ed Harcourt. Drummer Cully Symington was in bands like Cursive and Bishop Allen and tracked The Gutter Twins album. Rick Nelson, who plays violin, viola, cello and keyboards in the band, is a longtime member of The Polyphonic Spree and St. Vincent. Matt Bricker, also a member of the Polyphonic Spree, had been playing with The Low Lows.

“I didn’t actually start out thinking of forming a band,” Jeff says. “I’d played with all of them at different times, and I was like, ‘How great would it be to play with all of these people at the same time?’ And then when we did, it made perfect sense for that to be what we do. We clicked immediately.

A full My Jerusalem tour is promised for later in the year, but fans will be able to see main-man Jeff Klein previewing songs from the new album with solo shows in JUNE (dates below).

Fri           25            Glasgow King Tuts

Sat           26            Manchester Roadhouse

Sun          27            York Fibbers

“A sense of community and camaraderie can go a long way,” says Jeff. “I don’t think anybody in this project was the coolest kid in school. All of these people are highly revered musicians who have been involved with a bunch of other projects – everyone is somebody from somewhere. This time around, we’ve all gotten together with people on the same level, to have fun. And that’s the key in all this: Just to have fun and play music that is fun for us to play, with songs that are meaningful.”

The new band is of no fixed genre, approaching each song individually to see what they can bring to it and pull out if it. “It’s actually the most exciting time in my life. It actually reminded me why I like doing what I do. I had my finger cut off and reattached, quit smoking and lost a bunch of weight,” Jeff laughs, “I’ve earned myself a band.”