Interview: Off The Starboard Bow, A Conversation with The Jibs

Austin indie band The Jibs drop some history and sailing knowledge following their performance at the second Afterglow Session.

Written by Catalina Pozos
Photos by Casey Tang

Hailing from different parts of Texas, The Jibs were first brought together at the University of Texas at Austin’s sailing club. The band is made up of Will Clark on lead vocals and guitar, Caden Westmoreland on guitar, Roman Parnell on bass, and Eric Schueler on drums. In addition, Skyler Frost works on some filming and photography magic for them. They play indie rock with strong blues influences, but it’s their rustic sound, along with Clark’s distinctive voice, that sets them apart.

What brought on the start of The Jibs?

Will:  We met at the sailing club, but we were only there for one day. I saw Roman’s long hair —  as the tale goes — and I knew he played music. I talked to Caden, and he was cool too. And that’s how The Jibs started.

Eric: A jib is a triangular sail on the front of a ship.

Will: Mainsail is where you get most of the power, but you can’t sail upwind without a jib. We were only at sailing club one day, so all our sailing knowledge is pretty lacking.

Roman:  I knew Caden since high school. He and I wanted to be in a band in Austin since before we moved here, and we wanted to meet somebody to be in a band with. The first outing we went to was for sailing club, where we met Will. He was the first person we talked to, and it worked out in the best possible way it could have.

Will: What a formative 24 hours.  Seriously, the first people we met were the people we all went into college wanting to meet, and it seriously saved us a lot of time.

Did you guys think it’d be this serious of a project?

Will: I think we took it way too seriously at first. We were like, “We gotta be real musicians.” Now we're going the other way. Like, I think we’re actually pretty good musicians now, but we're trying to downplay it. We downplay everything we do. It'll even out one day.

Roman: We’re on the right path. I still feel like The Jibs is my band more than the other bands we’re in.

Will: The Jibs is what it all sprouted from.

Caden: These other bands are weirdly very tied in with The Jibs. Like, The Jibs are central to all these offshoot bands —  at least, from my perspective.

Skyler: From an outsider’s perspective, The Jibs are like the grandfather, and Pixie Jean and Nine Blind Men and The Tiger are the children.

What plans do you have for the band?

Will: We've got a couple of new songs that we’re working on. We tried to record an EP over the summer that I think we might revisit, ‘cause I think some of the songs in there we still like and we still play.

Caden: It was a learning process.

Will: We’d like to release them at some point. We just weren't ready at the time.

Caden: It was a productive —  but very not productive —  summer.

Will: It was productive in what we learned, not in what we made.

Roman: We were trying to write in the studio, and now we're gonna write outside of the studio and just track everything ... once we iron it out. [It’s a] different approach this time, so hopefully we’ll have some songs.

Will: I think we haven't formally said we’re gonna release something.

Caden: We actually did formally say it, but we never did it.

Will: We’ll just call it the most anticipated EP of all time.

Eric: Basically, we did all the preparations before having the music. Like, we did the album art, and we did release dates, but we didn't have music.

Have you guys gone sailing since that first day at the sailing club?

Will: We have not sailed.

Roman: We would, if we had the opportunity to.

Will: That was a great day. I often feel like there are two paths in my college career that presented themselves that day, and I chose one and abandoned the other. I could very well be, like, a full-on sailing bro.

Interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.
Listen to The Jibs on all streaming platforms and find them on social media @thejibsmusic