Special Feature: Interview with Jack Lestat

Hey, everyone! So I'm sure as many of you know I have moved from Nashville, Tennessee to New Orleans, Louisiana with my pagan coven. It feels so good to be in a similar element to where I was raised and I've been adjusting quite well. My coven and I have been exploring the city and studying the legends that surround it, including the ghosts and vampires. Speaking of vampires, they usually say when you call to them, they will come to you. Just like a curious Jesse Reeves in an Anne Rice novel, I called upon someone to interview for my blog and he came through. Jack Lestat, also known to his fans as Songbat Jack, hails from Chicago, Illinois and makes punk rock music and comic books. He is also known to his fans as the “Vampire Rockstar” and when he is not making music or creating comics, he is expressing himself on Only Fans. Intrigued by his story and the fascinating personality he displayed, I messaged Jack to learn more about him.

Jack Lestat dabbled in bands in middle school and high school, but says it fully took an effect when he turned nineteen years old. “People thought I looked like a good lead singer type but I sounded awful so no band wanted me for very long. I didn't pick up a guitar and learn to use my voice properly until I was nineteen, living in an apartment with two friends, who, like me, had no direction and just wanted to party their days away. Life sucked. There's a lot of drama and trauma to unpack here so I'll just say I was born under a very dark cloud. My life and depression really caught up to me during my senior year of high school when everything and everyone betrayed me for the millionth time. Only this time I was able to have legal independence and tell the world to fuck off while I self-medicated with my shady crew of lost boys. Roofing houses, working at an arts and crafts store, partying hard every single night worked for me for about thirteen months after high school ended. After the artificial happiness wasn't enough and suicidal thoughts crept into my head more and more. One day, my friends ran into The Venetia Fair (an underground band from Boston we were all obsessed with) at the beach in our shitty little town, which was in Michigan at the time, and they needed a place to crash that night before their show at the Opera House, so of course they crashed at my apartment and we threw a rager! The show the next day was amazing and I felt alive in the mosh pit for the first time in a while. The whole experience, hosting the band for the night, going to their show the next day, seeing them desperate for showers, sleep, money, and so full of life filled my gut with fire. Their drive, ambition, work ethic, party ethic, and most of all: their freedom from mortal life, that freedom within mortal chaos, that comfort in uncertainty really spoke to me. There was a familiarity with that feeling because all of my life I had never had anyone or anything to be certain of. Everything and everyone always came and went. It was like they chose a similar life to the one I was dealt by fate, but they turned it into a hustle, a passion, and a way to get the most out of life. The day after the show, I bought myself a cheap acoustic guitar and asked my musical friends to teach me as soon as possible. After practicing all day and all night every day for three months, I packed up all my shit and moved to Chicago, Illinois to start a band. I chose Chicago because Alkaline Trio, my favorite band of all time, Rise Against, and Fall Out Boy are all from here. The old Chicago punk sound was what always resonated with my soul the most. The sounds and poetry of abrasive and damned underdogs. This music, this city was home.”

Starting up is never easy. Jack formed his band at twenty years old and has been doing this for nine years. “Starting a band is tough. Especially when you can barely play your instrument and can only kind of sing, don't care much about life, and are completely fucked up all the time. Starting out in a new city with no one and nothing but one song, I'm surprised any musicians at all decided to follow me in my pursuit of death and freedom. I think half of them just wanted to be along for the ride, while the other half truly believed the pain in my first couple songs. We played some shitty shows that were roughly put together that we took with huge smiles because we didn't know any better. I didn't know how to book our own shows yet, I was a technology caveman with little to no social media presence at all. I had no plan other than to get good at playing my songs with a band and playing sick shows until I die before thirty. My goal was literally: 'Play one sick tour and then die' with my ideals, addictions, and novice music ability. Starting out was incredibly tough. Even if you don't have your head up your ass like I did, getting people to give a shit about your music is still one of the hardest things to accomplish in human life.”

Every artist experiences difficulties along the way, including bands. Fans hear things such as the tour bus broke down, the overseas flight for the tour got delayed, or someone got too intoxicated to go on stage and perform their show. For Jack, his difficulties included finances, band drama, constant line up changes, and even getting banned from his band's first tour because they did not sell enough tickets. “Some difficulties included playing straight up bad shows, fighting for dominance and creative control, romantic drama, and even getting punched in the throat back in 2014. I couldn't sing for a year and always worried if I would ever be able to sing again. Then in 2018 my addictions caught up to me and I had ulcers and was in constant pain. I ignored the pain and kept things moving because the band was finally starting to build some traction, playing lots of successful underground shows, getting recognized for our over-the-top live performances, and I was kicking ass at my job as a bartender, making ends meet and living in a cool ass apartment. My condition got worse and worse over the next six months, I completely ignored it and kept doing speed and drinking insane amounts of Jameson Whiskey and coffee, working doubles, booking shows and playing them, going on our second tour, and recording our album in New York. After we got back from our second tour, I was in so much pain every day, I could barely walk. I had to quit my job and stay home to try to heal as fast as possible. It turns out I needed surgery and there was no way I would be able to heal on my own, but by the time I had went to a doctor and became aware of this, I had already lost my apartment, my strength because I couldn't work out anymore, I had no appetite, I was laying in bed all day. I lost everything, I was a withered skeleton, a husk of my former self. I went back to my mom's place in Michigan and lived in her living room for seven months. Luckily, I qualified for Medicaid up there, and got all of my surgeries done quickly. My recovery was supposed to be a month or two, but mine took seven months because my cortisol levels were off the charts. Detoxing from drugs and alcohol while surrounded by my family really took a toll on my mind and soul. The whole time I was there felt like my own personal Hell. Every day I wrote down my future affirmations in a notebook and in 2019 I bounced back hard when I did all those things. I got my job back, moved back to Chicago, got my strength back, and got the band back together. I came back and everything was going according to plan. My band mates were still loyal as ever, we jumped back in the practice room and got the set sounding tighter and even got an amazing new bassist! Thanks to all the hard work we all put in, we booked our first show in over a year, it was going to be a big one! However, three days before the show, Covid-19 hit and the world pretty much ended. 2020 was tough for everyone, and yet another year went by of my band, Songbat Blvd, getting put on the sidelines. This time the world changed and so did everyone's life. Songbat Blvd is sadly no more. My loyal band mates, my best friends, they've moved on with their lives and we are on very different paths now. I'm not and have never been upset with them. All I could ever want is for my boys to be happy. I relieved them of duty and vowed to take it from here. Over the years of hardship, lots of learning, and personal growth, my mission has gone from boycotting love and embracing death in the name of freedom to something much different. Now after everything that has happened, I am clean, healthy, investing a lot of time into my spiritual and mental health, and all I want to do is connect with people personally through my music and comic books. I found the freedom I had always longed for, and it's in embracing life instead of death. Taking the good with the bad, and actively seeking out balance in all things. I am now Songbat Jack, the solo artist, and pressing on in 2021 to go for gold!”

Jack Lestat is also known around social media and the rock scene by his nickname, the Vampire Rockstar. There were many different reasons why this came to be. “People said I looked like a vampire, that I gave off vampire vibes, I was dubbed as a Young Dracula. My entire life since I was a little kid, everyone has associated my character and presence with that of vampire lore. The first Halloween I can remember, my aunt in California bought costumes for my cousin and I. I was so pissed off and jealous because he got to be Wolverine and I had to be Batman. My brooding demeanor and frustration only made the adults comment on how much of a perfect Batman I was. The first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was Spider-Man, A cool, youthful, superhero who cracks a lot of jokes, talks a lot, and wears bright colors. That's who I truly am once people get to know me, I'm actually light-hearted, brazen, and incredibly goofy. On the surface, all anyone sees is Dracula or Batman. A stoic, solitary creature of darkness. It makes that that's what people see first and mostly. That dark cloud will forever hang over my head, my past will always be a part of me, and my face will always look serious when relaxed. Aside from that there's some other parallels I've noticed. One being that the pursuit of fame and fortune is really the pursuit of a legacy for me, the pursuit of immortality. Another is everyone thinks I'm twenty-two when I'm actually twenty-nine years old. Secretly, I'm ancient in the music years but that's my superpower. I have ancient wisdom and experience under my belt, but the vessel of a very young person. Red and black have always been my favorite colors, I have always loved Gothic architecture, art, and decor. Ideally after achieving fame and financial success, I want to buy a castle in Ireland and live in isolation when I am not on tour or working in California. Maybe fall in love, maybe have a castle wife. Who knows? I'd like to close this section with this: 'Vampire' perfectly expresses people's first impressions of me and I've leaned into it all the way, making it my brand. It's how I appear on the outside, how my ego is interpreted by others. 'Rockstar' perfectly expresses who I truly am underneath the dark armor of my brand and ego; a Spider-Man like dude, full of youth, yokes, lots of energy, drive and showmanship!”

Jack Lestat has many inspirations for his music and comics. These include Quentin Tarantino movies, Robert Rodriguez movies, Cowboy Bebop, Berserk, Alkaline Trio, My Chemical Romance, Batman Beyond, Frank Miller, and Todd McFarlane. “I've always been obsessed with stories like From Dusk Till Dawn, where the main characters we follow are criminals, monsters of the human world who become humanized to us as they are introduced to a supernatural world and have to survive against vampires and other creatures.” When discussing his creative process, Jack describes it as remote viewing. “ I believe the best songs write themselves. The best panels draw themselves. I quiet my mind like a meditation, let my limbs go completely limp, and just make noise or scribble. Most of what comes out is nonsense, but within that forty-five minutes of recorded nonsense there are gems of raw material. Those bits of raw material will always sound better than anything anyone could ever sit and write. Directly from the subconscious, pure, raw, poetry and music untouched by my ego. True lightening in a bottle. The same goes for creating comics. When you look at the lines you can tell if the gesture was genuine or drawn with a head full of thoughts clouding the strokes of ink. After I collect the bits of raw material, I then use my left brain to organize it, perfect it, sculpt it into the best made song or panel it can be; into what it was always meant to be.”

Jack Lestat states that other than My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Alkaline Trio, his biggest inspiration are the girls he falls in love with. “It doesn't happen often but when it does I become a song writing machine.” Touring and being a musician is always filled with hilarious and interesting stories, Jack gave me an insight into a few of his experiences. “The tours I've been a part of are filled with humor. They felt like high octane comedic movies from 2006. We got chased out of a sex shop by weird mountain folk on our way to New York one time. I also made it a personal mission to piss in the most inappropriate places possible on tour. We played this show in Toronto, and to this day I feel like that was one of our top three best shows we've ever played. This show was so lit that an electrical fire happened and we had to evacuate the building with a hundred wasted hyped Canadians. While we were recording our album in New York, we all got super trashed and made a huge scene climbing up to the top of this gigantic fountain. There were people filming us and yelling for us to get down, and thankfully we didn't get arrested.”

When it comes to giving advice to upcoming artists, Jack had this to say: “This journey is really one you got to figure out for yourself. Teach yourself, grow yourself, choose yourself. In this life, nothing you do matters unless it matters to you and whatever happens, happens.” When it came to thanking people along the way throughout this journey, Jack had many people he wanted to give a shout out to. “Quentin Ronsick, the original and only drummer of Songbat Blvd, Besides me, Q was the only original member of the band. Sure, he's an extremely talented and hardworking drummer, but his real value is in his soul. Q is one of the two best friends I've ever had in my life. His loyalty, his moral fiber, his support, without his friendship, I doubt I'd be alive today. Mike Grima is on the same level as Q, here. Mike played guitar in Songbat Blvd for the longest and pretty much shared all of the same personal qualities as Q. To be honest, the purity of their souls kept me from completely succumbing to darkness. The whole time I felt unworthy to play music with them because they have been playing their instruments since childhood and were so far beyond me as musicians. Also because I felt like my soul is so much more corrupted, jaded, and spent than theirs I often felt I didn’t deserve their friendship, their trust, or their support. I still don’t fully get it, I can only theorize that they are angels in human vessels destined to cross paths with me. Also, giving a shout out to my parents! They absolutely love me and have always been there to support my goals.”

Since Jack Lestat and I are huge fans of vampires and their lore and culture, I was dying to know who would be his vampire best friend. “That's a tough one! Lestat de Lioncourt would probably kill me instantly for using his name as a marketing tool. Dracula would probably hate my music because he's so old school. Akasha would definitely kill me but would seduce me first, she's stupid hot but it's not worth it. I would have to say Alucard, he's half-human so he might be down to be pals. Yeah, I'd be Alucard's mortal best friend. Slaying demons and jamming out. I think he'd dig my punk rock tunes. He's the vampire rebel. I have a character in my comics that is a play on that very concept. Check out Crimson Comix (follow me on Instagram) and you'll come across Alucard Fawkes at some point.”

Here is how to find Jack Lestat's music, comics, and other art: “Songbat Blvd’s only album, The Grinning Truth is available

on any & all streaming platforms! Here’s the Spotify link!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Wz21NuPvoi38lPucOvEp8

& follow me on Instagram! @songbatjack to read my comics

for free, merchandise, Only Fans, Spotify, Patreon (secret

acoustic songs I recorded in 2015 while my voice was

mangled), & all my other social links are in my link tree on

Instagram! Def listen to The Grinning Truth, it’s 10 songs, 30

minutes, of My Chemical Romance sounding songs about crime,

love, & loss crossed w supernatural themes! I make lots of

Tik Tok videos explaining each song’s lyrics & meanings as well so

follow me! @songbatjack”

I really enjoyed my time getting to know Jack Lestat, his story, and I'm hoping to see some shows of his when I travel or when he does shows in New Orleans. I've got some pretty exciting writing opportunities coming my way and next article I will be catching up with my good friend Eric Charles from Sweet Cambodia to see how he, Donnie Fuson, and Savvy Saaverda are doing with the new projects. I hope you guys enjoyed this and look forward to seeing more. Happy Reading!

-Melanie Lane