INTERVIEW BY BRIAN BAKER

Frustrated by limited distribution, The Juliana Theory were quick to sign to a major.

By most industry yardsticks, the southwestern Pennsylvania Emo Pop quintet Juliana Theory has had an enviable amount of indie success. Their first two albums for Seattle-based Tooth & Nail, 1999's Understand This Is a Dream and 2000's Emotion Is Dead, generated sales in excess of 100,000 units, a number that was suitably impressive to attract the attention of the majors, who all began pursuing the band's signatures on a contract. When the dust cleared, Epic had secured the rights to the Julianas' third full-length and major label debut, Love.

When faced with the question of when the band knew they had outgrown their indie beginnings, lead vocalist and guitarist Brent Detar has a number of answers at the ready.

"Like a week after we signed the contract," says Detar with a wry laugh. "The day we got our first 'royalty statement' from the label. The day we went on tour and walked into every record store in America and couldn't find our record one time anywhere. We knew pretty early we didn't want to stay there longer than we had to."

As regards the massive numbers the Julianas sold with Tooth & Nail, Detar is frank in his assessment of the situation. "I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't attribute it to them at all. I attribute it to hard work and touring," he says with candor. "We played so many shows and went back to cities I don't know how many times. I remember 10 shows in Boston, and the first one nobody was there. The next time, there were a few people. The next time there were a few more. Slowly but surely our fan base got bigger and bigger. And it was really just from playing shows."

After the painstaking pop craft of Emotion Is Dead, the band was resolute in wanting to make their next album more immediate and visceral. That process began with the 2001 EP, Music from Another Room, which showed the Julianas (Detar, guitarists Josh Fiedler and Josh Kosker, bassist Chad Allen and former drummer Neil Hebrank) fleshing out their three-guitar attack with an edgier sound that incorporated New Wave and Folk influences as well as their grounding in Rock from Grunge to Psychedelia. When work began on Love, the band's mission was clear to them.

"Honestly, we just wanted to write an album with good songs on it, that was the first goal," says Detar. "The second goal was probably to write an album that sounds like the band does live. Our last record was way too polished and had way too many vocal harmonies. We're a raw Guitar Rock band live and we wanted to make that apparent and improve our songwriting. The next logical step was Love. I think this is the best set of songs that we've written. I hope to change that in the near future."

Another significant change that Detar credits for the Julianas' increased sonic presence is new drummer Josh Walters, a childhood friend of Detar's who replaced Hebrank after a textbook clash at the crossroads of artistic differences. "Josh has always been a great drummer, and he makes a substantial difference in the band," says Detar. "I don't even know how to place importance on it, but he makes a huge difference."

Yet another major factor in the beefier sound of Love was the presence of former Talking Head Jerry Harrison in the producer's chair. Although Detar notes that while Harrison and the band initially took a little time getting used to each other's ideas and input in the studio, the final product bears the ultimate fruit of their collaboration.

"Jerry Harrison was nobody's first, second, or third choice for producer ... no offense to Jerry, but we're just not big fans of any of the records he'd done," says Detar. "But Jerry, as opposed to some of the other people we talked to, showed way more tenacity and interest and dedication. He came to more shows, he called constantly. It seemed like his passion would win out in the long run because he seemed to believe in the band. His enthusiasm got him the job."

After years of making things happen on their own (the band has headlined the majority of their tours, with only brief weeklong stints as another band's support act), enthusiasm is obviously a quality that the Juliana Theory understands, especially when it comes from their fans. That point was underscored on the band's recent tour of England, where they have had no distribution to date.

"We don't have any music out over there at all, and kids knew all of the old stuff -- which was probably because of the Internet -- but they knew all the new stuff and were singing along to every word of all the songs on the new record," says Detar. "That was where my mind was completely blown."

E-mail Brian Baker

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