Used But Never Abused With JEPHA From THE USED

Interview by Kris Peters
For a quarter of a century, American rock outfit The Used have dominated the global rock landscape, delivering countless albums that not only helped shape the course of musical history but also helped shape the lives of a good deal of music fans the world over.
Bursting onto the scene with their self-titled debut album in 2002, The Used transcended normal music prejudices to become favourites of both consumers of music and critics, finding that elusive formula early on in their career while most bands finish their tenure still oblivious to how to find it.
From The Used, the band went on to release In Love And Death in 2004, somehow topping the heights achieved on their first album, before solidifying their stature amongst the rock elite with 2007's Lies For The Liars. Now, in celebration of 25 years atop their field, The Used bring the party to Australia in a unique run of shows that sees them perform each of those three albums in their entirety in each capital city.
Such is the demand for these special shows that several more have had to be added, more than half of which have already sold out. HEAVY recently sat down with bass player Jepha to dive deeper into the idea and the celebrations that look set to continue for some time yet.
"I'm excited, I'm ready to go," he enthused when we began. "We just ended a full US version, and we went to Europe for a few dates, then we took this month off, and now I'm already itching to go back out and move to Australia for a bit (laughs)."
We mention the fact that more than half of the 21 shows are already sold out and ask how good it feels to know that people on the other side of the world are so hungry for their arrival.
"It's really exciting," Jepha smiled. "The best part is for our singer - because he lives in Sydney and has been out there about ten years now - he always has to come to us to rehearse and practice and everything, so he's always jet-lagged. Now the joke's on us that we are all flying over and will be jet-lagged and fucked the whole time, and he is going to be spot on (laughs)."
Having had to add so many extra shows, The Used will now be in Australia for almost one month, so we ask Jepha if the band had already planned or budgeted in that extra time away from home.
"We didn't expect this much," he laughed. "We didn't expect it to go this long and to have multiple dates added and a lot of places selling out. That's all… not a shock… it's all better than we imagined."
In the full interview, Jepha talks more about the tour and what fans can expect, learning the first three albums in full and any difficulties faced plus how the band will approach each night and bring their best to each performance.
We dive deeper into each of the three albums and what they mean to The Used, his memories of recording each, the musical shift between each and how that reflected the growth of The Used musically, new music and more.


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