We recently caught up with Jukebox The Ghost to talk about their Conan performance, their experience at South By, and what fans can expect next from the band! Check out our interview with guitarist and vocalist, Tommy Siegel, below!

This one’s not so much a question as it is a statement, but you (just a little while ago) posted your summer tour with Ingrid Michaelson – that’s huge, congrats! How excited are you about that experience?
We are really excited about it!  We’ve never done a tour on that scale – The biggest shows we’ve done in the states have been clubs (and theaters at the absolute largest).  This tour is on the gigantic-outdoor-ampitheater end of the spectrum, and we are really looking forward to that totally insane new experience. In addition, Ingrid and her band are just fantastic people all-around, so we know the tour is gonna be a blast even before it starts.

You performed on Conan a month or two back, and then you were on VH1 earlier this month – do you prep yourselves any different for a TV performance than you would for a live show?
Not particularly.  The thing about touring is that you already know you’re going to have to play in a lot of wildly different situations – Sometimes you play to 30 people and sometimes you play to 3,000.  Sometimes you’re opening the show to a somewhat-disinterested crowd, sometimes you’re playing at a radio station for a single DJ and sometimes you play to a ton of your own enthusiastic fans.  Playing on a TV performance feels more like playing to an intimate/confused crowd than it feels like playing to the millions you’re actually performing for – The key is to make sure you don’t totally screw it up.  Which I kinda did on Conan.  Thankfully you can’t hear the guitar very well in the first post-chorus.  Phew!

Since South By Southwest is filled with tons of incredible acts, were you excited to catch any artists in particular? Did you stumble across any new artists that you are now a fan of?
South by Southwest is such a crazy event that it’s hard to find the time to see other stuff, so it’s best to just go with the flow – You might have three or four hours between showcases and I’ve found the best tactic is to check the schedule only at the last minute so you don’t get too let down.  Thankfully, this year I got to catch Deerhoof (they’re my favorite band).  

This one is a two parter, so here we go: The doodles you post online always seem to go over really well – A.) What’s the weirdest one that someone has requested? B.) If there could be one band/artist/celebrity you’d want to request a doodle from you, who would you want?
A. Someone requested us as the characters in Fifty Shades of Grey, which I imagined for a few minutes and then politely declined.  
B. I would LOVE to draw a doodle from Cher, which is somewhat realistic because she spends an amazing amount of time on Twitter.

What can fans expect next from Jukebox The Ghost?
More touring this summer!  We’re excited to hit the road with Ingrid Michaelson for May/June.  After that, who knows?  I’d love to start working on a new record before the year is over.