It was like an electronic version of writing the band post office box. That was our first venture into the internet, before websites were a main thing. Who are you talking to in the song? Is it just a general sentiment, or directed at someone specifically?īack in the days of really early social media experiments, we had an email address. When it's the four of us playing a whole lot of shows, it can't help but influence that. It is more straightforward, more rock in a way.
We were touring a lot more leading up to making Bleed American than Clarity, and I think that influenced it. At least from your own perspective, you might not have the most objective opinion about it.Įven though Mark Trombino produced both Clarity and Bleed American, Bleed American has a very different aesthetic. I remember that it came together really easily, and I think there's a tendency to think that because something came together quickly, it's less good than something you struggled with. I wasn't even sure if it would make the album. It really wasn't until much later on that people started reacting to it.īefore the album came out, did you have any notion that it would be a single? It just felt like it was just another song we had in the bag. ĭo you have any specific memories of the actual recording process? Was there anything significant about how it came together? During that period, we were touring for a couple of weeks here and there, then coming back home. JIM ADKINS: I don't remember exactly, but it was all around the same time. All rights reserved.At what point in writing Bleed American did "The Middle" come about? I love playing it.”Ĭopyright © 2021, ABC Audio. “What are you doing with your life that you’re bummed out that so many people are freaking out over something you did? I don’t know. “Tell me to stop if that ever happens,” he adds. “Let me break this down for you: Am I bummed out that something I wrote is connecting with thousands of people who are freaking out ’cause we’re playing it?” Adkins says. In fact, the idea of getting sick of “The Middle” has never even crossed his mind. Twenty years later, Adkins says he’s still “always excited” to play “The Middle” in concert. Great! Song’s done!’ Like, ‘It doesn’t need anymore.
“It just seemed, like, ‘OK, yeah, what do we do here? Oh, we do this.
“That song happened really quickly, without a lot of artistic suffering,” Adkins laughs. The success of “The Middle” was especially surprising to Jimmy Eat World at that time, especially since it was such a no-hassle song to record. I just hope I’m doing right by appreciating it.” “It’s the highest compliment you can have. “The fact that so long after that initially was released that people are still finding and connecting with it, I mean, it’s the biggest compliment ever, for a musician,” Adkins says. Reflecting on two decades of “The Middle,” frontman Jim Adkins tells ABC Audio that the song’s continued success and relevance feels “pretty nuts.” The record spawned what would become the Arizona band’s signature song: “The Middle,” now a staple of the early 2000s pop-punk scene, and a favorite of the one-and-only Taylor Swift. This Saturday, Jimmy Eat World‘s 2001 album Bleed American celebrates its 20th anniversary.
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