Jim Lindberg always knew he wanted to work with Ukrainian sisters Mad Twins someday—he just never would have imagined the sad circumstances in which their creative paths would cross.
Through their work with Punk Rock & Paintbrushes and their video for NOFX, the Pennywise frontman has admired the siblings’ inspired, raw aesthetics for years. So when brainstorming video ideas for the song “Good Enough” from his solo record, Songs From the Elkhorn Trail, which was released digitally last November and sees physical release on May 5th via Epitaph Records, he immediately visualized a punk rock couple like Mad Twins.
“It was one that was just the story of a Sid-and-Nancy type couple that are fighting against the odds and having big dreams of getting out of their situation,” Lindberg explains. “I met with the girls and planned on doing a video because I love their stuff so much.”
Lindberg also thought it was an opportunity to help the sisters, who still have friends and family in their besieged native country.
“I mean, if you were to ask us back in November that we would be having this conversation today (about the war), I think all of us would say you’re absolutely crazy,” he says, shaking his head sadly. “I thought it might be a cool way to send support (to) Olga and Vira. They need help right now.”
Lindberg, who is speaking to me from his home in Manhattan Beach, just got back from a rehearsal for the remaining Pennywise shows, where they are playing the band’s first five albums, in their entirety, in as many nights.
“It’s a lot … we bit off a lot more than we could chew doing these album shows,” he says with a small chuckle. “We’re doing the first five albums, and especially the ones we’re doing this weekend, there’s just so many songs! The Full Circle album and Straight Ahead album—it’s got a lot of material in there to remember. We’ve been going over the songs every day and arguing about who’s right about how each song goes, so it’s been a lively rehearsal.”
It’s the deep dive into Pennywise and these heartfelt songs that Lindberg has been bouncing between, but at the moment, he seems to still be processing the importance and impact of his first solo record, particularly “Don’t Lay Me Down,” the album’s centerpiece, which was written about his father’s passing last year.
“Yeah, (he was) super supportive of me and my career in music and really encouraged me to get a college education and just couldn’t have been a bigger presence in my life,” he says.
“He passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. It’s such an insidious disease of people losing themselves and their memories, and they don’t recognize you sometimes. There’s no easy way to die, but this is a really tough one, and the range of emotions are incredible. I touch upon that in some of the music, but also, some of the songs on the acoustic album are from when I was 15 years old. Some I wrote in the ‘90s; some I wrote during the pandemic, right before I went in to record. It’s a real wide spectrum of material there.”
Pointing across the room, he notes, “He bought me my first guitar, which is still sitting over there. I still write songs on it.”
Listen to “Good Enough” here:
For more from Jim Lindberg, find him on Facebook, Instagram, and his official website.
Photo courtesy of Brent Broza
