Jumprope

Interview takes place on December 6, 2024 at Bohemeo’s in Houston, TX

Rumor has it that on December 6, 2024, three band members were heard “woo-ing” from across the patio of Bohemeo’s, Houston’s beloved music and art cafe. The three band members in question were Taylor Gibson (guitar/vocals), Chris Dunaway (bass/vocals), and Nolan Kerbert (drums) of Houston garage rock band, Jumprope. The reason for the woo-ing? 

They are just happy to be here.

Jumprope outside of Bohemeo’s

“I used to work here for eight years,” says Taylor. “And I’ve lived in the neighborhood over here for 10-12 years,” says Chris, “so this is kinda like the homebase stomping grounds.”

Bohemeo’s clearly has sentimental value for this group. In fact, it was the location of their first two shows as a band.

“In 2019, me, Taylor, and our friend Martin Long, who plays in Mud Dauber…we played a show [here] as kind of the first iteration of Jumprope,” Chris says. “We did that show and then things shut down, and then we [started working] on music with Nolan for a year and a half during the pandemic.”

“I remember there was a joke where we were rehearsing all the time during the pandemic,” Nolan laughs, “and people were like, ‘Are you guys even a real band? You always talk about you guys practicing, but you don’t play any shows, you don’t have any music…but you guys are always practicing.’”

“But after restrictions lifted, our first show back was here,” says Chris.

The band has come a long way since the days of their first shows, and this year happened to be a particularly transformative period for the group. “This was the first year that we did our first tour–a tour that we booked ourselves. And that was a really big thing for us,” Chris says.

Indeed, what started as a personal goal of Taylor’s to play in New York City turned into a ten-show tour up the East Coast. “It’s one of those things,” Chris says. “You know, you’re in a band, you're booking places out of town…you’re playing with bands that you’ve never seen before, you’re going places you’ve never been before.”

“Staying at strangers’ places,” Taylor adds. Logistically, she explains, sometimes it doesn’t really make sense to go on tour. “Nobody starts an indie rock band to get rich and famous,” Nolan jokes.

But was it worth the risk? “I feel very accomplished,” Chris reflects. “I don’t think we had one bad show,” Taylor agrees, expressing how heartwarming it was to experience a face-to-face connection with fans. 

“After we did our tour, we were just like, ‘Oh, This is what we want to do as a band,’” Chris says. “We wanna be playing in front of new people.”

It seems they have gotten quite the head start on that goal this year, even outside of their summer tour. Jumprope played nearly two dozen shows around Texas in 2024, including River Revival Music Fest, two unofficial SXSW shows, and two Sofar Sounds shows. 

“The first [Sofar show] we did was at Beyoncé’s church,” Nolan says, reminiscing on one of their more memorable gigs. “We tried to strip it down to a quiet set because we were like, ‘We’re gonna be the loudest one here!’ but then we actually ended up being the quietest band there,” he laughs. 

Beyond playing shows, the band also released one song and two music videos this year, each with vastly different creative concepts. The song, “Ten Years in Houston,” has apparently been in the vault since 2019 just waiting to be finished.

“That was actually one of the first Jumprope songs that we worked on,” Chris says, “but we were like, ‘Let’s give it a little breath so it can be just right.’”

Five years and plenty of breath later, the catchy, nostalgia-filled rock song has finally been released and is having its moment in the spotlight. “It’s really just a simple song about living in Houston for a long time. Ten years,” Chris says. “All the experiences, being a part of the music scene, and what that means.”

“We did the music video with our friend Kyle, who operates under the moniker ‘Siphonophore AV.’ The concept,” Nolan explains, “is there is this clock man played by Justin Clay from Darwin’s Finches, and we’re sitting around with calendars…and then the clock man starts beating the shit out of us,” he laughs. “It’s just time beating our asses, but [we’re] having fun along the way.”

“Yeah, we were like dying laughing,” Chris says, remembering the day the concept was pitched to them.

Their most recent music video for “Head Sighs,” however, was quite different in tone. “Matt, the director, entered it into a bunch of horror film festivals, and it won a bunch of awards,” Nolan says. As opposed to “Ten Years in Houston,” this music video leans into the darker undertones of the song and features a chilling storyline conceptualized by director Matt Hardesty.

“Matt is a creative force,” Chris says. “He looks at the music that we have and reads at the lyrics and he sees something that’s there that maybe not a lot of people see.” It must be such a privilege to be surrounded by so many fellow creatives, and in this interview, Jumprope has shouted out more than would even fit in this article.

Grateful for such a long year of creativity, growth, and collaboration, Taylor assures us that Jumprope is taking the holidays easy. Of course, “easy” is subjective. 

“We don’t have anything actively booked at this moment, but we are using this time to [write]. And we’re working on getting our EP finished up,” Nolan says, hinting at the upcoming release. 

“Next year, one of our really big goals is we wanna do a full album,” Chris says. “You also said that 2025 was your year to play video games,” Taylor banters, “so we actually have nothing planned for next year.”

“We plan to play a lot of Fortnight,” Nolan agrees. “Oh by the way, can I grab Zelda from you?” he asks Chris.

A well-deserved way to round out the year.

Follow Jumprope on Instagram @jumpropeband and contact jumpropebooking@gmail.com for booking information.

Photos and Story by Shelby Mathews