"Scream" = simple Am. Std. P-Bass w/ rounds.
I don't really want to speak for Alex, or judge what he says as truth or otherwise. And since I'm no longer in the band at all, but only on the most remote periphery, I can't comment on the current strategy of the band.
Suffice to say, there are VOLUMINOUS amounts of unreleased Ima Robot stuff. Just all kinds of ideas in various stages.
Ima Robot, for factors external and internal, never got what it truly deserved, or realized what it was capable of. Virgin records performed a complete and epic fail, and their promises to us from the executive strata were beguiling and attractive, yet ultimately hollow and ineffectual. They had terrible ideas for us when they did have ideas, and they just didn't have the juice...they were in fact in the middle of a protracted demise during our time there. Part of my reason for my departure was their shameful and embarrassing choices/demands they put upon us for the recording of album #2, not the least of which was their terrible producer "recommendation" (read: ultimatum). Choices and demands which the other band members became complicit to, yet I couldn't live with. The label acted from fear, and we were guilty of placating that fear.
In some ways, we were also just simply not "of our time". We didn't play the game like other bands, and our ideas were too irreverent, and too sophisticated to compete with bands like The Killers, et al. You could simply NOT reign us in when we were at our prime. We also just wanted to do what we wanted, and took too much satisfaction in pleasing ourselves first, and others second.
But I have a certain degree of mild regret, that Ima Robot is not at this moment a continuous and dominant force in popular music culture. Because there was a time when we were poised to be just that. I pitied the headlining band who chose us to open.
Alas, such was not to be. We're more of a footnote in the pantheon of music from the 00's.
But seeing Alex do his thing in ES&TMZ is very satisfying to me. I'm also in on the ground floor with that record, as I played some bass and have co-writes on it. Live, it's become quite a thing. Seeing them destroy Coachella this year gave me deep satisfaction, yet also, I must admit, some regret, as I stood there side stage with other Ima Robot alumni.
Alex is the real deal, ladies and gents. He will be on the artistic radar for a long time to come.
Best,
JMJ