JJ72
Interview
(roj) Nicht so leicht verdaulich, was
uns JJ72 da mit ihrem zweiten Album “I To Sky“ vorsetzen (siehe Review in
B-Side # 14). Hinreichend Auskunft über die musikalischen Veränderungen gab uns
das Dubliner Trio anlässlich ihres Konzerts in Hamburg. Songwriter, Gitarrist
und Keyboarder Mark Greaney spricht, gelegentlich unterstützt von Bassistin
Hilary Woods und Drummer Fergal Matthews, über hohen Gesang, die Bedeutung von
Single-Auskopplungen und die Frage, was prätentiös und was aufrichtig ist.
Nebenbei bekommen auch noch Aerosmith und Travis ihr Fett weg.
Mark: Were you? It grew on you, didn’t it?
… because
there are only a few songs in the same vein as the first one, songs like
“Brother Sleep” and “Formulae”, which is obviously another classic single. You
also ditched the trademark dynamics for most of the songs. Was that a conscious
decision?
M: Yes, I think the ditching of the dynamics was. The loud/soft thing is
so damn easy to do: You want a big chorus? Smack! There we go: big chorus! We
wanted to make songs that grow on you and that have longevity to them. And I
think this album does and that has a lot to do with its dynamics.
Most of the vocal melodies are quite subtle. On first
listen I thought they were not very special, but they really grow on you.
M: Yeah, we could have made album one again, we could have done it in
the same way. I think the word we used for it was ‘deconstruction’. We
deconstructed everything until I wasn’t really playing any guitar chords in
some songs, like “Always & Forever”, for example, where it’s me playing riffs, quite monotonous ones. But still the
song should creep under the skin. It’s music I wanted to make. Even in interviews
I did before we went in the studio to make the first album, I said I wanted
music to creep up on people as opposed to smack them in the face. So I think we
achieved that. Whether it’s good regarding selling records, I don’t know
(laughs). Because most people want things that are instantaneous, but fuck
them.
“Formulae” is quite old and has already been part of
your live set two years ago.
Fergal: We had to put it on the album to say goodbye to it, in a way.
Hilary: I think it’s the only song on the album that has a foot in the
old album. But I think this album is far superior to the last one.
It’s more consistent, there were a couple of songs on
the first one that weren’t up to scratch. The second JJ72 trademark is Mark’s
high voice, which is even higher now in some places. Was that studio gimmickry
as with Suede on some records or was that for real?
M: I think “Formulae” is the only one where the song is actually a
little sped up when we recorded it. It’s only sped up a tiny bit, so I was
actually singing that high. Well, not as high, but close to it. I don’t
like “Formulae” because it’s been fucked around with in the studio. I don’t
like the song. But every other song on the album is just normal me singing. I
also think I’m more of a singer on the album. There’s a lot more lower singing
on it as well. I mean, there’s songs like “Brother Sleep”, where the end of the
chorus is high, but I really wouldn’t consider the other ones as high singing.
I think most people should be able to sing that high. It’s just that a lot of
people don’t bother trying.
Because they are afraid.
M: Yeah, because they are afraid they’ll be called a girl, a big girl.
Not that I have a problem with being called a big girl.
F: Well, I think with this album we ourselves wanted to not do the same
record. It would be so simple to do the same as the first album. It would
probably sell ten times more.
Have you already decided on other singles?
M: Yeah, the new single is going to be “Always & Forever”. Again,
it’s the kind of thing where this album we were in a world of wanting to make
an album as opposed to wanting to make singles. The first album it was obvious
the minute we recorded “Snow”, “Oxygen” and “October Swimmer”, those three
singles. This time we’re not so sure what should be and what shouldn’t be. We
listened to a lot of other people telling us “Formulae” should be the first
single, which is fine. We decided if we’re going to have to release singles,
then let’s manipulate them more ourselves so they’re more like singles. Because
of that we got John Leckie to remix “Always & Forever”, John Leckie à la
“The Bends”, Stone Roses and that sort of stuff.
That made a difference?
M: Yeah, it’s probably subtle to other people, but to me it sounds like
a really great single. There’s one or two U2-isms going on.
Definitely already with the album version.
M: Even more so on the single. It’s great (laughs).
Any other single candidates?
M: Possibly “Brother Sleep”. What we realised from the first album is
that singles don’t really matter for anything as far as anyone’s concerned
except the fans want singles to be different. But the record companies don’t
particularly care because they just see it as a promotional tool for the album.
It’s just about units shifted at the end of the day for them. So what we wanted
to do on this album is, if we’re going to release a song from it, we want to
change it in some capacity.
That’s why the new version?
M: Yeah, we like to keep in contact with our fans and that’s why we go
on Internet sites and listen to what they say. On the next single there’s also
a couple of new B-sides, one song in particular which is really good. It’s one
of the very first songs we ever recorded ourselves, before we recorded the
first album.
What’s that called?
M: “Dog”.
F: Just recorded on a four track.
So it’s the old version you release?
M: Yeah, it’s pretty terrible. But it’s good because it’s so terrible.
F: It’s just a certain kind of …
M: … youthful exuberance!
F: Yeah, there’s a brilliant feel to it.
H: Actually, I really like it. I love the middle eight when it all
breaks down.
M: (laughs)
… or the religious imagery of the lyrics. What do you
say to that?
M: You see, people in Britain especially would accuse you of
pretentiousness because you use ‘formulae’ simply because a lot of people would
go: “What’s ‘formulae’?” Because they wouldn’t use it in everyday speak. I
think it’s not pretentious. It just happens to be a title of a song, it just
happened quite naturally. Also, it’s more realistic to use religious imagery
than to write about taking cocaine and fucking models, because more people
think about religion, more people think about where they’re going to go after
they die – which is the backbone of the album – and they experience that
thought than people do fucking models at parties that rock stars go to. So it
makes a lot more sense to write an album like this than … I don’t fucking know
… an Aerosmith album. You can only accuse them to be pretentious.
But they fit the accepted rock’n’roll cliché.
M: Yeah, they’re hugely pretentious. They’re a joke compared to, say,
music we make. That’s what I think. YES! (throws fist in the air and laughs)
Influences I can detect on the new album include
Smashing Pumpkins. Is that due to the producer and mixer you worked with?
F: We’ve always been huge Pumpkins fans.
Yeah, last time you told us your favourite B-sides
were from Smashing Pumpkins.
M: Right, “Ugly” from “1979”, wasn’t it?
H: That’s great.
M: Flood produced the album and Alan (Moulder) mixed it because there’s
a lot more scope to the records that they made than just the Pumpkins, i.e.
Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, and of course Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, some of
those albums. There are huge differences in the albums that Flood’s made, yet
they’re always very emotional, always very much based upon the soul. And going
back to your previous question: He always took the risk of being pretentious as
well, which I see as really important in music. There’s no point in making
music unless you take the risk of people thinking you’re an asshole. That’s
just a part of making music. I’m very sure a lot of people thought Beck was a
fucking idiot.
H: I think any dramatics at all in music will be seen as pretentious.
M: That’s why Flood was an integral part, we wanted the scope on the
record. It’s quite different because lots of emotions that were on the first
album are polarised now. It takes anger on the first album and turns it into
“Serpent Sky”: bang!, summed up there as extreme anger. Then the softer side of
the band is polarised into “Nameless” and “Oiche Mhaith”, which are really,
really soft. We’re very proud of the album because of the scope. If it was to
be drawn as a graph it would be like this moodwise (makes zigzagging gestures).
That reminds me a little bit of The Cure. They also have these emotional
shifts. “Sinking” also reminds me of them, not only because of its title.
M: Possibly, yeah. Right, that’s great. I don’t mind getting compared to
The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, U2 – as long as you don’t mention Placebo
(laughs).
I’m actually not too fond of Placebo.
M: Good (laughs).
F: Oops.
M: I mean, well, that’s up to you (laughs).
You mentioned “Oiche Mhaith”, my favourite song on
the album.
M: Possibly mine, too.
F: We recorded that down the mountains in County Wicklow in Ireland.
M: We didn’t actually record that with Flood, that was our own.
H: We just recorded it in a tiny little room in the middle of the night.
M: That song and “Sinking” is probably where the band is going towards
even more in the future. It’s quite simple music but every single word on
“Oiche Mhaith” and every single word on “Sinking” – I wrote those lyrics
together, actually – is completely honest, every single moment of those songs.
And I think that’s why in ten years I hope someone will be able to listen to
them and they won’t have aged at all.
Live gigs are quite short with JJ72.
M: Yeah (laughs).
F: 40 minutes.
Maybe 50.
H: Where was that again?
M: The Logo.
H: Oh yeah, the Logo.
But even though it was short, it was perfect because
you played your best songs at the time and left out the weaker ones.
M: Yeah, I loved that gig.
H: Yeah, in the UK and in Ireland we’re doing an hour and a half sets
every night. In Europe we’re probably shortening it to an hour, ten minutes.
M: I think it’s important to play a set that you want to play yourself.
Otherwise you’re being dishonest to the people who are paying to listen to you.
I know it sounds quite an easy cop-out, like I’m being selfish, but if you’re
playing songs which you don’t feel like playing that night, then you’re fooling
the audience. Because the whole base behind this band is we play live. All we
want to do live is we want everyone to feel like they are on the stage, in the
music. Every noise in that room is part of it. It’s like, when you open the
door in that room, the way the air might waver or smoke might go out. Don’t
open the door because the music will go out. It’s meant to be a vacuum of
emotion. And to keep that vacuum stable and really airtight, you got to mean
everything that you are playing. Otherwise you just become like Travis.
M: I’m not too keen on it. I only heard bits and pieces. I haven’t
actually bought it, to be honest, because the Pet Shop Boys are one of those
bands who were important when I was eight years old.
You should, though. It’s brilliant.
M: Is it?
It’s a really good return to form.
M: Yeah, I might just purchase that. We’ve a day off in Copenhagen
tomorrow. I’ll remember that, the Pet Shop Boys album.
Did you like “Behaviour”? It’s in a similar vein.
M: Don’t know it. You see, the thing is I’ve got compilation tapes that
cousins gave me when I was younger. I know sporadic Cure songs that I wouldn’t
even know the title of. It’s “I like number six on my compilation tape”. It’s
the same with the Pet Shop Boys, really.
Aktuelles Album: “I To
Sky” (Lakota/Sony)