kurzweil-ICH: JPNSGRLS

Im Juli hat es die kanadische Band JPNSGRLS zu meinem Album des Monats gebracht. Und weil es diesen Titel eigentlich gar nicht gibt, ist das schon ein gewaltiges Kompliment. Die energetische Musik des Rock-Quartetts ist bei mir eingeschlagen – also habe ich mit Freude das Angebot angenommen, die Tour der Jungs zu präsentieren. Zu den Terminen im November kommt aber noch einmal separat etwas…

Aber zunächst ein Interview! Sänger Charlie Kerr hat mir einige Fragen zum neuen Album Divorce (Partnerlink) beantwortet und geht unter anderem auf die Bedeutung des Bandnamens ein, beschreibt seine Tony Hawk-Vergangenheit und schleimt sich bei mir ein. OMG-OMG!

JPNSGRLS Interview

What is your most powerful Pokémon?

Great question. When I evolve my Eevee, I think that will be the most powerful pokemon. I also have a pretty badass Hypno that I named „Thom Yorke“.

And what Pokémon with which attributes would be called „Divorce“?

Doduo. It’s dumb and two-minded and mundane, barely holding it together.

In an interview in 2015 you announced the new record „Divorce“ to be harder and softer as your sound has been ever before („soulful and angry“). How would you describe your sound today?

We always just do / write what is organic to us. „Divorce“ was a specific, bitter reaction to many things going on in my personal life. So it needed to sound the way it did to reflect that. But so far, everything I have written for the follow-up to „Divorce“ has been fun and danceable maybe even optimistic? Who knows? But I am really inspired to just get even stranger on the next album.

Why the album title „Divorce“?

It was strange, when we were making the album, everyone we know was either getting married or divorced. I was also going through a personal rough patch. Plus that title captured the musical / lyrical chaos.

For me the sound is very diverse on „Divorce“. A lot of influences and „this sounds a bit like…!“-moments can be heard. What are your musical influences?

Frank Ocean, Nirvana, The Beatles, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives, The Beach Boys, St. Vincent, Dirty Projectors, Father John Misty, Led Zeppelin, James Brown, Chance The Rapper, Outkast, Lauryn Hill, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party, The Mars Volta, Rage Against The Machine, Grizzly Bear, Regina Spektor, Modest Mouse.

I was also reminded of the „Tony Hawks Pro Skater“-soundtracks from a long time ago…

That is such a cool compliment. I played THPS 2 and 3 a ton as a kid. And was always a massive fan of the soundtracks. It may have been the first time I heard Rage Against The Machine.

What games would you like your music been played in?

A skateboarding game or like a basketball game or a hockey game. My brothers love Fifa and have Fifa tournaments. So, it would be cool to be the soundtrack for that.

„A Girl From A Different Dimension“ pretty much sounds like it is from the german band „Beatsteaks“. Do you know them (and/or other german musicians)?

I love Kraftwerk and Beethoven, haha, and I have definitely heard of Beatsteaks. But I could use a propper education regarding German bands.

Your initial name „The Beauties“ kinda was shouting „soft rock-pop“ – are you happy now, that you had to change it?

Yeah, plus some band from the 90’s called the beauties threatened to fucking sue us, so avoiding that was cool, too.

Your nowerdays used band name is an hommage to the japanese girl band „Mass of the Fermenting Dregs“. Have they ever got in contact to you?

Last I checked, they follow us on twitter, which is fucking rad. I would love to open for them one day.

But you know that now, you got rid of the vowels, you could also be girls from the „Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System“ (JPNS), right?

That’s so dope. I love words so I always am trying to find cool acronyms to go with the band name. That one is excellent.

Do you like to play with euphoric sounding song melodies in contrast to serious topics within the lyrics?

Yeah, especially with a song, as lyrically gross as „All Of Myself“ I liked pairing it with that gentle sweet sweeping vocal.

As in for example „Bully For You“ you are adressing harder topics of society a lot. Is modern popular music too soft and irrelevant in their lyrics?

That’s a tough question. Because art of any kind is ultimately rooted in self-expression. So, as long as it comes from their hearts I can’t really judge another artist’s need to put out the lyrics that they do. Having said that, I am genuinely confused why so many pop artists with massive platforms would want to express such typical, asinine things.

With which band / musician would you like to go on tour?

Touring with PUP would be cool. Our whole band is kind of obsessed with their debut album.

Always my last question (because of the name of the website meaning something like „BeBored.not“): What do you do when you feel bored?

Go for a walk, make music, read or watch a movie.

Thanks for the interview.

This was a great interview man, very well-researched.

JPNSGRLS Tourdaten Deutschland

09.11.2016 – Berlin (Badehaus Szimpla)
10.11.2016 – Köln (Blue Shell)
11.11.2016 – Hamburg (Molotow)