Jarcrew
By WhiskasWhiskas caught up with Jarcrew on their tour with Million Dead ...
Jarcrew are currently on tour with Million Dead and Minus, and I caught up with Kelson - keyboard & screams - before they soundchecked in Oxford over the wonders of mobile telephone. After exchanging pleasantries and finding the tour was going well, especially with the Million Dead fans, there was something I really needed to ask him.
What do Jarcrew sound like? Well, even the frontman doesn't seem to know. "There's 5 different people in the band, and we all have different influences and interests - music, clothes, everything. We try to combine all these influences into what we do, which often ends up in arguments because we've all got strong opinions." Personally, the frontman tells me, he still treasures the bands his parents brought him up on - The Kinks, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones. You start to worry about what strange forces came about to produce their sound, until the inevitable is revealed.
"We all know each other from school, and I was about 15 when Rod (drummer) lent me some Fugazi" From then on it was a downward spiral and as a evident in their music the band now listen to a wide range of music - DJ Shadow being another mentioned strongly linked to their "dancey-side" which brought up the question of producers. With the multitude of sounds the band aims to create, who would they like overseer their recording - Albini or Lavelle?
"I don't know really, we've had such limited experience of recording - we've only ever just recorded the album which we did in a couple of weeks early last year (2002). Steve Albini would probably concentrate too much on the raw-ness - drums, bass and guitars - and I'm sure it'd be amazing, but I'm not sure how it would balance with all the synths and programming we use. Vice-versa with someone like DJ Shadow or James Lavelle." It was this point my mouth started watering as the name James Murphy was brought up. "That DFA bloke, he'd be good," says Kelson and seeing Jarcrew live for the first time a few days later I can't imagine a better prospect.
More so than the album the new songs they played chopped and changed between post-punk upbeats the DFA have made their own and intense screaming - and of course everything in-between. These new songs will be recorded in a week around Christmas - demos for a new EP or album Kelson really wants to see blow the recently re-released album away. "We recorded the last album (Euphoria Kids now re-released as Jarcrew) so long ago, and with little experience, we really want to go at it again, get a new album out that will really show our potential. The press we've had for this album has been good, but has occasionally shown the underdeveloped-ness of it, which just makes us more determined."
This is something else intriguing about Jarcrew, with a sound as diverse as theirs, which magazine would champion them - NME or Kerrang - or would it end up being the cult fanzines like Drowned In Sound who've jumped on so many of their contemporaries. In the end, it's kind of been all three. "We never thought anyone would be into it because of our diversity! We'd be too rock for NME and not straight rock enough for Kerrang, but as it is Kerrang gave us Single Of The Week for the last single and have been really supportive." The NME gave a typical glowing review with a relatively low rating of 6 but Kelson sees this as fair. "The album was a strange one cos it came out different to how we play live, but that's how it had to be! Live we're loud, heavy and aggressive, but on record... we just want to try something different and we don't always know exactly what that is."
And they'll get this chance once their year of touring, ending with Jetplane Landing ends mid-December. But it's not far off then before they come back around and start their first headline tour mid-January. They're playing Josephs Well and you don't want to miss it.
