A crazy art form

Ridiculousness is an art form isn't it? If it's not then it should be. The world today is full of absurd beings and items that cover every artistic field. So taking that into account you would be forgiven for thinking that Scottish band Jiezuberband fit right in. For starters, anyone who has witnessed the band live will have been privy to a look that (along with their music) appears to be from both the past and the future.

I recently sat down with John and Mikey, the men behind the vocals and ivory's respectively. Armed with cups of tea and school boy laughter, you wouldn't believe that this band have the potential to be Rock Gods. I myself struggle sometimes to find the words to describe some acts, but Jiezuberband can sum themselves up perfectly. "Hallucination and Genre-less  are Johns first words, he then follows it up with "Imbibed" to which Mikey asks what it means and gets a one word answer "Drunk" Johns list continues with Tepid and Pyromaniacs although he did ask for the latter to be left out. Mikeys words started off a bit more sensible with "Energetic and Evolving" before changing the tone with "Free, Carpet Fitters and Ambidextrous" It's fair to say that these aren't words normally used to describe musicians, but then this is no normal band. At the start of the interview there was a period of nonsensical chat and the band trying to arrange some rehersal time (a matter very frustrating to John)

2012 saw the release of the bands debut studio album "Sound of the Sun" a true musical masterpiece (available at www.jiezuberband.com) but is there anything the band would change about the album?

John - "No" 

Mikey - "In a nutshell - we've been recording EPs for 5 years and eventually we realised that we had to get our fingers out before the material got lost to ether. This album gave us a foundation to build on and now we know we can do it. We can now concentrate on the next album and make it more about what we're doing at the time, more about the current band. With "Sound of the Sun" there were tracks from years ago on that album. Some people expect an album to break you but it didn't with us"

So with plans in the pipeline and the new material starting to flow, it's easy to get excited at the prospect of a new Jiezuberband album. Most bands follow up albums are usually very different to the debut, so what about Jiezuberband? How different is their new material compared to the old?

John - "Very different, it's less Rock and Prog based and moving more towards Dance and Celtic territory. A lot of it is more melodic with more focus on the vocal rather that a barrage of instruments"

Mikey - "I think if you put yourself in our shoes two years ago we would say we were Psychedelic and Prog but we're more Celtic and Dance. On the album, Fields of Love was very vocal based with the 3 part harmonies. The thing is with new material we can get halfway through and realise it's either going to be good or Bollocks"

At this point John received a reply from Kenny regarding the rehearsal times they were trying to sort out, but with Kenny comes frustration, instead of confirming times for rehearsal he instead proceeded to have a rant about how cold the rehearsal room was last week. At this point in time I would like to refrain from using the language that was used by John and Mikey, however the main point was that they had branded Kenny a "Clown"

Over the years Jiezuberband, like most bands, have seen band members come and go and the line change. If you ask anyone who's witnessed the band recently then the chances are that they'll say it's the strongest line up so far, but is this the final line up, is this the line up that's here to stay? 

John - "It will be.............................once Scott's been sacked"

Mikey - " I think that as long as 1 person from this band has the passion to keep making music then the band will exist, basically whoever lives the longest will decide, but I hope this is the line up we go forward with, it is the best line up we've had"

At this point a lot of words were used to describe some past members and that ended with "It's not really for us to slag previous members" Sitting with Jiezuberband you realise just how much fun the band has and how much they love what they do, even when slagging previous members you can feel the love.

You can't listen to a Jiezuberband track or see them live without hearing the powerful and wonderous vocals of Claire, but in a band that has 5 male members it must change the dynamic of the band when playing away from home.

John - " We have to be less crude and sleeping arrangements are a nightmare. All I'm saying is she needs help with her tent, it takes 5 of us to build her tent, and it's so big, and the only reason it's so big is so she can stand. So really it's a pain in the arse having a female member, although if we're staying in nice accommodation then it's great. I mean the rest of the band would sleep in a bag with dog shit with minimum hygiene. 

Mikey - "Apparently having a female member means we're not allowed to wipe our arses with our toothbrush and then brush our teeth"

John - "Remember that time you (Mikey) were at the bar after a gig in Wales and the barmaid said "what? no tip" and you said "Brush your hair and comb your teeth" *laughter erupts*

Mikey - "Did I say comb your teeth?"

Once again Johns phone went with another band member in reply to his question about rehearsal times, this time it was Gibby but yet again there was no answer, just that he could do Mondays

John - "Is it me? this is what I need to put with from these clowns"

2013 is going to be the year of Jiezuberband, all you need to do is look at what's in the pipeline. They seem to be a band that progress so much more every year. From a band who came from what appeared to be nowhere to a moment in history that will take place next year. The band will be the first unsigned band to headline Glasgow's o2 ABC1. So what are the band looking forward to about 2013

John - "It has to be the big one, the o2. It's the best venue I've played at and now we get the chance to headline. I'm looking forward to the competition to find the support act as well and then there's the tour straight after the o2 when we'll be showcasing our new show. Of course there's also the writing of the new tracks for the new album "The Five of Pentacles"

Mikey - "The Festivals, I love them. Also there's the possibility of a foreign tour, which would be great getting to take the music to other countries. Our main thing is to play bigger and better gigs. I don't think we can get any better at playing but we want to put on such an energetic show so we need to do as many gigs as possible so we develop a level of...erm..goodness to take to as many people as possible"

A lot of bands over the years have been known to have a great recording sound but when you see them live it's nowhere near as good. Jiezuberband have turned that on it's head, and if you ask most people they'll tell you that Jiezuberband are a much better live band, but why is that?

John - "It's possibly due to the energy on stage. Once you get into a recording studio and start being produced you start to lose the live elements and then there's over dubs. When we're on stage we capture energy. We could go on stage with just a washing machine and we would still put on an energetic show. I think when people see us they realise just how much we enjoy what we're doing and they enjoy it"

Mikey - "We're about visual perception, to look at us we look like mis-matched clowns. We basically don't know the rules"

John - "We did know the rules but then we got drunk"

Mikey - "John's mad on stage, in fact John's mad off stage. I've seen him go mad at audience members, but it's all in good fun. We give the whole package. We look different with our lack of fashion sense and that just removes our coolness and makes us cool. The way we perform as well adds such a different dynamic to what you can get on a studio recording"

Sitting down with Jiezuberband you start to realise just what makes them tick, exactly why they make the music they make. As a band they're tremendous and as people to interview you start hurting your jaw with laughter. Sitting reading through the notes to type this up I had to lose a lot of what was said, mainly because some of it was too crude and then there was stuff that could be taken out of context and might not go down well. For example at one point Mikey said "Why don't we just write for X-Factor" I'm not telling you what context it was in, you can use your imagination and make up your own story. We finished on what I thought would be an easy enough question, all I wanted to know was what actors would play each member if there was a movie made about their life. This question quickly got changed into what the movie was called with such answers as "Broke Backside" and "Lord of your Ring" starring Dildo T-Baggings it then went on to become what TV or film Character the members were like and the following was decided:

Scott - Dick Dastardly

Kenny - Any Black guy (because he keeps saying he's 20% black)

Claire - Muttley

Mikey - Supergran

John - The evil eye from LOTR or Gollum

Then when it came to Gibby it changed again, originally he was a Snake on a Plane and then the film name changed to "Wheelbarrows on a Truck" then "Dicks on a bus" eventually ending up with "C***s in Spain"

After this they then decided to see what Star Wars Characters they would be.

Kenny - Chewwie

Gibby - JarJar Binkzz

Mikey - C3PO

Of course they had to change it again, so it then became what porn Star Wars character they would be

Claire - Anal Invader

Scott - Hand (solo) Shandy

then god knows what it changed to next, all I know is that John was called "BobbaFettaCheese"

An insight into the minds of the men behind the music can sometimes be dull and monotonous, but with this band it only adds another dimension of ridiculousness. The album "Sound of the Sun" can be found on www.jiezuberband.com and you can follow the band at www.facebook.com/jiezuberband 

As for me, I have to go and see my therapist about what I had to endure trying to get an interview out of two men who's passion for music is unmatched, who are some of the nicest people you could meet but also who sometimes revert to an age where eating crayons is a favourite past time.

Number of Cups of tea drunk - 6

Number of "F" bombs - 74

Number of times John recieved an answer that wasn't an answer - 4