JJ72 - Interview Part 2

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 27 / 11 / 2005

intro

In the second part of our two part interview, JJ72 talk to Anthony Strutt about their forthcoming and long-awaited third album

PB : How would you say this third album compares to 'JJ72' and 'I to Sky' ? 'JJ72' was dark and 'I to Sky' was fairly gothic. Is this one more commercial ? SF : It is a mix of the first two. MG : It is more commercial but at the same time we are doing what we want to do. We are much more relaxed about things than we were at the time of the first two albums. We have playing the songs off it live and I don't doubt them at all. SF : It is not trendy though. It is not like everything that is selling now. I don't know where it fits in. MG : It has still got elements of the first two albums in it. PB : This is your third tour to promote the new album. They have all been small tours. Did you choose to play to a smaller crowd, to guys that love the band, than to play bigger venues because the music scene has changed in the last few years since you have been away ? MG : We just wanted to make sure that we played venues that were packed out with people rather than venues that were too big. We also needed to re-establish our love of touring. For 'I to Sky' we embarked on a massive tour and it really drained us. We needed time. We are not in a huge rush. We want to get music out there to people who have waited for music from us as soon as possible, but we don't want to give a radio plugger a song, and to go "This is the one. This is the big comeback song." We want to get music to people that are genuinely interested and to keep playing gigs. If they get bigger, great. If we have a hit single, great. I'm happier doing this now than when we finished the second album. If we had made the second album and it was less epic, we might of ended up playing arenas. If I wrote 12 more Oxygens then the band would not exist now. I would be sitting at home with a bottle of Scotch, shaking my hand, but we are not and we are here. PB : The new album is finished. Have you got a name for it yet ? MG : At the moment, we have got a title but we are not all for it. PB : Have you a release date for it or are you not in a rush to get it out ? MG : We would have liked it to have come out in June 2005. SF : That was the release date that we had. It all got tied up though. We are trying to find the correct window. That sort of stuff has nothing to do with rock and roll. PB : Will you do a DVD with the album ? SF : There's a few things that we are looking into. We have friends who work in video and media. We are always into art and video and things like that. PB : You recently toured with Garbage and played a few festivals. You did the Download Festival and Hyde Park, didn't you ? MG : Yeah, we did a couple of European ones. We did one in Istanbul, and another in Prague. We did one in Ireland as well. It was good to be back doing festivals. PB : Was it weird going back to playing on a large stage after doing smaller gigs ? FM : We had done it so many times before for the second album. We were to be honest delighted. It was great fun. PB : What are your future plans ? SF : To get the album out. MG : Yeah, to get the album out there, to keep touring and to get back to Europe. We have a big fan base in France and in Germany. PB : Anything else ? SF : Check out the website. PB : Do you have much involvement with it ? SF : Yeah, we join in. We post stuff on it. I think we are going to revamp it soon. MG : After this tour, we will probably go back to the studio,record a few more singles and hopefully the lovely people at the record label will find the market pretty soon. PB : Thank you.

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