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monisum
Joined: 30 Jun 2004
Posts: 1327
Location: Germany
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 Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 13:09 |
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Article in "Blond" magazine, issue June 2005
Here I made a translation of an article from the German magazine “blond”, issue June 2005. Although the small part of Jay surfing in internet in fan forum and chat rooms was placed by me in another topic here before, some people asked me to give a translation of the whole article. So here it is… 
Shoes off, please!
When Jason Kay invites on his sofa, you have to follow the house rules: Blond reporter Vincent Delgado had to take off his shoes too, before he was allowed to listen to the new Jamiroquai album “Dynamite” in J.K.’s country house. Result: The sound is in the usual way retro funky. But the house: very shocking. And the pop star should tidy up from time to time..!
Opposite from the rustic bricked manor house there is a chapel on a small hill, at the sides of the house working and car garages stretch out for the sports cars and there is a studio complex and the guest houses. And his own pub belongs to the ensemble. That’s how it has to be for a pop star like Jason Kay. But the disappointment comes when you reach the front door. At the side door into the kitchen there is a sign in big fat letters “Shoes Off”. No British joke, all visitors have to take off their shoes at the entrance. “I have very expensive carpets inside and I am not in the mood to hoover the mud away all the time”, Jay grumbles. “The dirt of my dogs is already enough for me.”
His tone shows clearly that the real life of pop stars does not have to differ from our parents life. Far away, if you think pop stars cultivate an excessive, glamorous, lifestyle: up to the details extravagant with fat cars, many girls, parties all the time and throw out the money! For the rest you have your domestic staff and entry is only allowed for some chosen people. Jason Kay is different: The 35-years old head of Jamiroquai invites a blond reporter to his home in Buckinghamshire, 1 hour by car away from London, to present his new album “Dynamite”. The fist album since 5 years.
On my socks it goes into the kitchen. Obviously the kitchen has the function of a communication headquarter. Here you find the uninhibited chaos like you find in flats shared by students. The remainders of a breakfast (white beans with bacon and sausages), full ashtrays, CD’s, a baking tray with rancid grilled sausages, a lot of beer, few wine bottles, coffee cups, cracked plates including a pool of blood (Jason had cut his hand while cleaning up), books, a hairbrush, cream tubes. On a granite plate in the middle of the room lies a big bundle of dollar notes between a recharger, a portable CD player and headphones. A big flat screen at the wall shows the news on BBC. A room to feel comfortable.
Jason beckons me over into his games room, he wants to play the new songs. This room is his sanctum. It is equipped with a wireless keyboard, internet and integrated Play Station. Additionally a bombastic flat screen, build into the wall and connected with a sound system that could fill any club with sound. J.K. (how he is called by anyone in the band) lies sprawled across the dark green upholstered sofa, beats to the rhythm with a pencil and a bottle opener on the armrest, then suddenly he jumps up to perform circles around the sofa to the bass groove of “Black Devil Car”.
A real entertainer, a man who made 5 albums in 13 years, selling millions of them. Among them world hits like “Virtual insanity”, “Cosmic Girl” or “Deeper Underground”. The confessed hat wearer, preferable out of animal skin with horns, earns prizes like Grammy or Brit Awards on the assembly line. His private life: screwed up: alcohol, many one night stands, more drugs. Always flying on a pink cloud, always on high speed without brake. Seriously relationships, like e.g. with the actress Denise van Outen, fall by the wayside. No man to lean on, no man to hold tight.
When Jay is not raving around his house, then he does in one of his sports cars on the narrow streets in Buckinghamshire. Always at night, the veins full of adrenaline. He owns more than 20 cars, mostly racing cars: from Ferrari F40 up to Audi RS4 with 380 PS. He is a madman, a maniac, coming home often after his nightly high times excursions in the morning dawn, stopping shortly at the local butcher in the village Horsenden, to buy his sausages for breakfast.
Unpredictable. No other attribute describes Jay better. Even his very few close friends like his longstanding band members, guitar player Rob Harris and drummer Derrick McKenzie say: “Jay is a working animal, always 100% reliable. But his moods can change from one second to another. No one knows what is then in his head. In that case you better leave him alone”. Just unpredictable.
After hearing half a dozen songs, to which he raved around the living room, he puts the music back to a moderate volume and gives a monologue about the always getting more and more difficult way to get a perfect entertaining song. “I have not made a record for five years”, he says. “I am not sure where I am standing today, where my place is. I practically start at zero again. This is good, but on the other side, every record from Jamiroquai has to burn the people away. That is the pressure, growing on and on. With each new album I am asking me the questions: Can I beat the success of the former album? Can I bring myself again into that ecstasy? Can I still succeed to thrill and carry away the people with the new songs?”
He answers the questions himself. With the keyboard he surfs into the net, on the big flat screen several fan pages appear side by side. Immediately Jay surfs into each forum and chatrooms. Some last entries are weeks old. Some praise the timelessness of his big hits, some posts are not that flattering. Words like “burned out” or “used up” are often used, some talk about departure some of lacking innovation spirit. One even writes, he saw Jay on the Bermudas, he would work as a priest.
“Exactly me”, Jay breathes hard and laughs. "Some entries are bullshit", just provocation. But many posts have shown me, that there are people outside waiting and yearning for me. Out of this I took my inspiration for 'Dynamite'. If I came to a point in the studio when I thought I was in a dead end, I felt stucked, then I read this postings, again and again. These people encouraged and helped me, not to loose myself totally".
That was more difficult in the beginning as he thought. Because for the first time the band felt caught in their sunny trademark: the catchy sparkling post acid sounds, full of funk and disco, that made Jamiroquai for the perfect example for sunny party music. “Rock music offers a much more wide field, bands like Coldplay can make much more experiments. I admire that and I even envy that a little bit. Developments can be heard in rock music much faster. But I have to deal very careful with innovations and have to stick also to my image printing styles. That is especially a problem in such moments, when I listen to other music”, he says. “I once was in a period when I only listened to the Doors, all their records up and down. Then I could not switch back, I was sick and tired of Soul and Retro. In such situations I feel like being in a golden cage”.
But Jay refuses creative liberation coups under pseudonym or in a second project. “Fans are very sensitive, they do not believe you doing a stylistic change under another name easily”, he says. “And most of the musicians only do that to satisfy their own Ego. To prove to themselves, that they can do more and are not fixed on a rail. The best example is Phil Collins. For most of the people he is only the cuddly type, but in his heart he is progressive with a fondness of jazz. But this will nobody hear from him. In real he is a poor lad. Then I prefer better to stay in the track, even if I need five years for a new album”.
The 13 tracks of “Dynamite” show therefore more solid cleverness than really big innovations. But nobody really expects something totally new from a band like Jamiroquai, their songs should actually entertain only. And this is what every song does – sometimes with more, sometimes with less chart potential, but always with the Jamiroquai typical stylistic assurance.
But Jason lacks this stylistic assurance in the chosen design of his county mansion. Here he sways between splendour and petty bourgeois style: free standing marble columns in the foyer, artificial water falls, in the living room Chinese vases, heavy brown leather sofas and gathered up net curtains, which we would rather expect to find at his grandmas home. In the garden is a reconstruction of a roman temple. Flagrant contrast on the toilet: There we find finest pink toilet paper, soft, four layers. Like at mummy’s home. May be Jay Kay should start his next romantic affair with women interior designer. But may be it is only that he cares more about the really important things in life. Jason is and stays unpredictable.
Additional remark: Some more bigger pics of Jay are in the magazine, but they are not new, we all know them from AFO promotion (Jay sitting on the meadow etc.), so I did not scan them.
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Last edited by monisum on Sun Sep 21, 2008 10:57; edited 1 time in total |
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High Times
Joined: 25 Oct 2004
Posts: 744
Location: music written by JK/Toby Smith
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 14:04 |
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hi, Monika, this is a very serious interview,
theres so many things to analyse!!!
i am reading it again and again.
thank you very much for your great translation!!! |
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LLCoolJR
Officer & Expert
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 1431
Location: The Netherlands
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 14:40 |
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Thanks Monica! Very nice interview. Interesting Jay's taking a look at the forums from time to time. |
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mrsmoon
Joined: 04 May 2002
Posts: 485
Location: Cologne/Germany
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 15:12 |
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wow wonderful and really serious and thoughtful ,open interview !! I really like it (gonna buy this magazine tomorrow!) and like high times said: lots of food for analysing.... thanks monika  
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it´s only once or twice you´re in line with mr. moon !! |
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Catman
Joined: 14 Aug 2004
Posts: 1737
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 15:40 |
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wait a sec.... there is a magazine called Blond?
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monisum
Joined: 30 Jun 2004
Posts: 1327
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 16:36 |
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To MrsMoon: You don't have to waste money for the magazine. Here is a link to their website...they put the article in German on it: http://www.blondmag.de
To Catman...yeap quite funny name. Never saw that magazine before..it was between the other music magazines in the big local record store. It seems to be a local unconventional (Berlin) lifestyle and music magazine...
The title sounds gay...and some of the content is too...but it is not an especially gay magazine (think that is what you was wondering about..hahaha)
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Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 17:28 |
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Keep posting articles and new stuff, you're my magic star !
D! (dyego) |
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VirtuallyInsane
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 868
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2005 21:00 |
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Great article: thanks for the translation Monika!!! |
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miss sparkles
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 411
Location: In the TARDIS
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 06:41 |
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Cool interview!
_________________
Fascist.
I < 3 DOCTOR WHO |
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cheeeba lover
Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 753
Location: croatia
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 08:59 |
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He answers the questions himself. With the keyboard he surfs into the net, on the big flat screen several fan pages appear side by side. Immediately Jay surfs into each forum and chatrooms. Some last entries are weeks old. Some praise the timelessness of his big hits, some posts are not that flattering. Words like “burned out” or “used up” are often used, some talk about departure some of lacking innovation spirit. One even writes, he saw Jay on the Bermudas, he would work as a priest.
“Exactly me”, Jay breathes hard and laughs. "Some entries are bullshit", just provocation. But many posts have shown me, that there are people outside waiting and yearning for me. Out of this I took my inspiration for 'Dynamite'. If I came to a point in the studio when I thought I was in a dead end, I felt stucked, then I read this postings, again and again. These people encouraged and helped me, not to loose myself totally".
COME ON!!YOU ALL SAW THI INTERVIEW AND NOBODY SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THIS.... 
JAY GOES ON THE NET AND SEES A FAN SITES!!!!
"THESE PEOPLE ENCOURAGED ME AND HELPED ME,NOT TO LOOSE MYSELF TOTALLY"!!!!! 
"then I read this postings, again and again"!!!! 
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"on the bass st.st..st..stuuu zender!!" |
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Cosmic Girl
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
Posts: 2157
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 09:50 |
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Awesome Interview bought also the mag. |
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Butterfly in June
Joined: 21 May 2002
Posts: 972
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:24 |
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| cheeeba lover wrote: |
| I read this postings, again and again. These people encouraged and helped me, not to loose myself totally". |
Ok - "Hi Jay how are you doing, old bloke - Give us a sign if you are on Jamirotalk from time to time!!!!"
P.S. Thanks a lot for this article Moni!!! Great work!!! |
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FRA
Jamily Coach & Correspondent
Joined: 07 Aug 2004
Posts: 5477
Location: London don
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Butterfly in June
Joined: 21 May 2002
Posts: 972
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:57 |
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| FRA wrote: |
yeahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Give us a sign!
Don't be shy! |
We don't bite   |
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mrsmoon
Joined: 04 May 2002
Posts: 485
Location: Cologne/Germany
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:24 |
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only sometimes....and only the "bad girls"  
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it´s only once or twice you´re in line with mr. moon !! |
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