Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 18:22 |
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New Interview from 'The Mad Hatter'!
Hello Jamirotalkers,
A brand new interview I found!
The Mad Hatter
July 2005
Having sold millions of albums, Jamiroquai are one of the UK’s best, living, musical exports and Ja y Kay, the nimble-footed lead singer
/songwriter is setting his sights on another chart-br eaker with the launch of his sixth album. Text by Elle J Small
Nestled in the depths of England’s Buckinghamshire countryside is the utterly enviable, 80-acre estate belonging to Great Britain’s favourite hat collector. Today, this vast abode is home to near a hundred music people: the Jamiroquai band (rehearsing the new album in Jay Kay’s huge, on-sight studio), media moguls (tipping top tracks and necking pints in Jay’s very own pub, the Chequered Inn) and various members of the Jay Kay crew (from PA to personal car cleaner). For a British musician to generate this amount of attention there has to be either some serious talent or some serious money involved. Jamiroquai tick both boxes.
One of the UK’s best musical exports, Jamiroquai have sold over 20 million albums to date, and the 35-year-old Jay Kay is one of the richest artists in Britain, rumoured to be worth around £40 million. The secret to Jamiroquai’s success? Their funky, feel-good, age-defying appeal. Who doesn’t know the chorus to their 1996 “Space Cowboy” anthem or the 2001 smasher “Little L”, from the chart-topping A Funk Odyssey album?
Dynamite is Jamiroquai’s brand new, sixth studio album and Jay Kay has decided to strip things back to basics. While first single, “Feels Just Like It Should” has a surprising, rock-tinged vibe; the majority of the new disc is strewn with hands-inthe-air, party funkers. And while you’ll still find those subtle political messages that Jamiroquai are famed for, Dynamite, in general, feels far less preachy than its predecessors.
“I mean, everybody tells me it sounds different from my other stuff,” says Jay Kay, in his thick London geezah accent. He sparks up a cigarette and puffs smoke at his plush living-room ceiling. “I was trying to write the lyrics differently. I didn’t wanna go too deep; I just wanted to write nice things that hook people in, ya know? As opposed to ‘everything’s gotta be a story’ or ‘everything’s gotta be some sort of f**king highbrow kinda song’.”
The “F” word features frequently in Jay’s world. On average, it crops up every other sentence. As does “D’ya know what I mean?” Don’t get it twisted though. Mr Jamiroquai has an IQ the size of Athens. Perhaps that’s why his hyperactive voice-box seems in constant battle with his overactive brain. In other words: Jay Kay speaks rapidly and erratically. Eccentric, charming, cheeky and amusing; Jay could quite easily become your new best-friend…
You’re known for not really listening to the radio, so what’s your current favourite album that gets your toes tapping?
“I love that Scissor Sisters album; I think it’s wicked! It’s f**king superb!”
And what’s the truth behind all the recent rumours linking you to posh It-girl and celebrity starlet, Lady Victoria Hervey…
“Oh f**king hell! I mean, honestly, it drives me insane! I don’t know where they get these ideas.”
So, if you just speak to someone at a party, is it a case that the papers always blow it out of proportion?
“That’s exactly it! We went to a party. We were in a Cadillac in wherever we were and I didn’t want to be rude ’cause she’d invited me to come to this party. She just happened to be there and I mean, I’ve seen her a couple of times; I see her around… So anyway, we’re there and she goes, ‘Come in the car.’ There was me—and whoever it was with her—sitting in the back on the way to this party in Malibu.
Nothing to it! Nothing at all. The next minute there’s all this ‘thing’ in the press. They jumped on it. I mean, I’ve got to be honest, please! Lady Victoria Hervey! I mean, bless her, she’s just not my cup of tea. I just don’t go for girls like that...”
So, you’re not into posh totty and a rah-rah voice?
“What that deep, posh kinda voice? [Jay puts on his most ridiculous silver-spoon accent] ‘Hi! I’m studying classics at Oxford!’” No, not for me.
Is there a political theme to your new album Dynamite?
“I mean there were a couple of things I wanted to say… Take ‘Give Hate A Chance’. Well, I’ve never seen so much f**king hate and killing. I mean it’s gone on and on and on. It was almost like a play on the Lennon lyric but almost like a reverse: instead of giving peace a chance, you might as well give hate a chance... That’s the way I felt about it. You know [sighs] Jews fighting Muslims, Muslims fighting Christians. I mean we’re heading towards a terrible, terrible time, I tell you. I don’t look forward to what the future holds for us if it all carries on like this…”
You own a crofter’s cottage near Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. When do you go there?
“Whenever I get the chance. It’s just my getaway. D’ya know what I mean? We did a lot of the writing up there [for the album] because the phone doesn’t work, and it’s proper concentration. There was me, the guitarist, the drummer and the keyboard player in the barn at the back; plugged in with heaters on, pointing at each other, shivering. [My keyboardist] Matt was going: ‘My hands! I can’t get my f**king B flat!’”
For the first time ever, you decided to leave your UK studio and record the new album in America. What was that experience like?
“Recording in LA for a month, I got these fantastic backing singers in. It was great! I was like, ‘Oh, have you done anything recently?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, we’ve just been out there for three months with Stevie Wonder.’ OKaaay, fair enough! Well you won’t find this very difficult then will you? [Jay guffaws a lot before taking a healthy gulp of his ice-cold beer]. It was nice to see how they worked out there and a lot of the tracks like ‘Dynamite’ and ‘Seven Days In Sunny June’ did come together because of that vibe in LA, ya know? I’d never done any recording outside of England. Partly because we’ve got the studio here and you know you’re not gonna go and spend a lot of money somewhere else if you can do it in your own studio at home. But there was the other element, which was not so much the discipline—’cause we do get on with it when we’re here—but there was that change of scenery aspect to it and the change of sound.”
And then Jay Kay signs off, sporting his cheeky grin, the twinkle in his eye and no doubt an itch to funk his way into the limelight again. The new 2005 Jay Kay and his Jamiroquai band are about to embark on an extensive European tour. For full dates and venues (including gigs at easyJet routes: Naples, London, Nice and Palma de Mallorca) log on to www.jamiroquai.com. In the meantime, if you know what’s good for your ears, go buy the album. It’s effing great. D’ya know what I mean?
Jamiroquai’s album, Dynamite, is available now on SonyBMG.
THE JAY KAY FACT-FILE
- Jamiroquai’s front man owns a wardrobe dedicated solely to hats! Jay’s current fave is covered in hundreds of jade-green feathers.
- Jay has an ever-changing fleet of cars, which currently includes: three Mercedes, an Aston Martin, a Lamborghini, Bentley, Rolls Royce and a limited-edition, jet-black Ferrari Enzo—worth over half a million pounds.
- He was once quoted saying he preferred cars to chicks, “…they don’t cause any arguments with you and they don’t shop.”
- A home-improvement fanatic, Jay Kay has spent over £5 million on DIY and renovation at his Buckinghamshire estate.
- Jay Kay was once in love with TV presenter Denise Van-Outen and has been linked to Winona Ryder and Lady Victoria Hervey. He says he’ll never pursue a celebrity again!
D! (dyego) |
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