Dye
Correspondent & Expert
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 5146
Location: Planet Home; Buenos Aires, Argentina
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 Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 18:45 |
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New JK Interview
Hello Jamirotalkers,
A new interview appeared! News I found at funkin:
Hats off to Jay Kay
By Alan Poole
For the past two or three years Jamiroquai have been a band on hold, serving only as a reference point for tabloid tittle-tattle aboot Jay Kay's latest high-powered car or lady companion.
But this summer they returned with new album Dynamite, the follow-up to 2001's massively successful Funk Odyssey, and on Wednesday they kick off a UK arena tour at Birmingham NEC.
It's a key moment in Jamiroquai history because, although he hardly needs the cash, Kay is still hungry for musical credibility.
"I've still got so much to prove," he says; "you've always got something to prove in this game. But the bottom line is I still love it. I love the thrill of seeing a track come together, and with this album we've been sitting with tracks, meticulously going through them, changing things, getting it right.
"We recorded the whole album live, then digitally edged it, tightened it up, gave it a harder sound. But I also wanted to maximise the groove, to keep the verses sparse and the choruses big. Dynamite's a groove and I wanted to nail it."
The album has been two years in the making, at home and abroad.
"A lot of it's been done at my studio at the house, but I also wanted to get out of the studio because being in the same environment can get boring," says Kay.
"We'd already done two albums there and so we did a lot of writing all around the world. We wrote in Italy, we went to Costa Rica to write, we went up to my little shed in Scotland because the phones don't work and you're not distracted there.
"It's in the middle of nowhere, so you've just got a keyboard, guitar, a little drum machine and you know if you can work stuff out like that, if you can hammer out songs that sound good just with those three things and a voice, you're on your way. The important thing is to get the structure of the songs out before we attempted to record them.
"We also went to the US to do stuff. We spent a month in LA using a pool of musicians, a string arranger called Benjamin Wright and some great backing singers.
"It's just something different, stepping out in the sunshine and driving to the studio every day. You're there for long enough to feel involved in the whole sunshine, palm trees, freeway kinda thing. It inspired Dynamite really, seeing these flash young ladies in their expensive dresses, driving expensive cars.
"Sexy cars attract sexy girls - the two go hand in hand and have done ever since the Jaguar E-Type."
By way of contrast with his playboy image, however, Kay delves deep into political territory on Give Hate a Chance and The World That He Wants, when he takes George W Bush to task.
"This guy has got to realise we don't all want to live like America," he says. "We don't all want a town that's got a Taco Bell, a McDonalds, a Burger King. You know I've just driven across the desert and it's exactly the same.
"The whole administration is slippery and it's something I wanted to write about. I feel strongly about that guy, I mean, we've got to get rid of him because he's trouble for all of us."
It's a radical departure for Jamiroquai, but Kay explains: "I find that sometimes I'm two very different people - one of them's quite morose and quiet, the other one wants to have a laugh and party.
"They're the two sides of me and that comes out in the music, and it's really that kind of simple. But also music is escapism for people, it isn't just doom and gloom."
As to the future - he's now 35 and has been making records for 13 years - Kay insists he is taking it "one step at a time".
"You just keep doing it for as long as you can do it. As long as you enjoy it, you do it, and I do still really enjoy it." ll Tickets are £28.50 plus £3 booking fee from www.necgroup.co.uk or 0870 909 4144.
D! (dyego) |
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