Joe Jury Interview

We have featured Joe as one of our Band of the Day artists and we wanted to get to know the man behind the voice, so we asked him a few quesions! Here they are!

Q. How did you get into music?

A. At about 11 years old, a couple of school friends and I decided to form a pop/ rock band. We started off with classic rock covers from Jimi Hendrix to AC/DC. After a while we began to write our own stuff, that was my first real experience with writing songs, I realised I liked writing, I found it comforting. The band and I gigged, wrote and recorded for a few years and then naturally as we got older went our separate ways.

Q. Who are your musical influences?

A. That was about the time my dad showed me Van Morrison and from then on I became obsessed with soul and folk music, I was around 15 years old. From there I went on to discover Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and many more. I became inspired to write my own music through these brilliant songwriters and that's when I started to write with an acoustic guitar and the process hasn't changed in slightest since. Over the past couple of years I've been really getting into 80's pop music, for me it was the best era for pop, it was as if there were no creative boundaries, nobody cared about what people would think. I've been listening to a lot of Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston, Wet Wet Wet, Kool & The Gang and Peter Gabriel.

Q. Who would be your dream duet or performance with dead or alive?

A. Michael Jackson or Earth, Wind & Fire.

Q. What album/artist are you listening to at the minute?

A. An act called 'Japanese House', her music to me is the perfect combination of electro and Pop music, she's great. I've had an old James Brown album on repeat for about a week now, nothing beats the Godfather of Soul. I've also been listening to The 1975's new album, it's a truly beautiful eclectic body of work, spanning from so many different genres.

Q. If you were PM, what would be your top 3 policies?

A self sufficient society, including taking away money. An education system that actually encourages creativity because it feels like to me that even in the 'creative' lessons kids aren't really given the freedom to just write a poem, a script or a song and if they do they're not championed on it like they should be. People are going to lose authenticity if it carries on like this. Thirdly I wouldn't be PM because I don't believe in a PM, one man shouldn't have so much control, it's not right, I believe in a Government but no ridiculous hierarchies. Q. Where's been your favourite gig so far?

A. I headlined upstairs at Ronnie Scott's last year, it was the best gig I've ever done. People were dancing at the right moments and people were dead silent at the right moments, it was perfect. But there's plenty more of them to come!

Q. What's the 1st album you ever brought?

A. Greenday - American Idiot

Q. Who have you seen live and thought WOW?

A. I went to a little festival a few years ago and Damien Rice headlined, he was incredible. It was just himself, a guitar, a Piano and 15,000 people. Everyone shut up for his set, the entire audience were completely silent, to me that's the epitome of capturing an audience, I haven't seen anything like it since that gig. A more recent gig, I went to see The 1975 at Brixton Academy a couple of weeks ago, that was insane. The light show was something I'd never seen before, it wasn't a gig it was an experience which is exactly how it should be.

Q. What is the most embarrassing song or artist you have in your library?

In my opinion I don't really have any guilty pleasures, others might call them that but I don't. For example, I love The Backstreet Boys but I don't feel guilty about it, I'm not embarrassed, It's just pleasure to me. I did stumble across in my itunes library a song called 'Enter the ninja' by a guy called Die Antwood which is genuinely awful and I'm very confused how it ended up on my phone.

Q. If you could go on only anywhere in the world where would you go and why?

A. Probably Africa or India. When I go to a different country, I want to see a very obvious differentiation in culture and see how it is compared to the western world. Africa looks so simple and beautiful, the landscapes and the nature look magnificent. I feel the same about India, a naturally stunning part of the world. Hopefully I'll see them one day.

Q. Are we to expect some new tunes or an EP from you soon?

A. My single 'Streets of Campden' is available for listen on Soundcloud now, it'll be released officially in April. Another single will follow and then hopefully an EP in the not so distant future. I'm also constantly writing, I'm always looking into the future.

A huge thanks to Joe for taking the time to answer these questions from all of us at MTN! www.facebook.com/joejurymusic www.soundcloud.com/joejurymusic www.twitter.com/joejurymusic www.youtube.com/joejurymusic

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