Interview - Jazica

Not my finest interview really. Think my mind was elsewhere. I do remember turning up very early and wandering up and down Portswood High Street aimlessly, then eating junk food. The band were very sweet and sent me a CD later on. I particularly like their fizzy electro pop bits, like Illusions and Arp Attack.

First appeared on mINtSOUTH.com in June 2009
Words - Suzy Sims
Editor - Rob Ball
(c) mINtSOUTH.com

JAZICA @ TALKING HEADS, SOUTHAMPTON

mINtSOUTH recently caught up with Jazica – aka Frankie (vocals, synth, guitar), Chris (guitar, synth), Nick (bass) and Kev (drums) –in the beer garden of the Talking Heads.

Can you tell me a fact about the person to your left?
Jazica look fleetingly panicked. “No, not that one!” says Chris. “Not that, it’s quite rude!”
Kev: “Why is this becoming difficult?”
Frankie: “You’re thinking too much!”
Nick: “What was the question?!”

Let’s forget that and start with something less likely to end in spilled secrets and tears. How did Jazica start?
Frankie: “I sat next to Chris in Soul Cellar. We just got talking and I was like ‘oh, I want to start a band, I need a lead guitarist’ and he was like ‘Oh, well I need a vocalist.’ And then I rang him up the next day and we made some music.”

The band have been going since late 2006, Chris explains. “Me and Frankie did a load of acoustic things and then Kev came in - he was on my course at uni - and then we got Rob on the bass. Now Nick’s on the bass. Nick filled in for us last summer when Rob was away.”
Kev: “He’s like our summer bassist.”
Chris: “But now he’s back for good, as Gary Barlow would say.”

Are you still studying at the moment or are you working full time?
Kev: “We’re all finished now and sort of deciding what to do jobswise.”
Chris “I’m currently unemployed and very poor. So this is my fulltime job.” mINtSOUTH expresses sorrow at this. “It’s good, I enjoy it. I’m getting fed tonight!”
Frankie: “I do temping and casual work. I don’t know, we’ll soon see. Ask me next week!”

What influences does Jazica have? “Many and varied,” says Kev.
Frankie: “The most influential thing for me is just my surroundings. I think the thing that influences my music the most is people.”
Chris: “We’ve all got kind of different tastes in music. Frankie likes drum and bass and a bit of acoustic, I like a bit of prog rock, and Kev likes a bit of prog rock, and Nick likes…”
Nick: “I like indie and heavy prog rock actually.”
Chris: “We’re a prog rock band…”
Frankie: “…with an electro twist.”

Jazica has made it to the final of the Road To V competition. Two of the six bands left will be given the opportunity to open the V Festival this year if they pick up enough support. How did Jazica get involved?
Frankie: “Just fill in one of those forms on the Internet. A bit like a job application.”
Chris: “I set up a little profile on the website and then forgot about it for a few months, and then I woke up one morning with a guy saying ‘You’re in the semi finals of the Road To V’ and I was like…”
Nick: “He wasn’t in his house, he was ringing him!”
Chris: “He didn’t wake me up, on the side of the bed tapping! So that was how we found out. And we went down to Brighton and did a gig at Coalition as part of the Great Escape, and that was the semi final.”

How did that go?
Kev: “A surreal day...”
Frankie: “It was fun. Really hectic when you’ve got loads of production crew running round. Needed a lot of energy but I think we just about made it.”
Chris: “We had to kind of sell ourselves as well, which was a bit rubbish. We only got a 15 minute set.”
Frankie: “But it went well. It did go so quickly, like as soon as we got onstage we were off again. A lot of adrenaline. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much adrenaline in my body.”
Nick: “The people running it made you really nervous as well because they kept coming up to you going ‘Are you all right? Are you all right?” [panicky voice] “I’m only playing a 15 minute set, leave me alone!”
Kev :“The shoving a camera in our face literally before we walked onstage wasn’t particularly nice either.”
Frankie disagrees with this. “I quite liked it, it kind of hyped me up.”
Chris: “They did loads of filming and then the programmes they’re putting out are five minutes long. And the last thing we were on it was like – there we are!”
Nick: “With someone else’s music over the top. Not that we’re complaining mind, we’re very fortunate to be involved in the competition!”

Do you know much about the other bands involved in it?
Frankie: “Yeah I’ve been getting quite into it, seeing what the competition’s like. It’s all so different, each band’s got its own little thing. If a lot of people watch it and a lot of people judge the bands, it’ll be a fair judge because everything’s so different it’ll be the path where everything’s going. Hopefully that’s our way, which is kind of electro progressive rock apparently!”
Chris: “There’s a couple of good bands in the competition. One of the best ones, Dimbleby and Capper, didn’t get through for some reason. But there was this one band that weren’t all too great but did get through. I won’t say any names. And then there’s another band who was good and did get through.”
Nick: “And us!”
Kev: “There’s no actual final gig, everything’s all on the Internet."
Chris: “We’re doing a nice photoshoot for NME so that should be good.”
Kev: “You can’t see how many votes you’re getting but you can see how many fans are registered to you, so you can kind of get an idea how you’re doing.”

Have you ever been to V before just to watch?
Frankie has: “I went ages and ages ago, it had an amazing line up – Placebo, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters.”
Chris: “I’ve been most years for the last six or seven years. It’s always good.”

A random man walking past in need of a light asks if anyone in the band smokes. The answer is a resounding no. “What sort of rock and roll band are you?” the man jokes. “That’s Grant from Toupe,” explains Nick. Kev nods: “Very funny man.”

What other plans have Jazica got for this year? “We just started a little stint recording, so probably try and get some songs written and recorded, keep things moving, keep gigging,” says Frankie. “To get a single out would be brilliant.”
Chris: “We’re hoping to get some kind of management deal out of Road To V. Any little things, just to get our foot in the door.”
Nick: “I think we’d all quite like to do a tour but they’re so hard to organise.”
Kev: “It would be nice to have an agent that could go out and do it.”
Frankie: “When we all get jobs and money then things will get easier.”

Back to the band fact question, and this time Jazica are ready.
Frankie: “Kev has always got a beard.”
Kev sounds puzzled. “Apart from the times when I don’t. I didn’t have one at all for Brighton.”
Frankie: “For one day! Chris wears tiny, tiny t shirts.”
Chris: “This is from the H&M kids section.” It reads ‘Siberian tigers can eat as much as 45 kilograms of meat in one night, enough to make 400 hamburgers.’
“Education. And t shirts,” nods Chris. Edutainment, is that the plan? You’re having fun but teaching a serious message as well.
“This is what Jazica is all about, I can’t believe you have worked it out!” laughs Frankie.

http://www.myspace.com/jazicamusic