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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Jaga Jazzist
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 20 January 2010
Experimental jazz-rockers Jaga Jazzist were formed in Norway in 1994 by Martin Horntveth, who, together with his brother Lars, are the core of the band and main songwriters.
Jaga first rose to prominence here in 2002 after the BBC named their debut album ‘A Livingroom Hush’ Best Jazz Album Of The Year, and they are still regarded as one of the most exciting and innovative bands in Norway. The band’s latest album, ‘One-Armed Bandit’, is released on the 25th Jan via Ninja Tune. We spoke to Lars Horntveth to ask the Same Six.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
My first song ever was written for Jaga Jazzist. I was fourteen years old and the song was called ‘Ove’s Dream’. I have no musical education, so almost everything I know about making music, I have learnt by making music for Jaga for fifteen years.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
I was listening a lot to Steve Reich, Fela Kuti and MGMT before writing the music. One evening I wrote the title track ‘One-Armed Bandit’, which was very inspired by Fela Kuti. I suddenly started to make all these arpeggios and fanfares that reminded me of the sound of a slot machine. After that we tried to do more of that and added heavy brass on many tracks and crazy arpeggios as a “theme” for the album.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It’s quite different from song to song. But on this album, most of the music is written down in scores. Our previous album was rehearsed like a rock band without any scores. This time I wanted to make much more complex music and put in some elements from classical music. Rehearsing and reading music was very challenging for the band, but I think the end result sounds really fresh and interesting.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
We don’t think that much about references or influences while we work. I try to just follow the gut feeling and do something that the band hasn’t done before. But I guess you can hear some references to Flaming Lips, Dungen, Steve Reich, Tortoise, Cornelius, Gil Evans, Fela Kuti, Charles Mingus, MGMT, Justice and Jean Claude Vannier. But then again, maybe that’s just something we hear.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Be open and listen to it many times. There are many layers in the music that you maybe don’t hear the first time. And try to hear us live. The energy from nine people on stage can be quite overwhelming sometimes.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future
We hope to reach out to both old and new fans with our new direction. The music is more intense than ever. We hope people are ready for that. We will tour extensively next year in Europe, USA and Canada. And since Jaga Jazzist has been a totally idealistic band for fifteen years without bringing in any money for its members, we actually hope to get paid in the future, ha ha ha.
MORE>> www.jagajazzist.com
