Interview, Jobot

Posted on 27th Aug 09 by Paul Murphy | 0

Jobot are a relatively new band, having only been around for a year. They’ve concentrated on getting a good catalog of songs together and as the band prepare for their upcoming gig with the Zealots in Kennedy’s of Westland Row, this Saturday night, the band’s bassist and singer Joe talks to Drop-d about who they are and what they do.

Drop-d: Hi Joe, First of all, tell us a little bit about the band, how long you’ve been together and about the type of stuff you do.

Joe: The band has been together about a year now, myself and the drummer, Bat, set it up. We started playing with just bass, drums and a sampler. Then we got some guitarists in, to fill out the sound, and started writing songs. So we got bits and pieces of songs together and did them on a computer, bits of jams and stuff, and stuck them together that way to make songs out of them.

Drop-d: What way would you describe your music?

Joe: It’s a mixed bag really, there’s hard rock elements, punk elements, pop elements. Queens of the Stone Age and Joy Division would be big influences. Sort of robot-rock.

Drop-d: Would you see yourselves as experimental?

Joe: The experimental stuff hasn’t come out a lot yet, we do have a lot if electronic stuff that we’re trying to do the first thing about getting our set together for the first gigs had more of a punk rock element to it, fast and heavy hitting sort of, you know.

we wouldn’t be as post rock as that

Drop-d: So what number gig will Saturday night be?

Joe: This is our fifth gig, we’re starting to bring in the electronic element and trying ot bring visuals into it as well. Really looking forward to it we’re playing with the Zealots, they’re sort of in a dark rock kind of vein as well, like Interpol and that sort of thing. The gig should be good we’re ready for it, hopefully we’ll get the visual thing together.

Drop-d: You’ve already made loads of videos, are the visuals similar to them?

Joe: This will be the first time we’ll use visuals on stage. It’s sort of random videos taken with digital cameras, bits and pieces brought into it but mostly our own footage.

Drop-d: Will using the visuals leave you less opportunity to jam out a song live, by making you stick to a set time frame per song?

Joe: Well, the visuals aren’t in time with the music just yet, we’re still working on that end of it. We haven’t really worked it out yet we’ve just recorded lots of footage to put together.

Drop-d: Have you done any recording?

Joe: We’ve done a demo and we recorded oursleves with a little stereo mic in the middle of a room but it’s not good enough quality to be putting out. We did a demo with a guy out in Shankhill who does live sound with God Is An Astronaut. Just three songs to put around, we put it up on the Hard Working Class Heros thing. We have a profile up there.

Drop-d: Are you playing any gigs for Hard Working Class Hero’s?

Joe: We’re not sure what the story is. We have a profile up on the website now but we don’t know if there’s a selection process now or if we’ve got the gig, you know. Hopefully so.

Drop-d: So how do you know God Is An Astronaut?

Joe: I did some recording with Fearghal McKee and Torsten out in Glen of the Downs in their studio, a couple of years back, for a compilation album, God Is An Astronaut were on it, Dry County (Alias Empire) were on it and some other unsigned band around at the time.

Drop-d: You mention Alias Empire there, they use electronic and hard rock elements to their sound, how would you compare to them?

Joe: Slightly similar, we wouldn’t be as post rock as that, more of a punk thing going on, I think. Snappier. Dreamy.

Drop-d: Finally then, what are your hopes for the future?

Joe: The usual shit, try to record more songs, try to get out of Ireland, to play and record in Europe. England would be good and Berlin. We were thinking about SXSW next year but don’t know if we could afford it.

Jobot support the Zealots this Saturday in Kennedy’s, Dublin. Doors 8pm, €7.

Jobot on MySpace

Tags: Alias Empire, Bat, Dry County, Fearghal McKee, god is an astronaut, Interpol, JObot, Joe, Joy Division, Kennedy's, Queens of the Stone Age, Zealots