INTERVIEW WITH WE ARE JAWBONE

It's very difficult to have an opinion about the current musicscene.
To be totally honest I kinda miss the old days in where we got home with a whole bag of records deciding what should be the jukebox of the week, but we all know that we were limited to our choices. Whether we agree or not, in the end we were all dependent on the choice of journos or what's been played by John Peel, and admit...how genius Peelie might have been, he couldn't play it all in 2 hours.
I mean, you have to be naive to think there were no small or worse unsigned bands around in the 60's, 70's or 80's.
Now we have a new decade in music, the My Space-generation. You have access to the whole world but you're kinda lost in the wood that has 20.000 (or at it 30.000?) bands and I suppose it must be even harder for the bands to ran out of that wood especially as now there are no journos (everybody is one these days!) and sadly no Peelie around.
We Are Jawbone are a band who deserves to get out of that wood. Not because they're the best band around but because they're a band who know how a powerful song must sounds like. Call it indie, call it punk, call it indiepunk or call it indierock...or whatever.
Anyway, we had a chat with Joe Bone.
Here are the man's words (and mine cos I wanna have my part of fame as well)


HELLO, PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELVES AND HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC THEN?
Hi I'm Joe Bone Founding member lead vocalist & songwriter of Glasgow Band 'We Are Jawbone' our music could be described as punky/bluesy/grungy but never shity

YOU SAID YOU’RE THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND FOR THE TARANTINO-GENERATION….THAT’S LIKE SAYING : WE CAN’T BE PIGEONHOLED
I've got to many musical influences for my music to be pigeonholed Beatles to Bowie to Nick Cave, Pixies,Doors, Iggy pop, Small Faces, Kinks , T.Rex, The Fall, the list goes on . And other members in the band bring there styles to the songs .

TO BE HONEST IT WAS DAMNED DIFFICULT TO REVIEW YOUR MUSIC BECAUSE PIGEONHOLING WAS QUITE DIFFICULT, BUT IN ALL HONESTY : WHAT INSPIRED YOU…..WHICH BANDS, WHICH SOUNDS……
prob Nick Cave has a lot to do with the dark feel to a lot of our songs I like the way he deals with subject matter with a sense of ironic humour . But we sound nothing like Nick Cave !

THE BAND’S NAME HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE FALL, NOT?
Yes love a Fall song called Jawbone & The Air Rifle John Peel played it one night and I was instantly taken aback by the delivery of one Mark E Smith and the driving beats that is The Fall as a collective.
So thats were the Jawbone came from the We Are was added cos there were other bands called Jawbone and as well as making a statement and keeping the Jawbone name I proclaimed to the world that "We Are Jawbone" with tongue and cheek arrogance and we are now the only band in the world with that name.

YOU’RE A GLASGEWIAN BAND. I KNOW THE SCENE THERE IS PRETTY STRONG, BOTH IN THE PAST AND NOW, BUT WHEN THERE’S A LOT OF TALENT AROUND, ISN’T IT MUCH HARDER THEN TO BE HEARD AS WELL?
It works kinda both ways you've got the kind of studenty scene who are very cliquish and run there own radio station which i'm not going to be arsed giving a mention the kind of guys who would lick the shite off the boots of a Snow Patrol member if asked to do so . On the other hand there is a couple of bands doing it for themselves out there who are the business 'Eightball' & ' The Girobabies' are two of my fav bands I lov going to see them. There are a lot of venues and a lot of the bands who play there honestly arent very good musically and certainly not entertaiment wise they're family and friends will come to see them on the 1st few occassions but they will never get a following as there is nothing there to want you to go out and pay money to hear it again.

WHAT DO YOU THINK FROM THE CURRENT MUSICSCENE IN THE SENSE THAT IT IS NOW A REAL DIY-SCENE, ALMOST FOR EVERYBODY……
Kinda explained that a bit above but its good that you can do that, its the internet thats really done that for unsigned artists, As far as it being for everybody id rather get rid of the absolute dross and there are plenty of it around for me personally if I couldnt do my job right I would move to a job that I can do . I wouldn't want some shite surgeon operating on me so I dont need some shite so called bunch of pals playing shite music to me in the style of something else I've heard before, fuck them !

IS THE HOLY TRILOGY SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK’N ROLL YOUR RELIGION AS WELL?
No I'm An Aethiest !

WOULD YOU DO ANYTHING TO GET YOUR MUSIC HEARD????
No ! I'll put in the graft but I'll crawl to no one !

WHAT I LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR MUSIC WAS THAT YOU DON’T TAKE THINGS TOO SERIOUSLY, I MEAN HEAR A LOT OF SELF-REVELATION IN YOUR MUSIC?
Ha ! you do listen with a quizitive ear Didier ! I like to expose myself, let people know i'm not special and I love putting a bit of the darkened humour in there as to put a wry smile on the faces of people who's lives may not be as perfect as the twee songs played on the radio the get bombarded with in their cars. When we do a gig I reach out to grab peoples attention to make them listen to entertain them they have paid money to see us if they want to just hear our music they can do that at home there is a need in me to entertain folk who come to see us !

DIFFICULT I KNOW BUT HERE YOU ARE….WHAT DOES MUSIC MEAN FOR YOU? Music is what I do best its the only thing I think I'm not bad at, my bass player Alan Redmond thinks along these same lines its a passion .

DO YOU THINK THE PUBLIC IS OPENMINDED ENOUGH TO GIVE BEGINNING BANDS A CHANGE?
Well heres the scenario One day a band is playing to 3 people in Glasgow they have 2000 fans on myspace. Next week they are signed and new released single which already has been on myspace for previous 6 month goes straight to number one. There next gig is 400 sellout mostly previous myspace fans , difference is people nowadays need someone else telling them somebody is good they follow media hype , Sheep to the slaughter brainwashed by the fame game. Its getting worse .....

HOW STUPID IT MAY SOUND, WHAT ARE YOUR MOMENTS OF “FAME” YET AND WHAT ARE THE GOALS IN THE FUTURE?
Dont like the word fame rather use the word Recognistion everytime we play a gig its a buzz, people are enjoying what we do and coming back for more they are spreading the word they are telling there friends that makes me a very happy man , people are actually listening to the music I write and paying money to come to see us , I mean how good is that? Future more people to hear what we are doing exposure I'm always aware of the fact that people havent heard us so the have never had the choice of liking us or not unlike some of the total rubbish that gets primetime airplay on radio stations.

LAST QUESTIONS ARE QUESTIONS I ALWAYS ASK, I CALL IT THE TRADITIONAL ORIGINAL SIN-QUESTIONS…
WHAT’S YOUR FAVE RECORD OF ALL TIME AND WHY?
So hard that one it changes nearly everday ! I'll plump for "Drive In Saturday" by David Bowie its such a freaked out space aged ballad of decadence its the business !

WITH WHO WOULDN’T YOU MIND BEING STUCK IN AN ELEVATOR FOR 8 HOURS AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO THEN?
Tony Visconti and play him our music and say "now you must want to get involved in this project Tony is made for your genius !"

DO YOU WANT TO SAY SOMETHING SPECIAL TO OUR READERS?
Yes keep the faith ! Always keep your favourite music to your heart ! And if you have the time give us a wee listen you never know we may just be the gem you missed !