It
was Nita’s fault! She told me CJ loved to talk about his dogs.
As soon as that four-letter word was uttered by myself, CJ almost blew
my head off with his chattering - like a parrot on Readybrek, he was
off, answering my questions before I could even get two words in edgeways
to ask them in the first place! CJ is actually an interviewer’s
dream because you can literally sit there and just let him talk without
having to say a word. Perhaps it was down to the fact that CJ had a
cold and had "taken a lot of cold tablets". I dunno. Let’s
listen anyway!
"If
it wasn’t because of my dogs there wouldn’t have been The
Jellys. I named The Jellys after my smallest dog Squirt’s love
of Jelly Babies and jelly type sweets. If she liked Fruit Salads we’d
have probably have been called The Fruit Salads!" he jests. Actually
he’s probably deadly serious.
"Or
Black Jacks. But she likes Jelly Babies. And the whole idea of The Jellys
is to crucify Jelly Babies as well. A lot of my songs are about my dogs
as well. I’ve got three dogs - there’s Squirt, there’s
Chiwie and there’s Jacob. And they come in different sizes. Squirt’s
the smallest, then Chiwie’s a medium sized Cross - they’re
both Crosses, and then there’s Jacob, my German Shepherd. And I’m
getting a Chihuahua next month. And they’ve all got songs about
them. I’ve got a Chinchilla called Roxanne as well! And a budgie
called Budge."
Hey,
that last one’s got an imaginative name!
"They’ve
all been used in songs. I’ve sampled their woofs and Roxanne, my
Chinchilla, makes an amazing sound. She’s on a song called ‘Roxanne,
The Punk Chinchilla’. And my budgie is actually singing on the
end of one song and Squirt is barking in the distance."
Why
only now use animals on your records?
"Because
The Jellys is a band I formed and because I write everything. I can
write about anything I want basically and most of The Jellys’ songs
are about things I really love. I love my dogs and I’ve written
a song about ice-cream because I love ice-cream. I love chocolate ice-cream
but it didn’t rhyme so I called it ‘Strawberry Ice-Cream’
after my girlfriend’s favourite flavour.
"The
songs are about all sorts of stupid things. Some of it’s serious
as well but I wanted a band that made people smile and once they heard
the music, it kind of makes them want to get up on their seat and dance.
We’ve got quite a strong image as well. We wear quite a lot of
eye shadow and eye liner and sometimes we wear grease paint and paint
ourselves up like Jelly Babies! We all wear kipper ties and we’ve
all got skinheads so it’s sort of a transvestite Buddhist Neo-Nazi
look! It’s quite strange. It’s kind of an anti-image; it’s
strong and no-one looks like us. I just wanted a band that was a bit
unique. It’s all kind of punk rock, the whole thing, as well. It’s
sort of a punk effort with pop melodies going over the top. It’s
a combination of a number of things but things I really love."
Bet
The Jellys’ videos are going to be really bizarre when they get
around to doing them!
"One
thing I love about music is that you can look so different to your everyday
person on the street, or someone who’s got a day job. And I think
it’s a crime not to exploit it. It’s almost like a gift. You
can do things that are really wild. Getting Stidi and Jeff in the band,
they can both play really well, but they’re also a couple of people
who wouldn’t mind me experimenting with them. So when it comes
to making videos I want it to be as colourful and outrageous, but not
crude... just madness! Really over the top. It’s the same with
pictures. Every photo session we do, we have a different image and the
key thing is the kipper ties! No-one knows what we’re going to
look like. I don’t know myself - I’ll see what I dream tonight!"
CJ
says he normally dreams the images of the band. He thinks his dreams
are quite crazy and he’s into the surreal edge. He’s captivated
by anything unexplained like the occult and supernatural.
"Clive
Barker’s my favourite novelist" he says. "His books are
so wild. His imagination is so crazy and I like everything like that.
I like things which are a bit off centre."
But
CJ doesn’t take inspiration from what he reads. "If I did,
all my stuff would be about horror stuff and fantasy stuff. It’s
more what’s around me and what’s happening to me right now.
There’s one song which is about a summertime five years ago but
most of the songs are about what’s relevant in my life right now."
"I’ve
actually written a song about the other guys in the band. It’s
called ‘It’s Up To We’ and each verse is dedicated to
each member of the band. It’s me describing them in a funny way.
It pissed them off a bit when they heard each of their relevant verses
but... it’s about what’s happening now. I’m not going
to write a song about the sixties or the fifties. I wrote a song about
the weekend just gone, it’s called ‘Pissed Off But We Don’t
Care’ and I wrote that yesterday and it’s all about the In
The City week which we were at."
In
The City week took place in Glasgow with 60 bands taking part in a Battle
Of The Band competition. This happens every year with bands from all
over the UK travelling to the city. Past winners have included Kula
Shaker and Placebo. It’s a competition for unsigned bands. The
winner this year was a band going by the name of Tam.
"It
was shocking for me to see 60 of the so-called best unsigned bands.
I didn’t see them all but I heard them all on listening posts.
There’s a CD which has 18 of the bands on there; 18 demos basically.
I was shocked at the standard of a lot of the bands. I can put my hand
on my heart and say I’ve seen local bands down here or bands opening
up for us that pissed over the majority of the bands playing at that
weekend. And they wouldn’t have a chance of getting in there purely
because local bands haven’t got the management and the connections.
There was a band that opened up for us in Bristol called Buster Friendly,
who were totally amazing, and they would have wiped the floor with all
those bands. Let’s hope they’ll be there next year. It was
shocking for me to see how poor a lot of the bands were. There were
second-hand Beck type bands! Beck without the humour and with real musicians
playing it, and it doesn’t work. Beck’s real tongue-in-cheek.
And once you lose that American accent as well, to me it’s like
Chas n’ Dave. And then, heavy metal bands trying to be punk bands"
CJ’s
not bitter at all, is he?! There was one band he liked though...
"There’s
was one band that had a song about peas and gravy and I can’t remember
their name but they were amazing. But anyone who can sing about peas
and gravy is alright by me!"
What
about Tam, the winners? Did you hear them?
"Yeah,
yeah, I did. They were like an English version of Beck. Need I say more!?
I love good musicians but I also love sparkle, something that makes
a band a bit unique and a bit original. It doesn’t have to just
be the music, but also the way a band looks, the way a band performs,
to give it an edge of uniqueness. And having seen a bunch of bands,
maybe I’m being biased because a lot of the music I just don’t
understand and I wouldn’t care to like, so it puts me off them
straightaway, but if I hear a good song, it doesn’t matter whether
it’s funk, house, drum and bass, classical, jazz, it doesn’t
matter, a good song’s a good song. I just didn’t hear that
many good songs up there. I heard great grooves, really good grooves,
but not many songs and it kind of made me realise, maybe people are
just looking for grooves at the moment and something that they can dance
to rather than listen to. That’s the vibe I got up there. Not many
really good songs but some great rhythms and beats and bops.
"We
did our gig and as much as we like hanging around bands, there were
so many record company people there and it was always business. I kind
of feel a bit alienated when I am around people just talking about business
all the time. It does my head in a bit. Because The Jellys are quite
close, we’re quite insular sometimes, we tend to enjoy each other’s
company rather than socialise so we kept a low profile."
CJ
surprisingly doesn’t think there should be more competitions and
openings for unsigned bands like this. He thinks that if a band is going
to get unsigned, they don’t need to take part in a competition
to be noticed because they’ll be noticed anyway.
"I’ve
been in major bands that have had record deals and this is the first
time I’ve taken part in In The City or any band competition in
my life"
Why
take part in it then?
"The
thing with The Jellys is that we haven’t approached any record
companies. We’ve got an EP coming out next month which we’ve
done off our own back, and I wanted the band to start from scratch and
I didn’t want to use bands I’ve been in in the past and their
past successes to enable The Jellys to get a deal. I wanted to get a
deal purely through having done a s**tload of gigs and maybe released
something on our own and built a following. Just pure hard work."
"We’re
going out on tour at the end of this month and we just wanted a tiny
bit of exposure before we went off on tour. We don’t want to send
out tons of demos and stuff like that so we got asked to do In The City
and they said they’d stick us on the CD. It’s good exposure
and that’s why we did it. If we can have 10 or 20 people talking
about the band it’s good for us. But I didn’t know it was
going to be so record company heavy. I thought it would be more attended
by the public. It’s kind of a weird one. I think any band would
feel strange in that circumstance because it isn’t like a true
gig. It is a competition and the whole thing’s organised by record
companies. It’s like a meat market.
"We’re
after a deal but I’d like record companies to come and see us in
a dingy packed out club, watch a club going apes**t and sweating rather
than the controlled environment of a competition."
The
EP will consist of four songs including ‘Over You’, ‘One
Way Or Another’ and ‘Fat Cat’ "which is about my
mate’s cat" according to CJ. "A friend of mine, Jase,
who used to be the guitar player in Wolfsbane, has a studio in his house
where we did our demos. He’s got the fattest cat in the world!
The first time I met this cat and it came waddling up to me and I’d
never seen a cat so big in my life. I thought I’ve got to write
a song about this cat! The song’s only about a minute long and
it’s just about the biggest cat. It’s funny and we’ve
got some cats meowing on there as well.
"The
whole album is dedicated to the love of my pets and all the animals
I’ve known over the years. I’m thanking all my friend’s
pets as well and hopefully if we can sign a big enough deal, we can
have one of those booklets and each page can have a page with a picture
of my dog and I’ll tell a story or something like that. The whole
album’s dedicated to wildlife in general."
Are
you into animal rights?
"I
am. My ultimate ambition is to run an animal sanctuary. That’s
what I hope to do after The Jellys. Set up an animal sanctuary and knock
bands on the head. To look after animals and help animals that have
been abused, and stuff like that. My oldest dog, Jake, was abused and
I get a lot more pleasure from looking after animals than I ever have
from music. When you do have an abused animal, the rewards you get at
the end mean a lot more.
"They’re
just so respectful because you’ve helped them. It’s that respect
that you get back because you know, I’ve helped a lot of humans
out and they’ve done me over, but with animals you just don’t
get it. It’s a loyalty and they’re really grateful and they’re
the best friend you’ll ever have, and that’s what kind of
gets me up in the mornings."
Moving
on, I inform CJ that I met him when he was in Honeycrack, when they
appeared at the Wolvestock festival in Wolverhampton a year ago. He
remembers that gig:
"We
came up from Japan to play it. It was on a Sunday and we were actually
playing in Tokyo on the Thursday and it was such a great night and our
tour manager got married on the Saturday. He had a stag night in Tokyo
and then we came back, played at his wedding on the Saturday and had
no time to get over our jetlag and by the time we came to Wolverhampton
we were really exhausted. It wasn’t long after then that we left
Epic. I remember last year really well because of the Honeycrack thing
and because it’s when I first started thinking about The Jellys
as well."
So
what went wrong with Honeycrack?
"Nothing
went wrong. We walked off Epic because we were in a unique position
where we could walk off and wipe our debt off and be completely free
of a record company which doesn’t often happen unless you’re
completely dropped. We faxed back the contracts to them and said ‘No
thank you’ and walked off because of a loophole and in that time
we decided we’d do at least one more single and one more tour so
we got a deal to release it anyway. We did the one more tour and we
took some time off and we all went off and did different things. We
had another Honeycrack tour booked and another possible deal but none
of us wanted to get back and do the Honeycrack thing. We were all too
happy doing our own thing. We kind of just drifted apart. We’re
all still really good friends but in hindsight it’s the best thing
that’s happened to me. Just to be in The Jellys and to do stuff
the way I want to do it."
CJ
says there are no comparisons between The Jellys and Honeycrack. He
says "It’s a completely different band. Every band I’ve
been in has been different to the last. Honeycrack was five songwriters,
we all wanted to be frontmen and we were all influenced by different
bands. It was kind of like pulling against each other and as much as
I like the Honeycrack album, there are so many different styles on there
and for me it’s quite a hard album to listen to because half I
love and the other half I don’t. It’s purely styles of music
I didn’t want to play but we all loved being in the band and we
all liked each other and we all made massive compromises. Whereas with
The Jellys it’s the three of us and we’re all influenced by
the same type of music and we all want to play the same type of music.
I’m the frontman, Stiddy’s the drummer and Jeff’s the
bass player. We all know our individual roles and we’re not all
fighting for the spotlight and we get on great. It is a different type
of band. You need direction and you need someone, when there’s
a decision to be made, to go ‘Right, this is the decision’
and he has to have the confidence to know the other two will stand by
him.
So
CJ is now the full time vocalist. I wondered if he had had any vocal
training or if it was just a progression from being a backing vocalist
in his former bands.
"My
vocal training was purely singing back up vocals in The Wildhearts and
stepping up a gear or two in Honeycrack. Willie did teach me a lot about
harmonies and how to reach certain notes. I’ve got to say that
I learnt more in the two years working with Willie than I every did
in any of the other bands. He was without a doubt the best musician
I’ve ever worked with. He’s so amazingly talented in all aspects
of music and I did learn a lot off him.
"When
I was in The Wildhearts and in any band I’ve ever been in, I’ve
always looked at myself as a frontman and it has caused a lot of problems.
Being in The Jellys it feels no different except that I get to talk
a lot more! The spotlight’s a bit more on me. But I’m a guitar
player first and a singer second."
It
must be said that CJ doesn’t have a promising record when it comes
to staying in bands and keeping them going. There must be people out
there who are cynical and believe that this time next year The Jellys
will be no more and CJ will be forming another new band.
"I
dunno. For me, The Jellys will go on for another five years. I’m
working on the second album now and I’d like this to be my last
band. I think I’ve put so much energy into The Jellys that I wouldn’t
have the energy to put another band together and start from scratch
again. I’m getting too old I think as well! I’m 29 now and
I can only play punk rock and I just couldn’t do it in my mid-30s,
with conviction and passion. It just wouldn’t work. But I can still
go on stage and get angry and mean it because I see enough in the world
to get angry about and I can still go on stage and take the piss and
still have a good time and mean it. It isn’t about money, I just
love playing gigs. In five years time, maybe I’ll be a different
person, I don’t know."
The
band embarked on their first little tour of the UK in August and September,
headlining small clubs such as Birmingham’s Xposure Rock Café
and London’s Camden Barfly as well as supporting other name bands.
How were the gigs then, CJ?
"It
wasn’t so much a tour, just a handful of dates. All the dates we’ve
done we’ve enjoyed. We love playing live. Because we’re only
a three-piece, every stage is really big. We’ve got a tour coming
up, our first proper tour. About 20 dates at the end of this month.
We can’t wait to get out there and play. We did play with The Descendants,
who are my favourite band. They asked us to support them so I must be
in the right band! That’s never happened before.
"You’ve
got to come out and see us. You’ve got to see Stidi ‘cause
he’s so fast. When he was in The Wildhearts with me, people were
saying he’s not a great drummer but he’s one of the only drummers
who’s stuck in my mind, who I’ve ever worked with. And I knew
he was the only drummer, English drummer, that I could find who I needed
to do what I wanted to do. Once you see him live you’ll understand
what I mean, And he can sing too. There aren’t many drummers who
can play like him and sing."
Of
his fans, CJ says he recognises a lot of them. "I’ve seen
the same faces for the last eight years. I think I’ve been lucky
because I’ve got some people who are just really loyal. In The
Wildhearts and in Honeycrack I didn’t make a lot of enemies and
I think a lot of people stood by me. I’m not talking about hundreds
and thousands of people but it means a lot to me whether it’s just
one or a hundred people. They’ve followed everything I’ve
done and regardless of what band I’m in I know they’ll always
be there and I think it’s kind of cool."
I
think it’s kind of cool too. But whether you are an old, loyal
CJ fan, or someone who’s not really taken interest before now,
I recommend you go and see The Jellys when they play again in your area,
and definitely buy that EP and album! I’ve heard six of the new
Jellys songs and sure enough, these Jellys taste really good! ‘Feels
Like Sunshine’ and ‘Strawberry Ice-Cream’ are fluffy,
beaming bags of delight, while ‘Fat Cat’ is the cutest, funniest,
maddest song I’ve heard in ages.
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