Jen Interviews Mike from Jesus Jones about their upcoming Australian Tour.

JESUS JONES have since become in-demand on the corporate gig circuit in the US and six albums in, are still enjoying the same line-up some 20 years later. This is the first time they have played ‘Doubt’ in its entirety on this current tour.

 “We really love playing in Oz, but more than that, we just actually love being Down Under. The crowds are amazing, the venues are wonderful, it’s a fantastic place!”  – Iain Baker, Jesus Jones

 Frontman Mike Edwards said: “It makes us somewhat unique, among our contemporaries, to be exactly the same five guys as it was all those years ago. We’ve grown up together, and it’s a privilege to all be on the same stage, playing the songs which kick-started our entire career. I can’t believe it’s 25 years since we first played in Australia. Some of our best ever shows have been here, from the old Greek Theatre in Melbourne to the Hordern Pavilion and Selina’s in Sydney. There’s an intensity about playing Australia, and I can’t wait to get back there”

“They lock together like Lego blocks on every note” – Pop Matters

 Catch JESUS JONES LIVE in Australia:   MARCH 2015

Tickets only $59.00 + booking fees and on Sale 9:00am Thursday 6th November from here

Thursday 12^th March – The Zoo, BrisbaneFriday 13^th March – Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Saturday 14^th March – Factory Theatre, Sydney

Sunday 15^th March – Rosemount Theatre, Perth.

 I got the chance to interview Mike last week.

Hi Mike, it is Jen from Music Injection, how are you going?
Hi Jen, I’m just finishing off some breakfast so shoot.
Ha I’m just about to have dinner.
ok so great news that you are heading here in March, even better that you are playing the full Doubt Album, certainly will be a crowd Favourite. Will you play it in order or mix some around and add in other songs?
We are playing it in order. Which is quite a strange thing actually, we started realizing when we were rehearsing for this, we did in the UK six months ago, we realize that it is an album which comes from the album age or the vinyl age, where you get to the end of side one then lift it up and turn it over and play the other side. Which doesn’t very necessarily make a great live set.
No I guess not.
So we are playing everything in order. Some of the songs we want to change around a little bit so some of the arrangements of change, if I’m honest it’s probably because one or two of the songs I was particularly unimpressed with after the passage of 24 years. (Both laughing) so it is the same order but sometimes slightly different sounds. They would never change a song like Right here Right now, we will leave them as they were but other songs in retrospect we realise that they weren’t high points on the album at all. So we had a little bit of fun with it.
You will have the original line up on this tour how hard was that to coordinate? I image that you have all now got different jobs and families.
Actually was no problem at all, the thing is it is so much fun to do, everyone drops anything else that they have on to do it. actually I should say that children seem to be of some importance (both laughing) I mean we wouldn’t do a three-month tour of America. But when someone said you wanna go to Australia for a few days of course you are going to do that. Everything else falls by the wayside for that.

 I have asked this questions to a few bands now and I’ve never got that answer before! the answers I got, it is hard because I have a job and kids and I’m really busy……. so your answer is very refreshing to hear!

When I hear interview with bands how hard it is to tour, you know they find it difficult to be away from other things. I think that they are insane, it is just the most brilliant thing that there is. (laughing) When you tour it is just like being on holiday, you get to listen to music, you get to read books and you get to see new places and meet new people and it is just fantastic to do that, I absolutely love it! I realise that there are times in the past that I organized press trips just so I can go and see new places. I think I went to Argentina and Brazil one year basically paid for by the record company but was really just a holiday for me. I mean I did some press interviews on the way but really I just want to get Argentina and Brazil, and that attitude still remains.
That is brilliant!
You know what I say about the army travel the world and kill people, it’s kind of the same concept of that but you just don’t kill many people. (Both laughing•) well that’s good!
Is Australia one of your favourite countries to tour? I mean what is not to love!
well I know that you’re expecting me to say yes, but the answer is genuinely yes! We were there in 2011 and that was the first time in 20 years that we have been. The first couple times we came it was interesting I had kind of mixed feelings about Australia. It did not help that the fact that it chucked it down with rain the entire time that we were there from Brisbane to Perth. It belted down with rain so that may be very suspicious about Australia’s tourist board. It seemed like they lied that Ayers Rock was in a desert and that it was properly just a kind of swamp. however when we came back in 2011 the conspiracy theory fell by the wayside and we had an absolutely brilliant time and we loved there particularly Brisbane we were there for three or four days so that was just great and now the things I liked about it is that it’s almost like Britain but different and that’s not because I want to see Britain everywhere I go. The intriguing differences and it is not like America either, it is a mix of things, a fascinating place to visit and that’s alongside the sheer thrill of being somewhere different on the other side of the world. I can’t wait to get there!
So is your favorite town Brisbane?
I don’t know it is the city that I spent the most time in and had the most experience of a Melbourne really was a fascinating city. Brilliant, that is where I’m from! Haha, love the way that you can have buildings from the Victorian era, colonial looking buildings next door if not bolted on to our post-modern glass and steel building I thought that was very brave but also very successful it makes that scene very vibrant and very exciting. I think to be fair Sydney was also very exciting and really looking forward to going back to Perth, I did a tour there 24 years ago and have not been back so I’m very excited about that.
Perth is lovely. Do you know about the big rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne?
No but I can imagine it is the same everywhere in the world isn’t it. so don’t say to the crowd in Melbourne we have the best time in Sydney because you won’t get a clap. (both laughing) okay, I think one of my most embarrassing moments was being in Romania and the Romanians really don’t like the Hungarians in a similar kind of way. Being on stage in Romania and somehow it just slipped out it was nice to be on stage in Budapest not Bucharest and I might as well just shot myself then, it was about the worst mistake you can make it. Well I might get to Melbourne and talk about Sydney you never know!
Well say in Melbourne that you are much better crowd in Sydney and you will get huge cheer. haha I might still be saying it is great to be on stage in Bucharest.

Are you making it a holiday as well? Do you have some time off to see our tourist sites? Unfortunately I can’t, more than anything else it cost us a lot of money to get over there sounds a bit difficult in that way. I would love to stay out there a a bit longer but by the time I do that I won’t be making any money from the tour. It is very very tempting but to some extent it defeats the purpose. Fortunately I think our schedule only allows for 2 hours sleep a night so we are going to make the most of the time that we are there.
Well that’s good, you can sleep on the way home on the plane.
Or not in my case because I’m 6 foot two so I don’t fit into planes very well.

Doubt, the album you said the songs on the album are primarily about hope, optimism, and enjoying everything around you. Pretty much needed in today society as well as back in 1991. Do you find yourself frustrated that we have not learnt much from our history and want to release Right here Right now again? No, I think Right Here Right now that is definitely part of contemporary culture particularly in America, I’m not really sure about Australia. It is still being played on the radio in America. it’s been a backing track for adverts and TV shows.
Yeah I saw that it had been used for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. actually yes and Bill Clinton’s and now just waiting to Chelsea to joining. (laughing)
I don’t think there’s any point in releasing that song again it is probably well enough known.
I just think the message would be great for the teenagers of today.
Yeah I agree but I think it’s up to someone in that generation to put forward the same point because there are likely to listen to me and they should have their own figurehead.

I remember that this album had a warning in it saying something like Warning This album contains extreme sounds which could damage musical equipment when played at high volume. Seeing that I had not seen the album since the early 90’s but have listened to the songs over the years it left an imprint in my mind! Who’s Idea was it to add that in to the booklet?
That was mine because then I was really interested in the bass side of things and to some extent in my mind I thought it was going to be a lot more bassy than it actually is. You always have sound engineers saying you can’t do that and have that much bass on an album, you have to cut that back. Now I listen to a lot of Dupstep and it is so far advanced in doing that and I love it for that. There an insane amount of bass and you couldn’t get away with that back then. unfortunately when your album gets to the mixing stage you are relying on other people’s expertise and when they tell you that if you use that much bass the needle is going to jump off the album you kind of have to do with the experts. I would have liked to have twice as much bass on that album but you are always going to think that you could do better.

When I go to gigs and people are filming the songs with their phones held up recording the whole gig and not living in the moment, as a artist does that drive you mad as it does me as part of the crowd? I find it strange it does not drive me mad I don’t get particularly angry about it. it just seems daft thing to do, you are sacrificing the moment, you are sacrificing the enjoyment of the gig then and there. To get a really crappy quality playback later on, I just can’t see the sense of that. For me it’s much much better to enjoy the gig then and then maybe you’ll remember it better. Really if you’re relying on a mobile phone for your memories that is pretty poor.

I’ve read some comments on your youtube channel, most positive, but what is your coping mechanism with any negative comments?
These days that I just completely ignore them, I’m not really interested. It used to be devastating years ago, I hated any kind of it. I used to feel very moved by negative critical comments it would have a very strong impact on me and try as I would to ignoring it I just couldn’t. These days I’m not interested it’s just not important enough these days. A lot of people so bad things about the band and it’s not can make any difference in our lives whatsoever. Whereas 20 odd years ago there was a huge amount of pressure, everything had to be successful, we had to be loved and it was important that everything went well and what will doing was successful. These days I’m just not interested in the comments at all. I don’t look at the kind of thing at all.

Any message you want to say to our readers? I would say most of them would be keen to attend your tour.
We are very aware that these days, what we are about is celebration of those times, I’m not thinking that there is a whole new generation of people that grew up knowing
Jesus Jones. When I look out at our audience I see people very much like us to remind themselves of the good times in the past. It is just about fun, life is a lot more enjoyable than it used to be and we there to enjoy it.

Well I’ll be there and I look forward to seeing you again.
Oh fantastic!
I better let you go to your next interview. Thank you for the chat.
And to you thank you very much for the call.
Thanks, Cya
Bye!