If you have read my review of Killing Jokes' incredible 2012 album, then you already know the high regard I hold this influential band so it was a special honor to talk to Frontman Jaz Coleman.
Wil...I really love the new album. How was the process for this different now that you have been in this for 34 years?
Jaz...It was different, for the last album it only took two weeks. For this one, it came in stages. When you are making records back to back its important to take your time. Normally Youth has an idea and we jm on the structure of those songs. This time I went back with Jordy and picked it apart. There were different sessions. We try an maintain the standards of our work.
Wil...Has your work in recent years in classical music influenced the songwriting process with Killing Joke at all?
Jaz...Not really. They are two separate camps. It's a different approach and I don't let them, bleed over.
Wil...I think your work on the new album is one of the best vocal performances of your career. What do you attribute this to?
Jaz...what the music conjures up. I originally didn't want to be a vocalist, so I started off as the keyboardist and was nominated for the position. So I attribute it to hard work and attention to detail. Breathing, and quitting smoking helped. 60 concerts in a row can really bash your voice. They don't give a fuck and can do it, so I have learned a lot of exercises and tricks of the trade like steaming.
Wil...Speaking of touring demands, I know you guys were slated to tour with the Cult and Mission U.K. but dropped off, is this because it seemed like too much of a nostalgia package?
Jaz...It didn't seem fair to Killing Joke to be the third band on a bill at venues we had just headlined. I don't have much time for Billy, but Ian is a nice enough chap. But nice guys aside they play such abysmal cock rock.
Wil...Have you guys given thought to going out with one of the bigger bands that you have influenced like Tool or Ministry?
Jaz... We have never had the vision of being a stadium band. I don't like playing for more than 5,000. There is no intimacy. Playing rock star has never been important to me. Being an experimental band you don't have the same success but what you get is longevity.
Wil... The 2012 album is coming out in America next month but has been out in Europe since april, was this Spinefarm's decision or what factored into that?
Jaz...by the time I got to the sixth album it is something I accepted. We couldn't get released in America until 95 with Pandemonium. We have been indifferent to reviews. Albums are now seen as massively influential when they were released the press was slagging them. I'm grateful for where we are at because when you think of stardom and other people's lives... I mean just think of Kurt Cobain... How miserable.
Wil... I know a lot of your beliefs are based in a Rosicrucian system and when I think of that I think of Golden Dawn and the whole transmutation of the threefold being and spiritual alchemy, who do see that connect with your musical process?
Jaz...Tantra, unification, kundalini. The mantric chant and music is connected to sexual liberation. Sexual repression and fascism go hand in hand. There are very different layers of physical needs. Enlightenment can not occur without opening the pelvic region. The judeo Christian moral codes have become no longer relevant. The music of the 60s brought about a sexual revolution. Take the pill, and have sex for pleasure. It's the rhythm of rock, the rebellious nature is an important function. Sex is not just for procreation, the idea of the nuclear family is becoming obsolete.
Wil...I think that is why, I know at least currently in the States we are seeing a boom in polyamory.
Jaz...Absolutely, it changing. Education is key. It doesn't end with schooling. Self educate. Looking at the mystery of Killing Joke, we are many things, producers, musicians, artists, composers, an occult master, and architects. I'm very proud of what I have done, there's glory, gold, and influence, we have never been a band with number-one singles but we have had an influence. Everything material fades but influence lasts. I have never been a material person. I carry everything in two bags. I'm very nomadic, there is a lot to learn living in so many different places.
Wil... in 2012 the lyrics that really stood out to me were on the song "Colony Collapse" and the line..." changing our emotional development" I see how America is putting themselves to sleep with social media but in the bigger picture how do you see this relationship with technology?
Jaz...the transhuman agenda, nanotech and biotechnology. What might extend life might cause us to lose all emotional faculties. The ability to feel and cry homogenized. The defining aspect of humans is our humanity. that is traded in. I don't own a computer or cellular phone. Things I want to learn I search down. I want to use books because the Internet doesn't provide all the details that come from the search. It took Sarah Brightman seven months to find me and the bass player of guns n Roses tried to find me for six
Wil...does this self-imposed isolation have a meditative quality that aids your creative process?
Jaz... My creative process is I take myself to the edge with exhaustion not sleeping for three days then I go in and argue with my band mates. It's the extreme options coupled with earnest debate that breaks the wall.
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