Entretien avec Junior Boys

[ampattenden]

A few hours before their appearance at La Flèche D’Or, La Factory is greeted by Jeremy, one half of Junior Boys. Tired, and possibly a little jet-lagged from the non-stop international touring the Canadian duo have been doing ever since the August release of their second album, So This Is Goodbye, Jeremy nevertheless sits up straight and gets ready for his second interview of the afternoon.

How, and when, did the band form?
We formed the band several years ago, with a friend of our named John, and we were both students, and we just (for fun) tried to make kind of R&B, almost sort of 2-step garage music, but we had all sorts of other different kinds of influences – a lot of synth pop and stuff like that. And just for fun, we started making songs, and that eventually just sort of coalesced into a kind of sound. And so we did that for a while, and I had a friend in London who ran a website that had mp3s and stuff like that, so I gave him a few of our mp3s and he posted them online and the mp3s became kind of popular online with several sort of communities, and so eventually a person from our record label [Kim Records] came and asked us if he could put out stuff on a little, small record label he was starting. That’s how we first started putting out EPs, and then eventually, we put out a record and then eventually got signed to Domino.

How do you feel about being signed to Domino Records?
I feel really good about it. I mean they’ve always been very nice to us and I have as a good a relationship with Domino as I think anyone could have with the record label they’re on.

Who would you say was your favourite artist among your label mates?
Oh, it would definitely be… my favourite artist on Domino is… another Canadian guy named Caribou, who currently is only on Domino in the U.S., but – that might have changed, I’m not sure… But he would be my favourite for sure. Other than him, Four Tet is also on Domino, and several others.

What are your influences, and which bands would you say have influenced Junior Boys the most?
As a band, I think our influences vary from a lot of new wave stuff, and a lot of seventies music, and a lot of disco, to contemporary dance music - some from the U.K., some from Europe - some from America, like early Detroit stuff, early house stuff… and then… sort of just a lot of pop songwriting as well, from every era.

What did you think of ‘In the Morning’ being named as ‘Single of the Week’ by iTunes?
Yeah, that was quite funny, actually. The comments on it were really funny. We had a combination of people who were just like – “What the fuck is this?” you know, and then we had a lot of people who really liked it. iTunes [sounds genuinely bemused] have been really nice to us for some reason – they’re doing all sorts of stuff… so yeah I’ve been really happy about that. I don’t know why they made us ‘Single of the Week’, but I won’t argue with it…

In what way is your new album different to your first album?
Um… Well, I think the second album has a sort of a more spontaneous kind of feel. I think a lot of the music we did on the first album, we did all on a computer, and so [‘Last Exit’] has that kind of laborious feel of being on a computer all the time, and hunched over in your room… Whereas for this album, we explored a lot more fun ways of doing thins, like with real synthesisers instead of computer based ones, and stuff like that. So it has a little more spontaneity to it. I’d say it’s a little looser. We just sort of recorded things on the go – a lot quicker – and I think also, it’s… you know, we sort of grew, developed in our influences – our influences changed a lot over the course of the time that we were doing one record to the other… We looked into a lot less R&B and stuff like that, less hip hop, and a lot more disco, a lot more early house… I think that sort of changed our attitudes a little bit. And, you know, I think we sort of did a better job in all the technical mixing things, because we’d learned a little bit… But, ultimately I see them as very similar records, coming from a very similar place and perspective.

You’ve been touring for ages haven’t you?
We’ve been touring basically since late August. Yeah, it’s quite tiring… I’m a mess.

But have you enjoyed it?
Parts of it have been amazing, parts of it have been mediocre, parts of it have been absolutely gruelling… It’s been the whole spectrum of possible emotions.

What were the best/worst bits?
The best bits for us were probably when we toured the North American West Coast. The bits from Los Angeles up to British Colombia in Canada – those were the best bits for us. And New York City as well – where we played the Bowery Ballroom – that was very good for us. Yeah, I would say that those were probably the highlights. The “lowlights” – I don’t know, uh, Oklahoma? [Laughs] I don’t know, I’m not exactly sure.

You’ve toured with Hot Chip as well, haven’t you?
Just recently, yeah.

Are you fans of their music?
We are now! To be honest, before we had gone on tour with them, I didn’t know that much about them. Only because, well, I’m kinda lazy – they’re doing extraordinarily\well in England, in the U.K…. So, all I knew was that we should tour with this band because we’d never toured in the U.K., and they were gonna get tons of people out every show, which they did. But touring with them was great, ‘cos they were super guys, we really liked them, and their crew was really great… It was really nice.

How long have you been in France?
[Laughs again] Three hours! We haven’t had a chance to look around yet, not at all, but I know we’re coming back in February. So I think we’ll have - maybe – more time. This is my first time in Paris. Ever. So I don’t know the city at all.

Finally, how would you recommend your album to La Factory readers?
How would I recommend it? Well, I would say… To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t recommend it [laughs].

Why not? You aren’t selling yourself very well…
Good point. I don’t know – I’d probably just ask them what their favourite music is, and then I’d probably just say, “Yeah, we sound like that.” [Chuckles]

Well, it’s been very nice to talk to you, and thanks very much.
Thanks a lot.