JOON
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 1st April 2009.
Joon are a (presently) unsigned rock band from the North of England. We at Rock Realms were so captivated by their song 'Man On The Run' on their MySpace site, we blagged an interview to find out what life is like in an unsigned band... and to see how close they are to being worldwide stars
Lead singer Olly Kraweckyj answers questions on behalf of the band.
Hey Olly, is life treating you well at present?
Olly: Going OK. Rehearsing and recording hard at the moment. Trying to keep our set as fresh and appealing as we can.
How would you describe the JOON style?
Olly: A mix of old and new. Our songwriting is based on the classics but the way we play them; the production techniques we use, the way we look and perform are all quite modern. Probably due to our age really, I mean we are all between 19 and 22 so we're definitely what you would class as young.
What is life like in an unsigned band?
Olly: Very up and down. You can go from playing places such as Hard Rock cafe one night to a packed, buzzing crowd, then play a venue the next night which is the size of someone's bedroom, with a PA system that doesn’t work, to 3 half-dead people. You also notice not many people want to help you unless they can make some money out of you. That’s why you try to make the most of the people that do want to help you because they like the music you do. Sadly those type of genuine people are dwindling by the day, but we have a dozen or so people that have really helped us over the years and we really appreciate their continued support.
Are you looking to get signed, building up to that moment sometime in the future, or are you just enjoying yourselves and not worried either way?
Olly: Even though record sales aren’t as big as they used to be, I still feel that most bands are out there to get signed, even if it is just to get their music to more people. We currently have quite strong interest from quite a few independent labels at the moment, who are all very interested in releasing our debut album later this year, just from hearing some rough mixes. It is all about who will do most about getting our music heard by as large a proportion of the public as possible. Our music is very different to what is in the charts at the moment. It can either make a noise so to speak, or just disappear without a trace, it is all down to Promotion in my opinion. If people see or hear something enough, they start to question who it is and develop their own opinion on it.
Your Facebook and MySpace groups are already bulging with friends. Are you very active on getting your name out there?
Olly: We try (along with some help) to get our name out to as many people as possible. We are constantly emailing, phoning and generally badgering as many people as we can in order to make people sit up and take notice of our music. Generally people don’t come to you, you have to go to them. Our myspace friend count at the time of this interview is way over 14,000 and is growing by vast numbers daily, but this isn’t just to get numbers to make our page look good. We get dozens of mails and comments from people all over the world saying how they love our music! That means the world to us! The tracks on myspace are old tracks, so we can only imagine the response when our album tracks go up there!
Does it p*ss you off how solo artists can become instant stars through programmes like X-Factor/American Idol, when rock bands normally have to play the circuit for years to get noticed?
Olly: At times yes, because I know that all of us are pretty much forced by Girlfriends and family to watch this stuff. But as angry as I personally get when people cheer for someone with a three note vocal range just because their cat has died or something, I also fell sorry for them. A lot of these people will never write their own songs, sometimes due to a lack of talent or sometimes just because its easier to play safe and churn out another album of ballads written by established songwriters who know how to write a ‘Textbook’ ballad, armed with key change and a mock gospel choir. We know how it feels to write a song that you are proud of and have the craving to get it out to people to listen to, a lot of these ‘Idol/ X factor’ people will never experience that in their often short career.
Listening to your song, ‘Man On The Run’, you seem to have a well balanced, talented group with no weak links – even the writing is above par. Do you have a real confidence in what you are doing, more so than with other projects you’ve been involved with?
Olly: Thank you very much! An old tutor of mine and Nic’s used to say ‘a band is only as good as its weakest member’, which is very true. Nobody in JOON is better than anyone else, and nobody tries to out-do anyone else. The music we write on face value doesn’t sound too difficult, but I can tell you that even just from my point of view it takes a lot of concentration and warming up to perform our stuff live. We are very confident that what we are doing is something that is missing from modern music and could very well be hugely popular. We have been in groups before that don’t have a ‘sound’ or a direction but with JOON we all know that we are a Rock/ Pop band and we do as much in that genre as we can without repeating ourselves. It is a very fine balance that we will really have to concentrate on, cos’ nobody likes a band that release album after album of the same stuff.
How did the band start?
Olly: Myself and John were in a band together for a few years before JOON. I then met Nic at College a few years ago and we started JOON. We got hold of a drummer through an advert, he was with us for 18 months, but as we all started to work and study full time as musicians he decided that the ultra- ambitious approach to the band that we were taking wasn’t for him so brought Alex in who was another college friend of mine and Nic’s. Since then we have really got our arses into gear; writing songs, getting in the studio and getting as many good gigs as we can.
Who would you count as the biggest influences on the JOON sound?
Olly: I’d say the big three and Queen, Journey and TOTO. Queen were the band that made myself and John want to form a band in the first place and are what we all had in common from the off when we all formed JOON. Journey and TOTO are two of the most underrated bands that have ever existed in my opinion and JOON’s opinion. They are generally known for about 3 songs each by the general public but have such vast catalogues of great music that people, especially in the UK don’t get to hear on radio. It is nice for us being TOTO fans to have Bobby Kimball as a friend of the band. We have been in touch for a number of months and he likes what were doing and has offered some valuable help to us, great man. We all love soul music and jazz and blues, so elements of all of these create the JOON sound in their own way.
What about your favourite artists personally? Do they tie in with what you play or have you got a few secret passions... like Dolly Parton or Mozart?
Olly: I personally have been an Elton John fan since a young age, which always made me the butt of jokes at school. But without Elton John’s music I wouldn’t have got into music with such passion in the first place. As a band we all secretly love Little Richard, his filthy lyrics and his ‘Woooooo’s!’
What is the music scene like where you come from?
Olly: To be honest, really really bad! Manchester and most other major cities are full of ‘pay to play’ gigs. Generally, bring your friends, who have to pay £5 or more to get in, to watch you play 20-25 minutes with a bad sound in a scummy little venue for you not to get paid. We have managed to get some good gigs in some good venues due to badgering the right people but generally these rip off merchants are ruining it for anyone who doesn’t own their own PA and have help with transport. If you have to sell a set amount of tickets to get a gig without pay I feel its better to not bother at all, organize your own gig because these people generally don’t do anything to promote it anyways.
JOON plays quite a few covers in their set at the moment. What are your favourites?
Olly: Some of our favourites include, ‘Live and Let die’ by Wings, ‘Don’t stop believing’ by Journey and ‘Take on me’ by Aha. With the covers we try and give them our own treatment, especially the pop ones like ‘Take on me’. It is quite scary how big that song can sound with the right instrumentation and use of timbre.
Are you planning to replace them over time with originals or do you reckon you’ll always weave a few cover tracks into gigs?
Olly: It depends on what gigs we get. At Hard Rock café we are the only band that gets away with playing our own material as a large chunk of our set, due to how well it goes down. If we were to get some support slots for bigger bands, which we are working on, we would get rid of the covers without second thought, but for now we have to play some that everyone knows, even if we enjoy our own material better.
Do you love the whole playing live thing?
Olly: Yeah, definitely. Experimenting and working in the studio is fun for a while but could never beat playing live. The buzz of two nights never being the same, or even one song never being the same is immense. The biggest buzz for any band is getting your songs sang back to you by an audience, there are one or two of our songs that really involve the audience that work better live than they ever could on a record, and they work extremely well on a record!
What’s the best live band you’ve ever seen? No, you can’t say JOON!
Olly: We went to see Steve Lukather and his band the other week in Wolverhampton… Wow! Blew us away, played an amazing two hour+ set with only a few breaks to introduce songs and band members and there was not a missed note all night. The level of musicianship was ridiculous, a real eye opener, and a finger up to anyone that thinks rock is just strumming three chords and sloppy endings! This guy has played with everyone over the years and you can see why.
You have a debut album on the way. Can you tell us about the content, release dates... in fact anything you can think of?!
Olly: It is going to be an 11 track album, not too short not too long. Got songs that we have wrote and co wrote over the last couple of years. There is even one or two that me and John wrote quite a few years ago that have been revamped. There seems to be a recurring theme of ‘Time’ lyrically so we may come up with a title from that, never know, might call it, ‘come and ride the JOON bug’ or something shit like that. The album is a really strong debut album in our opinion, I wouldn’t like to pick a single from it, but I doubt I will be the one with that luxury anyway. Can’t wait to get it completed and in the shops. We are currently in talks with a few labels and we are only a few weeks away from it all being mixed and mastered, ready to be distributed to the important people who will hopefully bring their offers to the table. Some of the early talks we have had with the labels have suggested a worldwide release with downloadable and hard copies of our album in most major music stores across the world. So as far as release dates go we don’t have one as yet but you will be the first to know when we have one set in stone.
Where do you see yourselves in five or ten years?
Olly: Hopefully playing arenas and other large venues. Our music is big and is truly anthemic, it would seem silly to be playing such big music in small venues. We have never had a major row up to now so fingers crossed we should still be together in five or ten years.
Are you anywhere near living the rock ‘n’ roll dream yet?
Olly: As long as we are packing down our own gear at the end of the night, no. When we just walk off stage and the work is done we will be on our way there. To be perfectly honest, were not very ‘Rock ‘n’ roll’ in our behaviour. None of us drink heavily, especially when gigging; none of us smoke or take drugs, were sort of the Cliff Richards of Rock in way, if Cliff Richard was dirty.
What are you up to once you finish answering these questions?
Olly: Probably eating curry, a shared passion of JOON. Also got to carry on this recording that seems to have taken an age, need to get it done before people get bored of hearing two tracks on our myspace and it becomes a memorial album!
Anything else you'd like to mention?
Olly: We are currently working on a website... And all our upcoming gigs are on our myspace.
A huge thanks for your time!
Olly: Speak soon.
Keep any eye on Joon's MySpace site or Rock Realms for news regarding their debut album, and check out the sound clips that already exist. Between you and me, they could be rather big :)
