Janne Jarvis – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Johnny H
Sunday, 20 December 2015 03:30
What better way to conclude our 2015 coverage than with an Uber Rock exclusive chat with the inimitable Janne Jarvis? He’s certainly always good for a quote or two, and is just about to come out of a period he’s calling a “lost weekend” sounding bigger and angrier than ever. I get to ask the questions I’ve waited some three years to ask, as Janne talks about the end of Hate Gallery, bummed out record deals and why touring with Motorhead was proper rock ‘n’ roll……..
Hi Janne thanks for taking the time to talk with me today, how are things in Berlin right now?
Berlin is the ultimate test of self-discipline. Pulling yourself out of the fire at the last minute. Whatever you want, you can get it. It’s a choice on a daily basis. I’m currently sporting a fine hangover. (Laughing)
It’s been three long years since we last caught up with you around the time of the release of Hate Gallery’s second album ‘Viva La Resistance’. So let’s try and fill in the gaps for those intervening years. And where better to start than with Hate Gallery. You never toured that second album, why was it you never hit the road in support of it?
The music business was changing fast and I suppose I just pre-emptied the inevitable. To keep a band together, four men with financial needs, is difficult. I didn’t feel I had the required commitment necessary to continue. ‘Viva La Resistance’ took a lot out of me. Between 2008 and 2012, I wrote and produced three albums and an E.P. This includes the Warrior Soul comeback album, plus all the tours in-between. That’s a decent body of work. To be honest with you, I just lost my creativity. I lost my desire to do it. I was burned out. I was bored. It’s a normal reaction to years of high productivity. I’ll call the last few years my “lost weekend” in certain respects. With the huge changes in the music business, I’m sure I wasn’t alone in re-evaluating my role as an artist. I have a good publishing deal and my publisher has been waiting for new music for a while. Luckily, he is a patient man. (Laughing)
Now I can’t stop writing. Moreover, it is sounding very, very good. I also moved to Berlin from Stockholm. Then there were the messy breakups, the debauchery and delicious kebabs, all washed down with gallons of German beer.
So what happened to the concept of the band within your own mind space – you seemed happy to be working with Chris Rose?
Well, it continues. Hate Gallery has a place, it has a certain rhetoric and it has a certain agenda. In the future it will continue in a more concentrated form. I played all the instruments on ‘Viva La Resistance’ except the drums, so I suppose Hate Gallery was my own mind space by default. I feel privileged to be able to construct my own music without relying on others. Now I’m going to explore that a bit further. I feel the need to make music far more expansive. Far more personal. I am not allowing myself any constraints. One has to do what one feels. In this case I’m trying to surprise myself. Challenge myself. I think it’s working. I’ve worked with Chris Rose for years and continue to do so. He is a hell of a talent.
So what about the third Hate Gallery album you promised us the last time we talked?
The album concept? Of course I love albums, I’m just not sure if albums fit in the modern climate. I think individual tracks appeal to me more. There will be something in the future. I’d like to record an album in a room with some other great musicians. ‘Compassion Fatigue’ was actually recorded live with just vocals and the occasional embellishment added later. When you capture that energy, you’ve tapped into the magic which bands like Sabbath and Zeppelin infused their recordings with.
Looking back at the Hate Gallery releases would you say they were visionary in the lyrical department given what is happening around the world right now?
I think I got it pretty much spot on. I wouldn’t say the lyrics were visionary. Any sentient being could have worked it out. I suppose hindsight is a wonderful thing. It is interesting how some ‘journalists’ were disparaging about the lyrical content, to the point of branding me paranoid. I think that since the NSA/Snowden revelations and the state of the world as it stands now, I’ve been fairly well vindicated. I despair at the intelligence and wit of most music journalists these days. (Laughing)
Chrissie Hindsight is not as good as Bruce Foresight.
When we last talked you said you felt the problems within the world were largely caused by people not caring. Do you still stand by that point of view?
I think there will always be a vocal minority that will stand up and be counted. The masses however will always succumb to the loudest and most prolific voices. As we can see today, the mass media and the Conservative party have led the British public to the brink of Fascism and totalitarianism like lambs to the slaughter. Except I’m pretty sure that lambs would at least be instinctive enough to realise something was very wrong indeed. It’s always been hard to fight the power. But I live in hope. I’ve always subscribed to Ian Frazer Kilmister’s ethos: Live To Win. That’s a good philosophy to live by.
People did appear to care a lot about what happened in France recently though. I find it’s such a shame that a lot hen don’t look at the bigger picture, and that’s why for me bombing the fuck out of a country is never going to defeat religious nut jobs.
Indeed. It’s very easy to have an outpouring of grief and anger during a tragic event such as the Paris shootings. However, the anger should be directed at the real cause. The real people responsible. One only had to look at the immediate aftermath to find the answers. The anger and vitriol should be saved for the nefarious entities propagating wars in the apparent name of security. I find it amazing that there is anybody out there who believes this. Christ, who would be so sick and diseased that they believe the official narrative. The newspapers are owned by the same corporations propagating war. You cannot afford to believe a single word. With their help, Cameron and his cronies are dismantling the U.K brick by brick. As bad as the Nazis.
Getting back to the music and perhaps on a lighter note – you tell me – (Laughing) what happened after ‘Viva La Resistance’? I read some bizarre story of a dispute you had with Nuclear Blast over a record you recorded but they then wouldn’t release…please expand.
I had a band briefly called ‘Crucifix In A Death Hand’ with Linnea Olsson. We recorded our demos at Ghost’s studio in Linkoping, Sweden. Nuclear Blast offered us a deal, which I was kind of reluctant to sign. But we managed to negotiate it in our favour. Just before we signed, the head of the company found out that we recorded the tracks at Ghost’s studio. He is a born again Christian with a hatred for Ghost. Apparently they had tormented him at some event because of his fundamentalist beliefs. Stupid fucking Uma. (Uma Thurman = German) He hit the roof and pulled the contract. The head of A&R offered to resign. He said he had never been so embarrassed or angry about something in his life. This was his project after all. To be honest, I thought I had seen it all before this happened. And I’ve been in some very weird situations It was a blessing in disguise for lots of reasons. But I can’t go into that here. I love Ghost. Great people too. One of them played on ‘Viva La Resistance’. You’ll have to guess which track… I’ve been out with them in techno clubs in Berlin, all of them off their heads.
So, in spite of what you said earlier is that it for Hate Gallery then, is that part of your life finished?
I have been working on lots of new music recently. I have been more inspired than I have been for years. It really doesn’t fit into the HG ethos. I’m still uncertain how it will be presented, but it’s really good. Very eclectic and very natural. It really is just for me. The way true art should be. I think the best thing to happen in the business right now, is the fact that an artist can create entirely for their pleasure, without having to bow to external pressures. It can be emancipating and the art should be at its best in these circumstances. I’m still surviving, still doing it. I’m excited for people to hear it.
However, I have decided to resurrect Hate Gallery for one track. Just for Uber Rock. I’ll write and record it in one day, and you can choose the title. (Laughing)
What is next for Janne Jarvis and what’s Bells Into Machines all about?
I’m going to release some new music in the New Year and then I intend to put a new band to together, probably in Stockholm. I want it to be collaborative and devastating live. I really want it to thrive in the live environment. Exciting and dangerous. Bells Into Machines is myself, Brian Diemar, Paul Barker and Chris Connelly from Ministry and an additional cast. I’ve done some vocals and I’ve written a few songs. It’s an industrial collaboration. Toby Wright (Korn, Metallica) is mixing it. It’s just a side project really, although there will be live dates next year….
I’m keen to hear this, you’ve just recorded a Joy Division cover for the record haven’t you?
That’s right. We recorded ‘Days Of The Lords’. Spookily I recorded the vocals on the anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death. It came out really well.
Also on the subject of covers, even though this is slightly off-piste. I really wish bands/singers would stop trying to pay “tribute” to Ronnie James Dio by trying to sing his songs. There was a reason he was the greatest rock/metal vocalist of all time. Nobody else could do it. I think butchering his songs is the opposite of a tribute. I jammed with the man once. You wouldn’t believe the power of THAT voice coming through the monitors. It was God. Leave it alone you arseholes. Get in the fucking sea.
As we approach the end of 2015 I wanted to get your thoughts on what you thought were the best albums you’ve heard this year, and what should we look out for in 2016?
I really love the new Slayer album. The only band that always delivers the goods. Never shit. Even with Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo not present, they’re still a visceral thrill. The new Killing Joke is being played right now. Sounds excellent as usual.
The last decent album I heard before that was ‘Hesitation Marks’ by Nine Inch Nails. Most music I hear these days sounds like horrible Orwellian machine music. Over produced, facile lyrics. Nobody saying anything. Nobody meaning anything. Music has been devalued and marginalised because it is considered a threat. Now the same corporations who rape and pillage the world and want you to spend all your money on their worthless products are now controlling the message. And they’ve done it in a way which insures that musicians don’t get paid and eventually lose heart. Music makes magic out of the mundane. It used to give people hope. It made the world a better place. It was IMPORTANT.
There was a reason the FBI wanted John Lennon out of the country. He was subversive, he was a dissident.
Where are these voices now?
Nobody is even drinking or taking drugs. Where is the fun in that? Rock ‘n roll is not vegan diets and a daily workout. Boring. When I toured with Motorhead the caterers were dealing coke to everybody. By the end of the tour, the food was inedible and everyone had lost their minds. Motorhead used to come in our dressing room every night and offer us colossal lines of speed. They were utterly mad and utterly glorious. It was a juggernaut of total chaos hurtling down the motorway and stopping off at your town. It was rock ’n’ roll. It was alive.
Finally, I just wanted to turn the last question over to you Janne. Now I know we have half joked in the past about you writing a regular rant feature for the virtual pages of Uber Rock, so let’s start with … what bands would you actually pay to see if they reformed and what do you think of the suggestion that Guns N’ Roses may in part reform in the near future?
I would have loved to have seen the No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith line up of Motorhead. But only if I could have watched them in 1981. To be honest, most of these reformations are disappointing and pointless. I remember watching Anthrax side stage at Sonisphere in Stockholm and I was bored. I wouldn’t have been bored in 1987 when they played the songs fucking fast, you know? Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith would be great, but they’re dead.
I think Black Sabbath worked. Certainly when I saw them I thought it was superb. Some people can still cut it. I mean, Paul Rodgers may still tuck his t-shirt in, but his voice is incredible. That is a rarity. I mean look at Motley Crue. Vince Neil is incapable of even holding a tune. (Laughing) There are a lot of bands that are slowly destroying their reputation and legend.
I can tell you who I don’t want pay money to see. Van Halen with Gary Cherone for a start. (Laughing) Maiden with Blaze Bayley. Bronski Beat without Jimmy Somerville. That kind of thing. Also not the original Status Quo. Mainly because Francis Rossi is the most horrible person I’ve met in the music business.
As far as Guns N’ Roses go. It has to be the original line-up. Even if one of them was dead, (Laughing) they would have to dig up their corpse and make sure they are on that stage. No excuses and no newer members. Matt Sorum would be okay. Axl has to try and look and sound like he used to. And they need to start drinking and taking blow. Maybe then I would buy a ticket. But I doubt it. I already saw the original line up play. They were pretty damn great…
Thanks for your time once again Janne, it’s always a pleasure fella.
Cheers Johnny. Here is a special double Christmas present for all the readers of Uber Rock. Firstly an exclusive first play of ‘Zero Soldiers’ by Bells Into Machines, and an exclusive solo track ‘Friendly Fire’. (Uber Ed: We’ve embeded these tracks within the interview for your listening pleasure folks…MERRY CHRISTMAS!)
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