interview in french

here is an interview in french on this very cool blog : wow magazine

If you don't speak french then it's never too late to learn ...


john

Up against the window

picture taken by Katie Thiebaud in Poitiers after our gig; laughing because we just had shown our ass up against the backstage window; silly !

Gainsbourg

Below is a link to listen to an interview we did with this nice guy called Conor in Cork, Ireland. We thought it was going to be an interview about us, but it was even better than that: he wanted us to speak about Serge Gainsbourg. And so we tried! Sitting in our van in front of the venue with the lights on, eating the sweets left on the table and people seeing through the window... 

The show is part of an Irish university radio called  Cork Campus Radio 98.3 FM, the theme is to ask musician to talk about an artist from the past.

Jehn 

(You can listen to the show on 98.3FM, every Tuesday from 11am - 12.30pm, that's if you're in the Cork city area. If not, you can also tune in online via the Cork Campus Radio website,www.ucc.ie/ccr (follow the instructions for the live stream). 

The interview = http://www.ucc.ie/ccr/audio/uoh.wav

the myspace = http://www.myspace.com/theundergroundofhappiness

epk + tap ( Groundhog Day)

hi everyone
we are still in France finishing the recordings plus doing some gigs. Tomorrow we are living for paris, we are in Poitiers right now because we played saturday night in the brand new theatre ( one of the biggest one in europe , amazing architecture) We had a great time , really good welcoming from the crew there. We did 3 sets in the night cause every shows were sold out. It was like being in that bill Murray film : Groundhog Day. You go in the shower between the sets and someone is knocking on your door shouting at you : "you are on in 5 mins"! The live pictures has been taken by Richard my very old friend from school, now he is a mad scientist , he's inventing new chewing gums ( the chocolate and mint one : it's him , no kidding)

also we did an epk : a stupid name for electronic press kit , which means you have to do a short video to present the band to the world. We were not motivated to do it first but then we had fun with our videast friend sam ( the tatooist in the video :joe moo, is also the artist for our album artwork ). Here you go:


love on the beat


john.

Recording in Mainfonds

Elvis at the BBC

hello

this picture was taken in the BBC building before we did the interview with Steve Lamacq. 

we are now far away from that moment, in France recording new songs in the country side with nothing around. Matt Farrar is with us to do the sound. we work and play boomerang to relax. 

jehn

we are leaving

we are leaving to france today for a month, packing the stuff in the van, we are going to record and write new songs there. Matt Farrar our soudman is going to join us in august. we'll have a great time I'm sure. I have to go now. but we'll post new blogs later to keep you in touch. all the best,

jehn  

tour july photos

here is a stylish diaporama of our little tour in july , we started in paris with the kills , then a cool festival in nijmigen called valkhof affaire , and brighton & manchester with cut off your hands (lovely guys) , back to London at the old blue last for an headline show ( great fuckin night it was) with our friends underground railroad ,and then liverpool & cardiff with cut off your hands again.


On thursday we 're living for one month to France : new tunes & good food.

love

john.

"What the fuck do you want me to write?"

We asked our friend Alex Marshall to write this text for us (see below). 

Alex is a very good journalist, he writes for the Stool Pigeon and some other ecology stuff somewhere else I can't remember (sorry Alex), he looks upon what the government is doing basically, which is good. 

I think he was very disturbed at first about what we were asking him. I understand his confusion because what we wanted was neither a biog, nor an article, it was more like a statement, we wanted to give informations about our present and our decisions for the future. 

He did his job and did it well, i mean very professionally. In spite of all the constraints. 

Because we did gave him a hard time.

First, he was not paid and though most of music journalists today work for free, it is never a good position to be in. Second, we took a lot of his time with different meetings trying to understand each other about "what exactly do you fucking want me to write?". We had no idea at first, we just knew we wanted "something new".

But there is a funny story attached to this text too: 

We finally made up our minds and decided that me, John and Alex should meet for a kind of informal interview. Before that, we gave him two of our new songs so he could listen to them at home. The appointment was taken: 8pm at the ICA. Because of very bad traffic we only arrived there at 9.30pm and I know Alex, he is never late, he is always EARLY. With the pressure of making him wait and the pressure of traffic, and the reality of being a couple (maybe), me and John started to argue in the car and the argument was carried on in the street and in front of the ICA... where Alex was waiting for us, hidden behind the wall, we couldn't see him. I dont know how long he waited like that, hearing us, until he dared come out and raise a shy hand begging us to stop. It had been a long time since I felt so ashamed of myself. Then  he asked us "so who was right and who was wrong?". We said we hadn't decided yet because he interrupted us. But in truth, John was right and I was just too proud to admit it. 

But anyway, I dont know if we managed to reach our goal, I mean, if the piece is as good as our expectations. Maybe it is not (I dont think Alex thinks it is!) but in my opinion, it doesn't matter. What we understood and discovered while going through all that process with Alex is more important now than the actual writting.

Now we can go and record, we know what we want to say. 

Thanks Alex.

Jehn

John & Jehn: an update by Alex Marshall

You’d have thought John & Jehn – the exhilarating French duo – would be spending their days now wallowing in success. 

But for the pair, that album seems to have been shoved into the past. In their room in a north London semi – where recording equipment takes up all space the bed doesn’t – they’ve already finished two songs for the next record and they’re hoping to record the rest in the summer.

Impressively, the few new ones they have let slip live, mark a great change in direction.

Sister, the b-side to new single Fear Fear Fear, gives you a taster of that, filled with Gallic swagger. But My Love is the pick of the bunch – a great pop record, and nothing like the Velvets-inspired noir of their past. It starts simple, with little more than Jehn’s breathy vocals, but when the chorus hits, timpani, strings and trumpets roll in, Jehn’s voice soars becoming a genuine turn-on and… Christ! It’s stunning.

It’s easy to see which half of the band is to blame for the change. “It’s because of him,” says Jehn. “I would keep on doing the same thing if I could. Even before the first album was released, he was thinking about the second one. I was like, ‘We can’t think about that, we’ve got to play gigs and have fun.’ But he just said, ‘No’!”

“I just hate to repeat myself,” says John “I want to go everywhere. Every time someone says we’re a duo, I want to have 15 musicians on stage the next day. Every time someone says we are a guitar band, I want to use new instruments.

“We can’t be afraid of changing everything or doing something new just because it might end up sounding ridiculous.”

“He’s constantly putting me in insecure situations like this,” says Jehn. “But that’s a good thing because it challenges me, it stops me getting satisfied. It’s what makes me a musician.”

proud

proud of our new single cover....

thanks to Steve gullick our photographer.

we can't wait to receive the 7".

jehn is away in France and we meet tomorrow for the gig in Paris with the kills.
O and i made a new tshirt of the duke for the occasion.

love


john.

SUNDAY

we played saturday night at the monarch with let's wrestle and le tetsuo , both excellent. Great night it was. We made new friends and people were quite crazy and drunk . So finally we woke up today , sunday , and after eating the best sandwiches you can find in london maybe in the world( an italian place in crouch end , yes we will keep it secret) we prepared the photo shoot with steve gullick for tomorrow. It will be the cover of our next 7" , fear fear fear . We will pose in a typical even famous back alley of London with the words fear fear fear painted on white cardboards . Hope it's gonna work ... it should work cause steve is the best.

love

john.

IRELAND

Hey we just came back from Ireland , we played 2 shows , one in Cork and one in Dublin . The Dublin one was part of the future days festival , we saw deerhunter , dean deacon and bonnie prince billy, amazing music... We had a great time with everyone in Ireland , it was a beautiful week end.

And yesterday night we went to see deerhunter again with liars @ koko in London , during the deerhunter show we were just behind a guy who kept farting and farting and farting. i wish this guy is gonna go straight to hell for that . The liars show was excellent as always , really shy crowd so we screamed as hard as we could , my voice is a bit fucked now.

We 're going to Paris tomorrow , we're gonna play @ La maroquinerie around 8pm , free entrance , we're looking forward to see the old friends.

today i'm listening to the dfa radio mixes , i needed something groovy.

john.

3 gigs , one shark and a button.

hey we just came back from 3 days of gigs with those dancing days. Brighton , Leeds , London @ the 100 club... The last one was the best for us . Leeds was fun too.
Those dancing are really lovely girls.






(all pictures by Stuart)

O and yesterday night we went to see our good friends and excellent Joe Gideon & the shark @ the luminaire , fuckin brilliant as the usual.
check them out : joe gideon & the shark
Also we bumped into sexy Andy from fuck buttons , where is my fuck buttons album man?

Matt Farrar : very important man

Ladies & gentleman ,we are proud to introduce everyone to mr Matt Farrar , john & jehn 's soundman. Since 2 years now , Matt became the third member of john & jehn. He is the  soundman of the luminaire , if you 've been there before no need to say  that place is the best venue in town in terms of sound quality... 

We feel more than  lucky to have him by our side . This man has the power to put a real big smile on our faces in 1 sec. You don't need any kind of drugs when you have a Matt Farrar. Unique .

JOHN.

ps : here is a video of him younger when he played in his former band with aaron emerson : CURFEW ( Matt is the bassist singer with long dirty hair)

einsturzende neubauten

waow , yesterday we saw einsturzende neubauten at the forum in kentish town. It was bloody marvelous . It was a honnest , generous and fascinating show. I liked the way they never go in the extremes , it was very neutral , i mean they know that they can go quite far in the sonic experiment but now they just found the good balance, it was a perfect exemple of how you control the energy . For that i guess you have to know yourself quite well and it seems that Blixa is in the good process. Fascinating artist and human being.


JOHN.

http://www.neubauten.org/

60 MINS OF MELANCHOLIA

hey
i made this mixtape for you. It's called 60 mins of melancholia. I know the sun is back but when i did the compilation it was fuckin raining all day ... But the sun will not appear everyday , and the time for my compilation will come! mwawaahahahahahahahah(evil )

I included a rare song from john & jehn , we recorded a cover of tim hardins years ago: if i was a carpenter , inspired by johnny cash and june carter's version.

check this artwork that the talented Marie Blanchard did for me , check her website below:
http://www.marieblanchard.com/

so the playlist is :

1 blink /sonic youth
2 Elizabeth My Dear / The Stone Roses
3 Night Walks / Black Mountain
4 Love In Mind / Neil Young
5 Then We Be / Duke GarwooD
6 carpenter / john&jehn
7 No Need To Cry / British Sea Power
8 Rather Lovely Thing / Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
9 La fanette / Jacques Brel
10 Home / Clinic
11 Must / Daniel Johnston
12 Love Song / Syd Barrett
13 do what you will do / Will oldham
14 Children's Hospital / Atlas Sound

DOWNLOAD IT HERE / 60 MINS OF MELANCHOLIA

JOHN.

The Management

This blog should be an opportunity to introduce you to the John & Jehn "crew". 

John & Jehn are more than just a two piece band, there's an all family working back there that is worth discovering, individuals with strong personalities working together! yey! 

So the first of the serie will be "The management" with Sally Gross (our manager) and Sareata (her assistant).This video should give you an idea of the general mood in the house; oh yeah, you don't know? we all live together!

So prepare yourself, here they come!

Jehn

SISTER studio

Hi this is Jehn. I write because we recorded the song "sister" this week-end and I thought I would let you know. It is a fine song, simple, classic, with good bass and claps. You may heard it before if you saw us play live. We've played that song for years on stage. now it's recorded. To kill some time we did those videos where you can see us and Matt, the third member of John & Jehn. A little bit of sillyness is always good for sessions... enjoy!

Jehn

DUKE GARWOOD

this video of Duke Garwood was made during our launch night at the luminaire backstage. I asked him to talk about his old guitar "lucy" . You should go and see him play acoustic on this particular guitar .He is a mix between jesse james and chet baker. Duke Garwood is one the most inspiring musician i had the chance to meet in my life. Go and see him play , you will feel lucky too.

JOHN.

http://www.myspace.com/dukegarwood

Steve Gullick

Steve came to talk to us after one of our shows and said he wanted to photograph us for his exhibition in Rough Trade, Brick Lane. That's how we met him.

Those are the 2 pictures he chose for the exhibition, they were taken under London Bridge before we played at Shunt. You can see them near the desk in the Rough Trade shop just next to Thurston Moore and Beck! We were very honnored to be part of this.

Few weeks later, we spent an afternoon in his house to take some more pictures. It was very peaceful and funny. We offered him a bottle of french wine, he gave us a picture of Duke Garwood.

http://www.gullickphoto.com/

http://www.myspace.com/gullickphoto

jehn

why?

this blog of deerhunter : http://deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com/ is the main reason of why i'm creating a john & jehn one. It proves that it can be interesting and generous.
This guy is very inspiring .

john.