We Spoke To Jagwar Ma

Variously accused of bringing baggy back or a 60s nostalgia act, Sydney-born Jagwar Ma started life in London and startled the music press who presumed they were either from California or Salford, depending on which of their first two songs they listened to. Made up of Jono Ma and Gabriel Freeman, (who you may recognize from their previous bands; Lost Valentinos and Ghostwood, respectively) they are joined for live shows by third man Jack Freeman. I caught up with Jono just before the band headed back to the other side of the world for their first ever home-country tour.

Are you in France?

Yeah, that's correct. We're in Lille. It's our last date with the Foals tour.

Lille's a weird city - it's like a cross roads for lots of different nationalities running from places and going somewhere else.

I've never been here - I've actually only been here for half an hour so far. It feels a little bleak so far, I don't know if it's the time of day or the area that we're in. It does feel a little bit like a crossroads of a place. We've literally come straight to the venue so haven't seen that much of the place. I can't comment too much, but next to the motel that we're staying in is right next to a construction site so that's basically all I've seen and that's my first impression.

You've got some history with France. Didn't you most of your album in an old farmhouse in France?

Yeah. A bunch of it was done in Sydney. I'd been doing bits and pieces along the way in Sydney, just wherever I was really, but once we had the crux of the record we went to France to record the rest of it in this abandoned Chateau, I guess you'd call it, there was a church there and an old convent. There was lots of space and a massive hall that the locals would have these French raves in. It was a pretty bizarre space to spend a chunk of time in, working on music. It was good because there were very few distractions. We'd wake up, walk upstairs and be right in the studio immediately. We got a lot of work done there. It's basically in the centre of France about three hours south of Paris; we were there in summer so it was actually quite warm. We definitely went a bit stir crazy, which was good - it was quite cathartic in that sense.

You mentioned the local raves - weren't you surrounded by ravey/dub farmers?

I don't really know about the history of it, but there's definitely a subculture there, almost a counter-culture where it's like a lot them are tradesmen - one's a stonemason, one's a blacksmith, one's a carpenter and they were all working on parts of the property. There were buildings that needed to be restored so they were all there working, but the way they get around is that they live in their vans and they all congregate on the weekend and all have bits and pieces of a sound system, which they connect together somehow into a giant Voltron dub sound system thing and then they just play the most intense hardcore techno that I've ever heard. And they just dance around to it all night. There's definitely a sort of anti-establishment tone to what they do. They all dressed like punks and are into punk rock music as well. The music they play at these parties is literally like a distorted Dutch Gabba kick drum kind of thrusting at 200bpm. That's pretty much what it was.

Did it influence the music on your album at all?

I don't know if it directly did, but when we were rehearsing for a show we had at MIDI Festival, which was right in the middle of while we were recording the album. We were rehearsing it in the hall on their sound system. Definitely when we were rehearsing the songs in that space on that sound system, it actually inspired a lot of other ideas hearing it through that cavernous space. When I went back to the studio it didn't sound as good it had sounded there, so I went back to make the beats bigger and reverb them out more. Also, when they were in the room watching us playing our poppy music, you really felt the brightest, summery bits of the music when they were in the room staring at us with their sinister French hardcore demeanor. I think through that the electronic outros became longer and maybe a bit more wiggy, possibly as a reaction to that.

Sounds like a Mad Max movie.

There was definitely a post-apocalyptic vibe - particularly in that hall where they had the raves and the sound system was. All around it was old sandstone ruins and like, big open plains and there was trash everywhere as they were renovating buildings and stuff. It was definitely a bit post-apocalyptic, Mad Max.

So next week you're off to tour your native Australia with The xx - will you show them the sights?

This is the last show with Foals tonight and then we've got one night off and then we fly back to Australia and play Perth with The xx and do a tour with them. We don't know them personally so I don't know if The xx will be off in their room and we'll be in our room or if we'll be mingling. We're massive fans of their music so it would be great to get to know the people behind it. Then we're staying to do our own tour in Australia and then we're coming back to do the European festivals and then America at some point. Beyond that I'm not sure, it's all a bit hazy.

You went back to Australia to play Big Day Out recently. Was that actually the first time you'd played as a band at home?

Yeah it absolutely was. The first gig we ever did was the one I mentioned at MIDI Festival, and because that was halfway through our writing, it was a developmental gig I guess. Big Day Out was like, the first run of shows that we've done. With the Foals shows, we've done 10 or 11 so it's all still pretty fresh, we only really finished the record a few days ago so the show will continue to evolve over the next few months, that's for sure.

Did you feel any pressure playing in you hometown?

Not really, no. I felt more pressure playing in London. I don't know why, it was a small gig, but it was a headline gig and it was our first one in London. I think, I dunno, I guess it's that thing that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and it meant more to do really well in London to us as we're Australian, than it did in Australia.

Did you enjoy Big Day Out? I found it a bit weird - almost clinical in the Olympic Stadium.

I'm generally not a huge fan of those super-festivals unless they're in a really beautiful, idyllic environment, which yeah, the Olympic Stadium isn't. There's a lot of concrete and it's a bit sterile. There were some great acts though with Foals, Animal Collective and Death Grips and so on. To be honest I didn't actually go into the stadium at all. There was a heat wave during that time and when we were playing in Sydney it was 47 degrees at the time we were playing. That's not considering the lights on us, or the crowd and we were in this tin tent/shed thing. It was disgustingly hot so we'd go and play our show and then we'd hide in whatever air-conditioned room we could find and cower there for the rest of the day until it was cool enough for us to go outside - so we didn't see that much music.

On your What Love? video there seems to be a slight comment war raging on as to whether you sound like Arctic Monkeys or Primal Scream.

[laughs loudly] I actually think what's happened there, is not about us sounding like them but one of the guys from Arctic Monkeys posted on Twitter to check out the song. I guess he liked it for whatever reason and that drew a whole heap of their fans to it and they started writing 'Arctic Monkeys brought me here' blah blah blah, and then through Chinese Whispers that sort of evolved into 'What? Why is everyone saying Arctic Monkeys? This doesn't sound like Arctic Monkeys, this sounds like Primal Scream.' So there you go! I don't think the original comment meant that we sounded like them as clearly that song has nothing in common with the Arctic Monkeys, who I am a fan of, I think it's just that they liked the song and then a bunch of fans who are into them, but not necessarily what we do come to the page.

Do you worry at all about being pigeonholed in a psychedelic, indie Primal Scream-y sort of box?

Yeah occasionally. It starts to feel a bit limiting at times when you're constantly being compared to bands who have already been. But at the same time I guess that's how we communicate music to people and that's how we like to understand music and art in general by referring it to something we can relate it to. So that's fine. So far all the references have been flattering. To be compared to Primal Scream and Tame Impala and The Beach Boys or Phil Spector is an amazing thing. One thing that we're trying to do is amalgamate loads of different references and not be too confined to one sound or style. On the record we've tried to keep a good level of diversity. There are some tracks that are quite fast and have this Northern Soul stomp to them and some that are quite slow and ambient and are a slower Manchester groove and then there are some that are just straight up songs.

Are you also getting bored of being labeled as purveyors of 'baggy indie'. Do you think it's because of the video for The Throw? It's quite Madchester.

It's funny because when Come Save Me came out, people were saying Beach Boys, Phil Spector, The Beatles, Joe Meek, which, again, is amazing but we didn't want to get pigeonholed as some kind of 60s revival band so we decided the next song we put out would be one of the slower, more electronic ones and to be honest I never thought of it as being particularly Manchester. I can't think of many Manchester bands that would sing in that high, falsetto vocals like that. Sean Ryder was always almost rapping and yelling and Ian Brown was always deep and breathy –

And out of tune?

[laughs] Yes! Whereas The Throw is almost like Blondie or something. To me I never thought of it being very Manchester but we decided to put that out to subvert the 60s pigeonhole that was happening and managed to combat that with another pigeonhole. So the next one we'll have to do something different again.

Do you find it a bit weird 'What Love?' was chosen for the FIFA13 soundtrack?

[laughs] That was like a childhood dream come true. Both Gab and I used to play FIFA all the time as kids and actually remember getting into music through FIFA. So when we found that out - especially as that track was just a b-side to 'Come Save Me' and again it was track that we'd made with very low expectations. We just wanted to make a crazy, wiggy, slow interesting electronic track so for that to get on the FIFA 13 soundtrack is mind blowing. How did that happen?

Do you want your music to identify with your average British football supporter?

God I don't know. I don't know what the average British football supporter listens to. I guess The Throw might have a nice, slow soccer chant to it.