Interviews We Interview Bluejuice
We Interview Bluejuice
Before embarking on their “Winter Of Our Discotheque” tour that will see the band taking stage in some of the country's notorious Uni bars, Bluejuice bassit Jamie spoke to Tom from AAA Backstage on what debauchery fans can expect from the group this time round.
You are doing a tour of universities on your ‘Winter of our Discotheque’. Did you or any of the band head to University?
I’m pretty sure we all have degrees in various things; marketing, journalism, audio engineering etc. The result of course, was that we ended up in a band with an unimaginative name and moderate alcohol abuse problems. Stay in school kids!
Where did the concept for doing a University tour come from?
I’m not sure – probably from one of the many scholars who comprise our management team. It makes sense as a touring idea, and gives us another opportunity to visit regional areas where other bands sometimes don’t get to tour.
Will the Bluejuice experience be different at these shows?
We’re going to bring it back to basics a little bit; there’s a very good chance that we’ll actually wear our normal clothes instead of furry tights or glow-in-the-dark pantihose like we’re used to. I for one, am looking forward to this very much.
This tour coincides with the release of your fourth single, a remix of ‘Recession’ that has been re-assembled by dance producer Styalz Fuego. Will this mean that your show will be more dance than the indie pop you are known and loved for?
Well, ever since the band started the general aim has been to make people dance, whether it was with our snotty hip hop in the early years, or the pop or electro stuff more recently. We don’t really care what we’re playing, so long as the people in the room are covered in each other’s fluids.
Bluejuice has grown epically over the last couple of years. Is it hard to stop the ‘fame and success’ getting to your head?
Haha. That’s very funny. We’re a pretty cynical bunch, and we played for years to empty or uninterested rooms. I like to think that having had an exceedingly slow rise we’re reasonably sanguine about our “fame and success”. On the other hand, our girlfriends would probably say that we’ve become insufferable douchebags.
Joining you on the University tour is Deep Sea Arcade and The Preachers who have both gained a lot of attention of late, what words of wisdom from the Bluejuice camp will you be sharing with them?
When cuddling us in the green room, make sure your facial hair is trimmed, and be gentle.
Do you think that the sound of Bluejuice has changed or progressed as you have matured as a band?
Definitely. It’s hard for us as a band to look back on our output over the first 5 years and not think it was filled with absolute unrelenting garbage. We called our first EP, “Zebraaazz” for fucks sake, and its arguable highlight was a secret track involving James Brown taking a shit. These days it’s all about kissing old ladies and aping Steve Winwood. Progression AND maturity, see.
Big Day Out surprised everyone earlier this year by placing you in the Boiler Room, when two years prior you played on the main stage. Did the festival giant cater to your performance more in the sweaty tent?
Yeah – for the past year or so we’ve been using cheap fluro tape and UV lights and projections to give the show a bit of oomph, and having the show in a darkened tent really helped visually. As amazing as it was playing on the main stage to so many people, being in the tent seems to concentrate the crowd’s energy a bit more, and makes it more fun to play.
What do you think of the festival personally? How does the Big Day Out experience compare to that of the many other festivals you have played across the country?
Obviously Big Day Out has been going for a long time, and they know what they’re doing. Most festivals these days get it right, but every now and then there’s weird one with a dubious line-up, no audience, and 4 toilets. Splendour, Good Vibes, Falls and many others have all been really good to us.
With a busy touring schedule planned for the months ahead, will Bluejuice take a rest for a while before heading back out on the road?
We’ve been doing quite a bit of resting prior to this tour already, so hopefully we’ll be a little more busy afterwards. Having said that, we’ll have been crammed together in the same stinky van for 3 weeks, so in all likelihood we’ll want nothing to do with each other for a while.
What can fans look forward to from Bluejuice in the coming year?
The usual amount of cheese eating and public embarrassment.
Tom Noyes- AAA Backstage
'The Winter of our Discotheque' tour kicks off on 8 August in Newcastle. For all dates see http://bluejuice.info/shows
