In the twelve months since Jockstrap released their superb debut album, ‘I Love You Jennifer B’, the duo have been furiously ticking off items on any modern band’s bucket list: a record with near-universal acclaim, a scorching Glastonbury performance, a headline US tour, opening for a legendary act at a major stadium (in their case, Blur at Wembley) and a hard-earned Mercury Prize nomination. The band featured on Bose and NME’s C23 mixtape, too.
Now, with the release of the album’s full-length remix ‘I<3UQTINVU’, it’s finally time for them to take a second to catch their breath and reflect on their dream year. The new release sees them pushing their already experimental tendencies into yet more audacious areas, raising their clash of warm vulnerability and abrasive sonic anarchy into fearless terrain, with the help of a few of the friends from their journey so far: Australian lo-fi singer/songwriter Kirin J Callinan, London house producer babymorocco and Lewisham rapper Coby Sey among them.
The final stop on this leg of the Jockstrap story comes on December 13 and 14 with two headline shows at London’s illustrious Barbican Centre. NME caught up with the duo – producer Taylor Skye and vocalist (and Black Country, New Road violinist) Georgia Ellery – to discuss the last year, and what might come next.
We’re speaking on the day that ‘I<3UQTINVU’ is released. What does release day feel like?
Taylor Skye: “It’s stressful. I’m gonna go to the cinema later because I’ll just be on my phone all day if I don’t. I’m going to watch the three and a half hour Martin Scorsese film to try to take my mind off it. It’s great though, it’s always such a long time coming. We’re about to go on tour and now we can play some of these songs and people will know them. With [‘I Love You Jennifer B’], it was just a different universe playing the songs once the album was out. So it’s going to be really nice that we’ll be on the same page as our fans now.”
Do you think of this as a new album? Or more of a side-project?
Taylor: “No, this is a reimagined remix thing, so people need to know that because there is only one new set of vocals on there. There’s a lot of new production stuff but it’s a completely different mentality to the album, most of these songs were made in one day and Georgia wasn’t really involved in that, apart from the last song [‘Sexy 2’], but even that we did really quickly.”
Is it true that you were putting together these new remixes during the making of the album, as a way for you to occupy your mind during down time?
Taylor: “When I’m producing and mixing, it’s quite laborious. At the end of a hard day’s work, I always need some sort of pay off. And this is one of my more wholesome avenues of payoffs. It’s like a paint palette that I’m just throwing stuff at. It’s something that people can dip in and out of, people can see the workings out. It’s not too rehearsed and not too polished, I want there to be faults in them, because that’s the point of them. We’ve released remix projects for everything we’ve done so far.”
You’ve had quite the year, between the Mercury nomination, Glastonbury, US tours and supporting Blur at Wembley. How was Wembley, crowds don’t come any bigger than that!
Georgia Ellery: “It was cool! I mean, we were first on, so it wasn’t full, but it was really cool seeing the size of the place from the stage. The natural reverb of the stadium was unlike anything I’ve heard before, so that was a novelty and that was quite fun to experience. And there was lots of space to perform in, which was quite fun. And it’s so loud in there, you know! And there were a few Jockstrap shirts dotted around, so you just spot those people out in the crowd and dance to them. It was so cool.”
Credit: Eddie Whelan
What has surprised you about the last twelve months?
Georgia: “I think it was everything we’d hoped it would be, with the touring and the festivals. We really hoped that we’d play festivals all over the world, and we managed to do that, and that was amazing. And obviously, the Mercury nomination was a huge achievement for us to get. We were so chuffed when we were nominated. Playing at the ceremony was terrifying. It was the most nervous we’ve ever been. But it was really good vibes, everyone was really nice to us and getting drunk together.”
You’ve done a lot of touring over the last year. What kind of picture of debauchery and disgrace are Jockstrap on the road, or are you all very civilised?
Taylor: “I had a foot massage in New Orleans recently. And Georgia, you hired some roller skates, I think?”
Georgia: “Yeah, we’re not debauched on tour at all. We ride in the car with cucumbers on our eyes. It’s so difficult to keep your health up if you’re gonna party every night! It’s just impossible so we like to put our health first in that situation.”
Have you started thinking about working on new material yet?
Taylor: “This is going to be the end for a while, now. We’re going to disappear for a while. We’re gonna have a rejuvenation situation and just figure out our lives a bit, I think. I’m going to go to India and go to wherever The Beatles went.”
What do you think about their new song, ‘Now and Then’?
Taylor: “Oh yeah, I think it’s so good. I just listened to it this morning. I think it’s an amazing song.”
So there is going to be a downtime for Jockstrap before coming back with album number two?
Georgia: “Yeah, we’re just going to reflect on the last year and just like, reset a bit.”
Taylor: “We’re going to learn some new things! I really want to pick up the piano again, that needs to be done.”
Georgia: “I’m going to do some writing with Black Country, New Road. So, you know, we’ve got plenty of things to be getting on with.”
Taylor: “We’re not going to be not doing anything, we’re just going to be working very hard, probably quite privately.”
A lot of time has passed since you started working on the debut album, so I can imagine you feel like quite different people now, creatively?
Taylor: “Right, yeah. Even if we come back and do something fairly similar, we’ll be coming back to it from a very different headspace. It’s been three years since we started making the album now, we’ve changed a lot.”
Before you go away, you’ve got two dates at The Barbican in December. Do they feel like the biggest shows of your careers so far?
Georgia: “I’d say so, yeah. We want them to be special. The fans that have got tickets are the lucky ones, and the ones who didn’t get any are the losers.”
Taylor: “We do have plans. It’s something that we’ve never done before. So yeah, it’s new. We just had a meeting this morning about it, we’re very much figuring it out ourselves at the moment. It’s gonna be a surprise, we’re not going to tell anyone, but it should be good.”
Jockstrap’s ‘I<3UQTINVU’ is out now
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