Jübl - The Present Forged by The Past.

AÑO: 5 | NÚMERO 47

THE 13th UN A R E V IS TA IM A GINA RIA

JÜBL THE PRESENT FORGED BY THE PAST

[ Interview with Rudy Tambala from Jübl by Diego Centurión.

Photographs: Tanel Tero, Dani Canto, Mattias Malk and Matis Veltman. ]

THE PRESENT FORGED

BY THE PAST

3 At the time of holding this interview, I thought about finding a starting point to get to the debut Jübl EP that has just come out.

Well I found it – this starting point can be found exactly 30 years ago, although the band made its mark under another name – A.R.Kane.

The 30-year history abruptly changed and the band changed its name and, in a way, has made a new start with a new identity – mind you, they have the same brilliant sound.

Hello Rudy, thank you for agreeing to do this interview. To begin with, we cannot ignore the fact that this year is the 30-year anniversary of "69", the debut album by A.R.Kane. What do you remember about that moment when you recorded the songs on this album?

Hi Diego, thank you for this opportunity to discuss music. Many of my memories of this time are caught like insects in amber; they are clear, as though only last week. We had just completed an amazing year with the two records released on 4AD, and anything seemed possible. The critics loved the music and we had a growing fanbase, plus a new record label (Rough Trade) that agreed to advance us some money so that we could build our own studio for the making of our debut LP. We bought the equipment and started learning how to use it as we tracked the new songs, just Alex and me most of the time, simply making sounds, playing with musical ideas, and recording them on-the-fly. There was very little discussion, little preparation.

I think it was years of pent up creativity that just needed to be out in the world. There is a circuit made, when music lovers show their appreciation, and musicians create - it is a kind of feedback loop that can grow really

quickly - we were in that loop. The freedom our own studio provided was key to our ability to experiment, and experimentation, exploration and playfulness were the roots of the LP. Undoubtedly "69" is an inescapable reference when talking about the dreampop sound of the 80's. How do you see it now in retrospect?

We were heavily influenced by previous generations of music creators and although we used the instrumentation of an indie band, we never used the instruments or the studio in the way an indie band would. That’s why we sounded very different to our contemporaries, refused to be put into existing categories and why we invented the term Dream Pop to describe our music. I think we were trying to simultaneously capture the transcendent production and performance techniques one might associate with King Tubby, Syd Barret or Sun Ra, alongside the simple pop songs.

In retrospect I see sixty nine as a hybrid of psychedelia, free jazz and dub, with a groove sensibility and an English punk mentality.

The album's release was a huge success, reaching number 1 on the list

of independent albums in the United Kingdom. How was that moment for you?

Alex and I were in shock from around 1986 until 1989. It seemed everything was just happening to us, and felt very dreamlike. We had already had a global hit and reached number 1 with Anitina, but sixty nine topping the charts was the most incredible moment for us.

What did the album "69" give you as a band?

I think a debut LP is a statement that is taken seriously, and it sets the trajectory for the rest of ones career. sixty nine allowed us the space to experiment further, to refine our sound and technique, to work in any genre we wished, and to connect to other musicians and writers that had similar thinking to us.

In 2015, you decided to reform the band and perform concerts, including original Kaner Maggie Tambala in the new line-up.

What was it like to reform the band without

Alex?

It was a familiar feeling because often in the past I had managed the band, contracted players, set up rehearsals, and so on, without Alex’s involvement. He would turn up for the last rehearsal. The difference now was that he didn’t turn up at all LOL - initially this left me moving from rehearsal guide vocalist to actual lead singer. Now I have shifted the singing duties to Maggie and Andy, so things feel more natural again, I can park my ego and focus on guitar and sounds.

It can be said that Júbl is the present forged by the past. Jübl is born from the impossibility of the re-mastering and rerelease of this monumental A.R.Kane album. Please tell us this story.

I hate telling this so will keep it brief; The rights to A.R Kane (brand and catalogue) are a very murky area and were dragging me down, preventing me from creating new music. I needed to escape this, needed the freedom I had when recording sixty nine; material, psychological and emotional freedom. When

5 I rebranded as Jübl, it felt as though a great weight had been lifted, as if Jübl had been there all along, patiently waiting for my stubborn and slow brain to catch up and make the jump.

been pushed from the nest and have to fend for themselves in the big, bad world. I personally am very fond of them, they work well according to the algorithm that controls my musical brain, the relationship of the four core components of Dream Pop; harmonic, There is something that unites A.R.Kane rhythmic, sonic, lyric, with as often in Kane with Jübl apart from your involvement and now Jübl, the prevalence of the sonic in both? Tell me how it is to work with and rhythmic elements, modulated through your sister, who is your inseparable genre and styles, techniques and technology, companion in your musical explorations context and attitudes. with A.R.Kane, Sufi and Jübl?

It’s really easy and fun working with Maggie.

What plans do you have for the future?

She is very quiet and thoughtful, she rarely Today I’m in the studio working on a new needs to be told more than once when we collaboration with Ummagma, which follows are trying to get to a specific approach. She up our previous collaboration ‘Winter Tale’. It has a great voice; soulful, fragile, tonally and is taking a very RnB, deep groove direction, rhythmically precise - very easy to record; perfect for this insanely hot English summer. one-take Maggie we call her. My main Alongside that, Jübl is recording new songs problem is that when she gets together with for the debut LP, that we hope to release my wife Anita, they giggle like school girls, this October. We are also starting to think incessantly. It drive me crazy. Older brother about live performance, but no dates set syndrome. yet. Shameless Promotion PR is helping us to promote this album, so it seems there are When did you write the songs found on loads of interviews ahead of me too.

"Thinking Sweet”?

Thinking About You was written Spring 2017; Where can people find your music and in it underwent several interpretations until we what formats? Is there anything else you reached the sound you now hear - all of them! would like to share with our readers?

- and is now the benchmark against which Jübl’s EP is on all digital stores and streaming the new recordings are measured. Sweet services, and there is a collectors USB limited Dreams was written for the A.R. Kane shows edition version available on bandcamp in 2016; it premiered at Primavera Sound in https://jublband.bandcamp.com/merch/ Barcelona, it has evolved since then. The thinking-sweet-ep-limited-edition-usblong track ‘Thinking Sweet’, is a fusion of signed-card-exclusive-bonus-track-boxed the previous two songs, with a cross-fade We want as many people to hear our music between the end and beginning; this was an as possible, so if you want it but cannot afford immersive listening technique we embraced to buy it right now, message us on facebook on side two of sixty nine, and I wanted to do and we’ll gift you a free code. https://www. this as a reference to that LP. facebook.com/jublband/ .

Can you tell us the sensations these songs hold for you?

Thanks Rudy for allowing us to ask you The songs are like new children, we are these questions. protective of them but already they have Thank you. Peace be with you.

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The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA