Bluejuice

Exqueeze me? By Tony Edwards

They’ve been around for 6 years or more but nothing has broken Bluejuice on the national stage quite like their potent organ-driven punk-pop smash, 'Vitriol', and it’s bizzare accompanying clip. The Sydney-siders are at this stage still unsigned, and because of that their sound remains untainted by any financially motivated labeltype censorship that would attempt to tailor their output to slide neatly into the market. I’m not suggesting that all signed bands are forced to abandon their principles and produce whatever the label orders, but the same freedoms that Bluejuice experience are often conducive to fostering fresh new sounds. These guys create music they like, and they plainly want us to party our arses off whenever and wherever they play it. As anyone who’s seen the clip knows well, the manic energy they produce is effusive. The new album, Problems, is on the shelves now, and it’s a heady mix of rock, rap, beats and bounce. There’s a genuine depth to the album, which is a credit to the years of toil the band has put in, and both vocalists, Jake and Stav, are of the opinion that the stuff they’re writing now, to them, is feeling real good. Apart from the obvious anthem, 'Vitriol', Problems holds the festival-ska singalong 'Hunnamunnafeeb', which is as good as anything that Cat Empire have churned out, and the heavy, heavy beats of 'We Get It Right', that would stand tall against the revered work of the Hilltop Hoods. Other acts that come to mind as I delve deeper into the record are The Beastie Boys, Regurgitator and Shapeshifter. What do all those bands I’ve just namechecked stand for? Partying hard, that’s what. Bluejuice are nothing like any of those bands, they’re as raw as it gets, but the all important underlying spirit of those show-stopping acts is present in their music. The pair of them are quick to stress the originality of their music. Stav baulks at the Beastie Boys suggestion. “Those references have been made before, but I think that’s just because it’s two light skinned guys shouting. As opposed to being necessarily based in us specifically referencing anyone. Because I don’t think we actually do that. We certainly don’t do it purposefully, we just write music.” The albums opening track, 'Get Me Down', took me back to the bass frenzied heights of the ‘Gurge’s New Ep, however Stav doesn’t remember the ‘Gurge being a huge influence. “That track is just a keyboard and Korg universe of sound. Musically it’s a bit of a hotch-potch of styles because we like different stuff. I wouldn’t say anything is being specifically referred to, that track is just a brazen, venemous assault, that’s all.” That assault is a return to a sorely missed age

of great Australian bands, before the indie scene was consumed by fads, fickleness and fashion.

Jake is expressive about the changes that he’s observed in the live scene over the years. “I was getting sick of Sydney being so cool that you couldn’t even be a dag and go to gigs anymore. No one was having any fun,

no one was even dancing. It got really serious, and it’s still really serious. Its more serious than ever because there’s all these kids that think they have to buy into these different scenes.

While scene’s are really fun, they’re just a thing that’s tacked on to the end of the music, they’re not what music is about. There’s too much music around that’s about exclusivity, and defining "Anarchy for everyone not just the UK"

18 :: BRAG :: 224 :: 20:08:07 yourself by who isn’t in your group and who you don’t like. And that’s a fucking wank and it’s boring.” Jake’s quite sure he doesn’t want the same for Bluejuice. The antics in the Vitriol clip have exposed the fact that the band has no qualms about making fools (and public nusiances) of themselves. It’s a side we don’t seem to see too much in the sea of self-reverence that pervades our carefully styled musical climate. Jake doesn’t see why it’s all so devoid of humour. “It’s almost expected that you would put together a really sophististicated image, and that’s a generational change. We’ve seen a huge jump in the way bands become sophisticated in all areas of presentation. Although the music itself is in a lot of cases quite sophisticated, it’s also much more trend based now than it ever has been. I just like the idea of trying to do something that has no pretension.” In their post-Vitriol contemplative headspace the guys are both conscious of getting bundled up as a joke band. They’ve brought it upon themselves with the comedy style of the clip. “I guess this is a lesson”, acknowledges Jake. “Think about the shit that you do before you put it in a film clip and put it on YouTube, because every dude will be talking to you about it and you won’t have any answers for them.” Jake’s referring to the religious theme they chose for the clip, in which he opens with a preachy monologue (garbed in a white robe), and conjures up a fictional church. Will it be a running theme? “Not at all. I don’t think there’s any need to take that much further than what it is already”, laughs Stav. There’s a certain attitude to the clip that suggests a juvenile disobedient streak lives on in the boys; they’re on a shameless misson to wind people up. “It’s fun to flip things for a social experimentation point of

view. There’s the point in the clip where the girl has the fit. She was sitting their writhing around on the ground, and Jake was holding her and it was a really sick silence [in the crowd]. And I remember at the time thinking, yes, we’ve really achieved something here today. Because it felt like that horrible discomfort when you’re watching The Office. It was like that. No one knew what to do or say”, Stav gleefully recalls. “I was surprised we didn’t get shut down, but like I said if you’re in robes, no one fucks with you. It’s great, you can say or do what you like with a nice little barrier around you.” Now that they’ve had one national hit, Bluejuice have their reputation to prove. The Problems tour will take them beyond the borders of Sydney for the first time and they’ll quickly find out if anyone out there is tuned to their frequency. And just what does the band promise for those who are? Jake comes up with a hastily compiled, rough Bluejuice mission statement. “Anarchy. I think our core promises would be to let you down in two years. You can be sure that we’ll probably break all of our promises. We promise to break most of our promises. Anarchy for everyone, not just in the UK, but everywhere. A lot of spit, blood and minor injuries. A feeling that you don’t have to dress up to be cool. And some sort of social tolerance through drunkeness and anarchy.” Who: Bluejuice What: Problems is out now When: Friday August 31 Where: Candy’s Apartment "Musically it’s a bit of a hotch-potch of styles... we like different stuff"