Interview with KILLING JOKEвЂ™s Jaz Coleman

04 July 2006

DAVID BORGIOLI-JONES of www.rockdetector.com recently conducted an interview with KILLING JOKEвЂ™s frontman Jaz Coleman.

Part of that interview is as follows:

The first question to ask Jaz is how he stumbled on the surreal artwork used on the cover of вЂHosannas From The Basements Of HellвЂ™. Painted by Victor Safonkin, the scene depicted is that of war and mayhem. How did you first discover this artist?

"Well, Victor Safonkin, heвЂ™s a Russian Surrealist and he lives in Prague. What you see of the cover, of course thereвЂ™s an inside sleeve as well, he started and finished that painting in the same time that we finished the recording. It just looked like the madness of the band and recording in Prague.

We recorded this new album in a basement in a 16 track studio on tape. When Victor heard the music, and VictorвЂ™s son is a big KILLING JOKE fan, he said sure, help yourself and there you go. It was almost like two parallel time streams, one of music and one of art, working on the same sort of sound or theme which is kind of madness in the fucking basement. (laughs)"

The artwork is very different to anything weвЂ™ve seen on a KILLING JOKE album before. Would you say itвЂ™s one of your favourites?

"Well for me, of all the records IвЂ™ve done itвЂ™s my favourite artwork because I just keep looking at it and I always find more and more detail. What is really great is that on the vinyl double album of this recording, with a couple more tracks on, you can really see the artwork of the outside sleeve and the inner sleeve, itвЂ™s just amazing too. You know the size of a vinyl LP, thatвЂ™s when artwork was great. I donвЂ™t really care for the CD that much, in terms of itвЂ™s so hard to see artwork. You need to put fucking glasses on or get a magnifying glass to see bloody artwork in detail on CDs. But yeah, IвЂ™m really proud of the artwork on this album. It really represents the music and to collaborate with a truly great artist like Victor Safonkin was really lucky. I just by chance walked into his studio one time when we saw this poster up saying 'Russian Surrealist'. And then we walked into where he exhibits his work and he was actually in there painting. It just went like that basically. It was really one of those lucky coincides."

What about the self-titled 'Killing Joke' album released in 2003? That seemed to be a more political approach while вЂHosannas From The Basements Of HellвЂ™ is more spiritual.

"The 2003 album was written during the build-up to the Iraq war. It was kind of affecting everybody you know. A million people marched in the streets of London but no one took any fucking notice. They didnвЂ™t find any weapons of mass destruction. When we put the drums down on the 2003 album with Dave Grohl (FOO FIGHTERS, NIRVANA) thatвЂ™s the exact day that they went into Iraq so it was kind of like more of a war album if you like.

Whereas with this new one, although I went to lots of different war zones it was really about the lifestyle of KILLING JOKE more than talking about war zones. On this new album. I went to Uzbekistan, to put the strings down on the third track, and I went to Bolivia, where there is pretty much a revolution going on over there, just to write some lyrics. And I went to Lebanon to put down percussion on the third track and while I came back from New Zealand I went to Taipei and Taiwan. So I went to some funny places to do stuff, but what I got out of it was really a celebration of the KILLING JOKE concert and lifestyle really.
More so than the previous album which is definitely a war album, it was written with that aura that there is no law left in the world вЂ“ thereвЂ™s no international law left. And also the way we were all feeling then."

KILLING JOKE now has two self-titled albums. The one you did in 1980, and the 2003 album. HowвЂ™d that happen?

"Well I guess we canвЂ™t do three because everyone would get really confused (laughs). I donвЂ™t really know? I guess it was just not cluttering the album sleeve up basically. When we did the 2003 album it had been a few years since weвЂ™d put a record out so we just figured вЂKilling Joke 2003вЂ™ and we didnвЂ™t think any more of it than that really. That album really was just the two of us, apart from Dave, putting the drums down on it. Youth put down a bass line on one track but I think Geordie ended up doing all the bass on the whole thing so it wasnвЂ™t really just the two of us that recorded that album whereas on вЂHosannas From The Basements Of HellвЂ™ itвЂ™s like four of us actually recording as a band playing live in our little sweaty basement.

But basically, KILLING JOKE is a long partnership with Geordie Walker and myself really. At the end of the day itвЂ™s the two of us that carry KILLING JOKE. I love making music with this guy. ThereвЂ™s no guitarist like him in the world.

And youвЂ™ve got to remember on this new recording thatвЂ™s one guitar, itвЂ™s not double tracking, itвЂ™s one fucking guitar. Geordie absolutely refused to do any double tracking on this album and so I had to do the same. I just used one track for vocals, thereвЂ™s no double tracking or comps or anything like that on it. No Pro Tools, just a dirty tape."

Then there were all the bands out there who stole your riffs like NIRVANA who used the вЂEightiesвЂ™ riff for the song вЂCome As You AreвЂ™. They were taken to court for doing that. What was the final outcome there?

"When Kurt (Cobain) blew his bloody head off all we could think about is there is some little kid who is going to grow up without a fucking father, to my bands credit. ItвЂ™s funny you should say that. ThereвЂ™s actually a KILLING JOKE movie coming out at the end of the year funnily enough called вЂThe Death And Resurrection ShowвЂ™ and I take DaveвЂ™s confession for stealing the riffs (laughs).
ItвЂ™s a New Zealand-based movie IвЂ™m co-directing, and of course IвЂ™m in.
I donвЂ™t blame Dave so much because heвЂ™s just a drummer (laughs), but itвЂ™s quite funny you should mention it. Our publishers are still actually livid about it and of course publishers respond differently, you canвЂ™t stop them. If they think thereвЂ™s money in something they will do it without the bandвЂ™s permission. They are still talking about going in and getting some money, but I couldnвЂ™t give a fuck, lifeвЂ™s too fucking short for all that bollocks. You know what? IвЂ™m alive and IвЂ™ve got two arms two legs and IвЂ™ve got my band after 28 years, thatвЂ™s so much to be grateful for. "

YouвЂ™re only a couple of years away from KILLING JOKEвЂ™s 30th anniversary. How do you think youвЂ™ll celebrate when the anniversary rolls around?

"It is coming up pretty soon. God damn it IвЂ™ll be two years away from being 50 years old! I think the most important thing is to survive that long, I think we will just keep playing music.
There are always more challenges with music, and the thing about music is it keeps me in this depressing world of terrible things happening and people dying and disease everywhere. Music, it motivates me to live. When I finish one album I get onto the next album.

One of the things that we want to do is вЂ“ weвЂ™re on a good creative roll at the moment вЂ“ not tour for the next two years non-stop. We want to get onto another recording and weвЂ™re going to go to this temple in the middle of the damn jungle. There are two locations: ThereвЂ™s one in Bolivia and thereвЂ™s one in Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and we are really starting to write music so we can light up an ancient temple with lots of fire and put all the equipment up and just play a whole new set of completely new music. Something like that, where we all just jump on the plane and weвЂ™ve got all the music written and we just set the gear up in a weird place surrounded by a damn jungle and we play to no audience whatsoever, just do it as a DVD and a recording.

ItвЂ™s ideas like this that motivate me to keep going really вЂ“ freedom with music. In fact, every song that we have written with KILLING JOKE is about freedom somewhere. We must be the only group in the world who has done 12-13 recordings or more and there is not even one fucking love song anywhere."

That next album you do in a temple wonвЂ™t be the first time youвЂ™ve recorded in a strange place. When you did the вЂPandemoniumвЂ™ (1994) album you recorded inside a pyramid in Egypt. What was that experience like?

"Yeah, the вЂPandemoniumвЂ™ album, we recorded the vocals inside the Great Pyramid and what a great experience that was! Again that was all filmed and thatвЂ™s in the вЂThe Death And Resurrection ShowвЂ™. That was an incredible experience. We bribed our way into the pyramid. We met these three Egyptologists and they knew the Minister Of Culture in Egypt. We went to see him and they told us if you want to get the Kings Chamber or the Great Pyramid to yourself you have to say you are going there for meditation purposes. So we met the minister of culture and bribed him like $3,500US and we had the Great Pyramid to ourselves for four hours each day for three days. It was a fucking incredible experience.

The weird thing is that thereвЂ™s nothing to plug into in the Kings Chamber when you go inside the Great Pyramid so we had to take all these massive batteries with us. And every time we would charge them and go up into the Kings Chamber it would absorb nine hours of batteries and we would only have about 15 minutes of electricity to work with, so it's kind of weird. It actually absorbs all the energy from a battery, a fact people with cameras and things like that have noticed. Not that you can take cameras in there because you canвЂ™t, but we did.
We managed to bribe our way into it. I have several memories of it, when we got in there we sort of did a ceremony because the place deserves some sort of respect. Our Arabic record engineer, he fell asleep and he had some weird dream of all these eyes coming at him and he ran out screaming his head off and he has never been back since.

KILLING JOKE has been a strong influence on musicians but there must be bands that you listen to as well. Can you name some of your favourite bands?

"Songs not bands, I donвЂ™t think I like any album of any band all the way through every track funny enough. ThatвЂ™s a real difficult one. The answer to that, and I have to be honest with you, is I donвЂ™t really listen to music, IвЂ™ve got so much music going around in my fucking head. I donвЂ™t buy CDs. I play a bit of Reggae music in the mornings sometimes to cheer myself up, but generally I find that if I listen to a lot of different music it kind of unconsciously influences you and my headвЂ™s so full of music that I donвЂ™t bother. I havenвЂ™t bought a CD for probably 10 years so IвЂ™d have to really think hard. Of course thereвЂ™s a lot of music that I like, but itвЂ™d be different tracks andвЂ¦ now youвЂ™ve got me see. Yeah, although I create music I donвЂ™t have a big record collection or CD collection at all and I cut-off, if you like, from music really."

Read the whole interview HERE

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