Joakim drinks red wine, eats snails for lunch, and reads the Bible with his girlfriend at night. His music however, is a lot more exciting and interesting than those facts make him sound. Drawing his influences from noise bands, electronica, pop and jazz, Joakim is a unique talent and a quirky character.
YourGigs (yG): Your tour is taking you from such beautiful and cosmopolitan cities like Seville, London and Paris, to places like Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. How do you feel about coming here for the first time?
Joakim (J): I'm quite excited as I heard all the best things about Australia and touring there: great clubs, great crowd, great food ... and also, I'm happy to leave Paris' grey fall.
YG: You remixed Cut Copy's 'Hearts on Fire' and Severed Heads' 'Dead Eyes Opened.' How did the connection with these Australian artists come about?
J: I'm a huge fan of Severed Heads, so when we [Tigersushi and Kill the DJ with Ivan Smagghe] decided to release an EP with edits, I chose this track that I thought was underrated, but I discovered it had a big fan base around the world. Cut Copy is another story: Modular contacted me because they liked my work and remixes, and I guess Cut Copy also liked my album as they included one song on their Fabric mix CD.
yG: Speaking of Tigersushi, what inspired you to create your own music label?
J: Well I've been a big fan of labels like Factory, Warp, Ze records ... so it was a bit of a dream to make my own label. It was also some kind of coincidence, there was no real plan, and there still isn't any.
yG: Are you exposed to much of the Australian electro scene over in Europe?
J: Yes, mainly Modular artists, they are very active over here. I played for a Modular party once in London, and there's even a French branch of Modular.
yG: Who will you be catching up with while you're here?
J: That's gonna be a surprise. I just know I'd like to meet a young band called Mission Control when I'm in Melbourne.
yG: Are there particular sights, places or clubs you want to visit?
J: I'd like to see the bush. But I doubt I have time for that.
yG: French artist Boris Achour worked on a very cool video clip in which you performed in the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Achour's work is similar to your own in that he isn't restricted to a single medium. His art crosses over from sculptures, installations, videos, slide shows, photographs, posters and performances while your own music crosses genres like electro, jazz, indie rock and disco. Given that you do your own CD artwork and you have friends in people like Achour, how important would you say art is to your music?
J: It is very important, every medium is interesting for me and a tool to express things. Contemporary art in particular is very rich and inspiring, both musically and graphically. It can be a breath of fresh air to work with these artists. Many of them, like Jeremy Deller whom I met recently, are very into music and its relation to society.
yG: I've seen some live footage of you creating droning waves of noise on the guitar. How much of your music is influenced by rock music, and what are some rock/noise bands that you like?
J: When we play live with my band, we like to make a lot of noise and create something very physical. I'm a lot into every kind of noisy music actually: electronic noise like Merzbow, doom metal like Sunn O, indie noise like Sonic Youth, or bands like Wolf Eyes. All these bands are very inspiring when it comes to performing on stage.
yG: Your background is in classical piano. Was there a particular reason you didn't stay on the more classical music path? Does your classical training influence your music at all?
J: I'm too lazy and messy to live the sort of life you have when you're a classical musician. I was not working enough when I became seriously difficult to stay in the competition [with other students]. I don't think it influences me very directly, but it certainly shaped my way of feeling and conceiving music.
Aimee-Lee Curran
|
|