The Janice Graham Band Talk Shyness, Starting out, and Suggs

Miz DeShannon chats to the genre-defying Manchester band about starting out, overcoming shyness, and the upcoming RESET Magazine launch parties.

The Janice Graham Band have only been around for two years at the most, with this venture being the first ever foray into the music industry for all members. And what a venture it is. Just a group of friends who liked playing music, with no definitions on genre or role models, they've already hit the stage with 80s legends Madness, and are about to embark on a short tour of the UK for the CALM charity alongside Delphic, Eddy Temple Morris and Scroobius Pip amongst others. 

We hooked up with Joe Jones, Thomas Scott, and Josh Hunt for a quick chat as they returned to Manchester after a successful show at Notting Hill Arts Centre.

What's been going on for you in the last two years then?

TS: It's been a lot of driving around to be honest!

JJ: It's been fast, progressive which is good, things keep on getting bigger and better, and we're stronger. We've had to work really hard, we've got a manager now too, so we're doing well.

How did you get to this stage? You've played with some good acts pretty quickly in your career.

JJ: We just met as mates and played music and messed about, but then we started playing gigs and people started expecting things. That's where it changes, you've got to be good, every time you play.

TS: You've got to take it seriously then, people want to take you seriously, it's more than just a hobby at that point. You can start out and join a band and play for fun, but if you want to get anywhere you have to take it seriously.

JJ: Yeah, you've got to play all week every week, save for better equipment that doesn't blow up on you during a gig or fall to bits, turn up on time, you've really got to be dedicated.

So there's a lot more to starting out than just learning to play guitar?

TS: You've got to learn to deal with people better. People come up and talk to you after the gig and you start out quite shy, but you get used to it.

JJ: Yeah we used to hate it.

TS: I used to dread it!

JJ: I couldn't even handle it when people would come and tell us we were good, I just got my head down and got on with it.

TS: Now we're just thankful, but you do have to be careful that you don't end up in big conversations with some weirdo!

[laughs from everyone]

TS: That's when Leon [manager]  kicks in, and we can just leave all the talking to him!

JJ: I think everyone struggles with confidence, people who don't, well, they must have something not right. I struggle with confidence. Even extroverts at parties, I bet they all have secret confidence issues when they go home.

So you've all got your heads screwed on pretty well then! And you're going on a tour for a pretty big charity now?

JJ: Yeah, it's the CALM charity, we're going to Liverpool and London, but starting in Manchester. We're the only live band on, and we're with a lot of good DJs, Kid British, Delphic, Everything Everything, there's loads.

TS: We're really happy to have been asked to do it, and it's for a worthy cause. Especially with so many big names, it's really good exposure for us.

JJ: Being chosen as the live band is good as well, we just want to be a good live band. We'll be really under pressure, but I think we get better under pressure, we perform better, thrive on it.

Find out more about the RESET Magazine launch parties and buy tickets here

How was your gig with Madness recently?

JJ: It was okay, we played in front of 5,000 people, but we could only see the first two rows. I think it was scarier standing at the side of the stage and watching everything that was going on.

TS: Suggs doing his cabaret act, it was all a bit cabaret. We didn't even get to speak to them, their dressing room was at the other side of the building. Their sax player came to see us though to tell Josh he thought it was really good, which was nice.

JH: Yeah that was ace.

You've got quite an unusual choice of style for a young band - not the usual indie. Where does that come from?

JJ: It goes back to those party extroverts I mentioned, playing boring indie all the time, they think it's exciting but the parties are boring. We might not go to any parties but we make sure we play exciting music.

TS: Our influences are stuff that we do actually all listen to; reggae, ska and things. It wasn't a case of going out and finding a trumpet player because we thought that'd sound good, or finding a specific guitarist. We were all just mates and wanted to use what we'd got, and go for what we listened to. If someone comes up with an idea it could be soul, someone else could be thinking of some reggae. It normally gets changed by the time we've got the end, but it's really just a case of what we like to listen to.

JJ: I think that's why it doesn't sound like a young man's music, because we listen to old men's records. We don't want to contrive it in any way, just let it flow, it's just what we feel like doing.

TS: Yeah, we've got no aims of who we want to be like. If you have aims of being like this group or that group, you just end up being known as a poor man's whoever it is. We don't want to be another of those bands. It's not even necessarily about being totally unique, it's just what we feel like doing, what we're comfortable with that comes out. There are loads of influences that come into it, but we don't ever sound like one specific group or person.

JJ: It's important to change, always important to change and develop.

TS: Well we've got four people in the band, and if one wants to be George Michael and another wants to be Iggy Pop, you'd have direction issues over that, it's just about working together for us. If something's rubbish we'll start again, we don't do songs just to fill a set. We'd all rather do a short set of quality songs than just fill an hour with a load of nonsense tunes that have taken a minute to write.

JJ: We sound like we're saying everything’s easy and flows naturally, but we can be strict, if it's shit we'll say it's shit and not do it. We can be quite ruthless in that respect as well. Sometimes we don't think things through, or we'll play it at a gig and think “no we're never doing that again”. Quality control!

What are you up to for the rest of the Summer then?

JJ: Well we start the shows for CALM in Manchester at South on 25th February, so after that we've got more recording and gigs in London every 6 weeks. We're going down there regularly, it's quite a lot but it's good. Apart from the travelling! We've done a lot of gigs around the North, so we're trying to get everyone in London involved. We're going off to do some festivals as well, we've got three fully confirmed. Friends Of Mine Festival, Beat-Herder and the Isle Of Wight festival, so yeah, that's all pretty good!

TS: And we're not sure what we're going to record either, an album or an EP. Could be either, we just want to get something out there. It's called 'Project A' [laughs] because we don't want to call it an EP or an album or even a single, it's just an independent band putting some music down to get a record made, we don't know what it'll be yet.

JJ: It's just some songs, that's all we wanna do, make songs.

Interview by: Miz DeShannon

Photo: Karen McBride

Find the music here: janicegrahamband.com

See details of all three RESET Magazine launch parties and get your tickets here. 

Catch the ever straight-forward and simplistic sounds of The Janice Graham Band at South Nightclub RESET Magazine launch (for CALM) on 25th February 2011. Tickets are available through Skiddle below.

Tickets are no longer available for this event