Listen to the live interview Episode #429: A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax : http://tobtr.com/9804827
GETTING TO KNOW MOJAK
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
(Interview with Fiona Brown)
Creating in an open space..
The great thing about our group is that everyone has the freedom to create. You can sing, play, write; we keep the flow open so everyone can be themselves. Balance is always found by listening to each other. It’s important to respect the process of each person you work with in order to
One of our band members is a sound engineer so we have access to our own studio. It allows us to be more creative experimenting and fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together.
The music business…
has changed an awful lot lately which has its pros and cons. The bad thing of course is that it’s more difficult to make a living when you’re trying to be a full-time artist.
On the upside though, it’s great that we can share our music with the world which in the end is what we all want really. Many bands like us are not linked to any of the major labels. What we do is record and release our own music ‘punkwise’. As they did in the early 70s. Same thing with early funk music when small companies saw the daylight just to sign these new exiting funk bands.
Inspiration…
I think we all have different people we’d like to spend time with! Also, it’s hard to choose, since there are so many great artists and they all have so much to say.
Fiona: I wouldn’t mind 5 minutes, or more, to talk to Trixie Whitley. I love what she does and the road she’s traveled so far. The fact that she does what she wants and works so hard to get there is very inspiring to me.
Staf: I’d love to sit and chat with Tchad Blake. He’s the best sound engineer and mixer ever. Oh wait, been there, done that!
Marijke: I’ve always been inspired by the actions of abstract expressionists. Pollock and De Kooning in particular. If I would have a chance to meet them, I probably wouldn’t be alive anymore. The German artist Gerhard Richter is another inspiration. I can get lost watching his work, it would be great to watch him in his studio.
Fred: David Bowie would have been a great chap to sit and talk to. Great visual ideas and songs. As would Marvin Gaye have been. A little bit tormented but a great artist.
This That Other…
The idea was to write a song about the nature of time. What unfolds, what stays and what disappears. Where does man stand in the flux of things, what choices does he make? Everything we do influences the course of life. The philosophic idea of questioning life and society appeals to us. For us as artists not only the esthetic side of music is important, but also the idea of music as a vehicle for thoughts and emotions.
It all started a couple of years ago when we were working together at a house in the countryside. We started listening to old funk records and got inspired by them. We had such a great time writing together. Most of the Mojak-songs where conceptualized during that week. So we decided to proceed and finish them.
The Music…
We strive to release songs on a regular basis. We feel that it’s more fun to finish a song and release it rather than waiting for a whole album to be finished. Also, we each have more than one creative outlet, so it’s easier this way.
We are in fact a collective of artists. We all have different backgrounds which makes it so special to work together. This is what makes our music special too, all our musical influences coming together in our songs. Combining seventies grooves with new sounds created in the studio wrapped up in a decent song with meaningful lyrics, is maybe what we strive and stand for.
We live in Belgium, the city 😉
Just kidding! We live in different cities but Belgium’s small, so it’s easy to visit the best music venues in the country. We all love the AB in Brussels, but there are also
quite a number of festivals to got to. Everybody knows Tomorrow-land but there are a lot more for each kind of music. And maybe more important is the fact that every town has its own clubs and venues where local bands perform. Always very interesting to check these out. A lot of creativity going on…
www.mojak.be
https://twitter.com/mojak_music
https://www.facebook.com/MOJAK-754775051260993/
https://soundcloud.com/mojak_music