June 1, 2016
Jesus Jones are back – but to be strictly accurate, they never actually went away. “We just dropped off the radar, for a while” says singer and principal songwriter Mike Edwards. “We never split, or gave up altogether; we just needed to rediscover how to be a fully-functioning band again”. So – what changed? Well, around a decade ago, the band were merely existing, playing the occasional show when the urge took them. “But then” says Edwards, ‘ we just realised: look, this is still fun, so why don’t we do more, and we’ll have more fun?”
Since then, they’ve overhauled their management (they’re now managed by the band’s keyboard player, Iain Baker) have revamped their web presence and social media, toured the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and have taken charge of their back catalogue. In 2011 they released “the Collection”, a double CD featuring never-before heard demos and rarities, and in 2014 reissued expanded versions of all four of their EMI albums. Each album featured a huge treasure trove of demos, rarities, alternate versions, live tracks and rare videos. With original drummer Gen back on the drum stool, the line-up is now exactly the same as it was, over twenty-five years ago, when the band was first formed.
Jesus Jones first came together back in 1988, and their distinctive brand of sample-heavy pop found an instant, and receptive audience. Throughout the early 90’s the band enjoyed phenomenal success, particularly in America, where their single “Right Here Right Now” rose to number one, and their second album “Doubt’ sold over a million copies. They played the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury, supported INXS at Wembley Stadium, and performed to a quarter of a million people in Brazil. Whilst they don’t seem in any great rush to revisit some of the excesses of their past, they are hungry to get back in the studio again – they’re soon to release their first new single for almost fifteen years, “How’s This Even Going Down?” and are busy writing tracks for a new album, to be released in November.
“How’s This Even Going Down?” finds the band reflecting on their place in the world, and the throes of the mid-life crisis everyone expects them to inhabit. Talking about the single, Edwards explains: “It’s basically about not quite believing your good fortune at getting to be this age, which as we’ve seen in 2016, when the Grim Reaper has gone niche with musicians and entertainers, shouldn’t be taken for granted.”
2016 also sees the band on the road again, for a select number of shows surrounding the release of the single, before a full UK tour in November. Looking forward to those gigs, Edwards muses: “This is a great time for us. We’re doing the best shows we’ve ever done, it’s the original line up getting really inspired by so much great new music and as a result we’re making new material which stands up really well next to the older songs. To be honest I wish we’d been this good when we were more in the public eye – the praise and success would have sat more comfortably!”
How is this even going down? is the first single from Jesus Jones in over a decade. The first taster of a brand new album expected later this year, the single was written and produced by Mike Edwards, and recorded by the band, in April 2016. The EP also features another brand new track called “Fall”, and a 2016 reworking of their classic track “Stripped”, which originally featured on the band’s platinum-selling album “Doubt”, back in 1990.
How’s this even going down? is available for pre-order in the shop from 4pm on the 1st of June on limited Neon Yellow and Solid Purple and from http://www.constantrotation.bigcartel.com in Blue and Clear vinyl.
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