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In “Elevator Offbeat" you sing “I wanna hit
you (musically)"…and your CD really hit us at SkabadiP. Before we
received your CD from Grover Records, I must admit I never heard from
you, but I see you’ve already published a CD.
When, why and
where did CJC take place?
Tobi: We started in 1993. All
began when Johannes and I were sitting in the night bus. It was late
and we were drunk. We had to go home and we met a guy we had never
seen before; we started to talk about music. Actually we told him we
wanted to form a Ska band and he said he got two friends (a bass and a
guitar player) and they also wanted to found such a band. He gave us
their telephone number and the next morning we gave them a call. Two
weeks later we had our first session, here in Tübingen. That’s some
kind of strange thing, since just two days before I broke my wrist and
so I had to play the drums with just one arm.
I have two brothers (Simon and
Wagner) who play trombone and trumpet and they joined us. Our singer
King S.P.R.U.D. was a good friend of ours. He didn’t know how to
play any instrument and he wanted to join a Ska band as well. Although
he didn’t think so, we knew he could sing for us.
Court Jester’s Crew…how came out such a name?
Wagner: Actually, even six months
after our first meeting we didn’t have any kind of idea yet, but one
night on a weird party someone suggested this name, and we liked it so
much that we spent the night writing this name on the walls. The next
day we realized that we must had called us like that.
What do you guys do for living, apart from
playing in the band? Do you play in other bands?
Tobi: We are quite a mixed crew. Some of us are
students, one runs a club, no professional musicians. But next October
everybody is going to reserve half a year for the band, so we will be
kind of “professional" in this period. I personally have another
band, a Funky-Soul weird thing with a complete fucked up live show.
Some time ago we all played in different bands, but now I could say we
are just deep into CJC.
S.P.R.U.D.: But there’s also the Shake-A-Leg Sound
System. I run this together with Roger.
Changes in the line-up, actual one
Jo: Four years ago we had to replace the guitar
player and the bass player. At the moment we are 9 guys, and two are
singers. Formerly Roger, the second singer, only ran his own
sound-system (Shake-a-Leg) and toasted a lot…he joined us on our
first record and on the second one you hear him on...well…"Shake a
Leg".
As he is a good percussionist as well he became a
regular member of CJC.
Tell
us something ‘bout your first release
Tobi: It was a self-production, it was released on
We Bite Records (www.webite.de)…since we had to name it, we simply
called it ‘Umbe’ (from ‘umbenennen’: to rename, in German it
sounds like ‘to call something umbe’, which makes no sense).
It’s a little bit faster than “Too High For Low" and more
influenced from other styles like punk, two tone and rhythm and
blues…we were much younger and you can feel it.
Where have you played up to now?
Wagner: Apart from Germany, we did some gigs in
France and Switzerland. In fall we hope to play in Italy as well as in
Spain. Till now we did about 120-130 gigs.
Now
a custom-question for your singer. I thought one German singer
speaking Jamaican Patois was enough (Dr. Ring Ding), but you
seem to have such knowledges too…have you learned it or is it
just a natural talent of you?
S.P.R.U.D.: I didn’t really learn it, I just
listen to a lot of records and I took the colour of the language.
Neither me nor the others ever went to Jamaica, we just heard really a
lot of records. [That’s just
what many Italians Ska-Band doesn’t do…and you can understand it]
Your musical varity is really surprising…Ska,
Reggae, Rocksteady, Ska-Jazz, even some Latin rhythms (Big Boss
remembers me of “Los Hooligans") and a little bit of Hip-Hop. Even
if I’m not a musical expert, your compositions are elaborated and
refined, but you guys are all quite young? Where comes such a musical
varity from?
Simon: We play together for seven years now. We
srtarted at an average age of ‘bout sixteen. We listen to a lot of
music, not necessarily only Ska/Reggae and we all played in in big
jazz Orchestras, Funky bands, marching Bands or Punk combos for a
while before we formed CJC.
Ok
those are the basics, but what gives CJC its special tasteful sound?
Alex: When we create a new song we spend a lot of
time on it. We really want to work with it intensively. We experiment
a lot and we always try to find the right way to play a song. We need
to have a thight groove and a good flow…and we always want to create
interesting sounds, because every song must have a special spirit. I
think a lot of Ska bands think they do Ska music because they play
offbeat, but they don’t put soul into it. Ska really can stand lots
of influences and it deserves to be played with spirit. There are so
many bands who copy some sound and don’t dare to be creative in
playing Ska.
Have you even thought of doing Dub?
Tobi: We have a side project which is called “The Good old Boys"…
Uhm…it sound like “The Good
Fellows"…it’s quite menacing…
Tobi: Yeah…and we just play phat Reggae- and
Ragga-Riddimz…we feature many MCs, toasters, singers and, of course,
we play Dub there. It is one big session on stage. It depends on the
man at the mixing console, and of course on the amount of joints we
smoked, if it tends to dub or not.
Favourite Dub Players, apart from King Tubby
and Lee Perry?
Tobi: Uhm…Audio Active from Japan, they are quite
interesting. Also things like Rockers HiFi
and ... hmmm but that’s
all electronic stuff. Mad
Professor’s cool, Dub Syndicate.
I didn’t hear any Ska-core on your CD, even
considered that’s so popular nowadays, what’s your opinion about
that?
Jo: We listen to
Operation Ivy,
Rancid,...
Voodoo Glow Skulls and Mighty
Mighty BossTones we don’t like that much. It seems quite a
sort of fashion, and we are never going to play Ska-core because there
are too many Jazz-players in our band who would start a riot :-)))
What do you like/listen to, apart from
Ska/Reggae/Rocksteady
All:
Jazz, Beach Boys, AC/DC,
Soul, i gruppi della Motown, Joe
Henderson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyler, Franck
Black, Mano Negra,
John Lee Hooker, Jon Spencer, Bob
Dylan, Anti Nowhere League, Motorhead, Chili
Peppers, Neil Young, Ween,
Lou Reed, Tower of Power, Hip
Hop, Drum and Bass…
Of course not every one of us likes all that sounds.
But fuck the categories, if it sounds cool we
respect it.
And what are your musical inspirations concerning
the old and present Ska/Reggae/Rocksteady music apart from the Skatalites?
All: It’s hard to tell…We like Ken Boothe,
Toots and the
Maytals, Prince
Buster, Slackers, Hepcat,
Dr. Ring Ding, NYSJE,
Caribbean Beat Combo, Butlers, Buju Banton, the
Specials, Ethiopians, the
Wailers…
What are you relations whit the other German Ska
bands?
Alex: Quite Good. As soon as you play with the bands and get to know them
the vibes are good. All of them know how to drink :-)
Wagner: …As
Dr. Ring Ding says, we are on a mission, not on a
competition!
Is it true that in Germany’s school system the
musical teaching/education is much more widespread/important than in
some other countrys’ (Italy)?
Simon: Uhm…I think so…it’s easier to get in
touch with a classical education. Maybe you don’t get a good
education in playing the instruments...but at least you get an
important background. By the way: Four of us played together for the
first time in our school’s jazz band.
From “Too High For Low" I personally love the
melancholy “Take I By
The Hand", whith that mix of pulsing Reggae and exploding Ska…how
did you create this piece of great music and, in general, how do your
songs come to light?
Tobi: I wrote this one night, when I had a kind of
depression. I had problems with my girlfriend and I wrote a song which
I wanted to dedicated to her. The next day the bad feelings were gone
and it was completed in three more hours.
Alex: That’s a kind of exception, since most of
our work take a lot of time. Someone writes the lyrics, some other the
music and everybody contributes something...we are quite a democratic
band.
Or a pure capitalist one…if we look at Adam
Smith’s subdivision of work :-)
Wagner: Often it’s like that: One brings a song, then all of us check
it at the session and maybe we change the rhythm, add some parts…
What are you gonna do in the future,
website…projects for your next CD?
Alex: Uhm…The Website is a work-in-progress,
actually it’s been in progress for some years.
In Summer we will record as a backing band with
Laurel Aitken...yeah we
will! In autumn we probably also
record another CJC CD.
A message to SkabadiP?
Thanks a lot and keep on rocking in a free world!
Feel the spirit!
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