the
music podcast

 

that does

music


differently

Season 18 episode 3 www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com/podcast I only met Jem Doulton @jemdoulton a couple of months ago and have had the privilege of watching him play several times with the Au Pairs whilst they’ve been out on tour supporting the Skids and also doing their own headline shows. Jem’s predominantly a percussionist, drummer and keyboardist, but is also partial to the odd bit of crooning now and again. Now, getting together a list of his bands, projects and all that good stuff is where my research gets dodgy, but fuck it here we go with what’s probably a partial list: Thurston Moore, The Au Pairs obviously, Heckle Chamber, Grimm Grimm, The DNA Test, Melos Kalpa, Pando Pando to name but a few - I thought putting out a podcast once a week was pretty prolific, so that’ll teach me - as well as recording a bunch of solo records, the latter of which was 2024’s hugely imaginative and kaleidoscopic Deal of The Century. I think the collaborators on these releases shows the esteem in which Jem is held as a musician and person. So here's the interesting change in music at least from where I sit – multiple collaborations – if you want to call it that - have become perhaps the default way to be a musician these days - it’s way more common to find musicians working on several projects – and often diverse projects. I don’t know if this self-development buzzword “multi-hyphenate” - as it applies to doing a few different things in addition to your core job - originated from the music biz but whatever, it feels like this profile is a proper feature of the way that many, many more of us are living now.

Season 18 Episode 2 www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com/podcast @JetCemetery I recently read a blog post of mine from 2019, not long after I’d quit my job and it was clear that I was riddled with self-doubt, some fear, some excitement at this new liminal space I was going into. And also worrying about what people think. What the actual fuck? I look back and think why?? Most people were excited for me and those that were sniffy, well, I thought I didn’t give a fuck about them. But they still snuck into my brain rent free. The self doubt lasted a good while into doing my new stuff – managing a short-lived band (the short lived part had nothing to do with me, honest!), this podcast, graphic design for the zine. It’s definitely eased up, so much so that I’ve started doing some video work and just recently I’ve redesigned a band’s website. Ultimately, the thrill of doing this kinda stuff was too powerful a draw for the self-doubt to be the winner, although it wasn’t fucking plain sailing. I first met my amazing friend and today’s guest Lars Wolfshield when they were, amongst other things, managing the experimental punk band Pleasure Venom. We’ve become close friends since then and done some amazing trips together here in the UK, Europe and their current city, Austin. When Lars told me that the calling to actually create music instead of managing musicians was getting so strong, I realised there was a fair bit of symmetry to our journeys – reigniting our classical training, having some creative calling, uncertainty, anxieties. Yet, for me, returning to play my cello in front of people seems light years away, whereas Lars has gone full throttle into their new venture called Jet Cemetery with their partner and my good mate TaSz Trebuchet. Jet Cemetery’s debut album The Canary will be out in the world by the time you listen to this episode – in fact it’s out the day after we are recording this, but it’s a wonderful – I’m gonna call it handbook for today’s world lives where we are subjected to almost endless liminality, and one that explores the dystopia of the world today and brings together the light and dark, hope and hopeless, the soothing and the unnerving. Lars’ celestial voice is layered alongside TaSz’s subversively tender beats and synths as well as exquisitely saturated and distressed visuals. If you haven’t checked it out yet, just go for it.

Season 18 Episode 1 www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com/podcast I started writing a book during Covid which in a spur of the moment I called A Re-Design for Life. I bet you can’t guess what album I’d been listening to…... The reason for starting, apart from being able to satisfy some boredom and ego, was to try convey my belief that the most important asset we all possess is our self, especially as more and more of us are living multi stage lives and in a world that is so fucking complex and volatile, that the old rules are redundant. Much of society is so conditioned towards materiality - to think that the most important assets we should aspire to are material and have a monetary value – cash in the bank, house, blah blah blah - but I think that that thinking overlooks the fact that our own intangibles – like curiosity, imagination, adaptability, resilience, instinct, critical ignoring and one of my favourites, emotional intelligence – are some of the most needed things.. I realise that this would some of the medieval politicians rolling their eyes, but fuck them. Not that they’d be listening to something as classy as this podcast. Back to emotional intelligence, I’ve often banged on that emotional intelligence should be an integral part of our learning from when we are first born. Empathy, social skills, self regulation and self awareness are so, so important for existing and thriving where we have such emotionally unintelligent “leaders” that seek to divide and conquer with a delinquent lack of empathy and self-awareness. Now, here’s the typically amateurish segue into Miki Berenyi. If you haven’t read her autobiography - called Fingers Crossed – How Music Saved Me From Success which came out in 2022 - then you really should, because that self-awareness and empathy that I just mentioned is all over this book. It really is a rollercoaster of a read and reinforces even more my belief of the importance of these weird intangibles. It’s one of only a few recent books that has captivated me and left me with a lot to think about. And, of course, her music. In each stage of her musical life, she’s written songs that can one minute haunt me, the next uplift me. I just find her songwriting breathtaking. @lush9431 @bellaunioninc

Season 17 Episode 10 www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com/podcast Atef and I go way back - almost 6 entire months! We met on a balmy end of summer night at the Shacklewell Arms in London and Crocodiles were playing one of the sweatiest and most perfect gigs I’ve been to. At the end of the night I said “See you in Spain in September” to rousing sniggers of “yeah right” from everyone - only kidding, they were delightful but, y’know, bold promises are often made when the euphoria of adrenaline is rushing. But, sure enough, I appeared in Murcia to take in some shows with them around Spain which was one of the most unforgettable road trips I’ve been on. I do think those times of shared experiences of wonderful people that you meet along the way, travel with and spend time with are when you make great friendships. It kinda helps when the music is as good as Crocodiles. I’ve thought a lot about what role music has these days in our society and I think it’s always had this power to connect and bring people together, it’s the shared language. I just think this is SO much more important these days when it seems like there is so much more to divide us. So here we are! Not only does Atef play bass with Crocodiles, he also composes, plays guitar and sings with his other band, the wonderfully named Hermetic Delight, who recently released their third album, the equally wonderful and wonderfully named, Vagabond Melodies and runs his own label. And I’m sure there is plenty more stuff that he’s dabbling in!

Season 17 Episode 9 www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com/podcast When I was a kid in the 80’s, I used to listen to a local radio show called On The Wire, presented by Steve Barker. Steve and John Peel were single handedly responsible for me finding bands and artists like African Headcharge, Sonic Youth, Tackhead, Test Dept, Cabaret Voltaire, Mark Stewart and The Mafia, Keith Le Blanc, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and so many others. It was so, so thrilling to discover these new artists. And the show is still going, Steve is still going (albeit on Mixcloud because the BBC unceremoniously turfed him off the radio in favour of some shit pretentious show that’ll have the listeners running for the hills. Anyway, he tags his shows with the magnificent term of “Undefinable” which makes me just love him even more because I loathe the whole way that genres are used to stereotype and pigeonhole. And this is where – in a long winded way - my guest, David Roush and his wonderful band Ecce Shnak fit in. Undefinable. Going back to the release of Letter to German Vasquez Rubio around 13/14 years ago to their latest single Katy’s Wart from their LP Joke Oso. They are a fascinating kaleidoscope of creative fertility and imagination which I think is one of the most important characteristics to have in the world today and I’m really excited to talk to David about his mindset and how this has helped to shape who he is today. @ecceshnak4409

Season 17 Episode 8 www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com/podcast I’ve really not talked about this too much, but when I first moved to London at the end of 2008, I felt a massive liberation from the anonymity that the city gave me. I hardly knew anybody – and there’s a separate conversation to be had about how people perceive our identity and how that can confine us - but even when I got to know people and scenes, the city made it easy to disappear when I wanted to. For me, an introvert at heart, this gave me freedom to allow my true identity that was lurking somewhere beneath the surface to come out. And here we are! I mention all of this as my guest today, Morenike, has also explored some of these themes in her debut single Nobody Knows My Name , a most beautiful song that refuses to be constrained by that most horrible word – genre – by fusing many different influences to show what is possible when we allow our mind to be free from constraints imposed by either society or an industry. She has also just released her second single called Mysterious and Wild, which again shows just how inspiring music is when there’s some element of experimentation and how it’s really one language with common roots waiting to be explored. @Morenike