Interview - 5 minutes with JJ Burnel of The Stranglers by Riccardo Ball
/ Megan MossRiccardo Ball wraps up a quick 5 minutes with JJ Burnel of The Stranglers
ahead of their tour down-under this March.
Look-out for the full interview on The Metal Bar & Libel Music.
Interview Transcript:
5 Minutes Alone with JJ Brunel by Riccardo Ball
RB: Five minutes alone, I call it, quick five questions to get to know you a little better. And the first question is, when was the first time you heard a piece of music and what was that piece of music that made you go, that's what I want to do?
JJ: Well, want to do professionally or just because I've been growing up in the UK in the 60s. I was listening to everything that was happening at the time, but I never really thought to follow it until I was really fortunate when I was 15 in my little town south of London. And they opened up the back of a pub, a blues club. And I saw all these incredible bands. They snuck me into the back of the pub because I was too young legally to go in. But the older boys knew that I was interested in playing guitar and everything. And I saw Peter Green's with Mac a few times. That was incredible. Free before they were called Free, they were called Black Cat Bones. And at the moment, have you heard of a band called the Yardbirds?
RB: Yes, yeah, I know the Yardbirds. Yeah. JJ: Well, every week I play with the drummer from the Yardbirds. Now, when sometimes I say to people down here, have you heard of the Yardbirds? No. I said, haven't you heard of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page? Yeah, well, that's the Yardbirds, man. And Jim McCarty, the drummer; he lives just a couple of villages away from me so we do a blues band, a little jamming every week. And at the time, I didn't appreciate that this was a fundamental part of modern music, you know, the British discovering blues and sending it back to the Americans, you know, at the time anyway.
RB: Yeah. Is your blues band still called the Purple Helmets or have you got a new name?
JJ: No, it's called it's called Strange Bird. The Purple Helmets, that was the Purple Helmets. That was a band, the Stranglers had taken a year off for sabbatical. I got bored so I just wanted to play in bars because real bands come from bars.
Yeah. That's how, you know and I'm proud of the fact that we started that out in bars. Yeah.
RB: Yeah. I mean, I've found that and I assume you have as well; that you know, sometimes you can write a song whether it's in the studio or in the rehearsal room or in your bedroom, whatever, and you think it's finished, but it's not until you actually go out and play it, it continues to grow once you're playing it live.
JJ: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
So sometimes when you've recorded a song and it hasn't been aired much or played much, it changes, it evolves so much when you, by the real playing of it. Yeah. Yeah.
That's how it grows.
RB: What about when you come down here in March, if I get the opportunity to take you for a drink, what's your poison? What's your poison these days? What do you go to?
JJ: I'll drink anything. But, you know, I'm predominantly a wine drinker.
I mean, I live right as, you know, right in the middle of the capital of Rosé in France, in the south of France, Côte de Provence. So, you know, Rosé, we drink far too much of it.
RB: Well, you've got to keep them in business.
JJ: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think they can survive without my help.
Oh, I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe not.
RB: Now, as we've already talked about, 50 Years in Black is the tour you've toured for a long time with a lot of different people, guys in your own band, people in other bands. What is the most disgusting habit of someone you've toured with? Wow, that's a disgusting habit.
JJ: I think it's just being fucking rude to people and condescending and thinking that you're the centre of the universe.
Yeah. I really don't like that.
RB: Yeah, no fair, fair.
RB: What are you reading at the moment? What's on the bed stand?
JJ: Sorry, what?
RB: What are you reading at the moment? What's on the bed stand?
JJ: I'm reading a book about the Dark Ages, which aren't so dark now because we're finding so much more from excavations and archaeology. So the period between 800 and 1100 in Europe. It's quite fascinating, you know all the Vikings and the Danes and my background is Norman.
My parents were Normans. So, when I was a kid, I grew up playing on the beaches, which I didn't realise only a few years before I'd been the centre of massacres. Yeah, so yeah, I'm fascinated with all that.
RB: Yeah, I mean, because I'm right, remembering this wasn't Rollo one of the Vikings that got given the name of Normandy?
JJ: Yes, you're impressing me. Yeah, Rollo was a Viking chieftain who grabbed that piece of land. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
RB: It was paid off, wasn't he, by the Frankish king, basically can you stop the rest of the Vikings and we'll give you this?
JJ: Yeah.
RB: And so you come from that stock?
JJ: Well, that's my parents. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
RB: It's outstanding. I've just been listening to a podcaster Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. I don't know if you've ever heard him. He's an American and he's a journalist. He's got a journalistic background. But he just does these, I don't know how he does it, like each podcast is like five and a half hours.
But he just basically just talks about the history and how it developed. And you know, and he's done a two-parter on the Vikings, which is about 10 hours long. Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating.
JJ: Fascinating. I've just finished. Well, I'm impressed you know about Rollo.
RB: Yeah, there you go. My, I come from a family of, well, not historians technically in terms of that's what they do, but people that always love history and read about history and brought up with it, right? You got to know where you come from to know where you're going. I think so, yeah.
JJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool.
RB: If a kid comes up to you today, JJ, and says, what is rock and roll? And you can answer them by giving them one record. What record are you going to give them?
JJ: Ooh, ooh la la. That is the hardest. That's a poser. I can't answer that. I think it would, there's so many candidates, aren't there? There are a lot of candidates.
RB: Mate, shall I simplify it for you? Shall I say, if there's anybody listening to this, it's going to come to the Stranglers in New Zealand, March 13th at the Powerstation, 15th at Miao Nui in Wellington or the Christchurch Town Hall on the 16th.
What's the one Stranglers album they should listen to before they come?
JJ: Oh, it well either the last one, Dark Matters, because it just kind of encapsulates 50 years of different ways of doing stuff, or The Raven, which is quite a complete album. I mean, there are others, but they're a bit more experimental and they might turn people off. Well, there you go.
RB: I mean, I think that you've done that well, because I was waiting for you to turn around and say the greatest hits. So I'm glad you didn't say that.
JJ: No.
RB: JJ, I appreciate your time, my friend. I really look forward to seeing you down here. And like I say, if you get the opportunity to come, I know you're probably going to land a day or two earlier than the show so you can recover.
JJ: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have the two or three days free in Auckland just to recover and have a drink with you if you want. Yeah.
RB: Well, mate, we might have to get you on the ferry out to Waiheke Island where it's like being in the south of France, strangely, and there's like 20 vineyards on the island.
JJ: So it could be a good place. Well, I have been drinking some Kiwi wine, so you know.
RB: Just expand the palette.
JJ: Yeah. Okay. Beautiful.
Nice speaking to you. Yeah, great speaking to you too, man. I've really enjoyed our chat and I look forward to catching up with you when you're down here.
RB: Oh, I look forward to it, man. All the best. Yeah, you too.
JJ: Thanks very much. So long. So long.
RB: So long. Bye-bye.
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