Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Go ape for Jape’s new album
Irish singer-songwriter Richie Egan’s return is worth graving about..
When we spoke via video link a few days before Halloween, Jape’s Richie Egan was strolling around a graveyard in Malmo of all places.
It was a spooky coincidence because a press release recently issued by his record label described his superb new album 9K HI, Vol 1 as “dance music for walking around graveyards”.
“This is the graveyard that I come to walk through and listen to the mixes as I’m making them,” Richard told me, as he did a quick camera pan to show me the cemetery.
But Jape’s frontman – the first Irish artist to twice win the prestigious Choice Music Prize – admitted he is “scared” as to what kind of reception this nostalgic instrumental electronic record might receive from critics and fans alike.
“So, when I was younger, I was, as we all were, a little bit more hedonistic, say, going to clubs and going to gigs and all this kind of stuff,” he continued.
“But now I’ve knocked that out. Years have gone by, so I thought it was an interesting concept to refocus that chaos in a much more gentler way.
“That was an interesting concept to me. So that’s basically what it is. It’s like remembering that time, but maybe from a bittersweet viewpoint.
“The other thing with the record is, I had this idea that it should be emotional, not professional, because so much stuff nowadays is so well produced and so professional.
“I’m a bit scared by it, because it’s sort of naive sounding in a way.
“I haven’t personally heard people, like, putting themselves (out there) unfinished… not unfinished because it’s finished completely, but in a sort of naive way.”
Aslan’s Christy Dignam was basically singing from the same hymn sheet when he once told me that much of the polished stuff in today’s charts all sounded pretty much the same.
Richie nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I’m an absolute studio nerd. I listen to so much music, and I watch so many Youtube videos about production, and stuff like that. And there is a Venn diagram of stuff now where everybody is sort of doing the same tricks,” he pointed out.
“Everything sounds so ‘well produced’, in inverted commas. But sometimes I feel like it’s missing soul, in a lot of ways.
“And what I tried to do with this one is to have more soul than technical prowess, because I’ve kind of done the technical prowess stuff before.
“And this feels now almost like going back to when I was young, to that first album and the feeling of really having something to say, regardless of anything else.” The Irish singer-songwriter joked about being a “sexual refugee” when I asked why he is based out in Malmo.
In another spooky coincidence, Richie’s bandmate Matthew Bolger also lives in the same city.
The two lifelong friends first started playing together in the cult instrumental rock ground The Redneck Manifesto, which was formed in 1998.
“It’s a complete coincidence. Matthew met a Swedish girl in Dublin and moved to Malmo. I met a Swedish girl who didn’t know the other Swedish girl and moved to Dublin,” he explained. “So, we both started in Crumlin and ended up in
Malmo completely coincidentally. It’s kind of amazing. You know, Good Time John, a singer-songwriter from Dublin, lives in Malmo, too.
“Actually, Andy Irvine’s son lives in Malmo as well. So there’s kind of a gang of us here, which is great.”
Richie, who has also toured as a part of both Villagers and David Kitt’s live bands in the past, added, “I got to play bass with Andy Irvine and Lisa Hannigan last year at a gig and that was really amazing.
“It kind of gave me the taste for that again. I love just being a bass player in a band as well. There’s no pressure. Just play bass.
“My favourite thing to do is to play bass. So yeah, I haven’t done it in a while. I really miss playing.”
Speaking of Crumlin and bass players, one of Jape’s most popular singles has to be the banger Phil
Lynott, which was taken from their third studio album in 2008.
What inspired that song?
“Well, it’s just the fact that I’m from Crumlin and a bass player. My original instrument was the bass. So it just was a bit of a coincidence,” he said about the Thin Lizzy frontman who also played the four-string instrument.
“So that’s why I wrote that one. He would’ve always been a big influence.
“I know a good few musicians from Crumlin and obviously he’s like ‘the’ musician from Crumlin. So, he’s always been a part of all of our lives.
“My dad was in the same school as Phil Lynott on Armagh Road. So we always had his music in the house, you know.”
It’s hard to believe the Whiskey In The Jar hitmaker is now as many years dead as he was alive, having
passed away in 1986. “I mean, he was only 36 when he died. So young, man. So sad,” Richie added.
Richie’s own musical career started to go places when he co-founded The Redneck Manifesto, who signed to a French label in 2001.
They last performed together at a 2018 headline show at Vicar Street to mark the 20th anniversary of their first ever gig back in the 90s.
“We all grew up in punk bands, and they kind of just didn’t really go anywhere. But, for some reason, The Rednecks kind of clicked in Dublin,” he said.
“We kind of were an amalgam of a few different scenes and stuff, and we kind of had a good musical chemistry. So we did pretty well for a few years when we were playing together.” Will Will they ever work together again? “I don’t think we’d make new music
A lot of musician friends I know from Ireland have had to either move out of Dublin or move away from Dublin. And with venues closing, it’s sad for such a cultural city.
together again, but we might play together again,” Richie said.
“I always used to hope we’d be the type of band that could play together in an old folks home kind of scenario, because we have such a special chemistry.
“But just the way life has gone now: two of us live in Sweden; we’ve all kind of split apart.
“Some of the guys just were not really interested in doing music so much anymore. So, yeah, I’d say it’s unlikely, but it’s not 100% no.”
Unfortunately, many Irish musicians can no longer afford to live in the capital city, which is making it even harder for acts to stay together.
“It’s sad. A lot of musician friends I know from Ireland have had to either move out of Dublin or move away from Dublin,” he lamented.
“And even just with venues closing and stuff, it’s just sad for such a cultural city.”
Jape was originally meant to be a side project for Richie, which he originally put together because he loathed the idea of going solo.
One or two critics cruelly dismissed their first album.
But Richie would go on to have the proverbial last laugh by winning two Choice Music Prize awards and having plenty of hit singles, along with an invitation to perform at the iconic Glastonbury festival.
“Basically, The Rednecks was instrumental. It was sort of post rock/ hardcore band. But I just love all music. So I had this other side – stuff that was much more sort of folk/poporiented,” he said.
“So I just started doing that, just on the side, basically. And that sort of grew a little bit then as well. So then for a while both things were going at the same time.
“I don’t really see genre in music, personally. It’s either good or bad.
“So I tried to experiment with as many different styles and stuff, just to learn the ins and outs of them, and try and see what I can take from them, you know.”
Richie certainly deserves another nomination for best Irish album, but he’s pragmatic about it all.
“Well, if you want to be in the game for a long period of time you’ve got to focus on basically entertaining yourself,” he reasoned.
“There’ll be times in a person’s career where you’re kind of hot s**t, and then there’s times when nobody will give a s**t.
“And I suppose the idea is to just amuse yourself, entertain yourself, you know, and just trying to docudown ment what you’re feeling at time. And then stuff like reviews, it’s just pretty much noise in the background, you know.
“The reason I use music is to feel some sort of peace. Music is the tool that allows me to do that.
“So, obviously, winning an award is great, especially with the money that comes with, but you just move on from it straightaway.
“If you start focusing on that it would just become stale very quickly.”
It sounds like music is therapeutic for him?
“For me, that’s 100%. Yeah, it really is sometimes to the point of, like, where I kind of go, ‘Should I even release this?’” he explained.
“But with this particular new batch of songs, I felt I hit on something, like that idea of hearing a sound that you haven’t heard elsewhere, and committing that sound down, and then just share it around and see if it resonates for people.”
It has certainly resonated big time, just judging by the recent glowing review it received in the Irish music bible Hot Press magazine.
It was a brave move to basically make it an instrumental album.
“There’s loads of vocals in there, but they’re just not words. So, I sampled some of my friends and my family’s voices, and stretched them out, made vocal pads and stuff on them,” he said.
“There’s a lot of sounds on there that are human, but no words on this record, yeah. I think just this time, for this particular record, I definitely didn’t feel like it needed words.
“This is the first time that I’ve done literally everything. I mixed it, mastered it, done a couple of videos for it, basically did the art.
“There is one cool logo that was made for me, but other than that everything else is me.
“I had this strong feeling of just doing literally everything myself on this one. I don’t know why, I just was driven to it this way this time.”
He has every right to feel as proud as punch with it.
But did he not consider using his own name instead of Jape for this particular album?
“No, no, no, because it fits in. The Jape stuff documents particular times in my life,” he concluded.
“And this one documents that particular time in my life. So, therefore, I think it’s worth putting out as Jape.”
I can’t wait to hear volume two…
Jape’s new album 9K HI, Vol 1 is out now via
Faction Records.