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Jamaica

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French indie-rockers Jamaica certainly have a sense of humour. Antoine Hilaire and Florent Lyonnet may’ve irritated the Caribbean island’s intellectual property administrator with their choice of band name, but calling one’s musical act after a city or nation is hardly a new venture

French indie-rockers Jamaica certainly have a sense of humour. Antoine Hilaire and Florent Lyonnet may’ve irritated the Caribbean island’s intellectual property administrator with their choice of band name, but calling one’s musical act after a city or nation is hardly a new venture (fellow French band, Phoenix, and London-based group Japan are two obvious examples). As Hilaire has previously expressed, the name pays homage to Jamaican music as the band intended on incorporating reggae into their repertoire. After all, even the circumstances surrounding the band’s formation summon hilarity.

 

“Actually, we met thanks to our ex-girlfriends,” informs Hilaire in his thick Parisian accent. “We happened to talk about music and in some points we were really different, but some ways really complimentary. We started making music quite fast after our encounter and then we broke up with our girlfriends,” the vocalist/guitarist giggles, “but we managed to remain friends. We had a band before Jamaica called Poney Poney but we decided to keep on making music together under this new name and started recording the album right away. [Additional member] David Aknin is probably the best drummer in town, and he hits the beats really heavy, which is very important for Jamaica.”

 

While Hilaire’s influences revolve around pop pioneers and grunge, Lyonnet is an electro-head and closet metal fan. Hilaire lists classic albums such as The Beatles’ Revolver, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Michael Jackson’s Bad and Pixies’ Surfer Rosa as hugely influential records.

Jamaica’s video clips have also established further their surprising antics. The video for I Think I Like U 2 is a light-hearted take on a rock star’s cliché path-to-success, while Short And Entertaining’s video features Igor Cavalera, the former drummer of Brazilian thrash metal band Sepultura. “We were talking with the directors and they happen to know Igor really well, because they directed a Sepultura video,” Hilaire explains. “We met Igor as well because he’s got a techno band now with his wife – he knows the guys from Justice and they often tour Europe. We just happen to cross his path and Igor is really, really nice. He seems to like our music, so we asked him to play drums for the video and he said ‘yes’ right away. He’s really the friendliest guy around.”

 

It may come as a surprise to find that there are no synthesisers used on Jamaica’s debut album, No Problem, but those slick metallic sounds were all created in the production process. “We only used guitar, bass and drums… it was more of a challenge because it’s sometimes pretty easy to rely on synthesisers and we don’t like synthesisers on stage,” Hilaire relates. “And to me, it has a really old-school rock ’n’ roll ethic where we didn’t use anything that was too modern. Sonically, we wanted the record to sound as clean and as weird as possible.”

 

No Problem was produced and engineered by Xavier De Rosnay (Justice) and Peter J. Franco in Paris. “We’ve known Xavier for a really long time, so almost every song we put out under our old name was produced by Xavier,” Hilaire explains. “Actually, we were considering having the record produced by many different producers because we knew a bunch of guys that we wanted to work with. And Xavier said, ‘I want to do it but I want to do the whole record because that’s more of a challenge to me’. He brought Peter Franco along because they worked together on Justice’s live shows.”

 

Great French acts such as Phoenix and Daft Punk have paved the way for many French bands in demonstrating that it’s possible to sing in English, write smart pop music and tour outside of France. “Now it’s not about being French, but just making good music,” affirms Hilaire.

 

Jamaica’s experience at The Great Escape festival in Brighton a few months ago was particularly memorable. “That was a really cute experience because we played in a really small venue at the end of the pier,” Hilaire recalls. “It’s a really cute city and a lot of people showed up even though it was a really tiny place. Besides the weather being slightly cold, we had one of the best days of all year so far. Everything felt easy that day… when you just happen to like the food you’re eating and you like people you meet and you like the audience, that was really great. We’re about to play our first headline shows in the Netherlands at the end of the week. We really try to focus on being really hard workers, so we just want to improve every time we play.”

 

Hilaire is palpably enthused about Jamaica’s first trip to our shores for the Falls Festival. “I’m really, really excited because everyone tells us… a lot of people we know when they’re on vacation, they tell us the people are great, the country is beautiful, the cities are really cool and it’s going to be summer… when we got news about this Australian tour, that was the best news of the year.”

 

JAMAICA play the FALLS FESTIVAL in Lorne over December 28-January 1 alongside Interpol, Public Enemy, The National and heaps more – info from fallsfestival.com.au. JAMAICA’s album, No Problems , is out now through Shock.