Valentine and her husband, drummer Edgar Livengood, are pioneers of the sludge/metal/thrash two-piece format. Prior to their formation in 1993, many thought it impossible to produce such a depth of sound without the use of loops or backing tracks. However, armed with only a drum kit and distorted guitars, Jucifer continue to break the rules and push boundaries to give the listener a “full on out-of-body experience”.
A desire for the full experience runs deep in Valentine and Livengood. Fifteen years ago they left their hometown of Athens, Georgia and adopted the lifestyle of touring musicians. “We moved into our Winnebago in 2000 and we haven’t lived anywhere else since – we’ve been on the road the whole time,” Valentine explains.
The nomadic way of life may sound appealing, but Valentine is quick to clarify that having no fixed address doesn’t mean zero responsibilities. “Everything that people do when they live in a house, we still have to handle – except that our house can break down and we can get stranded somewhere on the way to a gig. So it’s not exactly the simple life. It’s something that we sacrificed a lot for, but it’s rewarding and it allows us to do the thing that we love most in the world – that is, playing music together all day, every day.”
Jucifer uphold a DIY ethos, which led to them starting their own label Nomadic Fortress Records in 2010. “We handle it ourselves almost entirely,” Valentine says. “So far we don’t have a large catalogue, but we’re able to put out our own music when we want to for the first time during our career, and that’s an amazing liberty. It was always really frustrating being in the queue when working with other record labels. Now if we have an idea, we’re able to record it and get it out immediately. The label turnaround is usually at least a year, and it can be even longer than that. So it’s very freeing for us to know that we can directly reach our audience and start sharing our music.”
Jucifer’s two most recent releases – District of Dystopia and За Волгой для нас земли нет – are historical concept albums, and we’ll hear plenty of material from them at the band’s two Melbourne dates this month. “For us the real energy is based on being super stoked about what we’re playing, and our most recent stuff is some of our best, or at least we think so,” Valentine says.
Here for the Twins of Evil tour with Black Cobra, the band’s first trip to Australia has been a long time coming. “It’s something we realised about a year ago,” Valentine says. “I just looked at Edgar and said, ‘You know, we really better get to Australia.’ It’s something that we’ve always talked about but hadn’t gotten to do before. So to do it with our buddies Black Cobra is so perfect. We’ve known those guys for a long time, so it’ll be cool to be on a tour together. It’ll be the first time that we’ve done more than just a one-off show with them. Black Cobra are trance-y, pummelling and heavy, and their live sets are really exciting. Wait, I hate exciting as an adjective, but they are.”
BY NATALIE ROGERS
