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Let us steer you in the direction of What Would Jesus Drive

Written by: admin

March 4, 2008 · Filed Under Blather, Features, Interviews · Comment

Okay, has everybody calmed down now? Have we all finished reading those nauseating and embarrassing “new music for 2008!” columns that ever rag, website and TV show has been hoofing at us since mid-December. Good, because Music Towers wants to get back to the business of telling you about new music that is exciting us, here, not the new music that the big fetid beast that is the lazy journalistic zeitgeist has decided to over-hype this time around.

We first featured What Would Jesus Drive back in May 2006. We’d kept half an eye on them for some time before that, having first caught them when they performed as a four-piece as The Barbs. The on and only time we caught The Barbs live was supporting the sadly-ceased Mika Bomb at the soon-to-re-open Highbury Garage, where they were making razor-tongued evil surf-rock, with enough hooks so catchy they could snag Jaws like an Ebola harpoon.



Despite putting out a great little album on Mother Tongue, The Barbs eventually split, but for vocalist/guitarists Tim Box and Amy Box it wasn’t over: the pair went on to form What Would Jesus Drive. So what prompted the end of The Barbs?





“I think it had run its course,” Amy reflects. “We were all really proud of what we achieved as The Barbs but it was time to move on.”



“Amy and I met when she joined The Barbs so when we became a couple it made sense to start something of our own,” Tim adds. 



When WWJD started out they played as a three-piece, and very much sounded like a progression from The Barbs – all jerky guitars and sharp-tongued lyrics. Then one day we were idly checking out their MySpace page and they were down to just the two of them. 



“ It wasn’t initially our decision.” Tim remarks of the slimming down of the band “Our drummer quit 4 days before a gig, and we stubbornly refused to be put out by it. It’s much more fun live, less fucking about. Press go and start playing.”



“It was just luck that we actually preferred being a 2-piece,” Amy adds



“It was the aforementioned resignation of the drummer that led to the line up change, but it certainly enabled us a lot more freedom over what we could achieve.” This new found freedom has seen the band’s sound has moved away from the rock’d out surf-riffs of The Barbs to an electronically-augmented cousin of artrock, who happens to have the dangerous habit of sticking his fingers in plug sockets just to see what happens. 



“We have always wanted to have more flexibility. The electro elements have been waiting to happen for some time, even prior to the end of The Barbs.”





Still, after settling down into the form What Would Jesus Drive maintain to this day. It has seemed like an aeon before they’ve gotten round to releasing anything. But finally, in the next dew weeks, we will be able to order their ‘We Made This’ EP from <CITY><PLACE>Split</PLACE></CITY> Records.





“Boomtown Twats was always going to be our first release. It was the first song we wrote that sounded like me and Amy and as such is the obvious starting point to introduce us.”





‘Boomtown Twats’:






<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/xp3rwG1a8KU width=425 height=355 type=application/x-shockwave-flash wmode=”transparent”></EMBED>




“You’re The One That I Want was initially attempted as a joke but has since become our obligatory ironic cover version. We have thus far resisted the urge to recreate the video.”



“The other track I Think We Rushed Into This is more about us as a couple. I tend to say this a lot when Tim pisses me off.”



Oh yeah – they’re married. Yet another factor that sets WWJD apart from the dozens and dozens of other bands you should be ignoring in favour of Tim and Amy’s outfit. In relation to their cotemporaries, it’s just another way that Tim and Amy stand out: “ I struggle to see how we fit in anywhere at the moment. I don’t see or hear anyone else around like us. Not many married, Anglo-Australian, electro-punk 2 pieces spring to mind.”



“That’s probably a good thing.” 



When it comes to male/female two-pieces, there is always a unique song-writing dynamic – be it the brother-sister setup of Angus & Julia Stone, the they’re-actually-divorced-ness of The White Stripes, and the only-slightly-comparable-in-this-instance marriage of Sonny Bono and Cher. It’s the same with WWLD: “There are plenty of ideas for songs flying around. You have to remember that the entire band is talking to each other all day every day so creatively things happen quite quickly.” 



“We have, if anything too much material right now. We need to get the first couple of albums released.”



I addition to the tracks already mentioned, a lot of the early demos that have appeared on the aforementioned MySpace page are about small-town grief – ‘Awful Kids’ is a lament about small-town laziness, with the currently-unavailable ‘You Can’t Be Too Careful’ and ‘Black & Blue’ about fear-of-tramps and lairy pub violence respectively. Post-punk has always been pre-occupied with suburban life, but is Medway really that shit?



“The place itself can be quite beautiful in a decayed sort of way and is important from an historical standpoint, but the people these days are by and large pretty rank.” Tim says of the area of <COUNTRY-REGION><PLACE>Kent</PLACE></COUNTRY-REGION> that WWJD call home. “I do find it a bit upsetting that the vast majority of the local populous are gradually making me hate my hometown, a place I still want to love.” 



Of course, it’s not just the eye of Music Towers that’s been caught by WWJD. See those foolishly good photos we’ve used for this article? They were taken from a session the band had with legendary rock-snapper, Ross Halfin (and if you don’t know who he is, go and gawp in wonder the gallery on his <A href=”http://www.rosshalfin.co.uk/home/intro.php”>website</A>) the kind of photographer who’s skills are sadly not replicated by the legions of Photoshop-monkeys masquerading as photographers these days. 



“In fact it was one of the only photo shoots for ages where there has been no attempt to style us.” The shoot in question almost makes the pair look like suburban rock’n’roll rednecks (in a good way, of course) – but it wasn’t a calculated move. “He was happy just to photograph us just the way we showed up. We were introduced by a mutual friend and I think he just understood who we were pretty quickly.”





As we’re running out of time and space, we fall back on time-honoured interview tradition and ask Tim what WWD have in store for 2008: “We should be touring through mid-February to mid-April (on and off), and then the second EP is planned for a couple of months later. I suppose that means more touring and hopefully the album will be out towards the later part of the year.” 



We leave the last word for Amy: “We really haven’t toured at all as WWJD so we are looking forward to getting out there – without the hassle of packing the drums up at the end of the night.” They’re not alone in looking forward to a tour - Music Towers can’t wait to catch them live again – and if you’ve got any kind of sense you should be giddy with anticipation too.





What Would Jesus Drive release the ‘We Made This’ EP, on 28 April through Split Records. They will be touring in support of it as well – <A href=”http://www.myspace.com/whatwouldjesusdrive”>check here</A> for details.