“Our scheduling for the touring was pretty hectic,” says bass player Jacob Farah. “There was a time where it was one show every day, sometimes two shows in the one day. So what we tend to do is usually in sound checks; one of us will end up jamming a riff or a drum beat and then we write new songs. It’s really funny – usually people do it in the jam room or in a studio or whatever, but ours tend to be [written] during sound checks.”
Given this songwriting scenario and the band’s recent touring schedule, the forthcoming release will showcase their live identity. “You take influence and inspiration from everything that you do as a group,” says Farah. “The thing with us is we don’t really have a way of writing music – it’s always different. But [there’s always] inspiration and influences from new experiences we experience everyday.”
Jakubi’s rising international profile illustrates how the world’s an increasingly smaller place. Thanks to various online platforms, overseas listeners now have enhanced access to Australian music and artists can get recognised before ever venturing abroad. However, that’s not enough to kick off a successful international career. Jakubi are represented in the US by 7S Management (home to Dinosaur Jr, Lucero, Dandy Warhols and Xavier Rudd), who have helped them build a solid base.
“Our first song was Can’t Afford It All, which we just recorded ourselves. As soon as we did that we decided, ‘OK let’s get a manager,’ because the song started doing really well on Soundcloud,” Farah says. “Then we shot out an email to all different managers, only in Australia – at this stage we had no idea about America. Then our Australian manager who we now have, he reached out to us, then somehow along the line we got a US booking agent. One of the shows we did in Melbourne, the bass player from Mumford & Sons was there randomly, and he hit up the American booking agent. Then through the American booking agent we got 7S Management.”
The recent tour was Jakubi’s second visit to the States, putting the band in front of several thousand punters at such festivals as Wakarusa (with The Roots, Major Lazer and Chance The Rapper) and Electric Forest (with the likes of Skrillex, Flume and Shpongle). Unsurprisingly, they’re eager to head back to that side of the world as soon as possible.
“The first US tour, our US booking agent got it for us just to put the feelers out, which was awesome because he gave us that chance to just go for it pretty much. When we got there, the response was awesome and I think it was only a matter of four months and then we were back over for the second tour. Sometimes I feel like we have more of a following in the US than Australia.”
For the time being, Jakubi are here in Oz and making the most of it. Later this month they’re hitting up the Panacea Festival, before trekking out to Beyond The Valley over New Year’s. Plus, they’re playing their biggest Australian headline show to date at Max Watt’s in early December.
“Our strongest point has always been the live show. We love that more than anything. That’s our strong point, and the music and that, there’s always room for improvement. So playing a headline show in Australia is going to be the best feeling. It’s been close to a year since we did a headline Australian show, so I cannot wait to do that.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
