“I was playing in another band called Revolucion Street,” he begins on how he was introduced to Jericco, “with Hoss from Karnivool. We were main support to Dead Letter Circus. And Jericco were opening, and I walked in while they were doing their line check. I heard the first few bars of Always. I heard Brent’s (lead singer Brent McCormick) vocals, and something struck me then, when I heard it. It was one of those ‘Oprah moments’!” he laughs. “I had an Oprah moment! This was two years ago, late ’08.
“Me and (bassist) Roy started talking, writing together,” he recalls. “I liked the band so much that I just said ‘why don’t I just join your band?’. And they were like ‘What? Are you serious?’ So we gave it a go, and here we are.”
This idea of ‘instant’ chemistry when the members first got together is something quite miraculous. “Absolutely,” Fetah states emphatically, “it just felt right straight away. And we’ve got a great chemistry within the five of us in the band. I’d feel very strange if there was a new face around. As a machine, as a functioning unit, the five of us have a certain chemistry that works. And that’s hard to find.”
One of the major points of difference that Jericco bring to the table in this overcrowded alternative-rock scene that has taken root in Australia is the dark, moody Middle Eastern flavours inherent in their music. This was present even before Fetah (who’s Palestinian) joined the band, with Isreali-born bassist Roy Amar already exerting his mid-Eastern influence over the band’s music. With the addition of Fetah’s keyboard textures and vocals, the sound was set, and he agrees that this was a major factor in the chemistry that the band have, both personally and musically.
“Well, that was a big factor of course,” he explains, “with both of us coming from Israel and Palestine, and both of us being artists and musicians. Artists are always way ahead of the politicians, you know. And so are we!” he chuckles.
“Me and Roy draw on that all the time,” he states, regarding the influence that their respective backgrounds have on their musical composition, “we take a lot from that – what comes natural to us, what we grew up listening to at home, the music that we were into. The combination of hard rock music and our Middle Eastern routes is something we can’t avoid. Otherwise, we just aren’t being true to ourselves.”
That said, the band use the influences and sounds of the Middle East in a subtle, tasteful way, having it in there to provide flavour, texture and dynamics amid the heavy rock, as opposed to being Middle Eastern purely for the sake of it, in a contrived manner. Fetah agrees that this is a crucial element to the band’s musical makeup: “It really needs to be something that is coming naturally,” he confirms with a nod, “and it’s there because it needs to be, not because we’re going ‘here we go again, we’re writing another Middle Eastern riff’. And you can hear the difference, of course. So yes, we do manage to make it very subtle, because it just comes natural.” And the rest of the band, while maybe not having it in their blood, follow suit.
Jericco have a number of shows coming up, including a huge one this coming Saturday night at The Evelyn in Fitzroy. The lineup is massive, and includes epic, world-renowned dark rockers The Eternal, whose new album has just been released and was produced by former Tea Party legend Jeff Martin, electronically influenced high energy alternative rockers Black And White and the female fronted prog/alternative act Aural Window. It’s a bill that that’s going to pull a mammoth crows, and Fetah and the band are jumping out of their skin in anticipation of the show.
“We are absolutely pumped for the shows,” he enthuses, “a lot of first-time punters who come to our shows are surprised. The comments we get are ‘We didn’t know guys existed and we’re really surprised’,” he explains. “I have no real expectations, I just hope everyone has a great night, and I hope we were able to entertain them in some way. And touch them in places they haven’t been touched before!” he quips with a chuckle.
In their relatively brief history, Jericco have released two extremely well received EPs. The next step in the band’s career and evolution seems to be the release of a full record, which they’re feverishly at work on as we speak.
“We’re currently working on new songs for the album,” Fetah confirms. “We’ve got some new songs in our set that are going down really well at the moment. We’re looking at releasing something in July, a special package for the fans. It may be a new single, with a couple of live tracks, and the long awaited video clip for (a track from their last EP) B Song, which will be an extravaganza. It’s going to be a video clip to rival Thriller!” he laughs.
And what of the longer term plans for the band? “Well, we’re getting a lot of requests to go overseas,” Fetah explains. “‘Come to Mumbai’ was the last one! ‘Come to Canada, come to England, come to Spain’, and we intend to go to all of them. Getting out of Australia is definitely something that’s on the cards, once we’ve got this album under our belt.”
