“You do see things come into greater popularity and fade out again,” she says. “It’s cool that there’s an embrace of that blues, rock’n’roll, soul thing in Melbourne in particular, in a big way.”
Juju’s music indeed slots in among the aforementioned categories, but she’s not new to the party. In fact, the gutsy vocalist has been employing blues, rock’n’roll and soul for her own ends for more than half a decade. Listeners’ interests might’ve grown particularly avid in the last couple of years, but the power of the music itself has always been strong.
“Things like the blues, jazz and rock’n’roll, it’s never gone out of fashion,” Juju says. “It’s just been re-invented over and over. There’s always a community of people doing it and there’s always people out there that want to hear it.”
Perpetuating a time-honoured tradition doesn’t involve simply regurgitating the past. Juju’s a good example of how to inject an innovative twist into an outlet of expression that’s been around 70-plus years. “I’ve always been frustrated by hearing people imitate the artists that I love,” she says. “There’s a line between being derivative in a complementary way and plagiarism.”
In 2012, Mojo Juju released her self-titled debut solo LP. The record was her first effort since parting with the Snake Oil Merchants – an extended backing ensemble that specialised in vaudevillian rollick. Mojo Juju still features full-band arrangements, but the focus is on smoky blues and haunting cabaret horn work. Juju’s evidently well versed in the work of Billie Holiday and Tom Waits, but the record’s not an exercise in parroting these past masters.
“I’m more likely to struggle against being too obvious in my references,” Juju says. “Is that too much like [Tom] Waits? Or too much like Andre Williams or Dr. John?’ I don’t want to do exactly what they do. You always want to maintain your own identity in it.
“I’ve never been one to simply adhere to any one genre or era,” she adds. “I’m always fucking with the form. I think I’d grow incredibly bored if I didn’t experiment with lots of different sounds.”
Coinciding with Juju’s appearance at Darebin Music Feast, she’ll unveil the new single A Heart Is Not A Yoyo. In the name of “fucking with the form”, she says it diverges considerably from the blues noir of Mojo Juju.
“I sat down and I was trying to write this 12-bar blues song and it was not happening and I went, ‘Well there’s no point pushing and trying to do that if that’s not what I’m feeling.’ So you just take the pressure off and you write whatever comes naturally. All of a sudden I was like, ‘Wow, I’m kind of writing pop songs.’”
Flirting with pop songwriting is indeed a curveball. Did she discover Wings and thus decide to abandon her bluesy roots? Not quite. “There’s definitely still throwbacks to soul and R&B and funk,” she assures, “but I’ve been working with Ptero Stylus, a producer who’s worked with Mantra and Diafrix and Joelistics and lots of hip hop guys. It’s a meeting of two different minds.
“[It’s] pop in that they’re fun and they’re succinct, but maybe not pop in everyone’s mind. I’m taking my lead from people more like Stevie Wonder rather than Paul McCartney. They’re still soul songs, but I don’t think I’ve managed to breach the three minute thirty mark on any of them.”
Either way, listeners should to brace themselves for a significant stylistic shift, as A Heart Is Not A Yoyo isn’t just a one off experiment. “I’ve been working away in the studio for the last year or so,” Juju says. “There’s an album on its way, probably early next year. I’m very nervous to be honest, [but] I think that just means that you care about what you do. If you don’t care a little bit then you’re not really doing what you’re meant to be doing.”
A few of these new tracks are likely to be previewed during Juju’s Music Feast appearance, but it won’t be the show’s major focus. She’ll be joined on stage by her brother and drummer T-Bone and together they’ll dish out a good old fashioned bluesy romp. “I’ve gone from playing with a big nine-piece band – the Snake Oil Merchants – and I’ve realised, as a two-piece, we’re just as loud and just as energetic as a really big band. In some ways, we sound bigger because there’s less competing for that same sonic bandwidth. It’s kind of frightening – two people making that much noise.
“The two of us do the rock’n’roll two-piece thing, heart-out blues and whatnot. It’s really important to me; because that’s the kind of music we grew up with. It’s really fun to do some big belters. But I’ve never been comfortable sitting in one place for too long.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
