I met Jenner some years ago when I played my first gig with my electronic project at the time. He was playing on the same night with his own project: John Merrick Experience. We've been working on stuff here and there together since then, only limited by my unbelievable laziness to get over to his place and check out the studio he's always telling me about. J is a man full of love and rage and a passion for music that drives him to put together band after band. He knows what he wants and how he wants it done. Sometimes you're not sure if he wants to hug you or kick your ass. I've seen his "hate you" face once and, believe me, I don't ever want to see it again ! I'll let the man speak for himself
How did you get into this music thing, was there much music around the house ?
There was always music around the house, but there were no musicians. I was born in 1971, so about the time I was six or seven years old, disco music was the thing. My oldest brother, who is seven years older than me, was a strong musical influence in my life. Before I was introduced to punk rock (in 1981), I was more interested in creating other forms of art, such as drawing, poetry and all sorts of writing. I got to know what punk rock was about by the age of ten, and it obviously had a huge impact on my life. The idea of making music without having to study its theory seemed - and to this day, it still seems - very appealing to me. Around that time, my brother was learning how to play the acoustic guitar, and he had left the classic brazilian electric guitar Giannini Supersonic locked in his closet, completely forgotten and gathering dust. I had a blast when I found the key to the closet, and from that day on, I tried to play the instrument whenever I was left alone. So that was the beginning of everything, that is why I have been involved with music since 1985 without ever having studied all the theorical aspects (laughs). Ironically, m y brother became the vice-president of a big company. He has an amazing collection of CDs and videos, but in spite of having studied music for over three years, he never tried joining a band.
Is Braindamage your DIY manifesto ?
(Laughs) The idea of Braindamage came from a sticker which I saw in 1984. It was written "HOMEWORK CAUSES BRAINDAMAGE", just a classic 80's sticker like "Disco Sucks". In 1983 I almost bought a Flying V guitar with money stolen from my dad's wallet (laughs), but it was sold before I could get my hands on it. It wasn't easy to simply buy an instrument and go home with it, you know... It wouldn't have been well seen by the family, so I just spent the money elsewhere. The following year my dad gave me some cash, which he said should be used for my sexual pleasure such as pay a whore an loose my male virginity (laughs) it happens quite often those days. Nonetheless, I didnt. Instead I went home bragging about what I supposedly had "achieved", but saved the money and eventually so I bought my first bass, a shitty one that I still have somewhere in my apartment. By the end of 1985 I formed my first band, named Reação Química (Chemical Reaction), and by the next year we were playing gigs in school festivals, for which we were awarded (were four competitions). It was funny, carrying all that shit around, amps, instruments, effect pedals and even lightning equipment ! Mommy and daddy didn't want to know about it, maybe they hoped I would give up. Before we could ever know, my partner Ricardo "Rato" Garcia (who played the guitar), our autistic drummer Fred and I were three kids giving autographs away in the neighbourhoods of Leblon and Ipanema (in Rio de Janeiro). My first gig was at a public school named George
Fischter and the audience consisted in over 800 people! After that, Rato's family moved away and I went on with my music, playing with tons of people around the city, always on bass, doing it Sid Vicious style (laughs). In January 1989 I went to Europe with my family and crashed right into the Acid/House Music scene. I came back with a 4-track, a mixer, a Roland TR-626 drum machine and some effect pedals. I had Bomb The Bass and Tim Simenon as great influences, and I was aware that the absence of my friend Rato would increase the challenge of being a non-musician among musicians. Nothing was more DIY than House Music, even Punk Rock... A band could be just one guy, conquering the world. That thought turned my head upside down, and that same year I managed to load my collection with tons of synths and to learn MIDI with Miguel Ratton's books. In 1990 I bought an AMIGA 500 and a 8-bit Ensoniq Mirage sampler. After that, you can realize my life was pretty much damned forever (laughs). In 1991 I did my first Live PA (I just found a video recording of that will put at Youtube soon), in 1993 I migrated to the PC, Cakewalk, etc. In February 1994 I produced the electronic elements on Planet Hemp's first demo and put together John Merrick Experience. Three months later Planet Hemp signed with Sony Music and I wasn't even invited to the recording sessions, which obviously pissed me off pretty much, and it even made me stay away from music for a few years. When I began working again, my girlfriend at the time saw a program about brazilian e-music and said I should promote my stuff around, since it was better than anything on the program. I watched that show (AMP on MTV) and had to agree with her. I was already working on my stuff with Tantão (member of Black Future), so we started to record, set up gigs, I created the logo, the website and distributed CDs. That's about how it happened!
JMX officially died on December 2005, after a show we played on the release party of Edmundo Barreiros and Pedro Só's book. Some of our songs were still included in two compillations released in 2006 and I did some solo gigs afterwards. The idea behind JMX was always to confront what people got used to percepting as music. We never repeated a single show, there was always new material. We played anywhere, sometimes in the worst situations, which actually seemed to become some sort of curse. I was talking to Calbuque (a Braziliam journalist who's specialty is music) other day, and I asked him to erase the name John Merrick Experience from an article. His answer was quite surprising to me. He said "Why would you want that? People know JMX!" and I was like "Really?" (laughs).
I don't know... I released some material in 2007 and got some great responses from people like Cosmo Vitelii (french dj ), but I'm still not sure. It's hard for to me when people use music as a way to massage their egos. JMX was never about that, it was a faceless wall of sound, it never made any sense to me going up on stage by myself, but because there would eventually be trouble with Tantão (the other member of JMX), I sometimes had to. I confess that, musically, it didn't make any difference, but what I enjoy the most about playing live is chatting, looking at people and seeing their reactions. It's sad because putting a band together in this town - and by that, I mean a band that actually functions - is quite impossible.
There is a staleness about Rio, a revival thing going on, soap opera trendiness kind of bullshit. Even though some call it Brazil's cultural capital, it looks more like a tomb to me, filled with decomposing corpses. Musicians seem to be constantly waiting for something or someone's approval, like Caetano Veloso's or whatever...shit! And there is absolutely NO professionalism of contractors, who don't pay shit. Not to mention the artificial popularity of websites such as MySpace, Fotolog, Orkut and countless others. It's really pathetic, I'M OUT OF THIS WANNABE SHIT! The Internet helps you put your work out there and even if your neighbours don't get it, there will always be some guy in Belgium, Sweden or Trinidad and Tobago who digs what you're doing and gives you some cool feedback - not just empty appraisals. In 2008 (more mature, maybe) I'm building my own studio and will produce not only my own music, but also bands that want to shake it up.
It's a sign of what's happening these days. By experience I know that people say they are going to listen to something that you put it online, but they don't. Nonetheless, humans are curious by nature. If you say you put a video online, they will check it out and listen to it (and watch, of course). It's very efficient, which I realized with videos that I did in a half hour for Private Dancers, a band I produced.
How do you feel about how some people talk about you, the controversy guy ?
(Laughs) Ok, I got this "fame" of a troublemaker who gets pissed off and I discuss severely for what I believe. The thing is we can't have a more professional enviroment without asking and forcing some rules or contract deals. That´s the only way possible when people don't respect their own words. Most people don't give much attention to that, always repeating "ok, take it easy, it was a misunderstanding" I don't bite that, in a scene with such low working conditions, if you want to succeed you should choose, ask and be a pain in the ass for what´s best for you – I don't care if people talk about me – they always do.
Any essential influences?
Too many to rememeber now... just to name a few: Devo, New Order, Bomb The Bass, Depeche Mode, Damião Experiência, Sex Pistols, Afrika Bambaata...
What are your projects for the near future ? I'm sure you have tons!
Near future? Naturally, I'd say "NO FUTURE", but right now I'm opening my studio "Wasabi Waffles Studios". I am also going back to working on a label project with Rodrigo Lariú, I am currently working on Klientsss (a solo project), some remix work that is already late, producing other bands, reworking my website and sweating towards world domination with my weekly podcast Misturinha that had over 800.000 listeners in 2007. I intend on making things more financially viable, of course, playing more music with my friends, playing in other cities, other countries, others worlds. In my heart, every second, beats the word from Public Enemy: "Don't Believe The Hype" !!!
1 comment:
Jenner's podcast is awesome, Misturinha rules!!!
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