Hello and thank you for taking the time to talk with us.
Can you present the band for the first time and give us some background on how everything started?
JJ Friends was born from the idea of Jose Jarque (voice) who after several bands decided to focus efforts on creating a group in which the closest musician friends participated. JJ Friends was born, 11 songs were written and the sound was worked on, a raw sound, pure hard rock with influences from the 70s and mix of 2018, a challenge that I think we have achieved.
Our style is pure hard rock.
How have those previous experiences with bands impacted on your creativity now and in the style and direction of the band’s sound?
All the components come from different backgrounds, with a wide career, between 20 and 25 years in rock. The impact is the power to make our rock more serene, more worked and with everything learned in the scenarios.
Our style is hard rock, we love it, we feel good, why change? No, we will not change; maybe we can play with more metal parts or more pop parts, but always with the hard rock base.
What inspired the name of the band?
Friendship…being able to work with great friends and what better then to translate it into the name directly.
Was there any specific idea behind the formation of the band and also in what you wanted and your sound to offer?
Yes, the main thing was to gather those friends with whom we felt the same for rock and from the beginning we wanted to achieve a sound, powerful, seventies but at the same time modern today, I think we achieved it with a mixture of riffs and sounds.
…And now?
The idea of our band is the work, we create the themes, we polish them in the rehearsals and once finished, we continue working on them, re-polishing, until we are ecstatic with the subject.
Since its inception, how would you say its sound has evolved?
The band has little tour at this time, it only has one year of life, but it has evolved giving way to new songs within hard rock, more compact, more real.
Do you let things grow and evolve organically or deliberately look to try new things?
We are rock sound, we must listen to ourselves, and we are completely organic.
Probably throughout the band there is a wide range of inspirations; are there any that has particularly impacted not only on the music of the band but its member’s personal approach to and ideas about creating music?
Really like everyone we have musical references, ranging from Beatles, Rolling Stone, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Motley Crue, Scorpions, Van Halen, and in what gives us now the music we can name, Inglorious, Black Stone Cherry, The Dead Daisies, Richie Kottzen, and many, many more.
Is there a process in the composition that usually guides the writing of songs?
Previously we started with a riff; from there we composed a base melody and started to work on it, a thousand changes of structure, melody, etc. … until leaving a complete and compact base, then as indicated above, work without rest in the song.
Where do you most often draw inspirations to the lyrical side of your songs?
All themes are the product of our experiences, both personal and visual, sentimental etc. … a hard day of work, the feeling for our music, lack of love, love, party, etc. …Even a theme in which we reflect the feeling of the first minutes of being a father.
Are you a band that enters the studio with songs in their final state or do you prefer to develop them while recording?
When we enter the studio we have or try to have everything defined and very worked; really in the studio we go very fast and do not earn too much money with us studies, hahaha.
Tell us about the live side of the band, probably the band’s favourite aspect?
The party, we are a band that has fun on the stage, we try to give the warmth to the public, we want them to enjoy as much as we do; on stage we are partiers, we involve all the public and we want them to sing with us.
It is not easy for a new band to have a regional impact, let alone nationally and farther away. How are you finding it?
We are still in the process, it is a very difficult road, we know it, but we will not stop until the end.
Once again, thank you very much for sharing your time with us; something you want to add or reveal for the readers?
Give them the grace for your work and for including us in your magazine, we are delighted and we want JJ Friends to be heard in all corners of the planet.
Check out JJ Friends further @ https://www.facebook.com/JJ-Friends-969137536525542/
Pete RingMaster 17/01/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Did you have a particular aim for the band initially and also in what you wanted it and your sound to offer?
You mentioned the internet. How do you work and weave your social media sites to use them most effectively?
Presumably across the band there is a wide range of inspirations; are there any in particular which have impacted not only on the band’s music but your personal approach and ideas to creating and playing music?
The following Already Gone is a slightly mellower proposition energy wise and in tone, and maybe because of this lacks the same spark as its predecessor, though the guitars again potently entice with their melodic narrative before Cocked and Loaded from a great devilish bassline emerges as another fiery slice of blues/hard rock. Vocally Penn is a touch wayward at times but equally more expressive as the track dangles spicy grooves and magnetic bait from the bass in ears.
The following Visit From A Swampire canters in on an infectious swing, riffs as rampant as the energetically skilled swings of drummer Tolis Toleas whilst grooves are as fiery as the melodies and solos which breed throughout. The track easily has body and emotions involved in its anthem as does What Then which comes next. The song is a touch more restrained in aggression and energy initially, but soon a bracing canter of raw riffs and rapier like rhythms entwined in the spicy grooves and bluesy melodic hooks of guitarists Nick XP and Stratal. Complete with an irresistible swagger, the song keeps things boiling over before in turn making way for the southern metal drawl and heavy rock brew of Truth. The track begins with the same groove the previous song left on but is soon sculpting its own tenacious and aggression roar. There is a touch of Crowbar in some ways to the song as the bass of Kostis Vihos brings a predatory proposal against the as dramatic but more welcoming vocals and sonic adventure cast elsewhere.
southern winery which opens up into a raw and raucous incitement through the gravelly tones of vocalist Sky and the anthemic riffs of guitarists Shelby and Scarsid. With rhythms as imposing as the hooks and grooves are magnetic, the track virulently strolls with punk hostility and heavy rock intensity. A great solo only adds to the rich lure and enterprise of the track before it all makes way for the even more impressive Skateboard Song. An enslaving hook is the first thing to escape the lips of the song, swiftly followed by the crisp beats of drummer Kmy and a throaty bassline from Void. This is in tandem with great caustic vocals and a contagious blend of ravaging riffs and seductive grooving. The encounter is glorious, again part punk, rock, metal and quite irresistible.
We called your sound and album in our review of your brand new release Disguised Vultures, ‘Raw and contagious, seducing like Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 meets Crashdiet in a glam cast pit of degenerate rioting’. How would you describe the Sister incitement to newcomers?
Did you approach the new album differently to Hated, were there lessons learned first time around you could utilise and build on?
the music on the album, but how much do personal issues, reflections, or experiences also inspire your songs?
What does Sister have in store for 2014 now the album is out?
before immerses them in the heavy metal power of Black Sabbath. It is an inspirational result which is soaked in the rural and folklore essences of its homeland to further ignite the flames of all its other fires of sound. Outlaw and Sobacchi also brought in additional musicians in the shape of Mario Percudani (HungryHeart), one of the very best rock guitarists in Italy, guitarist Razor SK (Forgotten Tomb), and Paolo Apollo Negri whose Hammond keys bring another flavoursome persuasion to the album.