A Chat with Just a Band!

NOT ONLY IS JUST A BAND refreshingly talented in producing their own music, designing their own graphics AND creating and directing their own videos, but they also have great personalities in real life; and I was lucky enough to interview these fine fellas exclusively for The Good BL0G!

from left to right: Jim Chuchu, Dan Muli, and Bill 'Blinky' Sellanga

The Good BL0G: Your videos, album art and other imagery complement your music well. If you weren't a DIY type of group do you think you’d have the same results? If your label ever wanted you to work with another visual artist would you do it?

Just A Band:Yes, we have thought about working with other visualists, and we're not opposed to it. At the moment, Mbithi Masya is about to solo-direct a video for us, which should be fun; he collabo'd with Jim on Ha-He and he's been helping out more and more on the visual side of things, so he really gets where we're coming from.
TGB:Where do you find inspiration for your music and your video concepts?

JAB:Inspiration comes from anywhere, if you keep your eyes open. When you're making videos, you have to think about the song, and what fits with the vibe of the song, but then you have to add some flavour, which is where our addictions to everything from movies, music, comics and anime to obsessively following directors like Michel Gondry and Quentin Tarantino. And, of course, Life Itself.

TGB: Had you guys never gotten into the music biz, what professions would you be doing?
JAB: Jim says he'd be devising some new opiate for the masses. Daniel says he'd still be traversing the desert as part of his Toureg caravan, which he still misses terribly. Bill says, "Music or Bust." 
TGB: When your band came together in 2003, did you think that Kenyan audiences would receive your particular style of music well?

JAB: We didn't know what people would think! To be honest, it was not as huge a factor as you'd have thought. Just A Band was what we all decided would be the place for us to do things we couldn't do in our day jobs/other bands, it would be the one place we'd have where imagination and humour and all that good stuff would always win out over, "Oh, you're going to totally lose the audience with this one."  

TGB: Where would your band be if the internet never existed?

JAB: We shudder to think! The internet has been so integral to the growth of this band, both in terms of reaching the kind of audience that appreciates what we do, and in the way you can easily and cheaply put stuff out, with you in control of the whole show, that if not for the net, well... let's not go there.

TGB: What (non- musical) sounds do you love?

JAB: Daniel likes the sound of breakfast meats sizzling on an oily pan. Bill likes rain. 

TGB: It’s a clear, starry Friday day night in Nairobi, what can we find the members of Just A Band doing?

JAB: We're sadly very geeky, plus we tend to do loud, clubby things for work, so we tend to think of R&R in the old school sense; chilling out in front of our computers (no TV!), probably with a movie on.
TGB: Makmende, from the ‘Ha- He’ video is such a badass, he doesn‘t have the need for a super power. But if you each could attain a superhuman ability to up your level of badassery, which ones would you choose?

JAB: Jim would be invisible, thereby enhancing his natural mystique. Bill says "Co-ordination", and Daniel would gain the power to gain other people's powers.(OK, Bill didn't say Co-ordination, that was a cheap shot. Clearly, someone's out to discredit him! Bill says Flight. :D)

TGB: Bill, why do they call you Blinky?

JAB: Bill's nickname (CLICK HERE) 

TGB: Dan, I’ve read that you are into Anime and Manga. If you could place yourself into any fantastical story, as any character, which would it be?

JAB: I'll be really cheesy about this and say that I'd like to be Luke Skywalker. 

TGB: Jim, how did you learn to use computer design programs so well? Do you ever use it to impress the ladies?

JAB: No. 

TGB: Some songs like ‘Stay’ (off of 82.) have female vocals in them. Would you ever pull a Black Eyed Peas move and adopt a Fergie into your band?

JAB: Funnily enough, a few weeks ago we saw that N*E*R*D had adopted a girl singer, so there have been a lot of jokes in the house about getting a girl in the group. We're not convinced yet, though! 

TGB: If one wanted to book your band for a gig, but we lived in a hypothetical multiverse where money doesn’t exist, what objects would you want to be paid in?

JAB: But of course: Sweetmeats and ambrosia! 

TGB: Imagine your music was a great, big pool of wet cement. What impression do you want to make?

JAB: Haha!...... Aki (friend), we can't think of an answer to this one. You win. :P