The Sheffield Scenester

The Sheffield Scenester met with The Janskys this week....

and it has to be said...they aren't the youngest band around...but they are dedicated musicans who love their craft. To date they have released their debut album -'The Janskys'in September 2009, and have just started work on their follow up, which they are currently recording at Yellowarch with Colin Elliot. They have recently moved into their own space at Portland Works, which they share with Phil from Darlings of the Split Screen. To top it all they are doing a handful of gigs in Devon & Cornwall this September...and if that isn't enough they are contributing a track to a compilation album to be released later this year, with all proceeds going to the British Heart Foundation....so dispite their busy schedule we managed to catch up for a chat.....

SS: So who are The Jansky's?

TJ: Patrick Donoghue - Vocals & Guitar, Damian Sackett - Guitar & Vocals, Jonathan Grove - Drums and Nick Davies - Bass guitar...

SS: And how did you get together?

TJ:
Pat - Nick and I got together after meeting just after he had left his previous band, The Enquiry, sometime around Easter of 2007 I think. He came to an open mic night I was playing at, we got together in the studio shortly after to start writing, and it went from there.

Nick - I had met Damian over a Full English in our local caff a few years before, and we became friends. He was doing solo shows at the time, he’d moved up from London where he had been in a band called The Violet Years. Damian was the natural choice when we needed another guitarist, I knew he would get what we were trying to do, so I texted him whilst he was travelling around the USA.

Damian - I came on board in Summer 2007 and then Liam Rice joined on drums & stayed for the first couple of years and first album.

Jonathan - I arrived in October 2009. The guys were looking for a drummer after Liam departed and my partner's mother was a friend of one of Damian’s work colleagues,,,,. I auditioned, they were desperate, and they’ve been trying to replace me ever since. Though I refuse to go. I’ll follow them around if they try and oust me!

SS: How would you describe your band to someone who might be unaware of the The Janskys?

TJ:
Pat - I dunno, we don’t really sound like anyone else. I guess we play fairly melodic tunes with a good grove, we like to make sure that all of our songs have the “Jansky sound” but it is important for us that they don’t all sound the same, hence a lot of different styles, country, rock whatever......don’t expect any death metal or drum & bass though!

Jonathan - Bit of indie, bit of rock, bit of country, bit of psychedelia, bit of madchester, bit of krautrock. We’d do some electronica but we’ve got our hands full with other instruments and we are pretty clueless about keyboards!

Damian - Crafted songs with the occasional psychedelic twinge.

Nick - i think we probably sound like bits of hundreds of other bands. We're not exactly in the first flush of youth, and we've all been around a bit. Between us, we've listened to a lot of music, and you can hear all of it in there. I hate being asked what we sound like, but I love people offering an opinion, cause they're all very different. Which is good.

SS: So.....Who are you influenced by musically? who are your music heroes?

TJ:
Damian - The Beatles, Squeeze, The Waterboys, Brian Wilson, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Teenage Fanclub, REM, Billy Bragg.....

Nick - well I'm the oldest in the band and had 4 older brothers, so I have heroes & influences going all the way back to sitting at me ma's knee as a small kid when the others were at school, listening to The Beatles, Hollies, Kinks, Stones...... I was about 10 when Glam happened and Marc Bolan was like a god, then later it was Floyd, Krautrock, Led Zep, and punk happened when I was 16 and changed my life. After that, REM led me towards American roots music, and I'm still discovering heroes today. I feel lucky to be born when I was, because I've lived through so much great music. Lennon, Bolan, Bowie, Strummer, Stipe.......

Pat - Most of the stuff I listened to when I was growing up was from my parents record collection, this was an odd mix of the Beatles, Elvis, Jonny Cash, Dr Hook....yes Dr. Hook....Elkie Brookes with a little bit of Mike Harding thrown in for good measure....ask yer Mum! I still love to listen to a lot of the above along with some more contemporary stuff, currently amongst the stuff I have on my ipod are Mumford & Sons, Band of Horses, Richard Hawley, Ray LaMontagne, Doves, Elbow and the Fratellis.....for snowboarding to...obviously!

Jonathan - Speaking purely from the perspective of the drums, anyone with a great groove, musicality and solid timing. That’s a long list that includes John Bonham, Jeff Porcaro, Simon Phillips, Zoro, Ricky Lawson, as a drummer...Phil Collins is much maligned.........

SS: How do you write your songs? what inspires you?

TJ:
Damian - Seems to be every way possible – Sometimes Pat will bring a song or part of a song for the rest of us to add to and develop, sometimes Nick will bring along the chord patterns for a song and a bit of melody, sometimes I’ll bring a whole song I'd played solo to be played about with. Occasionally I’ll add melodies and lyrics, Nick has a real ear for arrangements and Jon gives real thought to the feel and structure, experimenting with different drum patterns and styles. Pat and I work to develop harmonies whenever possible. We often return to songs to tweak them and when we're recording them they may develop further still. They are never really finished and keep evolving.

Nick - I've never been in a band like this for writing. In The Enquiry, Dave Sleney wrote all the songs, and in my other bands only one or two people have really written. I've only ever written in partnership with a lyricist before, but with The Janskys, songs come in so many different ways, and I think we all really support each other. A good case in point is After The Flood, which is on our MySpace, as an early demo. Its a very personal song to Damian, that one. I wrote the basic chord sequence during the 2007 floods, on a borrowed acoustic when I was camping in France. I played it to D when I got home, and didn't think too much of it. A couple of weeks later he turns up & plays it, but it now has a melody, chorus & words. After that, Pat added a beautiful guitar line, and we demoed it using drum patterns & synths. Now Jon has got hold of it, and changed it quite a bit rhythmically, and made it a much better song which we now play live. Its very collaborative.

Pat - Well every day there is something else, crap or beautiful, that makes me want to write. The more stuff I do, the more I write, and have to write about

Jonathan - I tend to influence the arrangement of songs. The other guys generally turn up with a song in a working state and I’ll look for opportunities to ensure that it’s distinctive. We’ll try different grooves, looking for a good overall fit and then work on individual sections to develop some light and shade.