JEJUNE OIL
interviewed by Keiji Jansch

Notes ND = Neil Daoud (Jejune Oil); bkonw = The Bony King of Nowhere

How did Jejune Oil come about?
ND; I don’t know, really, getting a four track I suppose and sticking stuff down, and then just finding a name to call it.

Did you intend it to be a solo project after The Bony King of Nowhere?
ND; I didn’t ever expect me to be playing live, I just started building compositions on the four track.

So why did you decide to play live?
ND; As soon as I built up the confidence to do it. And I did little supports and helping out Monkey Wah-Wah and playing with Chandler [Matthew Chandler aka Z+].

Tell us about your forthcoming album, Silence is your canvas?
ND; It's twenty one songs, recorded from when I got the four track last August [2000]. It's quite varied, it's me exploring different territories which I haven’t explored before.

It was culled from twenty five tapes wasn’t it?
ND; Yeah, so it was just sifting through and finding stuff I liked.

Is there stuff on there you don’t want people to hear, or things you’ve gone off, or you don’t think work?
ND; Some of it I don’t want people to hear, I went through the tapes and stuck to the first things I really liked, rather than go through everything and find my favourites of all the songs, that’s just too hard, so I went through and said I like that and that, so I’ve got a varied representation of the stuff I like.

So are there multiple recordings of certain songs, or is it generally just one?
ND; I don’t really record things more than once.

Is that your preference for doing things, I know bkonw rarely played songs more than once?
ND; Yes, it's kind of like that really, it was just laying down a track then another, then another two, there's not very many that are really conceived, and that are conceptual ideas.

Are there overdubs on Silence is your canvas, you seem to use the full range of the four track?
ND; Sometimes it’s a bit of a problem though, using it for the sake of using it, its tempting to add more.

Does that go with your confession that “going out of tune is the holiest of sins”?
ND; Yeah, that’s like leaving mistakes in music, it's okay, so much music doesn’t have any mistakes in it, I think by doing that you perpetuate the idea that you can’t make mistakes, mistakes are sometimes just as valid, I think, and if it doesn’t effect the spirit of the song I think leave it in.

How does Jejune Oil differ from the bkonw?
ND; bkonw tied to improvise, and in the same way in the spontaneity of things, like if I wanted to try some singing I’d just get some words, and sing them and if I liked it then… that was something I learnt from the bkonw, but the thing that’s different is that it was three people playing together and that’s always going to have a different kind of feeling, I wouldn’t have thought that the stuff I do on my own would be as good but some of it I like just as much.

You have played a song called Damage live which is a bkonw song.
ND; Yeah, its one of Russell’s, I like the song, it's really good.

Tell us about your influences.
ND; People like Beat Happening and Daniel Johnston, Smog, who's been a big inspiration ‘cause he does stuff on his own as well, Daniel Johnston’s stuff is just songs that were recorded straight, but Smog's kind of like compositions.

Do you like that about live performance, that you can only do so much simultaneously?
ND; It changes the songs a lot as they have to be stripped down to a really basic level, which is kind of cool, sometimes it feels a bit phoney, sometimes I’d like to be able to play closer to the stuff I record.

How important is it that the audience understand what you're singing about?
ND; I think a lot of my lyrics are quite hard to understand as I talk about things which are really important to me, whether people want to listen or not is… it’s something I don’t really have control in so I don’t really worry about it.

How do you judge whether a performance was successful or not?
ND; It's sort of by how I feel, if I felt I was really sincere about what I was doing, if I felt I got into it, if I pushed myself to really express how I want these songs to sound, just trying to make them as human as possible really.

Do you play for the audience?
ND; A little bit maybe, but I just want to play the songs the way I want and if people they like it they like it and if they don’t they don’t, but if I tried to play to what people liked I’d […] end up cocking up I’d imagine.

You’ve started playing electric guitar live, a little now, how did that come about?
ND; It's quite an old guitar and I really liked the raw sound, and trying not to get into any particular routine, or play the songs in any particular way, and just trying to change things, it’s a way of keeping things fresh, otherwise I think it could go a bit downhill.

Do you improvise a lot live?
ND; There’s some loose improvisation, and I can see myself doing it more in the future […] like having the opportunity to go and make up some singing when Ramirez played.

Do you prefer playing live on your own?
ND; I like both really.

Information on Jejune Oil at www.eidolarecords.co.uk

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