B Side 4/5/93

The Icarus Factor
By Sandra Garcia
 

Are you in a dull band that just appeared onto the scene with a big contract but no history? Are you rightfully embarrassed when you mumble when asked probing questions about what trauma your band has experienced? Don't worry: if any band needs a helping of trauma and heartache, Gene Loves Jezebel can rent it to you.

Let Jay P. Aston, vocalist extradionaire of Gene Loves Jezebel, tell you the twisted tale of what's been happening since this star-crossed quartet last graced these pages in 1990. 

We have to take a few steps backward, to their Billy Idol opening stint in Europe. It was one of those difficult times when the band realized they had to face the truth and stop ignoring certain problems. Jay relaxes onto the couch as he ticks off his check list. "One: we didn't want to be on Beggars Banquet anymore, two: we didn't want to be with Geffen, three: we didn't want the guy who was managing us to be involved with us anymore. We had been working with them for too long, and we needed someone who could see who we were. You can lose sight of it. 

"I felt when we were writing songs, the only common dominator between Chris Bell, Peter and James was me. I felt that the idea of a band is communication, bouncing off of each other in a good way. Someone had to go, there was a link that was wrong there. It couldn't be James because we have a pretty unique songwriting thing going. Of course, Chris described himself as the scapegoat." 

Here Jay pauses, breathing, "Perhaps he was. In all fairness he was loyal and he had given five years of his life to us but…" as he halts again, drawing on his cigarette, asserting, "Something had to change. So we were dealing with things that could sink any band. I have seen it sink many bands. But we had to enjoy what we were doing. 

The band had also gotten into the dangerous position of not creating any new songs. "We'd written 'Down,' one or two songs, the basic ideas. So we spent maybe a year without writing new material. We did the tour, met Robert, wrote 'Josephina,' cause I met that girl Josephina, liked the name, liked the person. But apart from that we didn't have enough material to do an album. So …God, this is such a long story!" he exclaims in dismay. No one can ever accuse GLJ of being uncomplicated. "We met Atlantic, met Charisma, met Savage, and Savage were hungry about it. So we signed to them. 

"We finally landed on our feet. I don't know what the world still thinks of Gene Loves Jezebel… most of the world still doesn't know who we are, which I find amazing," he confesses. 

Is everyone oriented now? Our constant: a band of talented passionate men who wish life wouldn't be so complex. But Pete Rizzo, James Stevenson, Robert Adam and Jay finally have a now album in Heavenly Bodies, the sixth full length studio release under the Jezebel flag. (That's not counting any EP's or live albums…I don't want their touchy fans accusing me of slighting their output). 

Another important warning about this album: never say a critical word about it within earshot of guitarist James Stevenson. He has become the fierce protector of his new musical territory. I am quickly accused of being elitist when I question a few tracks…me? I can't help it that the background singers are gratuitous on certain songs! 

Jay exclaims, "He loves it! The three of them are like that. I have a different attitude. My thing is if you like it, fine. People will buy it or they won't. But James is like 'well, this is genius!'" he laughs. "He's really proud of it!" 

An early interview with James just after he had joined had him declaring if this group didn't make it, he was out of there. Now he's the champion defender! "It just shows how people grow within the group. I thought that when James joined he would last all of two minutes. We've become more of a group than we're ever been. We weren't a group then. Mike and Jay were fighting, James in the corner, Marcus plodding through and Pete being the most solid member of the group. 

"Pete's a very obtuse character. The more I grow to know Pete, the less I know him. I realize I don't really know him. He surprises me with his insights, with his views. He's completely off the wall. But he's incredibly deep. He's changed a lot as a person." 

The whole band has changed in many ways, both personally and musically. Certain members are actually settling into family life, as children add new depth to their lives. Musically, the band seems to be settling into a comfortable configuration, especially since the addition of drummer Robert Adam. "Robert's the common dominator of the group now. He's the one that we all go in the corner to talk with. He was sheer luck. He fits in the band perfectly." Jay breaks into laughter, jubilantly describing, "The one listening party, with the girls, he was the fucking heartthrob! They were all over him!" he laughs. "Robert's into it because it's new. He's allowed to do what he wants as a drummer, and be the person that he is." 

Heavenly Bodies has given me some trouble as an entire album. There are pieces that absolutely shimmer, then others that sink under the stress of over production. The word transitional comes to mind, in that this album sounds dearching. But keep in mind that very few albums are ever total genius; hopefully James won't take a contract out on me for saying that. 

So what does Jay Aston think about Heavenly Bodies? "Me?" he asks as if this is a topic he never considered. Yes, you. "To me, it's just another piece of work." That says a lit in itself. 

He continues, "All the songs came from different places; my head was in different places. I did things that I wouldn't have normally done. I would have sang about an ex-girlfriend in the past in such a way. I wouldn't have spent so much time on one of my acoustic songs like ' Any Anxious Color' before. James knew me so well, and he pushed me to do it. Same with 'Voice in the Dark.' 'Rosary' too, I didn't want 'Rosary' on the album. I couldn't relate to it anymore personally, I had done it about three years ago, and couldn't see it. I couldn't see why people would get off on it. It's like the way you drink your water. Someone could be transfixed by that motion, but in reality you're just like I am drinking my water." 

That song is one of my favorites on the album, and I am far from being Catholic. "A lot of people are like that! I think it does have a spirituality. But for me still it is that song and I can't see it. 

"I like 'American Dreamer' a lot, because I know how good it will sound live. It will make the stage come forward. 'Wild Horse,' I just like lyrically. I like the power of it. The group's just plugged in, and there's not many overdubs on it. That's how we sound. 

"My language is better on this album. People will catch a lot more of who I am and the way I sing, through the words I use. Like 'Wild Horse' is a very political song, but you wouldn't be able to get that. But I know that what I am singing about is very left verses right. But I have never been one to sing 'be against the government.' Like with Mike, back when we did 'Bread from Heaven,' I could see that he was singing about Wales. But people couldn't see it, but I thought he did it wonderfully. And I think I have done wonderfully on 'Wild Horse.' 

There's many people who are treating this record like the second coming, Savage included. Jay's being refreshingly realistic. He appreciates the enthusiasm, but he doesn't want to expect the sun and moon and instead get a meteor plunging into the atmosphere. The band already has that on their frightening album cover. He acknowledges the Jezebels aren't expecting the alternative sector to nominate them darlings of the week. "We're an established group. They're looking for something new. And that's fair, I knew that. We have to reprove ourselves. We have to work at it. I have had to do quite a lot of shit. Normally, I could have been in deepest Wales and the fucking would have played the record the minute they got it. 

"I am not going to worry about it. The attitude is to be positive; we have great new songs, we have great old songs, and we are a classic fucking live band. When we played with the Sisters of Mercy, we blew them into the stratosphere before 10,000 people in Los Angeles… that was great," he laughs with this charming confidence. "Our attitude was 'you try to follow us, just try.' You want to see if Jay Aston can sing? Can James Stevenson play guitar? We'll show you. 

"No one can walk back on after a few years and just say 'we're back!' Not with our tortured history!" he laughs. 

"But I never had such a great reaction off an album that I've done. Immigrant, we had a great reaction to that. I was surprised that people reacted to it so well. That had no support, but it sold so well." 

I will always regret that album didn't have the machine behind it. It was, to steal a word, genius, a perfectly brilliant album. Jay laughs, "Yeah, and we couldn't get a publishing deal! Shocking, isn't it? But we just hung in there…" 

It's timing. This band has to cease falling between the proverbial cracks. Can anyone donate a custom made musical safely net? Jay's solution to go directly from the tour into the studio and strike before people loose sight of their magic again may well be that net. He shrugs, explaining, "My goal is to re-establish Gene Loves Jezebel as a serious group. If we achieve that again, I will be very happy. That's all I want. Which is actually a lot," he sighs as he settles back. 

"When people insult you unjustly, or try and paint you in some ridiculous color that you aren't, and they say things like 'oh, you shouldn't exist,' that makes someone like me push. Ok, if you don't want me around, I am going to make your life even worse!' he laughs. Jay's probably capable of making life very hellish if he sets his mind to it. "I'll make eighteen albums. You are better off saying that we are the most wonderful group in the classic album! That's all you have to say and I will go back to Wales and live in a tent in the mountains. When someone criticizes me, I want to go out there and prove them wrong. It's worked before and it will work again." 

Maybe I'll start insulting the band to get them moving! Jay has also grown tired of the game playing and the machinery involved within the record industry. It's the justified frustration of an artist who's spent his life creating magic, not commerce. "When I'm in New York, and I pop into the Savage offices and see all the stuff they're doing, that's when the music becomes a packet of cigarettes. When the machine takes over, with all the distribution, the radio things going all, that's when it ceases to be about the music and becomes about units. They have to make the quota for the day, and it's quite frightening when you're dealing with music. You're dealing with the pain and the pleasure of your life, and suddenly it's just a cigar," he laughs bitterly. "Product and projects are very offensive words. It's like something very disposable. Where with music… Jay Aston has been doing this for ten years, guys, and it's not a project. Whatever it is, however stupid or wonderful you might think it is, it's me. I am putting my heart across. If I've said some stupid things, then that's fine. If I've said some good things, great. But you don't stay under the same name for just a project. So when someone mentions that word it's like 'sorry?" as he fixes his best cruelly icy stare on an imaginary victim. "My life as a project. 'Hey, let's do his hair black, some of the people in Utah don't like it red.' But this is me, this is my personality. This is what I project. Project? Project?" He shakes that vivid hair as he laughs helplessly, rapidly going into a mocking rant "It's gone from medium to hot rotation, maaaan!!" 

Radio rules the waves and each band needs the repetition because that' s what gets the people going. How labels get the radio people going is a whole sordid story that you can use your worst imagination on. Try reading the book Hitman for starters. "Repetition. People eventually get into it. That's why when you can find a band or artist, they do a certain record that draws us in and for a few years you will forgive them anything. You close your eyes to any rubbish that they do, and that's how the career thing happens." 

He falls silent, sipping his drink. "It's too nerve wracking. I have yet to slag off bands anymore because they're all artists. It takes a lot of energy. I see many young bands with a lot of energy so keen to get on, and I think 'oh God, you have got so much shit to go through.' It's a long process and you have to be strong. That's why so many don't make it; it's sheer strength. It's crazy actually to chase it." 

Then it falls to reason that Jay is quite a strong person. He flashes a disarming little smile, shrugging, "I guess so. Or pretty weak; one of the two. Too cowardly to drop out! 

"What's the difference between cowardly and courageous, I've never been able to tell!" he declares. "They're both the same to me." 

True cowardice is when you're lying to yourself. 

Jay arches a brow. "Is it? Well, say to talk about me, for instance, when Mike and I split apart, was it courageous of me to carry on with Gene Loves Jezebel, or was it cowardly not to do my own thing?" he asks bluntly. "They both would have taken a bit of both. It's easy for me to stay with Gene Loves Jezebel, we're established in enough countries over the world that I can work forever. Yet it would have been a cowardly to run away from something I've worked so hard on. I can never work out what is the difference." 

After a long discussion along these lines Jay decides, "It's not black and white. Words tend to be black and white. You have to jumble them around to pink to get the real picture. That's the art, to make them dimensional. You have to get the composition together, be articulate, and you get to know who you are. 

"I write diaries, and I've surprised myself, I've written some really good things, 'Hey, Jay, that's fuckin good!' It's a flow of emotion just like music is. It's mantra like when you start with a line and you just build and build. And on occasion you get this real piece that captures what you are trying to say. 

"I enjoy writing more than anything, the words…I like words. They can be the true colors, you can paint those pictures. And there are lines that I've written that I think are awful. But James, he'll beg me to keep them. Like 'Kiss of Life.' 'I would give the kiss of life, I'd roll a thousand stars.' That was something I sang off the top of my head. To me, it didn't make any sense at all. But James was like 'oh yes, Jay, you're rolling stars! Like the sun would never touch the moon, you are doing something that's impossible.' I had never thought of it like that. And Marcus, when we did 'Rooftops,' I had a line, 'dignity flowing off your chair.' Marcus was very much like Robert, they meet a woman and they put them on a very big pedestal, they have that problem. They don't look them in the eye and take the true beauty, they see something idyllic, this impossible version of a women or even a man that no one can find. And Marcus was like 'oh yes, that's the pedestal that you put people on'…someone thinks you say clever things and you're like," he pulling a comically astounded face. "I am not a writer, I never sit down and write a lyric. I've never done that. I've literally strummed for an hour, gone around my chord structures, played with James and the band, and the words come to me as I get the vibe off the music. A lot of the words, God knows where they come from, but they come. I do write lots of poetry, but I've never put them to music." 

Excuse me? Jay, why not? "It never seems to work for me. I write what I think is a very beautiful thing but I've never been able to…" as he halts, pondering his thoughts. "When we did 'Any Anxious Color' on the record I was literally standing looking out the window singing about what I was looking at. It was the particular mood I was in, I had just been dumped by that girl. I could face that, but it was the feeling of loneliness I had, the beautiful place that I was in, even though it was England. My head was in that space, I strummed the chords and there's the song as it is. 

"I've got stacks of things written… there's millions of things in Wales. My mother keeps loads of things that I used to write when I was 14!" he grins. 

Ah ha! The Jay Aston journals… that could be trouble someday! It could be a fascinating glimpse into the adolescent mind of the budding slim star. Jay is not encouraging any such notions. "Success… if that ever came in a big way that would be the worst thing that could happen to me! All those things would come out! 

"My biggest fear of having big success, I was just thinking about this last night, is to never meet someone genuine again. I know you, for instance, and there are people who knew us while we were struggling, and they have their feet on the ground and I know I can face them. But I know, since this record has come out in LA, Robert was shocked. He went into a bar, the same bar he's been going to forever, and they're all 'oh, Mr. Adam, come sit down, congratulations.' It freaked him out. He just didn't realize that's how it works. I said 'Rob, that's why you have to know all the people you know and love now. They'll always be with you. You're never going to know if you can trust anyone later.' Certainly in LA at least, that's the game. I know it. But that is the biggest price you pay for success. I have always had a fear of success, when I think about it. 

"You almost don't want… I didn't like Kiss of Life as an album. It was almost like not doing the American tour suited me perfectly. I didn't want 'Jealous' to be a big single." 

Hold on, stop, stop, stop. Why? 

"It was a very miserable time, with when I worked in the studio with Paul Fox. I didn't like him at all." 

That was 1990's torturous tale, fraught with earthquakes, soul quakes, anger and more musical drama that a PBS special on opera. I still flinch when I see the name Paul Fox on people's albums and resist asking if he tried to ruined their lives too. Still, I thought from all of Jay's glowing descriptions that… 

Tim Palmer was the production magician that pulled Kiss of Life from hell. I thought the album's soul was saved. 

"How can I explain it… what is it like?" as he pauses, deeply considering his words. "It's like getting married to someone, and it doesn't work out, and there's someone who's not the person who you fell in love with and married coming along and getting you through the next six months. It's getting you over the time. 

"It was one of the most difficult albums I have ever been involved with, and it almost made me not want to be involved with another album again." 

I don't blame Jay for saying this. It would be a great loss if that was the case but… "I will always attach that misery to it." 

It's sad that the album has to carry such negative emotional baggage with it because there's truly beautiful work on it. It has to make you feel you can still pull through even when you're totally miserable. "Yes, but there are other things you can do when you're miserable, like 'Desire.' I was in the pits of depression. That's something that I consider worthwhile being down about," he mocks. "It was one of those days that we all get when I was going 'what am I doing with this person….what?'" he questions with quiet desperation. "That's worthwhile. The further down you are, the higher heights you climb. To write a song that has nothing to do with depression. Who wants to be depressed; I don't enjoy those dark days. I always look for a real bright light within myself, looking for that good part that's still awake, as opposed to those black times. I wouldn't be able to carry on like that." 

One thing that's bothered me is why this band didn't work with the man who pulled Kiss Of Life from the depths? I thought that Tim Palmer could have done an excellent job starting out with a positive vibe. Jay sighs again, describing, "We were going to work with Tim again, but… he started working with Roland Orzibal, and that went from month to month to month. So we ended up with Peter Walsh. He was really great to work with. He's a very gentle person, and I sang well when I was with him. And that's what I want to do, sing really well. It was a totally easy album to make." 

It's good to hear something was easy in this band's life. God knows the recognition factor isn't easy. The most commonly heard statement back at the CMJ conference in October of '92? 'Oh, they're still around?' Jay acknowledges, "It's an odd position, a much odder position then we were three years ago." 

He suddenly declares, "it's either the beginning of something or the end of something. This is wither going to be very big… we might open up lots of new places, and we might go on to greater things, or it might be the end." 

As long as that special spirit remains there's hope. And there is something else will always bring this band's true spirit forward… and that's the Jezebel's live. Gene Loves Jezebel will always be one of the finest live experiences to be had. Live… that's the Jezebels: no interference, no producers, no record companies, no managers, no radio… nothing but the band and their audience. So far they've turned down offers to open for the Black Crowes, Inxs, Bon Jovi, Duran Duran… they'd rather have their own tour, without restrictions. "It's an experience. That is what we are about. We're not into walking on stage like we just walked off of the street. That's not where our heads are at. It's always been a much wider thing. We'll see if people want to hear about being abused as a kid or if they want to touch the stars. The options are there. Gene Loves Jezebel looks for one thing, other groups look for others. 

The impression I get is that we have this hardcore base of fans that will never leave us. We've always believed that we are an event, that to come to our show is the event. But right now we are in a very weird place and we have to be seen. 

"When people go away from seeing Gene Loves Jezebel I want them to be so up. There's so much good energy in what we are doing. No matter what alley way we go down, what moods we go through, that set of songs… it always ends very high. It always goes up and up. We're about celebrating life, especially now that life is even more precious thanks to those diseases that are around. I think life is for celebration. I will not look on the negative side of it. If can do something positive with my life, and give out a good energy, and lift people's spirits and make them look around this wonderful planet we live on… there is so much information, so much we have to learn, so much we don't know about ourselves. If my personal quest, in its own humble way, can opens some hearts, like people did for me when I was a kid, whether it's a Bob Dylan song or a Sex Pistols song, I think that's a great thing. I refuse to be introspective in a selfish, hum drum way. 

"Rock and roll is like the religion of the youth, at least in America. It's like a religion, it is God," he murmurs reflectively. "When money is God, that's when you are in trouble. There are so many people who make insane amounts of money." he mutters. "The human ego… it's a terrifying thing, isn't it? It's responsible for so many bad things. This planet's not the better for it, that's for sure. Humility is a beautiful thing in the right degree," he laughs, his mood instantly lightening. 

Since it is getting to be about 2:00am we decide we need another drink and call it an interview. 

Actually, if any band out there has a little extra luck, send it this way… I know a band who would appreciate it. 

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