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Jezebel Loves Life

North County Entertainer Nov. 8 – 21

Jay Aston, lead singer / songwriter of Gene Loves Jezebel, will no doubt remember the past two years for the rest of his life. Not only did his twin brother, Michael, co-front man for Jezebel, leave the band to pursue a solo career, but Aston also parted ways with the band’s manager and a long-time girlfriend. So much change almost caused the Welsh rockers to disband but Aston

As Aston explains in this exclusive interview with the Entertainer, writing the songs for and putting together the album was truly a cathartic experience. It was a difficult road to take, but one he’s happy to have taken. 

How do you feel Kiss of Life differs from the band’s previous albums? 

Well, fundamentally obviously Michael’s not there, but apart from that on the other albums we were always touring and working; it was done in sort of an empirical process. You know, the girls, the late clubs, two shows a night, the endless travelling… 

So were you able to spend more time than usual on this album? 

Yes, we grabbed a few weeks here to do a few songs and a few weeks there to mix it on the other albums. This album was coming out at the conclusion of that period of Mike and I working together when it was us against the world, our backs against the wall, all those clichés. We came off our South American tour after touring the U.S. a few times, Europe, Japan – just exhausted, physically and mentally – plus we’d both grown to an extent that we didn’t feel we should compromise each other anymore over a lyric or a title or the way the videos looked. We felt we had grown comfortable enough on the stage to hold our own ground. It was kind of two leaders in the band, which didn’t really work great. 

How do you feel the transition has been since Michael left the band? 

It’s early days again. The only band we’ve ever been in is Gene Loves Jezebel, so it’s the only experience I can draw on, it’s all I can compare it to – the old to the new. It’s a lot more compact more focused, but that’s what groups should be. It should be four, five, six however many people, all putting in a better part to make the whole. We’re much more prolific as a result of Mike going, but what I lose, of course, is that Mike was a very strong, funny, witty individual and I miss his company. On stage there were times when the magic occurred less frequently in the last couple of years, but companionship was a huge part of that line-up of the group. 

Was the separation a fairly amicable one? 

Fairly. It’s very hard to tell someone you’re very close to the truth. That’s how this album differs, and how my experience is different. Before we’d all be putting ideas in and you’d get a feeling of whatever the song was about, but with this one, all of the things I was frightened to say or do, I was doing on the album. Mike and I weren’t getting along. I wasn’t speaking to him about my true feelings and he wasn’t telling me his true feelings. In the end it just split apart and one day he said, ‘I’m leaving’. It would have been much better if we had just been truthful with each other and said it’s time we just got on with our lives. But instead it was a lot more painful. And there were other changes going on too, we all moved to different parts of London – that was fairly hectic; we changed managers – he was a very close friend but we just didn’t feel it was working out; girlfriend situations had changed – I’d come out of a long relationship which I shouldn’t have been in…. So the album just marked a period of me facing up to myself, and the group facing up and saying, ‘Hey, do we still want to be around?’ And the answer was Kiss of Life, I guess. 

The content of the album seems to center around the dichotomy between pain and joy, and finding hope in an often-difficult world. 

Yes, that’s how it differs from other albums, too. It’s much more conceptual in that sense. Every song has its place and I hope that when each song comes on you recognize it, not just as a sonic whole but as a song with its own identity. I feel like a different person since I’ve come through all that and started working again, but at the time I was in a very dark place, I felt totally isolated and I feared for my own sanity. Even so, I knew it was a journey I had to take. 

You were quoted as saying that in some ways the whole album is about exorcism, getting rid of demons…. 

I think all great music is about that. That’s where expression comes in. If you like to express yourself then happiness should lie at the end of that expression once its let out and has been released. 

It almost seems as though when you were creating the album you knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel before you had actually seen it for yourself, is that true? 

Yeah, I can see that. When we were recording yes, but prior to that when I was writing most of the songs I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Many strange things had happened to me in the two years between albums. As I said, I feared for my own sanity. I wasn’t sure where I was going, or if I was in the right place. All I knew for sure in the purest sense of language was that I could communicate my own fears about the future, the past, and even the present. I came through that challenge…I saw that bright erotic fog, which is the way I describe it. 

How did Gene Loves Jezebel come into existence? 

Let me try and paint the picture. It was November or December of late 1981. Michael and I had just moved up from Wales, with our guitarist being absent at the time. We were particularly naïve – heads full of ideas, you know – three young guys in for a good time, going to the big city. Just into meeting all kinds of girls, going to clubs. Anyway, we ended up working with a lot of young filmmakers and artists. It was all very bohemian, egalitarian - full of that pretentious stuff you do when you’re very young, you know? Our music obviously came into that sphere – it was just part of it. It was all very performance based; we’d make little films. Somehow or another we managed to get a gig and suddenly we were a rock ‘n roll group. The other groups around at the time were all like Southern Death Cult, Bauhaus, Killing Joke; all very dark, all post-punk. We were much more performance based, much more into the idea of Technicolor and theater. So we needed a name which suggested performance and also suggested the theater. We wanted something that people didn’t put on the back of their leather jackets, so I thought nobody would ever stick on a name like Gene Loves Jezebel. I was proved wrong, of course. 

How come you’ve decided to remain in London? 

I won’t cite any of my contemporaries, but the ones that I know who have moved have ended up sounding like generic, almost heavy metal American rock ‘n roll bands, and I think that trip ought to be left to American rock ‘n roll bands to do. In the end I wanted it to be content, and content means that I have to be somewhere where I can focus, with my feet on the ground, and be aware of truth as opposed to bullshit. So I’ve always stayed in London for that fear of losing that innocence, that pure spirit within us all. 

This album has a little harder edge to it than what you’ve done in the past. Is your music evolving into something more like The Cult’s hard rock as opposed to pop rock? 

I don’t see us as having much in common with The Cult. I also don’t see us as pop rock, but I’ve got no hang-up with popular songs. From a young age I loved Dylan and anyone who could put a tune together to communicate something in the space of three, four or five minutes. But I think what The Cult does is cynical at times. I think their best work was when they were truly themselves on the Love album. I don’t see why they need to be like Led Zepplin. There has already been a Led Zepplin. Why don’t they just be the Cult? Just go inside yourself and dare to be different – it’s easy, just be yourself.

A renewed Gene Loves Jezebel will perform at the Starlight Bowl on November 16. 
 
 

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