a pair of GENES 

Mike perches on the edge of a chair scratching furiously at the regrowth that’s prickling his recently denuded chest. A dazzling cascade of necklaces falls on this new-bare flesh, tangling as they reach the loose fabric of his shirt. A colourful array of elastic bands strands the almost horizontal fringe from beneath which he peers at intervals. 

Twin brother J pads around in skimpy tee shirt and tights overshadowed by the voluminous black overcoat that drapes his angular form in mystery. In profile his hair stands arrogantly erect like a futuristic architectural fantasy.

Mike and J – Gene and Jezebel. Alter egos or personality extensions? Harbouring genuine intent or a more fickle compulsion to steal attention through subterfuge? Is their music really the language of harnessed torment or just the overdressed yowling of two decorative bodies practiced in the art of posing?

It’s imperative to ask such questions of Gene Loves Jezebel, important to keep those queries in your mind while listening to their music because to skim the surface of their design is not enough. Reaching the core of their expressions is neither a comfortable nor a comforting Journey, and many lazy minds fall by the wayside. But disconcerting as that core may be, as bruising and brutal its realities, its tension is offset by a tenderness that overrides the pain.

So many misconceptions have shrouded GLJ in an artificial mystique that to divine their intent is a Herculean task. The process of perceiving their boundaries is hindered further by their reluctance to isolate and identify. They will talk about themselves and their music, about images and articulation but they refuse to hand over more than the key. You must open the door with the sweat of your own labour. In Gene Loves Jezebel’s more real than real world nothing comes free. 

Let’s eliminate a few points before we begin. GLJ were never part of that Halloweenish phenomenon they called “positive punk”. Tarred with the same brush by an accident of timing, they were rapidly adopted by the ZigZag brigade and hailed, along with the singularly untalented Sex Gangs and their associate mutants, as the mouthpiece of this new tidal flow.

But time has proved the “wave” to be a mere ripple, proved too that Gene Loves Jezebel would never be the mouthpiece for a collective design. Happily they’ve weathered the misplacement with no ill-affect, rather the confusion and frustration that stemmed from this two-year limbo served as a release for their darker shades and as a breeding ground for new ideas and new songs that push their invention further.

Just as bands like Siouxsie and The Banshees emerged like a phoenix from the dying embers of punk to advance and evolve new ground, GLJ will shuffle off the humiliating “Gothic” tag to consolidate an identity of their own. No more flirting on the fringes, Gene Loves Jezebel are primed for action.

J speaks softly, a gentle South Wales accent adding a lyrical pattern to his speech.

“That period was good for us in the sense that we had room to experiment. From the very start we’ve had clear cut ideas of what we’ve wanted to do but we’ve not always had the experience to translate our ideas into music. A lot of the time we were stabbing about in the dark, it was a period of trial and error that was necessary but now it’s behind us.”

Since you last read about GLJ in these pages they released their debut album, “Promises”. Unsettling in its ability to whiplash from stark to exquisite with ravaging power, it marked the culmination of that disorientating period and the birth of a new optimism from the twins. Simultaneously pleasurable and painful, it was a pill too bitter for some to swallow yet in its way it brought GLJ closer to identifying the causes of their unrest and understanding the adaptations they must make.

Mike swivels round to face us, his normally soft voice strident with the cumulative frustration they faced.

“Promises” marked the point where we rid ourselves of all the angst,” he explains. “A lot of the songs were quite violent and painful and reflected the isolation we felt at the time.

“Business hassles had dragged on and on and we were like caged up tigers, all we wanted to do was get on with our work yet other things kept tripping us up. Now we’re learned that a little manipulation on our part can achieve more than blind anger though that’s not what has concentrated our ideas. A definite change has taken place an evolution, a resolution too, to articulate our ideas more fluently, more directly.

“We’re far better musicians now than we were a year ago, partly thanks to all the people we’ve worked with – Steve Golding, John Murphy, John Brand and John Cale. Working with these people you learn a lot about your limits.”

Eager to pursue these new developments, the twins and their cohorts jumped headlong into an extraordinary partnership. John Cale, unpredictable Welsh firebrand and legendary eccentric, expressed and interest in producing a single with them. He saw them live at the ICA and shortly afterwards Gene, Jezebel and friends found themselves in the unlikeliest of settings – a New York studio with Cale at the controls.

“It sounds very romantic really, but his legendary status was secondary to the fact that he’s Welsh,” J smiles. “Also I suppose we were flattered.”

“Up to ‘Promises’, we’d been so insular, “Mike elaborates, “and this seemed like an ideal opportunity to open up a bit.”

With a three-day time limit the single had to be done quickly but Cale, it seemed, had other ideas. “We got on well with him but God, he’s so erratic,” sighs Mike, “almost psychotic. One minute he was really involved, the next he’d be screaming at us to get out.

“The whole affair was a bit of a fiasco, it could have been great but Cale was pressed for time, he was rehearsing for his tour and in the end it was futile. We learned two valuable things through, to improvise more and push ourselves, and that if something isn’t recorded properly no amount of mixing can salvage it.” 

Back in Britain they had everything to prove and partnered up once again with John Brand. The resultant songs marked a sense of release and the start of a less frenzied yet no less urgent chapter in their career. The current single “Influenza (Relapse)” only hints at the power to come. “Shame”, the next single is without a doubt GLJ’s most spectacular creation. Involved yet direct, its appeal should cause tremors of interest further afield than the partisan camp they’ve attracted till now.

The idea of GLJ notching up a hit single is not as outlandish as it sounds. But before any of their fans top themselves, Mike and J are quick to point out that they’ve no intention of adopting Duran tactics overnight. The songs and their subjects will remain the same. “They’ll be brighter, and more direct,” they reiterate. 

Their working class Welsh Catholic upbringing is obviously a source of much of their passion. That close-knit religious environment and the love / hate feelings it provokes fuel much of the fascination for guilt / shame / persecution / savagery / frustration, yet though these words look gloomy in print and would seem to justify accusations that GLJ are into aggression / sado-sexual games / role playing / incest etc., the reality is quite the opposite. Gene Loves Jezebel pay far more tribute to that evergreen hippie ethic of love and peace than to the frustrations of any macabre philosophy.

Mike and J are non-violent gentle people, more than capable of executing and defending their ideas but whose flamboyant stage personas have been completely misread. The only deviance in their music is the twisted path that leads through anguish to tranquillity.

The twins are chortling at being called hippies but they admit that sentimentally it might be true. “We’re not into cock rock,” they agree. “Our characters are naturally colourful but not overtly sexual.” Mike emphasises. “The ugly, chauvinistic attitudes towards sex are just what we’re against.”

Dishonesty and hypocrisy are the two most repulsive failings in the human condition, according to the twins. “Cheating others is bad enough but cheating yourself is really low,” they concur.

They don’t have much respect for pop idols either. “Boy George is just like Dame Edna Everidge really isn’t he?” Mike opines. “Safe, wholesome and dull.”

“Now that he’s got the patronage of the grannies he’s as potent as a cuddly toy,” adds J. They’re two men who clearly aren’t afraid to speak their minds, a fact that’s not guaranteed to win friends and influence the right people but then they don’t care for that.

They start recording their next album soon, probably with ex-Roxy Music producer John Porter. J toys with a ladder in his tights as he bubbles excitedly about the project. “John’s really adept at creating space, which is something we’ve been working on for ages and have never got quite right.

“We’re the kind of group that likes to record lots of tracks for each song and end up taking things out rather than putting them in, those gaps can create an intriguing tension and that tension is the most important thing to us, we never want to lose it.”

Oddballs? Hippies? Theatrical gargoyles? Gene Loves Jezebel remain unconcerned by wild suppositions on their behalf. They stand inscrutable in the microcosm of their songs, knowing that in the real world truth mightn’t always prevail over falsehood – but it serves to keep the canker at bay. 

 

 

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