aaamusic | On 11, Jan 2011

AAAmusic hooked up with Cosmo Jarvis: here’s what we discovered!

AAAmusic: Why did you choose a song on gay discrimination as your come back single?

Cosmo Jarvis: Come back? I don’t believe I ever came. I don’t know really. It was a song that as well as ticking all the correct boxes a single should tick (catchiness and shit) I also felt it was a credible creative effort on my part. Not compromising anything creatively to tick those boxes. Just sort of was that way I guess – ‘singalable’. That, and people who I have been playing it to live for the last year seemed to like the idea of it.

AAAmusic: Can you tell us what is the main difference between the first album and the forthcoming one?

CJ: Less tracks, because more tracks attaining different attributes of different genres means the market will get confused, and we cant have the market getting confused now, can we? Because money is the whole point of music, isn’t it. So yeah had to keep the numbers down on this one due the devastating effect releasing a two disc 21 track debut on ‘the market’ had. Their minds couldn’t take it. Attention spans change I guess. I could listen to Chicago transit authority all fucking day. Other than the number of tracks, I guess my production skills have evolved. I mean, the new one is still home made by me and everything but I think it sounds a little more ‘proper’. Not too much. Just enough to make it more relatable to people who thought the last one sounded a bit cheap. More real drums, but still a wide range of instruments used. Some songs are kind heavy rockish songs, others are acoustic and others are rap tales. Still a shit mix of music.

AAAmusic: Will the album explore other social issues?

CJ: I don’t know if it will explore them, but it will certainly describe them. Nothing very current to be honest, other than one song called ‘my day’ about how I might describe my generation in 50 – 60 years time. But many people will hear that song and disagree with many things I am singing about. It’s a very objective song. So although it may seem like I am holding myself in a higher opinion than the people i am singing about in the song, that is not the case. It just seems that way because I am the one singing it. Really, I am as guilty as the next little cunt.

AAAmusic: Does music, in your opinion, really have the power to influence the public opinion?

CJ: Yes, it perpetuates the notion among people that music is a fashion and people must find their place amongst a fashion or they will forever be uncool or worse, be forced to find their own taste in music. The more shit auto tuned, pointlessly romantic, needlessly upbeat, popular sounding, hollow, trendy, sexually suggestive, fuck wit sonic advertisements they push on people, the more people will crave exactly that and the market will continue to be nothing more than a fucking catastrophe. That said, I don’t know if the asshole people are to blame, or the asshole radio is to blame. Its hard to tell. I guess everybody just needs to belong. As for subject matter, with the way censorship is now, anything one did want to say to people is more than likely going to be diluted in some way because someone might be offended, and we cant have that because someone might loose small cross-section of audience. No point now in trying to influence public opinion, its just too far gone. Too scattered around various affecting factors of the most minute profundity and importance. We are a planet of arrogant, ignorant human beings with, I think, hugely flawed prioritisation of the things we think are special about being human. Music is one of those things. Now more than ever it seems many people are stuck between being an honest soul, speaking out for what they feel is right, ignoring what is expected by the majority if it impedes the way their thoughts lead them to live, and not getting caught outside of the thinking of the majority because doing so can affect ones life negatively both officially and unofficially. I suppose what I mean is, even if a person had a cause or message they would die to expose, the sad truth is nowadays it would be wasted on the world (generalisation perhaps, but you get me). People don’t have time to change the world anymore because in life now, if you don’t have a little capitalist in you, you’re fucked. Its hard enough trying to change your life into something you like from the mess you found it in, trying to get comfortable, trying find a woman, trying to feed everybody, trying to get a solid career – and that’s even if you’re rich. Trying to change the world’s life seems like such a task that it would almost be an insult to your existence to spend it worrying about the way your fellow men left the place. The growth and development of the way companies work has become so monstrously systematic that companies and business no longer have real intentions. Just slogans and mindless strings of words that mean nothing to anyone who isn’t already a child of this fully catered for, question-less, gimmick ridden, womb-to-grave-as-quietly-as-possible new world. And the same applies to music which may have been the last real expressions of men and women. Soon it will all be gone. Only Rihanna will remain, she will be 75 but will look 17. She will sing about being an independent woman and how she doesn’t need a man to get by, and that is all she’ll sing about. She will keep her career in tip top condition so she can afford her weekly surgery. Every channel and radio station you flick to, there she’ll be. Keeping millions of customers happy that they made the right choice to make a life long investment in her. Truth is if an artist has the ability to create what will secure them a financial future and stable platform to release records for the remaining years of music as we know it, then why the fuck not? It’ll feed the kids.

AAAmusic: Stephen Fry has said marvellous words on your work. Does this add pressure to you? How do you manage the increasing popularity?

CJ: No pressure, just very pleased such an ace actor and writer liked something I made. I don’t manage it, just have to do a few more interviews and repeat myself a lot more.

AAAmusic: Which new artists do you find more interesting at the moment?

CJ: I just watched the Woodstock video of Joe Cocker doing ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, also really into Diplodocus, and that Nico lady.

AAAmusic: You are a film maker who developed the passion for music by writing the soundtracks for your movies. Of which movie would you have wanted to write the music for?

CJ: From any? Well i guess it would have to be for ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’. That or the new ‘Inside Man’ ‘cos the music in that movie sucked infected penis.

AAAmusic: If you could pick a song as your life soundtrack, which song would you chose?

CJ: ‘I think I’ll disappear now’ – Crash test dummies.

AAAmusic: Can you give us any details on the tour?

CJ: No. I know nothing. It’s all on the Myspace.

AAAmusic: Will the tour feature any visuals?

CJ: Only for those with their ears open.

Author: Roberta Capuano