Hot Press meets Jagwar Ma

It’s a sorry state of affairs when an Australian musician who has just crafted what could potentially be the soundtrack of the summer is envious of an Irish journo. “Don’t say that!” Jono Ma groans when I tell him about the heatwave gripping Dublin. “We’re just coming into winter here.” It doesn’t help that he’s essentially bedbound, recovering from a chronic illness that nearly crippled one of his organs and shut his body down. “Being in bed ill is not where I want to be right now. But I’m starting to improve.”

You can feel his frustration. In Howlin, Jono and vocalist Gabriel Winterfield have a debut that should rank as one of the best of the year. No wonder he longs to be out there playing it to the world. He’s missed Forbidden Fruit; hopefully he’ll be fighting fit to support The xx in Dublin’s O2.
Jono is the production half of Sydney duo Jagwar Ma, a group who wed electronics and an old strain of British psychedelia in a way that occasionally recalls The Happy Mondays, Screamadelica and ‘Fool’s Gold’, without being a facsimile of baggy. The pair crossed paths on Sydney’s music scene some years back, bonding when watching Enter The Dragon at a friend’s house and realising they could both quote the entire thing. They finally collaborated when Jono had some instrumentals that needed a vocalist.
“Our skills are really complimentary,” explains Jono. “I can’t sing, Gab can’t produce or make beats!”
A clip for early track ‘Come Save Me’ piqued XL’s attention and suddenly the UK music press was gripped. Jono suggested they record an album in a pal’s studio in northern France, feeling that they should really be on this side of the globe.
“Australia’s so far away from everything. It’s super isolated here. After playing around Sydney for a while, it definitely starts to feel a little claustrophobic. Some bands can make it really big in Australia and never break outside. There’s a huge Aussie hip hop scene that’s not really my thing. Then there’s this whole pub rock thing. Then there’s a novelty band thing. I don’t know how to describe it... joke songs that really seem to connect with the B-grade humour of the ‘average Joe’. We weren’t making that music.”
The ‘Madchester’ tag has been bandied about quite a bit already, but is a little unfair. When talking about inspiration, Jono mentions Motown, as well as their affinity for legendary producers like Joe Meek and Phil Spector. Then you listen to Howlin’s glorious rush and realise they’re more in debt, not to the Bobby Gillespies, Andrew Weatheralls and Ian Browns of this world, but to the music that influenced that British lot.
“Absolutely and it’s nice to hear that actually!” says Jono with a palpable sense of relief. “There’s been a lot of ‘The Second Coming of the Happy Mondays, Roses, Whatever...’ stuff. We weren’t referencing those bands at all when we were making the record. It wasn’t until after the album was done that I was watching the Screamadelica: Classic Records documentary. Bobby Gillepsie and Andrew Innes were talking about how much they were into Phil Spector at the time of making that record. I was like, ‘Ah, ok, maybe that’s where this parallel is!’ We’re drawing upon similar influences but trying to recontextualise it in electronic dance music.”
In common with producers like the aforementioned Weatherall, Jagwar Ma are big on the importance of the studio, following the tenet that the producer is king.
“It’s very much about that process of manipulation in the studio. Even on the record, there’s lots of times where we’re sort of sampling ourselves, sampling vocals. There’s bits of certain songs in other songs.”
A tough hypothetical for someone so in awe of the Wall Of Sound technique: crazy old Phil Spector somehow gets out of his jail sentence for second degree murder, wants to get back in the production saddle, and gives Jagwar Ma an unexpected call... do they work with him?
“Hahaha! That is a brilliant question! I would have to ponder that for a long time to make a decision. My initial reaction would be, ‘I have to do this’. Even if I got killed, what a way to go: Shot dead by Phil Spector, in the studio! I would say post-prison sentence, he may be a little past his prime...”
You can’t imagine the crazy-haired septuagenarian turning in such a sun-drenched and complex work as Howlin this century. People always say the sunshine in Madchester came from the new availability of ecstasy. They’re clearly a different proposition, so is Jagwar Ma good music to take drugs to?
“I hope so!” Jono giggles. “But just for the record, we were completely sober the whole time we made the record. We were in the middle of nowhere in France. We drank a bit of red wine with dinner or whatever but the psychedelia came from a more organic place.”
However it’s concocted, Jagwar Ma’s music has had a few famous heads spinning. Foals are close friends and their ardent champions, whilst Noel Gallagher confesses that, when he meets with his former Oasis bandmates, they’re too busy fawning over Jagwar Ma to talk about potential reunions.
“He actually said something like... the fate of music is in our hands!” Jono giggles. “No pressure or anything.”

Howlin' is out now on Marathon Artists.