Band Of The Week - Junk Drawer
This week’s Band of the Week is Belfast quartet Junk Drawer, who have just released their debut album ‘Ready For The House’. The record mixes slacker and garage rock sounds while hitting hard on mental health, and the general Irish mood. The band took a moment to talk to us about the album in more depth.
So, your debut album ‘Ready For The House’ is out now! How does it feel?
We've had this material written for a while so pandemic aside, it's brilliant to just have it out in the world & out of our minds & hard drives. It's a collection of songs that sum up our personal & musical growth over the past 3ish years, weaving that jaded indie rock with exploratory psych/krautrock. It's obviously pretty shite that all gigs are off for a while, but that's a first world problem and nothing's stopping folks from listening to introverted music for a while.
What is the meaning behind the title?
The title is actually a homage to the Texan outsider musician Jandek for whom we have a shared appreciation. It was the name of his first record, and we thought more than anything else that his phrase summed up the prevailing mood of the album. We tried not to steal the title, honest we did, but in our typical defeatist nature, we agreed during a discussion - one of dozens - about album titles one night that we'd never hit gold like Jandek did, so opted instead to pay tribute to the great one. And for a change (for us) the comic timing is spot on.
It is out via Irish indie label Art For Blind, how did that partnership come about?
Art For Blind have been releasing countless wonderful Irish releases with no particular regard for genre in mind - anything from PowPig's excitable pop, Wild Rocket's gargantuan cosmic repetition & possibly Ireland's best psych band, The Altered Hours. I believe we may have politely pestered them several times before they finally agreed to release the LP after seeing us live and having a chat. Dany & Edel who run the label are a wonderful pair, heavily involved in the arts community in Sligo, and they've said before they put it out that they were thinking of ceasing label operations, so for them to go to the efforts they've went to for us and ask very little in return - it means such a great deal.
Lyrical duties are shared between Jake and Stevie Lennox in the band, how do you decide who writes or sings on each track? Do your styles differ?
I think we're two sides of the same coin in a lot of ways. Stevie is more cynical in general, and up until now has been maybe more surrealistically and sardonically-inclined, with narrative placement leaning towards an intrusive and ongoing inner monologue filled with some stream of consciousness references. Jake would be more poetically and emotionally inclined, and generally applies a more optimistic, dreamlike approach. The yin-yang here is narrative we've happily fallen into as it showcases the duality of one's personality on a daily basis. That said, Stevie has leant further into emotional honesty, whereas Jake's writing has been drifting into the surreal, and that relationship has become quite symbiotic.
All of the lyrics are probably true for each of us much of the time, but in terms of decision-making, it flows rather easily. We have an intuition for most of the creative elements of the band, and can normally tell who belongs on what song - it's never been a source of disagreement - but sometimes it's pure pragmatism. Due to a love of classic pop & folk, we're leaning further into harmonies, and there's a song on the LP ('What I've Learned/What I'm Learning') that's fully split lyrically & vocally so I think that line will continue to blur.
What are the key themes and inspirations within the album?
Jake: Obviously we haven't different issues affecting us personally so, while the lyrics may share philosophy, the origins differ. My inspiration comes when I'm either at my lowest or when I've just had an epiphany so they're either completely mistrenthropic or hugely hopeful, like stars from the gutters stuff. A lot of this material was written was I was going through a serious battle with an eating disorder; most of my songs tackle that that in some way. Bulimia has catastrophic effects on everyday life, both mental & physical, that leave you unable to live your day normally. I'm glad I wrote those words so I have a journal to look back on reminding me never to go back to that place.
During your live sets, you share instruments, so when putting a set list together, how do you decide who plays which instrument?
People seem very perplexed by this one just because it's not the standard way of doing things, but honestly, switching is second nature to us at this point it's become very easy to flow & entertain crowds in between with our hilarious ramblings. It was once described as "not conducive to the vibe", but we've managed to make it both deepen and become the vibe.When writing, it's entirely up to whomever would like to play a particular instrument on a song. On many occasions, Brian has had a bassline so we configure ourselves around based on what we think we can add most to or have fun with. The only consistency is that Stevie plays guitar; he's done synth & drum duties in the past but these are for one-off tunes that we generally don't play live. He's also the weakest active drummer by his own admission. Then it depends whether Rory & Jake want to play drums on a song - sometimes one is better suited to it so we decide on a case to case basis.In terms of actual setlist, we need to make sure that no-one picks up the same instrument more than twice as that would be quite time consuming. We structure the set with peaks & troughs and a gradual gradient like other bands, but with the added spice of time-consciousness. Our songs are already consistently too long for the average listener so this is a fun challenge we like to navigate around, starting with some more straightforward indie rock numbers and working deeper into the psyche with the songs that allow us to expand and contract as one, never sounding like anything other than ourselves. It's been a rocky journey to becoming a live band we believe in, and I could talk live philosophy all day. Ultimately, I think the endgoal is that no matter what configuration we're in, it's necessary that we function as a single organism dynamically, so when the peaks of the four come, that energy is fully transferred to the audience.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
Jake's line in 'Ego Death in Akron, Ohio' "I've seen people at monuments still looking for something to see" sums up a very specific feeling that I've felt an awful lot in my life - and I'm sure that's universal. You spend your time, money, effort to achieve something, and when you get everything you wanted, that was just what you once wanted. 'Year of the Sofa' tackles a similar kind of ennui, and I suppose that circles back to that recurring feeling of expecting some climax, or feeling, or peak that does not arrive that we both seem obsessed with.
Now the album is out there, what next?
We'll actually already have a new track out over summer called 'Tears In Costa' which is probably the most successful pop song we've written (in that it's only 3 minutes long - much to the relief of our PR & radio plugging efforts). It's going to feature on the third volume of A Litany of Failures, a wonderful Irish compilation series, featuring eclectic, exclusively grassroots artists that we have a part in running to bring the Irish music community together. I think it's going to be particularly timely. We can't wait to get back into the practice space and explore some sounds but more than anything, we want to make up for lost time live and make our way over to the UK to have ourselves another tour. Then, having found ourselves with a newly blank canvas, hopefully we'll not fall off the road to inspirado