90’s indie/dance outfit Jesus Jones – perhaps best known for 1990’s global smash ‘Right Here, Right Now’ have announced their sixth album, and first in 16 years is to be released this coming June. The album, titled Passages, sees the band taking charge of their own destiny, after a period of coasting along. As singer and songwriter Mike Edwards says “We just didn’t have any support structure, so we drifted a little. We would still play occasional shows but we lacked the impetus to do anything beyond that.”
Choosing to focus on the band a little more back in 2010. Edwards continues “We had so much fun, every time we played” continues Edwards, “and we just thought if this is fun, why don’t we do more and then we’ll have more fun? It was all quite simple. We wondered why we’d not done it sooner”. So, they took charge of their own social media, cajoled their ex. XFM DJ keyboard player Iain Baker into becoming the band’s new manager, reissued and expanded all of their classic Food Records-era albums and toured the world. All that was missing was new music, so 2016 saw the band head into the studio and release two EP’s. As Edawards comments We’d done everything else, we absolutely felt like a proper band again, but we needed new material to underscore it all. Having said that, it’s never as simple as just pulling a new album out of a hat, I had to take it slowly, to convince myself I was still able to produce anything worthwhile!”
Passages is a collection of songs that see’s the band reflecting on what it actually feels like to be doing this still, after so many years. It was helped by a pledge music campaign, and the band have announced the first of two tours they’ll be undertaking this year. Detals below
MAY
Sunday 28th DARWEN, Live Festival
JUNE
Friday 2nd DERBY, The Venue www.livemusicderby.co.uk
Saturday 3rd MILTON KEYNES, The Craufurd Arms www.thecraufurdarms.com
Sunday 4th CHELTENHAM, Wychwood Festival www.wychwoodfestival.com
Friday 16th CARDIFF, Globe www.globecardiffmusic.com
Wednesday 28th BRISTOL, The Fleece www.thefleece.co.uk
Thursday 29th LONDON, The 100 Club www.the100club.com
