Interviews - Jolly

Jolly is a US based band based in New York City, consisting of Anadale (guitars, vocals), Anthony Rondione (bass, vocals), Joe Reilly (keyboards, samples) and Louis Abramson (drums). Their musical influences are widespread, with as diverse acts as Depeche Mode, Mike Patton and Tool as examples. The band's stated vision is to create music that intrigues avid listeners without compromising accessibility.

In September 2008 their first effort was released, a demo EP named The Revolutionary Cult. A few month later they hooked up with Galileo Records and Progrock Records, who issued their debut album Forty-Six Minutes, Twelve Seconds of Music in late July 2009.

Let's go straight to the first album. Please tell us more about Forty Six Minutes, Twelve Seconds of Music from 2009

I personally was not involved in the recording of 46:12. During this time I was just involved in The Audio Guide project in it's early stages, which for the most part were conversations about the idea of happiness that grew into how we could study this and even shape it. Anadale(Guitar/Vocals) brought up the use of binaural tones, which can be found on 46:12, and I thought it would be interesting to survey people to get a better understanding of their thoughts of happiness. At the time, I was involving myself in a lot of focus groups, which get peoples' thoughts on specific products, so i thought it would be interesting to apply this to an emotion. 46:12 was being written and recorded while all of this was going on. I sort of consider it as a taste of JOLLY or an introduction to some of these ideas to get people ready for what was to come.

What were you up to after that release ?

After the release of 46:12 what weren't we up to?! haha. Right around the time of the release, I had become a part of the music side of the band so we were playing live promoting the album as much as we could. We got in contact with some guy thousands of miles away in Holland name Rob Palman who is now our manager. He's been great and has helped us in so many ways. Then a quick flight over an exploding volcano in Iceland to do a mini tour with Riverside and Pure Reason Revolution, both of which are great people who made the experience that much better, not to mention the fans at the shows who were awesome. They really made us feel welcomed and we appreciate it. Soon after we got signed to InsideOut so it's been an interesting year for us. Did I mention, all of this while still working on The Audio Guide? It's been a lot of work but it's worth every second.

You have just released your new album The Audio Guide To Happiness Part 1. Please tell us more about this album.

The Audio Guide, and the meaning behind it is something we all feel very strong about and have been working on since before, during, and after 46:12. And even though part 2 is compete, it's still an on going project as we hear feed back about it's effects. We want listeners to get involved, let us know how you feel after you go through it and become familiar with it! It truly is an experience and I hope that's how people will go into listening to it.

I think the idea of what makes you happy these days is about listening to sounds of the ocean, or watching peaceful imagery. We want people to understand that happiness is about experiencing and embracing all aspects of emotion. This album brings the listener through heavy, dark, melancholy and happy songs mixed with specific binaural tones. The idea is for you to experience these ebbs and flows with the album, let yourself follow the album emotionally.

How would you compare your two albums ?

Overall I would say 46:12 is more melancholy and less dynamic then The Audio Guide. Not to take anything away from 46:12 because I think it's an amazing album, even though I wasn't on it haha, but The Audio Guide is an organic progression and step forward towards what we want out of music. The core JOLLY sounds is still present, we've just evolved which is always a good thing. This album is heavier, sadder, happier, groovier, more energetic, I hope that people evolve with us because there are defiantly more styles and sounds on this album compared to the first.

What is the lyrical topics on your two albums ?

Because The Audio Guide is such a personal experience for each different listener I'd rather let them interpret the lyrics how they see fit to help them in their situations. I will say though, lyrically we write more towards basic, raw human emotion as opposed to mythical creatures and fantastical journeys.

What inspires you to create new music and what is your recording technics ?

I think just seeing what we can come up with and pushing our sound and style is what inspires us.

The recording process for us is magical. As cliché as this is going to sound (please forgive me), it's like watching a tree bloom. Going into it we have this great big green tree, it's a really nice tree, don't get me wrong, but through recording fruit starts to grow and flowers start to blossom here and there. Now that same tree has colors and textures that really bring it to life.

We all try a lot of different things in recording, there's a lot of experimenting that goes on. Louis(Drummer/Producer) is great to work with in recording and he has grown so much production wise since 46:12. What he does in mixing and producing plays a huge part in our sound. We also go through the mix together until we are all completely happy with it. As hard as this is, it's worth it in the end.

I have been listening to The Audio Guide To Happiness Part 1 today. A very interesting experience, btw. I got the feeling I was listening to post-rock. Just to give those of us who are unknown with your music a bit of a reference point or two: How would you describe your music ?

It's JOLLY ha. It's heavy, groovy, ambient, plush, intense, relaxing, all while being very melodic. In my opinion Joe(Keyboard) is a huge part of the JOLLY sound. We have such a thick, textured sound and i feel like what he plays and the interesting sounds he uses really make our sound that much more special, it separates us from other Rock bands.

How is your gigs situation at the moment. Do you find it difficult to get gigs these days ?

As of late we've been concentrating on finishing the album and dealing with it's release but we have a show in New York City set up for our album release. We are currently looking for opportunities to return to Europe to play shows for The Audio Guide, we'd love to come back. Until then we're planning shows around the North East U.S.

What is your plans for the rest of this year and beyond ?

Play live as much as possible, get back to writing and recording, take over the world. I'm not sure of the order, but that's the plan in a nut shell.

To wrap up this interview, is there anything you want to add to this interview ?

I just hope people take the time to listen through this album and get the full experience and get ready for us.

JOLLY loves you.

Thank you to Anthony for this interview

Their PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=4906" rel="nofollow - and their homepage is http://www.jollyband.com/" rel="nofollow -