JADISJADIS
The English neo-progressive rockband JADIS got me into the progressive scene a few years ago. I never showed a big interest in the progressive rockscene, although I did like ASIA, PENDRAGON and several others, I never really got into the prog., until I heard and saw JADIS live. This band changed my feelings towards prog. and ever since then I have been checking out all prog. acts. JADIS play a progressive rockstyle that will attract to many other people beside prog. rockfans. I knew the time had come to do an interview with these guys, because they belong to the top of progressive rock, along with PENDRAGON, IQ, PALLAS and ARENA. I talked with vocalist/guitarist Gary Chandler about the past, present and future.
Did any of the Jadis members do something musically before Jadis?
Yes . Martin was
already playing in an early version of IQ which was a Southampton
band called the Lens , John Jowitt was in a Birmingham based band
called Ark, Steve was in various local bands and I have been in
Jadis since I was about 5 years old ..or at least it seems that
long...
When did you
actually start with Jadis?
I started the band when I was at school at which point it had
other names such as Icarus & Saruman Grass, it eventually
became Jadis in about '82 and that was about the time when we all
decided to move up to London to further our career or so we
thought, it didn't quite work out that way, we basically spent
most of our time brewing homemade wine and beer & living on
porridge and played only a handful of gigs, we became quite poor
very quickly.& this was the start of many, many line up
changes
Which
bands influenced you?
Well actually my
tastes in music changed dramatically in the late seventies I went
from listening to the Plan by the Osmonds to listening to Trick
of the Tail by Genesis and that was the point where I decided
that I wanted to do or play something that had a similar
emotional effect on me as that album did as well as many other
Genesis albums, I was also very influenced by the styles and
playing of Andy Latimer , Alex Lifeson ,Jeff Beck & Dave
Gilmour.
Please tell us everything about your debut CD 'More than meets the eye'?
Well that album was
a real turning point for us, we had over the years built up quite
a 'stash' of material but were never in a postion to be able to
go into the studio and record it properly, up until that time we
were still recording demo version of songs onto cassettes and I
always knew that we could do so much better & do the songs
justice given the time , money & producer ,it was around that
time that we met up with Rob Aubrey who has since engineered
& co - produced all the subsequent Jadis albums and with his
know how has managed to help get the best out of us as players
& as a band. The album got terrific reviews when it was first
released back in '92 and recieved quite a lot of airplay this led
to a load more gigs in and around Europe which we were very
thankful for.
In the years to come you put out 3 more
full length CDs which one do you consider your best work?
I actually like all
of them , there are no albums that I dislike the only regret that
I have when I listen back to them is that I wish I had
intergrated different sounds or production ideas into them which
is something you can only see with hindsight, with each album we
have used lots of different ideas & techniques, I suppose if
I had to choose I would say that Somersault was the most
rewarding because there is so much going on, musically it changes
course with every minute although I am sure that there are few
critics who might say that is a negative point, once we'd got all
the more complicated stuff out of our systems we headed for a
more simplistic song orientated approach to our next CD
'Understand' was a very easy album to write I was totally
surprised how easily it happened , my only stressful time with it
was when I was having to come up with the lyrics & vocal
melodies for half the songs on the album the night before they
were to be recorded , I always put off writing the words until
the very last minute, when I'm in the studio I always enjoy the
guitar playing side more especially when bouncing production
ideas with Rob.
Can we expect some side projects from you in the near future?
I really would like the chance to do that but unfortunately all these adventures & ideas cost money to realise especially if you want to do them properly. Recording a project that has no guaranteed market place can be a very risky business financially luckily when we make a Jadis album now there isn't the same risk because we are at a stage where we manage to make a profit on them, although it hasn't always been as easy. I was once involved in project with a female singer , the band was called Mink I personally thought it was going to be a winner , it was totally different from anything that Jadis had ever done but although we tried very hard to get some interest it seemed to fall on deaf ears which I think is a real shame.
Jadis
just put out a new CD with some rare material on it can you tell
us about it ?
Yeah it is called Medium Rare it has 14 tracks on it & comes to around 74 minutes, it contains the now deleted EPs 'Once upon a time & 'Once or Twice' along with some of the better recorded demos that we have made in the past, there are also live & acoustic versions of tracks & even a cover version of The Alan Parsons classic 'Old & Wise' we have actually got enough stuff in the archives to do a follow up to Medium Rare so I'm sure that will happen at some point.
What is your
opinion about the Neo prog scene which has a large underground
following?
Good luck to them !!if they are a decent band then they deserve a decent following I am not sure at what point this Neo tag gets stuck on to bands ,Jadis have been around since the 80's in various shapes & sizes and we have had the Neo tag thrown at us on numerous occasions but I have found that you dont have to limit yourself to a 'Prog' audience if it is good enough music listeners outside the prog fraternity will enjoy it .
Are you planning on
another tour here in Europe?
Yes I am working on
it at the moment , it will either be in late August or at the
very beginning of 2002
We are organising an outdoor concert in the New Forest here in
England on 14th July and this will be recorded for a future live
CD which will be out in late August and it will be the first live
cd to feature what most consider the more successful Jadis line
up , that being Steve Christey , Martin Orford ,John Jowitt &
Myself