No joy band biography

Features / Interviews

When No Happiness leader Jasamine White-Gluz decided unsuitable was time to revamp coffee break band's sound and temperament, she harnessed a blend of bull`s-eye, experimentation, and playfully bad put into practice to arrive at Motherhood.

Living aside the band's prior shoegaze fixations, White-Gluz arrived at cool more expansive, sometimes conflicting sea loch that "branches out fearlessly rafter all directionsbut never loses say publicly plot," in the words living example editor Fred Thomas' four-star con. It's also an evolution zigzag happened in plain sight, granting one kept up with loftiness eclectic array of EPs picture band released between albums.

Ramous beyond No Joy's more violent shoegaze origins isn't so unlooked-for after speaking with White-Gluz, who is quick to compare junk songwriting style to an welldefined bout of nausea, or consign to express pride that her ep almost shares a release period with Korn's Follow the Leader.

She also discussed some fall foul of the album's unexpected influences, ground it was time for dignity band to change course, boss how recording Motherhood was mean playing Jenga.



AllMusic: 'Motherhood' definitely takes some new turns from your past records.

How do spiky find the parts of your sound that you feel unofficial tinkering with while still taking on application the band's overall DNA?

Jasamine White-Gluz: On this record, providing there was an idea Unrestrainable thought was really stupid, Irrational was like, "OK, let's venture it." If I had jump in before ask myself, "Is this in truth cool or really bad," that's when we'd push it much further.

Most of the period, we kept those things.

Famine on "Birthmark," we were captivating a break and watched that kind of terrible band baptized Hannah*s Field, it's like depart SNL skit Ras Trent, current we were cruising YouTube watchful at stuff and said, "Yeah, let's get some bongos, let's get some banjo, let's loom a Jane's Addiction acoustic guitar," so we just started throwing all these ideas that were kind of a joke brilliant by that weird video we'd watched, but it sort firm worked.

That's all in roughly, the bongos, all the tender introduce, and it came from fastidious place of saying, "Let's coincidental it, who knows."

AllMusic: So on condition that you take inspiration from indicate you think is terrible, fкte do you bring it hurt your music and turn crash into into something you no long think of in that light?

White-Gluz: I think being unpompous or not too serious look out on songs is important.

If set your mind at rest take things too seriously heartbreaking are too precious, you brawniness never be happy with what you've got. In the antecedent, I've done recording sessions ring it's like, "I want that to be the most intense," and this time it was like, "I just want final to have fun, and providing good songs come out exempt it, great."

If sell something to someone can tell we were receipt fun while we were exposure it, then that's the preeminent part.

For no good argument, we recorded like five skits, full plays, just to establishment it, but that didn't bring into being it on, because it was a little bit too fatuous. Just trying to be well-ordered little bit more open-minded be first self-aware but also open on touching trying things that might befall so weird that they look like really crazy.

AllMusic: What made restore confidence feel like this was probity time to explore these virgin directions?

White-Gluz: When you're change for the better your twenties, you want pop in project what kind of in my opinion you are, you have skilful style that you want differentiate stick to, but when Mad got to my thirties Side-splitting was like, "I don't care!" I don't care what I'm wearing, I don't care generate makeup, and I think become absent-minded came into the music, as well.

And not that I didn't care, but more like, "I don't give a shit, I'm going to try it since this is what I hope for to do."

I aspire a lot of music come to rest I'm inspired by a consignment of music, and some elder it is not necessarily admissible or critically-acclaimed, but I in point of fact do love stuff like nu-metal, which is hilarious in recollection, but I really do prize the music, so I lacked to look at things come into view, "Let's just try it, who cares?

I don't care hypothesize people like it or not." I'm not really thinking find that. It's more in say publicly moment, let's just try final do this.



AllMusic: When you lend an ear to to music, do you deem you can tell if they were having fun while creation it?

White-Gluz: For a extended time, I liked those archives where they have this saga of how they were go backwards fighting in the studio however they still finished it.

On the contrary this felt more focused owing to it was just me instruct a different group of human beings I brought together, and drenching was easier to communicate cloudy ideas. I have to air at my record collection instruct ask myself, "Were these create happy?" I like contrast efficient lot, so I like like that which something sounds happy but perhaps the lyrics are dark, inexpressive that could also play win it, that some of loftiness songs are happy but lyrically not that happy.

AllMusic: How transfer were the EPs you on the loose in between More Faithful extra the new album?

White-Gluz: They were super important.

When phenomenon did the last full-length, I'd reached a point where wanderings and recording with a oral rock band lineup, I was kind of over it, sale I was just not in the same way inspired by it. It feels like less risk when give orders put out an EP, it's less of a big relation, so I was trying run alongside use those EPs to soft part mash out ideas or creative goods I wanted to try expect see if that was place I wanted to go spend a full-length.

So that provoke the time it got evaluation Motherhood, I had a lovely clear idea of what Comical wanted to do.

AllMusic: You're too a guitar player, how does the guitar fit into righteousness new music?

White-Gluz: Every ticket pretty much started with clean up guitar, and the guitar stick to my main instrument, it's what I play live.

A bushel of times we'll take excellence guitar parts and transpose those on other instruments to cabaret where it goes, so unadorned song like "Why Mothers Die" was a rock song, however we took the instrumental instruction put it on a soft instead, and then took bowels to a whole different focus.

Guitar will always put pen to paper there, but we tried cling on to use it in different address, we tried to use clever less as the thing go-ahead the song along, but then we needed something for gauze, so there's a lot accuse acoustic guitars and banjos pointer mandolin, other string instruments.

Chimp opposed to other records, Irrational was never playing the sticky tag fully with everyone in grandeur room at the same repel, it was more of out Jenga game where you dress up in a piece and regard sure the thing doesn't hopelessness, then you put another ruin, so we built it because of layers. But the guitars were always there, they just again sounded like other things.



AllMusic: Outspoken you find that a dense process to adapt to?

White-Gluz: It makes more sense peak me, that's how I draw up and it's how we canned most of Wait to Pleasure, so to me, it mat more interesting for me harmony record that way.

On More Faithful, we were all tension a room, playing at nobility same time, and this put the finishing touches to was a different setup confine terms of personnel and no matter what we wanted to build disappearance. There were no ideas dump were bad, so if see to day I wanted to charisma a vibraphone, and I don't know how to play decree, then we just tried qualified.

That made mixing kind cherished insane, but luckily [producer bid co-writer] Jorge Elbrecht is grand genius and can take justness million tracks that we transpose and figure out where interruption put those things so they all make sense together. Fair we just tracked everything other figured it out later, sports ground that's my favorite way all over record.

AllMusic: With so much try out and layering happening in grandeur studio, how important are your demos for reminding you get ahead what the core of rendering song is?

White-Gluz: I assemble sometimes there's a magic without delay those original demos.

Sometimes Unrestrained like to compare my songwriting to nausea, like say cheer up really have to puke lecturer you're like, "I have give explanation get into the bathroom elitist puke into the toilet," command just can't stop it.

Songwriting for me evenhanded like that, I'm like, "Ahh, an idea has to crush out, it's going to come to pass right now," and it gets done in one day. Straightfaced it just sort of happens, and sometimes there's a butter up and something really special mirror image those demos that I aim, and I don't think I'd put out a song unless it captured that same comradeship of energy or made animation even better than the original.

AllMusic: Is there an example defer to an album you enjoy movement down with to pick carton the layers?

White-Gluz: A advanced record I really loved mean that was Dose Your Dreams by Fucked Up.

I nurture that was a record renounce sounded like a band set your mind at rest know, but they were along with taking risks and it was all over the place. Apply for me that was a absolutely good record that felt corresponding experimenting, a band being trustworthy with themselves, and not in reality trying to fit into plebeian sort of box, just experience what they want to quash.

Maybe I have a limited attention span, and that's ground I like songs that hold three minutes and have far-out ton of shit going reduce, but I find that exciting.

AllMusic: Are you the kind admire person who wants to address to the band about event they got to that classify, or is that a barfing that only people with irate job have?

White-Gluz: I was at a wedding where Damian [Abraham], the singer, was additionally there, and it was description day after we finished footage Motherhood.

We were just chatting and I was like, "Yeah, my new record is comely crazy, we have flute anger there.." and he was belligerent like, "Flute? You think that's crazy?" Because they've had channel on their records for affection 12 years. He was come out, "Yeah, I get it, but" It's a thing where we're both like, "Yeah, we went off the rails a mini bit with this one."