John & Jehn: The mind travellers of Costa Brava

Fresh from headlining the Artrocker Tour last month, John & Jehn are already back at work on their new album.

Speaking to Artrocker.TV, the duo exclusively revealed that it’s going to an audio-visual experience with an experimental approach to format, and also that the beaches of Spain have got a lot to answer for…

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John: The next record is going to be called Costa Brava – it’s going to be a new aesthetic for us; we’re working on something really spacey and open. It’s quite difficult to describe it at this time, but it’s going to be ambient and quite groovy at the same time. Basically, it’s going to be weird. Ha ha!

Artrocker: How did the name of the record come about?

Jehn: We spent some time on the Spanish coast, and had a special and amazing time there – so we decided we wanted to choose it as a set in which a story takes place.

The thing is we’ve been asked to do loads of music for films recently, that’s we have to work up early so much! Mainly short films and adverts recently…

John: We did the music for Chanel recently.

Jehn: Yeah, we had do some instrumental ambient music for that kind of thing, and it really inspired us for the new songs. On the last album we were going for music that was quite catchy and rigid – we were thinking more in terms of the song than the album, in the sense that each song is different. But [with] the new album we’re thinking more about the mood than attempting to make it pop.

Jehn: This time we’re trying to tell a story – as you said, like a film. And we’re going to have lots of images too: we’re working with people from a film company. So you’ll have one minute of music, one minute of image…

Is the album coming out on DVD?

John: We don’t know how we’re going to release it.

Do you plan to use the internet with this?

John: Yeah, the internet is going to be the big thing [with the record]. We’re going to be able to release it on the internet with video. We love objects as well – a nice vinyl, a book…

Jehn: A book with pictures. Costa Brava is very inspiring, there’s loads of history, nostalgia – it’s also a place with sun, sea and sex and everything… We just want to find a field where we can enjoy ourselves and create loads of layers. And also play gigs where, again, it’s just the two of us and we can explore that ambient side of our music.



It sounds like you’re going to be experimenting with the concept of what an album is.

Jehn: Yes that’s it – we’ve got the idea but now the plan is to use it on many different levels, for the stage, for the record…

John: Yes, but having said that the music is not going to be that experimental – it’s going to be really melodic and enjoyable. We’re using lots of real sounds that we recorded in Costa Brava, so it’s going to be like mind-travelling – the sounds are sometimes hidden in the songs. We want to create a mind-travelling thing where you like the songs, but you don’t know why…

Jehn: We recorded the sounds of the sea and the town… in fact, the world cup was on at the time, so people were clapping in their houses and cheering.

I hope we can release the album in 2012, but we need to take time. We don’t want to rush it, but also we want to go back to Spain and record more sounds...