The Jury & The Saints

New Zealand's The Jury & The Saints may be relatively unknown here in Australia, but they have recently gained the envy of many bands, as they will be opening for Paramore on their upcoming Australian tour. The band's drummer Rowan Crowe answered some questions about the band for us.

Start off by stating your name, your role in The Jury & The Saints and your favourite thing about being from New Zealand?

Ah my name be Rowan Crowe and I try to play the drums in our band, except it isn’t really playing the drums as I only play about 3 beats over and over again. But I’m working on a 4th beat and I think its gonna really make our songs so much better. Hahaha. My favorite thing about NZ is how chill it is. I live on the beach and just hang and go bmxing and cliff jumping. But at the same time I get hit on by girls with ed hardy hoodies on at the basketball hoop down by the beach. That is not so fun.

Can you give us a brief run down of the history of the band for those who might not be familiar with you?

Yeah Jesse played in a band called Streetwise Scarlett and I met him through shows with my band Goodnight Nurse and we both got dangerously talented for those bands so we kicked ourselves out so we could take over the world with our new band. Hahaha. So it’s only the 2 of us and we get an ipod to play the rest so we don’t have to have other band members to take more money. Hahaha. We got sick of being in bands that you couldn’t be stupid in, so its nice to be in a band where nobody really cares about an image or anything like that. We just keen to play music and have fun. And to take the piss out of everything and everyone.

Jesse played in Streetwise Scarlett and you play in Goodnight Nurse, what influenced you to create music that sounds like The Jury & The Saints do?

Ah we both like energetic music and wanted to do something new with a party sort of vibe and I guess it sounds quite electronic cause Jesse had garageband on his computer and it had buzzy sounds. So he used them and we just put powerbeats and powerchords over the top of it. Haha. I don’t even know what to call our genre. We just call it ‘heavy emo’ haha.

The band’s latest release “As Aliens And Strangers” has been out for a few months now, what has the overall response been like to the release?

It’s done really well aye. Our first single off it ‘Brand New’ was the theme song for the main music TV station in NZ for one of their ads. And our video was the most played in the whole country one week. So yeah it’s going pretty well for us aye. We are pretty stoked.

There are videos on the band’s MySpace page for the songs “Brand New” and “Help Me out” from the record, what was it like filming those videos?

Both videos were amazing to film aye. Our first one was for Brand New and was at our friends house party where the dress up theme was ‘shipwrecked’ so I just asked if we could film our vid there. Haha. Did about 3 takes of the song so it wouldn’t ruin the party vibe, but it was hilarious. Was super crazy. People were bleeding at the end of it from landing on my broken cymbals and everyone looked like pirates. Hahaha. Then the second one was for Help Me Out and we decided we wanted to film it in the Kingdom of Tonga. So we flew over there and put on a show for the natives and just ran around doing fun things. Hahaha. It was an amazing time and Tonga was a buzzy country. The prison doesn’t have walls. Haha. If they escape then they cant go anywhere cause it’s a tiny island. They will just get beaten up from there family for leaving the prison. Hahaha

Next week you will be making the trip over the Tasman to open for Paramore on their headlining tour, how did you guys get hooked up with that tour?

Ah I have been friends with the guys since 2004 coz I met them on warped tour. I used to be the only tech for them and did it for free cause they had no money. Haha. It was fun as. So I heard they were coming back so I just emailed them and told them we wanted to do the tour so they said ok. Haha. It’s all about who you know. Plus we are an amazing band. haha

What are you looking forward to the most about the tour?

Getting to play music every night with one of my best mates to thousands of people. NZ is probably the worst place to be if your in a band so its cool that we can come to oz on such a sweet tour with some of our best friends too.

What do you think the band can expect with these massive shows?

Massive crowds. Hahaha.

Are these going to be the biggest shows the band has played to date?

Ah yeah they will be our biggest shows. We have only been a band for just over a year and I think the all the people going to the shows is more than the total amount of people in New Zealand. Haha

Have you got anything planned that you would like to do while you’re here?

I want to come to respect all the people but Jesse just wants to ride a kangaroo all the way to Alice Springs and to look at that big red rock you guys have in the middle of your giant country whilst throwing boomerangs at anybody he sees. He doesn’t have the same sort of respect I have for other countries. Haha.

Have you been writing any new material as of late?

Yeah we have written a whole new album worth or songs. Well Jesse writes all the songs and tells me what to play so I guess he has written a whole album worth of songs, I recorded drums already and now we finishing off the rest of it aye.

When do you think we could expect to see something new being released for us to hear?

We have a brand new album coming out called ‘Day Dreams’ in January. Hopefully we can suss some sort of label or distro in oz after the tour so it can get in shops for the lovely Australian people group so when we come back and play people sing along and don’t through mud at us.

Do you have any goals that you would like to achieve with this band?

Have as much fun as we can and write some music that people like. Actually my main goal is to make people feel happy at a show, if people leave feeling happy then I’m stoked. Sick of bands who are just all about themselves and look like they are having the worst time on stage.

Who are some bands that you have been digging lately that we should be checking out?

I have been listening to Defeater and The National aye. They are mean as. Killing The Dream have a new album coming out so I’m pretty excited for that. And Blink 182 are in the studio so their album coming out will be the highlight of my life.

What are the band’s plans for the rest of 2010?

Jesse and his wife are having there 2nd baby so he’s gonna be up to his elbows in family life and baby spew. I will be just swimming at the beach and doing tours with bands over summer eating fish and chips and ice cream and getting hit on by girls with ed hardy hoodies and eyebrow piercings.

Thanks for doing the interview, any last words or shout outs?

Ah, thanks to Miles Away, Break Even, Stealing Oneal, Midnight Youth and 50Lions for letting us use gear and places to stay on the tour so we didn’t loose heaps of money. Haha. But yeah thanks heaps for the interview. I failed school (got 2% in English but it got scaled to 7%) so hopefully I pass the interview. Cheers.

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