INTERVIEW: The Jury & The Saints

With the recent release of The Jury & The Saints debut album 'Daydreams' we sat down with frontman Jesse Smith for a chat.

You're still a relatively new act but in that time you've managed to achieve quite a few solid runs on the board already. Has the response to Jury and The Saints surprised you?

Yeah I have been super surprised at the response we have had. We have only been playing shows for a year and a half all up, and having been in bands before and knowing how hard it is to get stuff happening, it’s hard to believe that we have got to do some of the shows and tours we have so far. It’s all kinda happened on its own - by accident - which seems to be the best way, nothing worse than trying to make people like your band!

2010 was a pretty big year for Jury and The Saints. Obviously supporting Paramore throughout Australia and NZ was massive, but you also managed to tour NZ, play some shows in Tonga, release your debut EP and two really well received singles. What was your highlight of 2010?

Last year was definitely a pretty hectic one, we put out our first EP at the very end of 2009, and we really only recorded it so if people came to our shows and liked the music we had something to give them. So when we were able to make videos and tour pretty extensively from that it was a huge surprise. The whole of 2010 was a highlight when I look back at it, but getting to play in Australia for the first time was wicked and to be playing our first shows over there with Paramore in giant arenas made it a really strange, but good, and pretty unbelievable experience at the same time.

A couple of weeks ago it was announced that drummer Rowan Crowe would be leaving the band to focus on other projects. Can you let us in on who's going to replace Rowan and what that might mean for the future of Jury and The Saints?

Yeah at the end of last year Rowan decided he would head off to kinda focus on all the other things he has been doing like heavy bombing and long swimming sessions.  So I have recruited an old friend of mine by the name of Ivan Beets to play bass. He actually recorded the first demos I did for TJ&TS so it’s real good to have him involved again. I have also had another guy from Raglan called Marty Kroon playing drums. Will have to see if I can tear him away from heavy surfing sessions and join the band for real haha! So it will be a bit different going forward but can’t wait to see what this year will bring.

One of the most important aspects of Jury and The Saints is without doubt your live show. Is performing live something really important to you as a band?

Yeah we love playing live, making the most of every show and trying to have as much fun and put as much energy into every show as possible. I think a lot of bands try to play perfect live and sound exactly like they do on their recording. All we wanna do is have fun and put on the best and most honest show we can cos they can listen to the album later.

You guys have recently signed to Dead Boy Records? Why did you choose to sign with Deadboy?

We signed with Deadboy cos we were keen to get the album in stores and get a bit of help from people that know a bit more than us about business . All we know how to do is write songs and play them. Business stuff drives me crazy as, and in this modern world it’s all bout business and other jazz like that - or so I’m told.

Your new album 'Daydreams' is out on now. What can people expect from the record?

People can expect some fast songs a couple of slower ones and some medium fast ones. The album’s a pretty positive and hopeful album, I’m just an ordinary guy writing songs for ordinary people. The title track ‘Daydreams’ kinda talks about the hopes and dreams that we all hold on to that get us through the mundane and boring parts of life and the album reflects those themes - haha so serious isn't it.

The first single off 'Daydreams' is 'Calm The Sea'. In the song you speak about a 'storm raging over you'. What's this song about?

‘Calm the Sea’ is a song about the times in life when things don’t really work out how ya want them to, and looking for a way out of your situation and looking for a hand up from someone.

Australian Idol winner Stan Walker features on the song 'Patience'. How did this come about?

Yeah we are super stoked to have Stan on the album, I have been a huge Idol fan for ages (I am actually watching the new season of American idol as I write this!). I watched Stan on Australian Idol and picked him to win it from his first audition and when we were in Sydney with Paramore we got Hayley to tweet him and see if he was keen to come to the show and sing with us. He didn’t quite make it in time to sing with us but he sang with Paramore that night - and then he was in debt to us haha. Nah we asked him if he would be keen to do a guest vocal and he said yes boss, so we ended up recording his vocals in my friend’s basement. Pretty surreal after being heavily addicted to Idol. I gave him a few tips on how to get his vocal sounding a bit sweeter and he was real happy to take my advice and I think later on in life he will realize really how much I have helped him haha.

What's next for Jury and The Saints? I expect 2011 is going to be quite a big one for you guys.

Yeah 2011 is definitely looking like it will be another good one. We’re planning on getting our next single ‘Patience’ which Stan sang on out in the next couple of months, and making a vid for that which should be fun. Aside from that we have some stuff coming up in Australia, the UK and possibly Germany later in the year so if that all comes together could turn out to be fairly busy! But our new album 'Daydreams' is out now and we will be playing lots of  show round this beautiful country in the next few months so it’s gonna be wicked to be getting out and start playing the new album for the first time.

Check out the video for the first single off 'Daydreams' called 'Calm The Sea'.

Interview by Luke Winslade