Jamie Cibej Speaks with Loudnlocal’s Aaron Kopanica
Aaron Kopanica from Loudnlocal was lucky enough to chat with Jamie Cibej from Bluejuice who are by far one of Australia’s most popular band at the moment with their explosive live shows and catchy tunes they are winning hearts left right and centre.Aaron Kopanica: Hey Jamie, I haven’t caught you at a bad time have I?
Jamie Cibei: Busy….haha noooo, I haven’t even had breakfast yet!
Aaron: ahh beautiful we are in the same boat then. How’s the day going?
Jamie: ah yeah boring, you know just doing the Bluejuice administration duties today.
Aaron: ahh bummer, well I might just ask you a few questions if that’s cool?
Jamie: Yeah man no problems, go for it.
Aaron: First off, what’s your favorite town/place that you’ve traveled with Bluejuice?
Jamie: O God, Id say Perth or Brisbane, only because the crowds in those cities seem to be a lot less restrained than in say Sydney or Melbourne. Sydney and Melbourne all the people seem to be a bit ‘cooler’ than say the other places they kinda don’t get as crazy as say Queensland and so on.
Aaron: Now when you guys release Vitriol it went mental and Triple J pumped it which was brilliant, did you guys ever anticipate for it to rise to status that it did?
Jamie: ahhh no, we thought that it would do alright, we were confident that Triple J would pick it up but as far as the response to it after that no, not at all.
Aaron: Im pretty sure it ended up getting something like the second most played song on Triple J for 2007 is that right?
Jamie: Yeah it did, I don’t know if the statistics are accurate but there’s some website that shows songs played on Triple J and I think ours is now the most played so yeah its pretty weird.
Aaron: Yeah I can imagine, Now when you guys played at the Tsunami gig it was Jake that got arrested mid performance by the police yes?
Jamie: Yeah it was haha
Aaron: So did anything eventuate out of that?
Jamie: Yeah well the cops jumped up on stage and made him put down his mic and marched him away and we kind of didn’t no what was going on, but yeah he got arrested for wearing a cop shirt and had to go to court a few months later but the court through out the case and said it was bloody bullshit and I think the cops had to pay the court costs and everything.
Aaron: Ah ok so it was for impersonating the law?
Jamie: Yeah but apparently there is some clause that states that you can wear a police uniform for entertainment purposes therefore it was thrown out.
Aaron: Now in 2007 you guys won the Red Bull outstanding potential award which was a prize of $15,000. So what did you blow the money on?
Jamie: strangely we haven’t spent it yet! Its smoldering away in someone’s bank account, I’m not sure who’s, but yeah we are going to use it for recording later on in the year and maybe some touring expenses but nothing too exciting.
Aaron: I presume you guys had a pretty big bar tab that night I would imagine?
Jamie: Ahh yes, yes we did.
Aaron: you guys are well known for your full on live shows that look very physically demanding, how do you guys go when you on tour playing heaps of show?
Jamie: Yeah it can get tiring, we don’t drive while touring as much these days like we used to like from Sydney to Melbourne or Adelaide and so on but yeah it get demanding. Our last show Jake managed to break his leg so perhaps his body takes most of the toll during our shows.
Aaron: How did he manage to break his leg?
Jamie: O and he broke his hand a couple of shows ago. He didn’t break his leg during the show, he broke it after a show. He was dancing and someone jumped on him. We were supporting Tricky a few weeks ago and he managed to break his hand during the show while he still had his cast on for his broken leg! So yeah its exceptional work.
Aaron: Yeah that’s a great effort.
Jamie: It was just couple of days before our Splendour show which I mean was probably our most important show of our career so far and it was pretty funny him walking on stage with a cast on his leg and one on his hand.
Aaron: yeah cool, we actually traveled up to Splendour from Melbourne, it was wild.
Jamie: ahh crazy good work
Aaron: how was that playing to such a crazy crowd at such a big festival?
Jamie: Yeah it was crazy, just unbelievable.
Aaron: So who are your biggest influences?
Jamie: Well as a band I get the impression that we all hate each others influences.
Aaron: haha well what about personally?
Jamie: personally I guess the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, maybe the Beasties when they were good, that’s about all.
Aaron: now are you guys as a band pretty happy with the sound you have at the moment or do you think you’ll keep experimenting?
Jamie: At the moment our live set is pretty much half new songs and I think the next album will be maybe not as all over the place as the last album but I mean it won’t be a polker album, it’ll just be a bit more focused than the other album.
Aaron: So where did you guys get your name Bluejuice from?
Jamie: well we’ve been meaning to make up a story for this question. In the end it was a poor choice of a band name, but yeah it’s a movie, it’s a race horse, its apparently an industrial urinal cake name which is my favorite.
Aaron: haha yeah I think you should go with that one in the future.
Jamie: yeah I think so.
Aaron: well that’s about all I’ve got for you mate, thanks for that. I think its about time for some breakfast.
Jamie: Yeah I think that’s a good idea.
Aaron: cheers mate have a good one.
You can catch Bluejuice playing at Valley Fiesta which is a free community event and is being held in the Valley Entertainment Precinct from Friday, September 12 till Sunday, September 14
Other acts include: OPERATOR PLEASE, URTHBOY, DJ DEXTER (AVALANCHES), JEFF LANG, KATY STEELE (LITTLE BIRDY), AVALON DRIVE, WINNIE COOPERS and many more.
