Camping (With A Twist) Q & A: Jarbird

After two years since they gave us the initial recording of Such is the House, London-based outfit Jarbird have released their debut EP of the same name. We caught up with group to ask them about their ideal camping trip and found out more about their latest release.

You’re going on a camping trip. Which five musicians would you like to bring with you?

Mark Hollis from Talk Talk who’d play the role of shaman. Kate Bush would be my Snow Expert. J Dilla would be resourceful using existing materials and may come in useful for den-building. Lastly, Sufjan Stevens as sacrificial lamb.

While you’re on the trip, all major cities of the world are invaded by an alien race, set on enslaving humanity. Does this put a dampener on your trip?

Yeah, Mark Hollis the shaman is bummed out. He left his half-built ‘midi clarinet’ prototype in the front room. “Ruined, probably”, is all he could muster.

As just a few of the remaining free humans, you decide to fight the invading hordes. Given this new mission, how are feeling about the people you’ve brought on the trip?

Bad. Sufjan snuffed it first, as expected. Meanwhile, Kate Bush has disappeared, no-one’s
seen her for nearly 15 years. All Mark Hollis does is whine about his fucking clarinet. Leaving Jay Dee to sweep up.

Through a failed attempt at making a flamethrower, you discover that the aliens are incredibly allergic to terrible men’s body spray. How are you going to use this to your advantage?

No advantage for us unfortunately. The only person that wears terrible men’s body spray is Kate Bush and she’s buggered off.

The aliens are driven back by the force of humans armed with Lynx, but the chlorofluorocarbons released make the ozone layer nothing but holes, forcing you to board the aliens’ retreating ships to escape a burning earth. How do you plan to reconcile with the aliens so that they’ll allow you to stay on their ships?

Mark Hollis reckons he can build another of his clarinets. Jury’s out whether they’ll
be into it.

For the uninitiated, how would you describe your sound and live shows?

A mix of melody, weird chords, bass guitar, and live drum beats.

We really enjoyed your single Such is the House. What’s the inspiration or story behind
the track?

This song is an analogy for being happy with the skin you live in.

Lastly, what are three things people should know about your debut EP ‘Such is the House’?

1) The word ‘Gavelkind’ means splitting your inheritance equally between all heirs
when you die.
2) Jocasta was the mother of Oedipus.
3) The synths are supposed to be out of tune.