“Nothing else than music, love and skateboarding,” is the underline that Jules Cassignol’s [better-known as Jazzboy] expose to literally break the ice, to ignore the howling wind that blows the litter as the rain flows while waiting for the spring to finally arrive in the Western world. Since time is our topic of the day and while waiting the answers to combine for this interview, Jazzboy’s Bore in Bora Bora appears every now and then with reminiscences that seem a French and modern version of The Cure’s Boy Don’t Cry… or at least, that’s what we think!
His early reflections were born in Toulouse (1989), France; but currently living in Paris, Jules says that he likes the concept of time passing: “I’m more excited about the future coming up than the past fading away.” Without a mechanic heart, more words pour out for an interview to CHEVET, days after releasing Harlem, the latest single of Jazzboy.
In one of your songs there’s a voice who would highlight that she wants to get bored again. What’s the idea behind this phrase?
It’s both about the idea of death and the idea of getting too busy. Either way, I think being able to get bored is really precious, it’s one of the moments when you feel the most alive.
Do you have any idols?
I don’t have idols, but I admire a LOT of people. I almost met Siouxsie Sioux one day, but didn’t get to talk to her. I think that most of the time it’s better to keep them as an image, a poster or idea in your head.
Do you remember what were your thoughts before starting to develop your career as a Musician?
I have never seen it as a “career”. I was both skating and doing music when I was young, and music just got more and more important for me without even realising it. I’m glad this all started while I was very young, so that I never overthought it, it felt all very natural.
What is Music for you?
I often think about music as an invisible matter that’s everywhere, and from what I cut little parts off, then take it to my bedroom and instinctively try to build something that feels good to me.
I’m still amazed about how magical that feels, how crazy it is that frequencies can make someone cry and think about his whole life in 3 minutes. I never experienced something that amazing ever since.
What have you discovered over the years developing your career in Music?
Hahaha that’s a big question. I basically discovered almost everything I know through music. A lot was amazing, and some of it was kind of upsetting too. Realising that music is not only this magical thing but also a business, something that generates money and so on. But I learned and am still learning how to deal with all that, how to make it all positive and honest.
What’s your opinion on the take of music nowadays?
It’s tricky, but I try to stay on the positive side.
My first love was punk music, and I’m happy that nowadays everyone can express himself with almost nothing, and put it up on the internet.
The internet is obviously the best thing and the worst thing that happened to music, but I just feel like there’s a great DIY vibe in modern music in the past few years. In Paris, for example, I feel that the underground scene is getting a lot stronger than it was years ago. On the other hand, a lot of huge platforms function like radios, and the commercial aspect of it that always comes along. I think it forces us to find new ways to get heard, and forces people to get together in a way. I’m optimistic about art in general for the future, and I tend to admire a lot more people in France than I used to before, for example. So this is a good sign, I guess.
As writers ourselves, we know that we [writers and journalists] have to consider a few things in order to expose a piece; for some reason artists enjoy more freedom when creating and exhibiting their work. Is that true or you are always struggling with the idea of how people might react to your work?
This is one of the thing I care the most about music, for it to be so honest and spontaneous. I don’t ever think about how people would react to it, or at least not while I make it. This is what makes it so fulfilling, I guess –the freedom it gives you. I only felt total freedom while writing songs and skateboarding, and it’s what struck me the most about it.
The Chilean writer Isabel Allende, said that you are a true writer once you have published your second book. I was wondering when did you start to feel like a Musician and not an amateur?
I really try to feel like an amateur. That’s why I never write a song with my guitar, because this is the instrument that I learned the most. I create music with keyboards, machines and my voice, and I kind of suck at all of these. I want my instinct to be the master, and leave all the technique behind. I build a lot on errors and accidents, and I always loved music that was done this way.
What is your reference source that never stops giving you good ideas? Do you have any?
I don’t really know where ideas come from, it’s so unconscious most of the time… In a conscious way, I think movies are an exhaustless source of emotions, and can trigger a lot of stuff inside of me. Everything else is subconscious, and I try to focus the more on that.
For you, what’s discretion and what’s censorship?
Discretion is when you don’t want to do or say too much, because you’re happy keeping it all to yourself. Censorship is when you restrain yourself or others from what they want to do or say, which is way more negative I think.
What makes you cringe?
Mass thinking.
Experience can make you more flexible or more stubborn?
In music, I think it makes me more stubborn.
Could you put together the playlist of your life in 5 songs?
That’s really hard so I’ll write it now and will probably disagree tomorrow.
2. Siouxsie And The Banshees – Arabian Knigts
3. Jefferson Airplane – White Rabbit
4. Liars – Drums Get A Glimpse
5. Broadcast – Tears In The Typing Pool
If you would have the chance to ask a very tricky question to a fellow Musician, what would that be?
I sincerely have no idea.
Photo: @FionaTorre
Chevet Magazine 