Music Q&A:
Jagwar Ma

Jagwar Ma release their second album Every Now and Then this week and head out on tour, playing Manchester Academy, 21 Oct, and Leeds Brudenell Social Club, 25 Oct. They get annoyed when Big Issue North asks them about their sound and a little sarcastic when we ask them anything else.

Tell us a bit about your sound and your influences.
The last thing we like talking about is our own sound and you suppose influences and our sound are sort of the same thing. We like video games and ice cream a lot. So I guess it sounds like Bass Hunter meets Mortal Kombat meets Mario Kart 64, and similarly the influences are Bass Hunter, Mortal Kombat and Mario Kart 64.

How have you evolved as a band over the years?
We have evolved from being very much into only video games into also becoming increasingly interested in astrophysics and artificial intelligence. We once lived in the suburbs of Sydney. And now we live in London. That’s also an evolution I suppose.

Were there any alternative band names before you arrived at this one?
Glad you asked… Shawar Ma, Parmigiana Ma, Jaguar Papa, and Come Save Me was almost called Come Shave Me. The Throw was almost called The Chuck and our latest track Slipping was once called Parisian Tough Guy.

What are you up to at the moment artistically?
At the moment we are sculpting shapes into a Dorayaki with a fork. I’ve been working on some antisocial electronic music with Andrew Weatherall but most of our focus is on building the live show.

How do you stand out from the crowd in a saturated industry?
You simply stand on the shoulders of giants before you – or you down stand in the crowd.

What’s on your rider?
A boombox and some cassettes, lots of nuts and fruit for throwing into a fan. We also have a fan on our rider – the spinning kind of fan, for cooling a room or chopping fruit.

Tell us about your worst live show.
We once played a show supporting a massive massive UK band whose name will remain anonymous. We played to 60,000 or more of their fans. I think maybe 20 of them had heard of us and maybe 10 of them liked us. That’s 59,990.