JARFACE // Down The Hatch

With their debut album, Now They See, Melbourne four-piece Jarface have delivered us a smooth cocktail of old rock, grunge, and stoner rock, finished with a dash of metal.

Rather than being a confusing, disgusting mess of different sounds, the album is a highly approachable and tasty offering, that goes down with just the slightest burn. The group took the album straight to the people, kicking off 2018 in style, with a run of live dates. With their shiny new album in hand, it’s safe to say Jarface will be kicking this year straight in the balls. Following the release, we caught up with vocalist, Matt.

MORE: Our review of Jarface’s debut, Now They See

Hysteria: So you capped off the year on a massive high by releasing Now They See. Tell me, how’s it all gone down?

Matt: Yeah, it’s been pretty good. It’s been a good tour, so far, and our Melbourne launch, especially, was great. You know, it’s good to finally show off, I guess, everything you’ve been working on to all your family and friends, but then also, when strangers come up to you and then chat to you after your shows and just say, “Oh, I just, I heard it and I had to come down and check yous out, and …, ” like, in the live shows and that. Yeah, it’s really great, and everything we’ve gotten back so far’s been really good. Getting like good responses and that, and people are loving the heaviness of it and sort of the melodic side, too. Everything that we’ve been working hard to gain has sort of come to fruition.

I’m a very bad actor, I feel. You know, I’m not good at pretending that I’m enjoying something, or that I like something that I’m playing. So I’ve got to be honest with myself.
[MATT]

So how did you find the process? How did you find writing it and kind of telling this story? Did you enjoy it?

Yes and no. I mean, we’re not too clever. We don’t think too much about things, so it kind of just came about from a few years of writing and we’ve got a bunch of songs that you want to have to play them for however many years after, so you want to make sure that they’re fun and they’re good, for yourself, and for the audience, as well. I don’t know, we kind of had a lot of time to just live test everything and just make sure that it was fun and it was good and it was heavy.

What interested you, thematically, when you started writing for this album?

Lyrically, most of it came from just self-reflection. I guess, and just being in a bad relationship, as well. It’s the story for most bands, and most songwriters…

That old chestnut.

Yeah, that old chestnut. I’d just write down some lyrics that would work with the melodies I had in my head. It wasn’t anything deliberate. It was just very natural. So that’s what’s came out, and so I left it that way. I didn’t want to change it and make it something that was a bit more contrived. I’m a very bad actor, I feel. You know, I’m not good at pretending that I’m enjoying something, or that I like something that I’m playing. So I’ve got to be honest with myself.

Musically, it just came from a bunch of different styles, really. They’ll see a lot of grunge influence in there, and bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and that, who I absolutely love, and Smashing Pumpkins.

How have your gigs gone so far? What’s next?

We were down in Tassie in late November and, yeah, it was good fun. It was sweet, you know, driving around, just like … The scenery down there’s amazing and that, and the shows were pretty good, you know, so you’ve got to just enjoy the time that you have together and … We took The Spirit over, as well, so we had fun getting drunk on the boat, over there and back, and that. You just got to enjoy it and have fun. We’ve got some gigs in Sydney and Wollongong. Going to be good.

You can purchase Now They See at their Bandcamp.