Robbie Byrne talks to two-time Choice Music Prize Winner Jape about life in Malmö, self-doubt and his latest LP.Jape’s Richie Egan is far from the easiest guy in music to contact. On the day of his album launch, establishing a connection was the first hurdle. His number, an unfamiliar string of digits – prime evidence of his relocation – fails to dial on both phones I have to hand. Sometime later, it rings. He answers. We exchange the usual interview pleasantries amid the background fuzz of a Dublin street. He interjects, “Ahh Aoife, howrya!?… Hey man, is it ok if you call back in ten minutes?”While bumping into an old friend was a welcome distraction from the frenzy of album launch day, Egan later explains that chance meetings like our mid-interview cut-off was one reason behind his decision to relocate.“If I walk down a street in Dublin, I always meet someone and go for a coffee or pint; it was all very distracting. In Malmö I have some friends but not so much for me to get sidetracked every time I go outside the door. It allows me to focus everything I have on the music.”As one of Ireland’s most respected songwriters, Egan’s Jape remains the only act to have won Ireland’s Choice Music Prize on two occasions, in 2007 with Ritual and three years ago with his full length Ocean Of Frequency. Despite an apparent knack for songwriting, it’s a process that sits uneasily with the Dublin native:“Crafting music on your own is like being snow blind. It’s absolutely soul destroying; you create so much self doubt, especially if you’re a guy like me who is his own worst critic.”It’s a difficulty that stems back to his earliest attempts at songcraft.
“Crafting music on your own is like being snow blind."
“Before Jape I was in bands like The Redneck Manifesto, who’d get together every Saturday to jam. I still need that grounding. Somebody has to tell me, ‘no, that melody or those harmonies are brilliant and must stay.’ That’s why I brought friends like Conor and Glenn on board.”
Egan may be his own worst critic but, despite the problems this could pose, it remains a poison that Jape thrives on.“I love to argue over music; a group of friends working over something so impossibly minute to create something good. Still, the end product can only improve if you have someone trustworthy and I’m lucky enough to say I have that.”Fortunately Jape’s latest LP, This Chemical Sea, is one that thrives on collaboration. Villagers’ vocalist Conor O’Brien puts his hand to ‘Ribbon, Ribbon, Ribbon’, a Krautrock induced jam that whirls around a simple 808-drum machine beat. Meanwhile, long-term jamming partner Glenn Keating builds on this sonic palette through brief acoustic cameos, providing some memorable chord progressions.However it is the opening track, ‘Séance of Light’, which thrives best on Egan’s collaborative goodwill. While its danceable synth melodies and hazy vocals are perfectly acceptable in a humdrum sort of way, the enlisting of Caribou and Jungle associate David Wrench behind the mixing board provides a delicate production style that allows an otherwise claustrophobic track to breathe.Wrench’s technique allows the record to explore a sonic depth and lightness of touch, one that mirrors a key motif of the LP: “One of the core themes throughout the album is breathing. It’s such a vital thing we do everyday, yet we never give it a thought. If I stopped breathing right here I’d die. Even giving it a second’s thought shows how important it is.”Still, you’d be wrong to assume that the worthwhile on Jape’s record is the end product of outside assistance as This Chemical Sea holds the heart, soul and graft of the Dublin man within its ten-track confines.
“One of the core themes throughout the album is breathing. It’s such a vital thing we do everyday, yet we never give it a thought."
“The guts of the album were cooked by myself and Glenn in Malmö, while the salt and pepper, the garnish was sprinkled in Dublin… Only when I had those ten songs fully formed and complete did I take a break.”Delve into the LP’s subject matter and you’ll find an intensely personal record, one that transcends the meditative and spiritual, be it dealing with the topic of death in ‘Breath of Life’ or the ambiguous in ‘Absolutely Animals’. It’s a trait that propels his enthusiasm for the record. “The album is all killer, no filler. I think it was a guy from Van Halen who said he wanted to make an album so hot that it melts everything they made before it. I think This Chemical Sea does exactly that. There’s nothing I’m unhappy with on it.”While pride for his latest endeavour is evident, Egan remains a humble guy as we end our fragmented conversation, indifferent toward the possibility of nabbing a third Choice Music Prize: “I’m just not thinking about the Choice right now. Hey, if people like it as much as I do, great! Right now, I don’t even know if I’ll be nominated. But I’m glad I’m not in it this year with Hozier being in the shortlisted group. He’s totally deserving of it.”
