Interview: Jakübi

Interview: Jakübi
05.03.15

The Seattle Music News crew had a chance to pull up a seat on a sunny stairwell in Ballard with up-and-coming Aussie band Jakubi before their show at the Tractor Tavern. The band is made up of two brothers: Jerome Farah (lead vocals/keys/talk box) and Jacob Farah (bass/moog), cousins Jesse Rehaut (drums/guitar) and Addam Kane (guitar/keys/drums) and friend Robert Amoruso (guitar/keys). In an effort to get a little more personal with the five guys, we threw some off-the-wall questions their way and unsurprisingly, they were totally game to play along.

SMN: So this is only the third show of this tour but you’re also playing some festivals this summer – are there any festivals or other acts you’re looking forward to sharing the stage with?
JAKÜBI: For sure. Electric Forest, so many, Wakarusa. The Roots, Skrillex – he’s a machine – Dandy Warhols, Lotus, yeah definitely Lotus.

SMN: Ok – this is a really random one – If I had never heard music before and you had to recommend one album to introduce me to it, what would it be?
JAKÜBI: Oh man… the all time greatest album?
SMN: It doesn’t necessarily have to be the greatest album – but what’s the one introduction album – to music?
JACOB: I’ve got one man, I’m quick. Odyssey, A Funk Odyssey by Jamiroquai, it nailed a lot of the bases for me.

SMN: How do you guys stay grounded on the road?
JAKÜBI: Food [here all five guys speak in agreeance], showers, steak. And we’ve got a new addition. It’s the gym. We like to go to the gym a fair bit. Think it’s a good way to release.

SMN: I read somewhere you guys like to play cards a lot – what’s your game?
JAKÜBI: Yeah! Wow. 13. Actually we haven’t played it on this tour yet, we were saying that today. I think there’s a new game – what’s it called? Cee-lo? But that’s with dice.
SMN: So there’s no betting?
JAKÜBI: Nah there will be betting.

SMN: Do you guys do any sort of community stuff at home? What are you involved with?
JESSE: These two (Jacob & Jerome) do with their dad.
JEROME: Yeah, we go around Australia teaching indigenous kids hip hop dancing and do workshops with them. Usually we’ll do like Jacob will produce a beat and I’ll go help write lyrics with them and then we’ll get a camera crew to make a film clip with them.
SMN: Very cool.
JEROME: Yeah it’s good fun.
ROBERT: As a collective, also just recently we did a thing called forward festival which was for Small Help, Big Hope, and we also played The Evelyn Concert for Kenya, so yeah we try to do as much as possible to give back and stay involved.

SMN: Hear you guys are set to do a single with Mike Posner. Has that already come about?
JAKÜBI: That’s a good question – you’re great. It’s something still in the works. Something that had come up probably this time last year and between his schedule and our schedule we just haven’t gotten around to do it yet. It’s something we would like to do at some point but it’s just hard to make it work. And being in Australia and him being out here it’s very difficult but hopefully at some point we can do it.

SMN: Is there anyone else you would want to work with?
JAKÜBI: Well last time, we said [Red Hot] Chili Peppers, but that was more who would you want to play with. I think doing our thing with collaboration would be a bit hard, but it’s more who we would like to play alongside with.
SMN: And that would be the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers?
JAKÜBI: Ha, yeah. Well there’s so many people. There was one guy last night. A brass section would be nice. Some back up vocals.

SMN: What’s the difference between Australian crowds and U.S. crowds? Anything?
JAKÜBI: It’s quite different, yeah. I think the live music culture, especially in Melbourne is kind of skewing because like venues are losing their license, among other things, and everyone’s a DJ. But here the live music culture is ingrained.
SMN: Well everyone’s a band here so –
JAKÜBI: Yeah – we love it here!

SMN: Have you guys gotten any super weird/awesome/interesting gifts from fans?
JAKÜBI: I got a t-shirt – it was actually really nice! I signed two pair of boobs the other night, ha! That was a first.

SMN: Ok – if you were stranded on an island and you had to choose one book, one album and one movie what would you bring with you?
JACOB: Okay so my book would be Fifty Shades of Grey, to start with. Ha I wouldn’t really bring a book, maybe a picture book! Movie – Nacho Libre, 150 percent. And an album, I’d go with A Funk Odyssey, definitely.
JEROME: For a book I would have Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis. For a movie, I’d have the series Breaking Bad. And for an album, I think Stevie Wonder’s greatest hits.
SMN: Alright Jesse – what you got for me?
JESSE: Favorite Book – I have no idea. I don’t know, I’ve been reading the Morrissey biography. And I’d probably choose The Smith’s album, self-titled. And Heart and Souls as the movie.
SMN: Robert you’re next.
ROBERT: For a book, I’d probably pick The Catcher in the Rye and for a movie I would probably pick The Dreamers. For an album I would pick Weezer – the green album.
SMN: You like that better than the blue album?
ROBERT: The songs on the blue album I like better but I just think for consistency of the full album, I like the progression of the green album.
ADDAM: For a book I think I would just like to have a plain book and draw in it, to bide the time.
JAKÜBI: Always thinking outside the box.
ADAM: For a movie I’d like a movie from my birth to where I am on that island so I can recap on everything that I’ve had and how I got stuck on that island.
JAKÜBI: I didn’t know it was a movie you could just make! Laughter
SMN: He’s being creative!
ADAM: For an album, I was gonna say my mum’s voice but that might be really weird. But besides that I’d say Michael Jackson.

SMN: Okay last question – what’s the one question you wish interviewers would ask you?
ROBERT: I like basketball, so I wish people would ask me about basketball more than anything else. I’d enjoy that.
SMN: Pro basketball or playing?
ROBERT: Both.
SMN: What team do you like?
ROBERT: Knicks!
SMN: Anything else?
JAKUBI: Yeah – show ‘em – Jacob’s calves!

And so it went that Jacob Farah made an attempt to show us his calves, to no avail. Sometimes skinny jeans get the best of you. Don’t worry, we made sure to grab photo evidence.