Originally published in Verbicide issue #25

The first thing that strikes you when you listen to any of the songs off of J*Davey’s debut double-release album, The Beauty In Distortion/The Land Of The Lost, is the unlikely texture of singer Jack Davey’s rough-along-the-edges baby-doll voice. Following on the heels of that first aural surprise is the almost jarring task of taking in beat-maker Brook D’Leau’s dizzying electronic soup, which at times swaddles you into head-bobbing submission, and at other times hooks you straight into a playful yet unmistakable groove. At once hip-hop, pop, electro, and funk, J*Davey’s sound defies categorization. I got a chance to talk to the duo about the evolution of their unique sound, the politics behind their aesthetic, and how they plan to win over a broader audience by trusting in themselves.

Right from the get-go, when you listen to your album, The Beauty In Distortion/The Land of The Lost, you get the sense that your mission is to really push music forward and blur genre boundaries, racial boundaries, and gender boundaries. But that’s not how you started. You guys were more of a straight hip-hop act earlier on. How did you go from where you were to where you’re at now?
Jack: We just went with the natural flow of our curiosity and creative progression. Our sound just naturally changed as we kept working. It’s still changing and rearranging. It’s a never-ending process that we have no real control over.
Brook: I think it was just a gradual evolution. There was no real effort to become something different.

Starting from the first album up to this last one, could you describe each album’s sound and maybe where you were at the time, so we can see what this evolution looks like?
Jack: We’ve only got two records thus far, and we’re releasing them simultaneously to give people a taste of who we are before our major label debut drops. There is a noticeable evolution between The Beauty In Distortion, which is a record full of demos and unfinished songs that mostly deal with going to bed with boys, and The Land Of The Lost, which deals with a host of other topics that were true to our lifestyles at the time.

Do you think people are ready for your sound? And do you care if they are?
Jack: Sure. It’s not the most far-fetched sound ever heard. It’s got a lot of familiarity to it, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get into. For me to say I don’t care would be a false pretension. I want people to love what we do because Brook and I love it so much.
Brook: We always hope people are ready. As long as we keep making music that’s honest to who we are, people will always relate.

But targeting a major label audience is a different game altogether, isn’t it? Because it’s not just about people appreciating your music, it’s about numbers and sales, right?
Jack: If people don’t appreciate the music then there will be no numbers and sales. This double indie release is the set-up for the major label record, which will in turn create a bigger fan base for us.

Have you gotten any advice about making popular music on a major label from ?uestlove or other artists whom you know that have “made it?”
Jack: Right now we’re taking the advice we’ve gotten from Prince, ?uestlove, and everyone in between. We’re sticking to our creative guns and building a loyal fan base that will grow with us and help push this thing further into the stratosphere.

In your song “Private Parts” the stereotypical roles are reversed where the woman is the one who’s eager to get it on while trying to not rush or disrespect her love interest. In some ways the song could be interpreted as a feminist statement. Were you intentionally playing with those stereotypes, or is it just a song about being horny?
Jack: I’m always playing with the stereotypes and reversing the roles simply to inject a new female perspective into the spectrum. I wouldn’t really call myself a feminist, rather a girl who knows what she wants when she wants it…which is usually all of the time.

Style is a key element in your artistic persona. You both have very bombastic personal styles that seem to complement each other. How calculated is your style, and what image are you trying to convey, if any, with your style?
Jack: I’m too impulsive to calculate anything. I grow tired of things and people very easily, and I’m a different character everyday, so my style directly reflects that. I think D’leau is the same way; we just go with whatever flow we tap into at the moment. I guess if anything it conveys freedom and carelessness. Maybe it’s trendy because cool style is all about not caring, so maybe we just happen to know what time it is without having to wear a watch. Isn’t that the motto for the youth of today anyway?
Brook: Calculating style too much takes the enjoyment out of fashion. It’s still a form of expression, and art with too much structure becomes mathematic. Formulas are the devil — in fashion anyways.

Do you ever shop for each other?
Jack: Sure. We know each other’s quirks and interests well so we like to grab little odd things for one another. The last cool thing I bought for him were these wooden brooches and he got me a really cool silver star necklace.

I noticed the cover art for Land Of The Lost was kind of playing off of the music video analogy of females, sex, and money. How do you personally feel about female exploitation in music videos?
Jack: I guess as long as females are willing to exploit themselves in music videos there’s really nothing to be said about it, except that it’s getting old. That’s what the cover is about: the empty ideas in the music industry. We’re inundated by the same images over and over again.
Brook: I’m pretty much numb to it all. Seems as if there’s still a lot of women that will shake a tail feather in a video for a dollar bill. Is it wrong? I don’t know — but it’s sure as hell boring.

Yet, the video for “Mr. Mister” has a lot of the sexual female elements you see in a lot of music videos. What makes that video different from the “music industry” videos? Is it your persona? Or is it the fact that you are technically not the object of desire in the video (even though you are the object of the audience’s gaze)? Or is it an intrinsic difference in the visual/artistic style of the video itself, like an underlying irony, which is supposed to be understood but could very well be misconstrued?
Jack: The video is a play on the images you see in music videos all the time. We replaced the hot model dude with a crash dummy. My sexual advances toward this inanimate object are so over the top that it’s supposed to be funny, but we can’t sit in a room with every single person that sees the video to explain it, so we expect people to take what they want from it. I like to think that we took the same old images used in videos one step further. It’s an image that fits that particular song, and there will be others for people to either understand or misconstrue soon.

Is it your intention to skirt the line between sexual expression and exploitation, or do you have a much less ambiguous message you are trying to convey visually and artistically?
Jack: Our intention is to make visual work that greatly reflects what we felt when we made the song. The Beauty In Distortion is very sexually driven so the videos will reflect that. But in our own way, of course.

This is for Jack: hypothetically speaking, if you could do this, which man would you elect to be a woman for a day, meaning the guy would literally experience his entire day in a woman’s body?
Jack: Hmm…maybe my douche bag high school boyfriend.

Which quintessential female experiences would you want him to have in that day?
Jack: A period on a hot summer day, a cheating significant other, and giving birth. Since it’s all hypothetical, anything is possible.

If you could choose, Brook, which woman’s body would you want to inhabit for a day and why?
Brook: I wouldn’t choose.

Click here to download “Slooow” from J*Davey