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interview: Band of Holy Joy

They are coming in Athens for a show in Tiki bar. We speaked with Johny Brown of the Band of Holy Joy about their new album 'Paramour', I.M.F., their concert in Athens and their future plans.
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They are coming in Athens for a show in Tiki bar. We speaked with Johny Brown of the Band of Holy Joy about their new album 'Paramour', I.M.F., their concert in Athens and their future plans.

1/First of all lets talk about 'Paramour', a really cool record..So,tell us the 'inside story',some details..

The songs all stem from a play we produced and performed at the Shunt Theatre in London. The play was called Troubled Sleep and was inspired by a trip the band made to New York a few years back.

Having said that the songs are all quite intimate and personal. It was good to get away from the previous big band sound of Holy Joy and move towards something more folk and guitar based.

We recorded it in Stoke Newington in London, around by where we live, in a great studio called Gun Factory

The first song WE WERE THE BEST OF FRIENDS is actually the tale of two Russian guys, a musician and a journalist, respectively, Alexander ‘Sasha’ Baschlachev and Artemis Troitsky. Check out Baschlachev if you can. An absolutely amazing primitive God of a singer. Dead now sadly.

Song number six I DREAMED THAT THE CITY WAS ON FIRE is Athens, definitely.

2/I really enjoy your 'Best Of' in CHERRY RED label...Happy with this one?Great job by Cherry Red..do you think so?

We are happy with the compilation, it’s good to see some of the old songs on one CD, having said that, I wish we had waited and put the CD out on our own Radio Joy label

3/So,are you ready for Greece?How do you feel comin to Greece!?What can we expect here from such a great band?

We can’t wait to get back to Greece. We love Athens, love playing there, and have for a long time wanted to play in Thessaloniki. We have LOTS of new songs to play and have dug up quite a few old ones. Really, really looking forward to it.

4/Any plans for 2011?A new record,or some summer festivals maybe?

Absolutely, we have just released a new download single OH WHAT A THING THIS HEART OF MAN… check the sleeve… it comes straight from an Athen’s street protest poster. You can get it on I-tunes and E-music and all that.

Yesterday we mixed our next single ON THE GROUND WHERE JOHN WESLEY WALKED this will come out at Easter and then in the summer we will release an album, which at the moment is titled NORTHERN. All the songs are set on a Northern landscape.

I know we have plans to play a few festivals, Latitude being one of them…

We continue to broadcast RADIO JOY every Sunday evening from our www.bandofholyjoy.co.uk site

5/What about UK nowdays?We're under IMF here you know...Do you know about the economy crisis etc here?Seems that bankers rules the world after all..

Yes, absolutely, we have followed events in Greece with great interest.  Also, we know all about Michaelis Triapakis and the Thessaloniki 4. There is a demonstration in support of them here in London on Jan 14th. A lot of people in the UK are now waking up to what has been going on over your way for so long. The government we have now are screwing a LOT of people over and the bankers still get their bonuses. There will be a great deal of protest here this year. For real.

6/Closing the interview,something for the fans here..?

Man, we are just really looking forward to coming and playing. THANK YOU for the support. We loved our time at Rodeo and we have our cocktail suits and Martin Denny records ready for the Tiki