Therapy? frontman Andy Cairns has launched a new side-band, JAAW, and shared the quartet's intense debut single, Rot.
JAAW is Andy Cairns (Therapy?), Jason Stoll (Mugstar, KLÄMP, Sex Swing), Wayne Adams (Death Pedals, Big Lad, Petbrick) and Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers, Goldie, Squarepusher).
Svart Records will release JAAW's debut album Supercluster on May 26, and you can get a first taste of what to expect from the post-industrial supergroup right here, right now, with Rot.
Speaking exclusively to Louder, Andy Cairns says, “I got involved with JAAW when contacted by Jason Stoll of God Unknown records. Jason had noticed that a lot of my musical tastes had not only been on his label but many were produced at London’s Bear Bites Horse Studio by Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad, Green Lung producer).
“We arranged to meet up at the studio and hang out. Wayne contacted Adam Betts a truly ferocious drummer and we had the seeds of a project on our hands. The Therapy? album was already recorded so this was a chance to indulge in some glorious noise and bring a bit of Rainbow Grave, Nu-Kle-er Blast Suntan and Godflesh to my guitar playing. It was tremendous fun to make and I enjoyed employing more distortion pedals than usual in my guitar rig!”
A statement announcing the group's arrival, states: "In the back of JAAW’s minds are the 1990s: an era when the experimental heaviness of acts like Ministry and Godflesh could find surprisingly large audiences. They also draw on the sonic ground that’s been broken since. The disorientating ferocity of Brazil’s DEAFKIDS. The gaseous, shapeshifted vocals on Burial’s records. The freakout-laden noise-rock of Lightning Bolt. Far from emulating the industrial metal masters of the past, JAAW will help shake lesser rock bands out of their generic complacency. With scant regard for typical verse/chorus/verse formulas, JAAW’s song structures are closer to the nonlinear approach of body-shaking dance music.”
As co-vocalists, Adams and Cairns wrote lyrics informed by the hallucinatory horror movies of Panos Cosmatos and the unforgettable set-pieces from Ari Aster’s Midsommar.
“The lyrics, too, are part of the same whole,” says Cairns. “I feel you could drop the needle at any point on this record and you know where you are with it. To me, it’s like greyscale psychedelia. It’s just this… experience.”
Listen to Rot below:
JAAW have announced a show at London's Sebright Arms on April 20. Buy tickets here.
And pre-order Supercluster here. The album track-list is:
1. Thoughts and Prayers (Mean Nothing)
2. Reality Crash
3. Rot
4. Total Protonic Reversal
5. Bring Home the Motherlode, Barry
6. Hellbent on Happiness
7. The Dead Drop
8. Army of Me
