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 In late 2007, Wigan soul/funk five-piece
Funky Justice entered the entertaining world of TV talent shows, pitting
their skills against other acts with hopes of becoming the Next Big
Thing on Channel 4 show MobileAct Unsigned. The LINC caught up with
Leanne, Dominic, Graeme, Jack and Craig to talk about their time on the
show, their dislike of Jo Whiley and why Alan Partridge might be
appearing on their debut album!
Did you have to go through an audition process before you got to be on
TV?
Dominic: No, it was an internet voting process. We registered on the
MobileAct website and it was open to people to vote on the bands with
the top twenty five bands went on to the show.
Where did you come in the top twenty five?
Jack: Seventh, out of about two thousand bands, which was pretty good.
Did you have any ideas about what the show might be like before you got
there?
Graeme: We thought it was going to be an actual ‘unsigned bands’ thing,
but it just didn’t really seem like that.
Leanne: It ended up a bit more like X-Factor.
Graeme: There were loads of bands that were really good, even bands that
are more our style, but nobody seemed to get through if they weren’t a
mainstream indie band. It sounded good on the website, but not so much
when we got there!
Were you nervous about appearing on TV?
Craig: I think we all were, but it was only just before we went on that
we got nervous.
Dominic: We went out filming the day before, so we were kind of used to
having the cameras around by then. They came down to film some profile
footage of us practicing here [at The Fuzzbox]. They took us bowling and
paid for that too, so at least we got something out of it!
Did you watch yourselves on TV afterwards?
Graeme: Yeah, I’ve still got it recorded on my Sky+.
Jack: We didn’t know when it was going to be on though, so we had to
watch it every week.
On your Myspace blog, you called all the judges ‘Clueless’, why is that?
Jack: It was just the comments they came out with.
Dominic: Yeah, some of the comments they made just demonstrated that
they may not know as much about music as they think.
Leanne: One of them asked Jack why he had two saxophones. They didn’t
say much about the actual music, it was just like ‘why are your
saxophones so shiny?’
Craig: They made loads of really weird comments that didn’t make sense,
but then [on TV] they edited it right down so they cut out all the
rubbish and just put a few half decent bits in.
Dominic: If you watch it on TV its not a real reflection of what
happened on the day. I’m not bothered about it though, it was a great
experience to go on TV and play in front of those sort of people. In the
end it was a good opportunity for us and we’ve ended up doing well off
it.
Despite their comments in front of the cameras, were the judges nice to
you off-screen?
Graeme: They didn’t really speak to anyone. The only person who really
went round talking to people was [the show’s presenter] Alex Zane. He
talked to all the bands even when there was no filming going on.
The judges kept to themselves, we didn’t really see them. It was like
they wanted to get the whole ‘X-Factor’ thing going on, you know where
they’d just give their opinions and that’s it, trying to be a bit stuck
up and that. I mean, OK, it’s their jobs, but they could’ve been a bit
nicer about it.
Before you met the judges, did you have a lot of respect for them?
Jack: I had a lot of respect for Jo Whiley before we did the show. I
mean, she plays a lot of good music and she helps unsigned and upcoming
bands get noticed, but after the show I just lost all respect for her.
Do you still listen to her on the radio?
Jack: No [laughs]
Do you think shows like Mobileact Unsigned and X-Factor etc are good
news for unsigned artists?
Craig: What it is, it’s all about giving them free footage for their
television programme, it’s not really about the end product, the music.
Say on X-Factor, it’s just like a big karaoke show, and it’s all about
the show. Afterwards, you have to be really, really good for anything
decent to happen.
Dominic: The thing with Mobileact though, it seems that the best bands
don’t win it. The best bands are the ones who’ll go out in the early
stages, or just get past the auditions, it’s the more marketable bands
who’ll win, the bands who they can tweak and who’ll do whatever the
judges and the A&R people want them to do. It’s a good place for the
best bands to cut their teeth and then find other ways to do it.
What sort of impact has Mobileact had on Funky Justice?
Craig: It’s been good really, really positive.
Jack: It set us back at first obviously, but we got over it.
Dominic: We got on TV for free and loads of people have written to us
since. You don’t realise how good a tool something like Myspace is until
you’ve been on TV and you get loads of people writing to you on there.
It’s helped the fan-base quite a bit.
What do you guys make of the music scene in this country?
Jack: F***** up!
Leanne: At the moment you just keep hearing all the same stuff. At
first, indie bands were seen as quite a new thing but now they just all
sound the same and its really boring.
Graeme: There’s too much mainstream stuff I think. There’s different
genres of bands who can only go so far with what they’re doing. They
won’t get a record deal or anything. At best they might get an album in
HMV through a really good distribution deal but then that’s about as far
as they can go.
Do you think Funky Justice have a good chance of reaching that high
level most bands aspire to because you stand out from the mainstream?
Dominic: Well, yes and no really. I think yes we’ll get to that level,
but maybe not in a commercial sense like bands such as Arctic Monkeys
being top of the charts and all that.
But there’s loads of bands that we could name that nobody else would
probably know. That kind of success, where you’ve got a fan-base that
are with you for ages and you’re releasing eleven, twelve studio albums
and still going, that we can do.
What is it that attracts people to Funky Justice and your music?
Leanne: I think it’s the fact that when we played shows, what we’re
doing is different from all the other bands that are playing that night.
People say ‘it was nice to hear something different.’
Dominic: At first we thought it was bad to be playing gigs where
everyone else is playing indie music. We thought nobody would want to
listen to us, but now we sort of see it as a plus because we’re the only
thing on the night that’s a bit different and we stand out.
So do you purposely try to get on those kind of bills now?
Graeme: Yeah, but we don’t complain about getting on a funk night or
anything. We’ve played some gigs with other bands who are similar and we
still get good things from that because it’s exactly the right kind of
place to be playing.
I mean, it was only through talking to another band, Cherry Black Stone,
that we realised how good it is to get on [a bill] with an indie band.
They told us how at first they hated and then they realised how good it
is to get on with that crowd, because it wouldn’t happen often.
Is playing to an indie crowd better or worse than playing to a funk/soul
crowd?
Graeme: It’s different. The crowds are different, I can’t really
describe it.
Leanne: If you’re playing a funk night, people have come to listen to
that kind of music, whereas with an indie night, you’re trying to
‘convert’ them in a way.
Jack: I always think those compliments, when someone who doesn’t really
listen to that kind of music tells you they enjoyed your songs, are
better.
Getting compliments from people at a funk night is good as well, but you
know that they already like that sort of music, so it might just be that
they like the way you play it, but at an indie night, they’re not
guaranteed to like it, so it’s a bonus if they do.
Do you find you have to work harder to win over a crowd at an indie
night?
Dominic: We work 150% at every gig!
What was it that attracted you guys to playing funk and being in a band
together?
Dominic: You’re just born with it, it’s in your veins. I don’t
understand bands who just pick a style of music, you were meant to play
a certain style of music and that’s that.
Graeme: Me and Leanne only joined the band after a couple of months.
Before that I did listen to funk, but just maybe not as much as other
things. Then Dom asked me to join the band, and it’s been pretty cool so
far.
Has it been a smooth ride so far, or a bit of an uphill struggle?
Jack: Yeah, a bit of a struggle.
Craig: Before Graeme, we had big trouble just trying to get a bassist.
People were faffing around and it was just really hard to get a good
player who wanted to play, so we were really lucky.
Dominic: We have had a few setbacks, like the Mobileact thing was a set
back at first.
Craig: We’ve come on loads in the last couple of months I think in terms
of the set and everything. We have this thing called the bang-bang
theory, just song after song after song without breaking, keeping the
energy up and it seems to work well.
What’s the ultimate ambition for the band?
Dominic: To be selling out venues on tour and having fans that will stay
with us, but not being all over the papers and the charts and all that.
If we have twelve albums and we’re still playing when we’re like, eighty
four, then that’d be good.
Graeme: [For me] it’s the day when you can walk down a street in a place
where you’ve never been before and someone will recognise you.
What are you up to at the minute?
Dominic: We’ve got a couple of gigs coming up and we’re looking to
record our first album quite soon with producer Martin Coogan, Steve
Coogan’s brother.
Any chance of getting Alan Partridge guesting on the album then?
Dominic: With a bit of luck!
Any message to your fans who might read this?
Dominic: Just, thanks very much for your support, we really appreciate
it.
And finally, for the people out there who haven’t heard of you before
now, anything to say to them?
Graeme: Check out the Myspace, but don’t base everything on what’s on
our Myspace, try and come to our gigs as well.
Craig: The gigs are loads better, it’s all about energy, you won’t get
the whole experience unless you see us live.
Recommended link:
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www.myspace.com/funkyjustice1
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