INTERVIEW WITH SHINING – JORGEN MUNKEBY
“I would never have guest on my albums, people have asked us, and don´t get me wrong I would love to have a guest, it´s just that when I write music, I write music for myself”
JazzMetal band SHINING have been touring supporting the almighty DEVIN TOWNSEND and PERIPHERY over Europe, on that tour, they decided to add an extra solo show in London at The Boston Arms, we had the pleasure to talk to Jorgen Munkeby, leader of the band about SHINING music, new album and future plans and many other funny stories…don´t miss it!
You’re currently touring with DEVIN TOWNSEND and PERIPHERY, how is it going?
It´s been going very good, is the best tour we have been on ever, a lot of people, great venues, the crew, the vibe between the bands are perfect! The match between the bands and the audience is also very good so…it is kind of sad that is going to end in a couple of days.
DEVIN is known for his sense of humour, have there been any funny anecdotes in this tour you can tell us about?
They are laughing and having fun all the time! , It´s hard to bring up one, this morning we went on the ferry, and I had to get up at eight o´clock and Devin and other people were still laughing, because, they have been partying all night. They have this bass player that he laughs all the time; it has hardly ever time to breath between all his laughing! It is good fun being around them. They have this thing where one of members writes something silly on their knuckles and together with other member will make a funny name, is just full of fun all the time.
Tonight you’re headlining, how does it feel?
It´s the first time we are headlining a show in London in five years but we have been doing tours by ourselves before in Norway and the US so we are used to that. But you know is always different, comparing to this tour we are doing, where everything is so smooth, big venues. Tonight is a smaller venue, but this is how it is when you try to build your audience so let´s see how it is, UK is not a strong public to us, but we can tell that the press have been more interested in us, so it´s time to play and see how it goes.
We are starting our job in the UK, but we are a Spain based media so the question is mandatory: are you planning on touring Spain soon?
Yes, we have a new album that is finish, and then we are planning a European tour in the fall, and We will drop by Spain. It´s about time to be back, last time we played there was in 2013.
What inspires SHINING to make and create the music it does?
I make all the music so, it depends on what inspires me at the time, and as you know that changes all the time, so let´s say the music I listen to, the books I read, the film I watched, so everything I like it is what inspires me.
And on the other hand what does playing this music feels like for the band members when they are on the stage?
There is loads of energy in the music we played and it´s hard to play, we all get super tired and sweaty because it´s loads of running around, so It feels great, you know when I was young I used to train martial arts, I love it that as much as I love music but I had to quit because of all the constant bruises in my hands, it was hard to combine both but our shows feels kind of the same, it feels like a full work out.
What are your favourite songs to play live?
It´s difficult to say We really enjoy playing “I won´t forget” “Fish eye” and “The madness and the damage done” and we have headlining shows we love playing our King Crimson´s cover 21st Century Schizoid Man.
What has been your most memorable concert to date?
The first one I remember the most, is when we won that competition in Norway, and we were going to support, A-HA, this was in 2010 when we just released Black Jazz and it was pretty hard music.
A-HA was doing their farewell concert tour, it was 35,000 people and there we were…that was pretty weird! We heard that some people liked it, some others didn´t know what to say and some others hated it…so that was interesting.
When is the new record coming out? What can you tell us about it?
We just need to finalize two mixes and then send it to the record label, It´s going to be out as soon as possible, in a couple of months I think.
This new album It´s a mixture between Black jazz and One one one. We have some of the experimental bite of Black Jazz and some of the aggressive stuff from One one one, we have a ballad too, so it´s going to be a very varied album.
It seems that inviting some friends to play in your album is kind of trendy nowadays so, are there going to be any guest musicians in the new album?
I would never have guest on our albums, people have asked us, and don´t get me wrong I would love to have a guest, it´s just that when I write music, I write music for myself, there is no room for a guest.
What are the near-to-medium future plans for SHINING?
We are releasing this album as soon as we can and then we will be doing an European tour and just a lot of touring, I am also creating music between tours, so probably start writing very soon.
Do you have any side projects/solo projects that you guys are working at the moment?
All the members of Shining are professional musicians, so all of us play in other bands, in Norway is very common be a freelance musician. When I come back from this tour I am writing a composition for classical contemporary chamber orchestra, sometimes I write music for contemporary dance and theatre which is pretty different from Shinning.
Any kind words for Metalcry readers and Spanish fans?
We would love to be back in Spain soon, we love playing for the Spanish audience because they are more than Norwegians.