We caught up with the extremely talented rock band Purity Jar, after their
gig on 5 April 2001 at The Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
This is what they had to say to us:
MM - Introduce the band members to us.
PJ - Sharron, Alex, Darren and Nell.
Alex - We all found each other in a fairly strange way. I had just sacked
my whole band and I saw Sharron at a gig and she just blew my head. I had
actually seen her busking the week before and how often do you actually
stop and listen to someone busk? not very often. Well I did and I was like
yeh that's really good. Originally I wanted Sharron to come and take over
from the singer in my last band, but Sharron said no. She said that she
was more interested in poaching him for her band.
Sharron - Yes that's right.
Alex- I liked that it was good. Pretty soon I had a good idea who I wanted
in the band. I actually found Darren next (Darren is the drummer). Then
the bass player from my last band did a rehearsal with me and Darren.
Darren tell them how old you are.
Darren - I'm 17, I'm still at school doing my A levels.
Alex - I should say that Sharron's 23, I'm 24, Nell's 24, Darren's the
baby. It was like hold on a minute, he's only 17 and he's playing drums
like that. We're older and we can't play as good as that! lol. We were
thinking 'oh no this can't be right'. We'd spent ages looking for bass
players and finally we found Nell who we have now.
MM - When was the band
formed?
Alex - Just over 6 months ago.
MM - Just 6 months ago? Wow, you really
sound like you have been playing together for a long time!
Alex - Well Darren's been playing drums since he could walk. Sharron's
sang for ever.
Sharron - Well I started singing when I started to take showers, which was
probably from the age of about 5.
Alex - I learned to play guitar from yesterday! so... LOL.
MM - How would you best describe your music
and who would it most appeal to?
Alex - Well we loosely call it alternative rock, which I guess it what it
is.
Sharron - Do you mean who do we target?
MM - Yeh, who do you appeal to? If you were
to compare yourselves to another band who would that be?
Alex - Well we get people coming to see us who are wearing Nirvana shirts
on and people from the theatre, it's that kind of crowd I suppose.
Placebo.
Darren - Whitney Houston.
Alex - Yeh! Whitney Houston, Steps, James Brown!
MM - You really want me to tell people you
sound like Steps and Whitney Houston?
Alex & Darren - Yeh! LOL.
Sharron - We mainly appeal to 15 - 26 year olds. That's generally the age
group we have coming to our gigs although we have people younger and
older. They are usually into Placebo and Skunk Anansie, Catatonia.
Alex - That's only because Skunk Anansie are a female fronted rock band. I
don't particularly think we sound like Skunk Anansie myself. The first
time I listened to Skunk Anansie was when Sharron mentioned it. I'd heard
the singles but never really listened to the album, but I'm not sure, I
suppose we do fit into that category though.
MM - Who write the songs that you perform? Darren - Alex.
Alex - I'll tell you the best way to write a song is to have 10 years of
hell, get loads of women to dump you, and then after that you have to pick
up a guitar and try and get it up there. I have some bright sparks along
the way.
Sharron - I think on a whole Alex writes the songs but the rest of the
band all add their own bits to it as well. The end result is a collective
thing.
Alex - Definitely, I mean Nell has been a big thing. I'd seen Sharron and
knew what she could do, she's such an incredible vocalist, it was like yeh
that's who I want to front the band. Nell came along, a miserable bastard
on the phone, and I thought ... oh no, not another one ... but he is
actually so creative.
There have been several times when songs I've done have been completely
turned on the head by things that Nell has suggested. So everyone has a
big input into the songs. I write the basic tune, then everybody brings in
their influence and in the end it is really good.
MM - The songs sound really good and we
were wondering why you weren't selling any of your CD's at the gig
tonight.
Alex - Well we have a CD single done, but the main reason that we haven't
got CD's for sale is because we are talking to 2 record companies at the
minute who have offered us different deals, and we are still discussing
the distribution and stuff with them.
There's one company which has offered us a one album deal, they are all
ready and have put the deal on the table, but we haven't decided what to
do yet. We don't want to commit to anybody at the minute though, we want
to see what else is on offer. At the moment the single is only going out
for promotional use. We'll have to see how it goes.
MM - On the subject of songs, is all your
music original or do you do covers as well?
Sharron - We don't do any covers. To be honest we have so much material of
our own with a good vibe that we just want to get that going. Especially
if we want to get deals going and what have you, we want to use our own
material as much as possible. So we haven't actually done a single cover
version yet. I might do 'Happy Birthday' when the occasion arises.
Alex - We actually tried to do a Bowie - Space Oddity, but it just sounded
like us. But we never finished it, so what can you say? We did 7 of our
own numbers tonight out of about 14 tunes to use in a set if we wanted. We
prefer to say this is a bit of us, come and listen to us again and hear
some more of our stuff.
MM - So you change your sets around a bit
then?
Alex - Yeh, we played a gig last week and we played a different set to
tonight. We have enough material to be able to play around with it. We
weren't Purity Jar tonight, we were '+ Support'. No, we weren't Purity Jar
tonight. (The posters on the walls advertising tonight's gig do not name
them even though it has been arranged for a while. They only say '+
Support').
So for tonight our name is '+ Support'. I suppose if you open under those
conditions you want to be a hard act to follow don't you?
MM - You most certainly were a very hard
act to follow.
Alex - Well we were in the position that if we are good then we are a hard
act to follow, but if we weren't then people think of us as just the
support act.
MM - How has the music media in general responded to the band?
Alex - We've avoided them!
Sharron - Yeh, I agree with what Alex said there, Nell sort of wanted to
make the decision to avoid them.
Alex - We haven't sent anything off to any of the national press until
very recently, just the last couple of weeks. In the near future there is
going to be things coming out in the national press. The problem is that
Newcastle is seen as a bit of an island up here.
Sound City came up here a few years ago, at the time I had another band.
But they played all the bands that all the record companies already knew.
The people who were in charge of Sound City were Newcastle people and they
played all the bands that had been around for 10 years. There were some
cracking bands around at that time, the only two bands that actually got
anything out of it and could have gone further were Noise Girth, who are
excellent, and another band who's name escapes me, but they actually got a
small deal out of it.
At the time most of the national music press thought 'Newcastle = A bag of
shit', and it wasn't like that, there were so many bands that were really
good bands, but they never got on because the people who were running it
chose the bands that everyone had already heard of and they were thinking
... well we've already heard what they have to offer.
Sharron - So basically what he's saying is that we don't make a point of
blagging on about being from Newcastle because of what happened with Sound
City.
Alex - Yeh. Luckily Sharron's from Israel, I'm from Manchester, Darren's a
born and bred Geordie. I'm an adopted Geordie! I do have a black and white
shirt and I do go to home games! Nell's from Darlington. But getting back
to what you were asking, you can get rave reviews from the local press,
but nationally that means nothing, and they know that means nothing.
The national press is very clicky. With the internet it is both national,
as well as international, so you don't have this problem because anyone
can have a look and see what you are about.
MM - What bands do you listen to when you
are at home and relaxing?
Sharron - I like to listen to The Beatles. At the moment I like Reef,
Skunk Anansie, and Eva Cassidy which somebody bought me. I even had
Nirvana on the other day.
Alex - I have My Vitrol in my CD player at the moment. We're going to see
My Vitriol and Feeder at the weekend so I've been listening to their CD.
We have actually sent one of our CD's to My Vitriol.
We have one of our CD's on their managements desk at this very moment in
time! This is because My Vitrol are a band which are breaking at the
moment and we are definitely in the same vein as them. My Vitrol are going
to tour later on this year by themselves and they are going to need a
support band and we're it!
Darren - I like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers as well.
Sharron - That's what I've got playing in the car at the moment.
MM - Which Purity Jar song is actually your
personal favourite and why?
Sharron - My favourites are probably 'Head to Toe', which is the single
we've been working on, and 'Window Shopping' because it has that kind of
Eastern feel to it. Not just because of that but because I just really
love the groove.
Alex - Well, one would have to be 'Window Shopping', which we have
recently took the guts out of and we played the new version of that
tonight. Another one which I like is a one called 'Faces', which we didn't
do tonight and it is brand new, but I really like that one. I have to say
to Brian Moloko that I love you, I have stolen teenage angst with this one
and I just love you.
Darren - I have to say my favourite is 'Window Shopping' as well because I
get to do a drum solo in the middle of it! and 'Faces' the same as Alex,
just because of the guitar bits in it. It used to be 'Head to Toe'.
Alex - I have to say that there isn't one song that we have done that I
wouldn't go out and put on to a CD. I do genuinely feel what I write. Some
bands you get write 10 songs and play 10 songs. I write 10 songs and maybe
only play 2. In the 6 months that we have been together I might have done
about 40 songs, out of that we have a set of 14. There is definitely a
filtration in there.
We have just ditched 2 from the set that weren't up to scratch. Somebody
else might have played them, I don't know...
MM - Does the band have a specific logo or
design you use?
Alex - Well it's a bit of graffiti kind of writing.
Sharron - It looks like Purity Yah!
Alex - I got this font
off the net and thought that looks alright. We don't have a logo as such
yet. The only thing we have on the front of the new CD cover is a photo
from a guy called Michael Prince, off his website (www.michaelprince.com).
I was going to steal the photo, you know right click? But then I had some
conscience about it and wrote to him and told him how much I liked his
work. Well he wrote back and because we were English and everything he was
fine. He asked us to send him over some of our music and said we could use
it so that was good.
You got to check him out, the guy's a star and when we get a big deal
we're going to commission him. At the moment that's as close as a logo we
have at the minute.
MM - Well you are going to need something
to put on all your t-shirts soon.
Sharron - Oh we're going to have pyjama's before that because people keep
going on about us being PJ's. People probably think we're something that
goes with cuddly bears and stuff, lol.
Alex - Don't ask us what Purity Jar means as we don't know!
Sharron - Somebody called us Purity Tin today!
Alex - Purity what?
Sharron - Purity Tin!
Alex - Purity Tin???
Sharron - Yeh, you know ... Jar = Tin? I think that the name Purity Jar
came out from Alex's brain and that pretty much explains where it came
from.
Alex - Well I saw this postcard that had just the word Purity written on
it. I thought hey that's great, woo!. I don't know where the Jar bit came
in at all to be honest. I knew that one name bands were out and thought we
needed two words. But then again what's really in a name? The more
meaningless the name the better. If you call yourself something with
hidden connotations then people will probably think that you are something
that you're not.
MM - How would you like to see music in
general progress in the next couple of years?
Darren - Well I would like to see less of the manufactured bands, bands
like Steps.
Sharron - Well we already have the likes of Papa Roach and Limp Bizkit.
That is a bit more hip hop though.
Alex - Limp Bizkit are just the Steps of the Metal world. I'm sorry but
Limp Bizkit are just a Metal Steps. They have been put together by an A&R
guy in California who thought ... I need to appeal to white kids, white
American kids who are 14 years old. They have been marketed that way.
Sharron - I love it me. No, but I do think that within a year there is
going to be loads more rock stars, not just the skinny indie types with
the t-shirts on.
MM - What kinds of things do you like to do
before you actually go on stage?
Alex - Generally I drive very fast up the A19 or the A1 depending on where
we are playing.
Sharron - We did have something to eat before we went on tonight.
Alex - Yes, we had a Burger King.
MM - So a Burger King is good preparation for a gig then?
Alex - Well it was cheap!
Sharron - We don't do scales or anything before a gig. We do normally have
something to eat though.
Alex - We don't take drugs other than alcohol. I think all the old rock
cliché's have long gone.
Sharron - I do tend to prepare an apology for why I am late. It's usually
... 'sorry about that!' lol.
MM - What actually goes through your mind
when you are up on stage?
Darren - I hope I remember the songs!
Sharron - All sorts of things.
Darron - I always wonder if this is going to be the time Alex falls off
the stage when he starts jumping about.
Alex - Not much really. This is how you get badly in the press for saying
something stupid isn't it? That is a good question you asked.
MM - Are you aware of the crowd or are you
just kind of in a bubble?
Alex - No, you are definitely aware of the crowd. I have been playing
professionally since I was a kid. When I was 17 I was playing in front of
crowds of 3, 4, 5000 people. I can't say it's any different to playing
smaller crowds like here tonight.
Sharron - I don't like making eye contact with people. Especially if it is
people you know. All the time you are wondering if they are looking at
your thighs or something. I tend to think about anything from real
science, to music, to the cracks on the ceiling...
Alex - I always wonder if the press are going to give us a good review or
not, lol.
Sharron - Actually I'll tell you what I was thinking today, I was
wondering why Nell wasn't tapping his foot. I looked and thought - well
this is a really tappy bit, why's he not tapping?
Darren - Well I saw a man sitting right at the back tapping his foot.
Sharron - That's OK then.
Alex - We've done OK tonight. We've come on as the 'un-named' support band
and it was good.
MM - What's the first thing you like to do
after you've done a gig?
Alex & Sharron - Drink!
Darren - I like to sit down and chill out with my friends.
MM - Tell us one thing about yourself that
people wouldn't normally know.
Alex - Everybody knows everything about me already! I have size 12 feet!
Darren - I have size 8 feet!
Sharron - My mam doesn't know I have a tattoo. But most of my friends does
as I always wear a vest all the time. Most people can't believe that I
don't drink.
MM - So where do you see the band going from here?
Alex - I'm more confident then I've ever been in my entire life that I'm
going to die young. No!. It's a bit of a touch wood situation because
we've got a lot of things going on at the moment. Having wrote music since
I was a kid ... and we've all been in this since we were children, not as
a band but individually in different places ... no one has said no yet,
and for a band that's only been together for 6 months ... we've had a lot
of interest already from everywhere we've sent the CD's.
Darren - That's because I'm jammy!
Alex - Yes, he is jammy because this is the first band he's been in and
already we have two people talking deals with us. A year ago the problems
that we have now I would have jumped for. One label who for the time being
will remain nameless, has offered us an album deal which we are saying to
them, show us that you can promote an album, show us that you will
actually be doing something with it.
I've been in bands before where you can play for 2 or 3 years and nothing
will happen, and then everything is just falling into place with this one
in every way. In a years time I can't see us remaining unsigned. That's as
far as I can go. We will definitely be signing a serious deal in the next
6 months. We might not be top of the pops so to speak but we will
definitely be on our way. There's confidence for you!
Darren - Yeh.
Sharron - I'm still thinking of something that nobody knows about me! lol.
Darren - I'm also a brilliant singer!
Alex - Right! That's you getting the mike tomorrow night!
Darren - I'm also a good guitarist as well! I'm thinking about doing my
own album, lol.
Alex - I like girls! No one knows that!
MM - What was the last band that you went to see?
Alex - The last signed band I went to see was Muse, who had Coldplay
supporting them and I just watched the England match. Muse were good
though, they were cool.
Sharron - Reef was the last signed band that I went to see and I paid £15
for.
Darren - I haven't really been to see any signed bands for a while.
MM - Is there anything you would like to
say to all your fans/potential fans out there?
Darren - Go Home!
Alex - We will forget you! Anyone who writes with a request for money we
will consider it then back down, lol. No, seriously - Let the kids rock!
We've actually had a lot of support from a lot of people. People who have
helped in a lot of different ways, not necessarily those who have just
come to see us. The guy who has written our website who usually gets paid
a lot of money to do real websites. He is in fact the guy who wrote the
Carling website, if that's anything to go by.
Ours isn't finished yet, but it's getting there. The person who helped us
produce the single actually only charged us half of what he would usually
charge and he produced it as well and did a wonderful job.
Sharron - I think the biggest thanks has to go to Darren's mates though.
They come to all the gigs, from the worst to the best places to hear us
play.
Alex - Yes they have been a great support to us. Normally once you get
signed and you are put on as support to a bigger band the people who have
always come to see you can't always come along. I think all 40 people who
always come to see us play Newcastle will all have to be given a free
ticket.
Darren - Definitely, I'll probably get dumped if we don't!
Sharron - The message to the world is 'always wear your pyjama's'.
Alex - Yes, 'always wear your PJ's'.
MM - Thank you all for taking part in this interview for The Mayfair Mall.
PJ - It's been great, thanks.
Alex - I got this font
off the net and thought that looks alright. We don't have a logo as such
yet. The only thing we have on the front of the new CD cover is a photo
from a guy called Michael Prince, off his website (
