English rabble rousers Killing Joke have spent nearly four decades (!!!) expertly crafting noisy, gnarly hard rock with an industrial patina. But the music is not noisy for the sake of; it’s sharply focused and makes a variety of uncomfortable points about the human condition and the world we in which we reside.
Despite the intensity of the music, namely that which is found on the band’s latest, Pylon, out October 23 via Spinefarm Records, frontman Jaz Coleman is quite an affable gentlemen who had himself a hearty but good-natured chuckle at this writer’s fortune of having to interview him at five in the morning due to time zone differences.
Pylon is third in a triptych of albums that includes Absolute Dissent and MMXII.
It’s refreshing and it’s somewhat astounding that the members of Killing Joke continue to churn out uncompromisingly heavy music that hasn’t lost a step in terms of speed or ferocity. Pylon offers a bleak, dystopian worldview and it’s blackened with pain.
It’s Killing Joke doing Killing Joke without retreading the past. Killing Joke remain as vital as they are voracious, with Coleman telling ARTISTdirect’s Amy Sciarretto that it’s our duty as humans to self-educate and that we can learn so much via the medium of music.
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Amy Sciaretto: Killing Joke have been a band since 1978. Some might consider this the “twilight” of your career and expect you to soften the sonic blows and perhaps coast through musical middle age. Yet the music is still dark and aggressive. The edge hasn’t been dulled. What keeps Killing Joke so ready to strike?
Jaz Coleman: We are still hungry and I mean that metaphorically. It has been a rough year financially. When you are writing [music] with Killing Joke, it is a completely traumatic experience. There is no real income, apart from royalties. It’s a time of forced austerity. But it keeps your feet on the earth. I also had a couple deaths and a suicide [around me], which colors things somewhat.
But what keeps me going? That is an interesting point. It’s that we can be better than this. We’re growing. As a band. We are fascinated by every aspect of existence and everyone in the band is well-read. You can move from poetry to geopolitics to history to witchcraft to architecture in the band. Everyone’s so opinionated, so we’re a unique band, in that way.
AS: Since Killing Joke has been a functioning unit for decades, I’d think you can finish each other’s musical sentences at this point. The Killing Joke democracy is probably set in its ways…
JC: Of course, when you are 18, like I was 18 when I started Killing Joke, you develop your style together. It’s close to 40 years together. That’s a long time, when you think about it. What motivates is that I love Killing Joke. It’s more than a band for me. I had no exams; I did no further exams. Killing Joke was our university. We were teenagers.
AS: You remain citizens of the world in your music, since it’s so pointed, even on Pylon.
JC: It is our duty to self-educate, swapping books and having debates. In this way, it is inspiring to be part of Killing Joke. It’s different from my other activities with classical music, with me and the orchestra. That’s hermit-like.When you are in a collective, like Killing Joke, you become a bit of a communist. It’s not all about you. I like these modes of existence. They contrast each other sharply.
AS: We know how Killing Joke functi0ns as a collective. But what is the relationship with fans like? How do you keep it a give-and-take experience?
JC: We treat our concerts as private parties and I see it like that. It’s tradition. We all got used to this, all this time. In Killing Joke, it is the musical landscape. We are making our most powerful music and we are all together. This is the gift. It is a blessing from the Gods, and it makes us stop and reflect.
Everyone is born with a gift and life is the location and selfless execution of your gift. At our shows, fans see a mirror on stage. I hope it can inspire them to do their own things in their own medium.
The other guys in the band have more influence on me than anyone else in my life; not even Beethoven has had the same influence that the other three members of Killing Joke have. It makes you value other human beings. As Peter Hook said, it’s the best job in the world. It’s hard, but it’s wonderful. Killing Joke is a metaphor for self-education and to surprise ourselves with what we can do.
AS: You have made some personal adjustments, as well. Can you expand on the changes that have improved your life?
JC: It’s a transformation. I stopped drinking… or I’d be dead. I was getting fat. It’s bad when your mother says, ‘You look like Orson Welles.’ Then My cholesterol was off the charts. My doctor said, ‘You can have two drinks a day.’ I said, ‘ Two? What?’ So I thought it was best to just stop. I put my energies into something different, which was boxing. My body changed shape and that was a big positive step, making that decision. My quality of life improved.
AS: What are some of the concepts your tackle, lyrically, on Pylon? Can you bring them down to earth for the fan?
JC: We are in a new age where it is going to be a painful time. Man has to evolve to a Class A civilization, drawing energy from universe without damaging the planet and we have to stop fighting each other. We have sing from the same sheet, one song, in many tongues, in one voice. Somehow, painfully, you have to see the bigger picture or you will destroy each other and the planet. People can’t understand; it’s the beginning of a huge change and Killing Joke are the method to process this, since it is extremely painful.
We must move to sustainability or we face certain extinction.
AS: Killing Joke certainly aren’t afraid of reflecting a dystopian worldview. Is there a song on Pylon that captures that best?
JC: ‘Big Buzz’ is the kind of song where you stop and reflect on our good fortune when you look at the world. The four of us are still here. What saddens me is what is happening in Europe. People are losing their jobs and trying to sustaining their families. These poor migrants come through Europe after what happens with these f**king ISIS creeps. They are not human resources. They are people. They are the other you. The lack of compassion saddens me. There is no heart. There are so few resources. People are not being welcomed, but they didn’t ask for this mess. We all got too greedy. Everyone wants to be a millionaire or billionaire. Killing Joke has given me this — the notion that people are more important than money. The spirit of Killing joke, which is like the fifth member, is that people are more important. Image may be NSFW.
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Make what sustains you and that is enough and you don’t have to ask more. What Americans might not understand about Killing Joke is that we are such inflammatory alpha males and it is hard to reach consensus on many things, but when we do, it can give you hope. I literally see it like this. Most things are attainable.We prove this for ourselves. We have become curators.
We split the money equally in Killing Joke. So to conclude, communism works! But I don’t mean Marxism, darling. I can’t stand him or his ideas. But I do believe in a collectivism.
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