Feature People in Jars: What can musicians say about the city we live in?
Can music and politically-aware sentiments ever mix? Leeds band People in Jars think so...
People in Jars The Anointed
What role do politically-aware sentiments have in music? New Leeds band People in Jars think it’s central to why they create music in the first place.
From Abel Meeropol’s Strange Fruit (most famously performed by Billie Holiday) to Rage Against the Machine’s anti-imperialist back catalogue, music has been used an expression of resistance for decades.
In line with this tradition, Ade Mincher, the guitarist in the Leeds band People in Jars, believes that “music, as an art form, has a social responsibility to act as a witness to the society we live in”.
“When we’re feeling cynical,” he says, “it’s easy to see Leeds as an optical illusion: those in charge are desperately trying to keep up the charade that Leeds is a perfect, glossy place where no one is homeless, no area is derelict and everyone shops all day, smiling.”
“But Leeds should be more than a consumer product where people, places, organisations and culture that doesn’t conform to this ‘mirage’ are cast out.”
Chris Hargreaves, who plays bass in the band, explains further: “Some of our favourite places have been shut down. The wonderfully-shabby Corn Exchange was gentrified into a very beautiful but soulless space. Kirkgate Market is at the heart of the community, but it’s under threat of closure. And dozens of independent retailers are struggling to compete with mainstream shops that choke out the individuality and rebellious nature that makes our city great.”
“And perhaps most disturbingly, people are part of this process too: whole communities, like those in Cross Green and Little London, are being relocated and replaced with private housing full of more ‘cost effective’ citizens.”
Nowhere is this urban prosthetic treatment more acute, they say, than with the city’s homeless. These are people that the system has visibly failed. People sleeping in doorways and under bridges are not good for the tourist-brochure image of the city. So the down-and-out are being systematically moved on from popular routes in to and out of the city, to maintain its aesthetics.
Once hidden, their existence is denied – official Leeds City Council statistics (based on a headcount in May) say that Leeds has just six people sleeping rough. Anyone who’s lived in Leeds for more than a month knows this to be untrue. People in Jars observed this phenomenon and it inspired the title track of their first album, The Anointed. The song’s chorus is simply an off-kilter chant of: “Can’t see a homeless man…” a direct reference to the unspoken policy of hiding these city-dwellers from view.
This follows the pre-chorus: “You can hire us, you can sell us, exercise, utilise everyone, you can hide us, you can screen us, move us out to the posh part of town”.
The struggle to gain power over ones own life is also explored throughout The Anointed – in reference to a variety of inter-related global and local issues: the dub-step-infused ‘Summud’ is about resistance in Palestine. It opens with the lyrics: “Come what may, we won’t bow; we won’t let your seed, grow inside our womb”.
Snakes & Lions laments the downfall of civil liberties in the UK, while the band’s new single ‘For the Love of Mia’ tackles how power and control can play out within more personal relations.
With such politically astute messages, People in Jars invite a reflection of the role music can play as a comment on the world around us.
Ade is keen to also point out that not all music/political mergings are matches made in heaven, referring to people like Bono and Geldoff as “ignorant self-appointed spokespeople who seem to be on the bandwagon, so to speak. They are a pain in the arse as they’re just so misleading.”
He also remarks that the music industry itself can throw up contradictions as both politics and musicality are often sacrificed in favour of commercial gain. People in Jars are keen to avoid “selling out” by retaining not only their anarchic sentiment but a commitment to inspired post-prog music.
Indeed the music seems to be as thoughtful as the lyrics. Sonically, the band emits a post-progressive blend of live electronics, dubstep bass, guitar-driven post-rock and powerful vocals. The effect is a captivating infusion of melancholic tones and harmonies and alluring rhythmic innovations, akin to a masculine Portishead. Sharing a bass player with Leeds’ dub darlings Submotion Orchestra led to People in Jars’ music being mastered by Ranking Records – furthering the band’s crossover into dance music and leading to rumours of a remix by Ranking superstar producer, Ruckspin.
Committed to popular participation; People in Jars will be granting free access to a special one-off show in Leeds’ Left Bank Art Centre on October 15th. There they will invite the audience to film the performance using camera phones in order to create a video for their new single For the Love of Mia. This powerful, jazz-laced ballad of irregular rhythms will be released on November 1st.
www.myspace.com/thepeopleinjars
Posted on Wednesday 18th August 2010
Tessa Horvath
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