Jerboah

Genuinely eclectic combination of jazz rock and art pop from multinational quartet

Bands that claim to play without musical boundaries very rarely follow through on such claims. But one group of musicians that seems to buck the trend are Amsterdam-based quartet Jerboah. Indeed a live set by the band feels like a trip through the history of popular music. Not that the band are entirely free of labels, as EWI (electronic wind instrument) player Dodo Kis explains:

“We describe ourselves as genre-bending worldbeat and post-pop”.

The instrumentation of the band is highly unusual. Guitar and drums combine with the recorder and vocal talents of Brit Sarah Jeffery, while Dodo’s EWI provides both bass lines and synth-style solos. How did such an unusual configuration come together?

“The band started in 2014, but Marcos (the band’s Argentinian drummer) and I joined in 2016, making the ensemble that recorded the first two EPs”.

Sarah continues. “When Corona came along and stopped everything, Jerboah reconfigured and we reformed it in a fresh way”.

“We all come from different musical and cultural backgrounds”, Dodo continues, “that is something that we cherish. The genre-bending allows us to combine all of that without compromising. We all listen to many different types of music and we don’t want to restrict ourselves from bringing all those influences into the band”.

Sarah agrees. “After that, we write songs about subjects that we’re really passionate about, like the despair of climate change or just the feeling you get when you don’t want to go out and see anybody. Humour is also important as we sometimes need to balance out the heavy subjects with lighter material”.

It’s hugely encouraging that a group of multinational musicians can come together successfully in such a musical melting pot as Amsterdam.

“There are a lot of international residents coming here.” says Dodo, “Amsterdam has something an equal mix of international residents and Dutch”. Sarah elaborates. “It’s just so natural to have this cultural and musical mix. I can’t imagine anything else. So that’s why when something like Brexit happens, we want to sing about that. It should be that anybody from anywhere should be able to use any type of music they want and make something wonderful”.

The band’s epic reinterpretation of Bronski Beat’s classic Smalltown Boy is especially striking. Why did they pick that song to cover? Sarah, who sings it, says: “We all thought we’d give it a go, particularly as it’s a pride-acceptance song. We also have another piece called //Unicorn//, which is about bisexual rights. These issues are important to us.”

Given that the band’s last recordings came out in 2018, when will they be releasing new music? There are a lot of brand-new live tracks available on YouTube already.

“We actually have a full album recorded,” says Dodo. “It’s in the final mixing mastering stage. We have a video for a song of Marcos’ called //Walking// that is almost finished. That will be out soon, perhaps in the autumn. Then we hope to have an album out in the spring of next year”. 

Prog File

LINE-UP: Sarah Jeffery (recorder, vocals), Dodo Kiss (EWI, recorder, vocals), Marcos Baggiani (drums, vocals), Guillermo Celano (guitar)

SOUNDS LIKE: A wonderfully eclectic mixture of fusion and free jazz combined with issue-led art pop.

CURRENT RELEASE: Bristly EP available from https://jerboah.bandcamp.com

WEBSITE: https://jerboahmusic.com

— Stephen Lambe