"Apocalypse Is God's Spoiler" | JuJu em entrevista @ Maus Hábitos

Os italianos JuJu passaram recentemente em tour por Portugal, antecedendo o lançamento em 2024 do novo álbum “Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler“, sob o selo da Sister 9 Recordings. O novo disco conta com um tema onde participa Chad Channing (baterista de Nirvana entre 1988/90). A Irreversível teve a oportunidade de assistir ao concerto no Maus Hábitos, no Porto, e aproveitamos a ocasião para uma entrevista com Gioele Valenti.

Optamos por apresentar a entrevista sem tradução para português, mantendo-a no idioma em que foi realizada, o inglês. Esta escolha visa preservar a autenticidade e os detalhes da conversa entre a Irreversível e Gioele Valenti, permitindo que os leitores mergulhem na entrevista na sua forma original.

(…) the messy world in which we live, crazy geopolitic shit, is a form of decadent inspiration.
Gioele Valenti

Irreversível / Francisco Barros – Hello, thank you very much for making yourself available for this conversation. Congratulations on the concert at Maus Hábitos, very cool. Your live sound, which was the first time I saw it, seemed different from what I know of your work. Have we seen what you’re up to with “Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler” for 2024?
Gioele Valenti / JuJu – Yes, man, live we have this kinda “wall of sound”. The new album, with the changed title in “Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler“, will be more Afrikan, in a way… and at the same time more “punk” than ever. With the new drummer, Giulio Scavuzzo, and my old friend in JuJu, Vincenzo Schillaci, we built this strange dance-dark-industrial-r’n’r machine.

Irreversível – What is the concept or idea behind the making of JuJu?
Gioele Valenti – JuJu is the magic of the soil, very close to Afrikan vibes, and an iconography deeply radicated in Mediterranean culture. As usual JuJu does.

Irreversível – Are there different personalities that separate the everyday Gioele Valenti from what you do as a composer and author in JuJu?
Gioele Valenti – Mmm… really hard to explain. For me music express my dramatis personae, which is a mask, in way. I make music as I’d do a piece of dramatic performance – a ritual. This may appears to you naive, but that’s it.

Irreversível – What is your creative process like for creating the songs and what are your sources of inspiration?
Gioele Valenti – First come images, visions, music, riff. Then come the words. A great form of inspiration to me, it’s a good film or a piece of literature. Sure, also the messy world in which we live, crazy geopolitic shit, is a form of decadent inspiration. I’m like a sponge, deep down into a crazy furious sea.

Irreversível – I personally hate labelling artists or bands, it’s almost always limiting, but sometimes it’s necessary. If you had to explain the sound you create in JuJu, how would you describe it?
Gioele Valenti – Very didficult question… Joy Division team together with Flaming Lips and Cure for tea and pizza in Disneyland.

Irreversível – What is irreversible?
Gioele Valenti – The dead of the people you love, with the sense of lost and the precious time they bring with them, and their vanishing unique memories. That is irreversible. For all the rest, there is black (or white) magic.