Photo Credit: Kira Locke
You’re not the same person today you were yesterday, so you sure as heck ain’t the same person you were two years ago. Two years. The time it takes for HBO to give us new episodes of ‘Westworld,’ for someone to earn an AA, and also the time in between the last album from Port Juvee and their latest, this month’s ‘MOTION CONTROL.’ We talked about those couple of years and what it brought out in them, the dark side of tech, and what their up to next in terms of hitting the road in this back and forth exchange.
Kendra: Two years, 700-something days between ‘Crimewave’ and ‘MOTION CONTROL’ How do you feel any changes in your personal life between then and now have affected how this record panned out?
Port Juvee: So much has changed. It’s wild what can change over 700+ days over the course of five peoples’ lives. I think the single biggest thing is the fact that we have two new members on this album, and we sincerely believe that everyone’s fingerprints should be on the final product.
In our personal lives a lot of things have changed and a lot of things have stayed the same. I find sometimes staying at a job or staying in a relationship has the ability to change you as much as changing those parts of your life, especially if those things are thriving or overcoming difficulties. A lot of what happens in our personal lives found its way into “MOTION CONTROL,” whether it was lyrically or musically.
Kendra: Something the new album touches on is something that I spend a lot of time thinking about and that’s technologies effect on communication because it’s crazy how it’s both opened us up to so much more while simultaneously closing us off at the same time. Were there any insights on the matter that you wanted to explore but just couldn’t put to song just yet that may see the light of day on a later record?
Port Juvee: You’re absolutely right, I think there’s an awareness of a type of high-tech loneliness— interestingly, it’s something a lot of people seem to have in common. A concept I like lately is the fact that you have to be truly enamoured with something or someone to disconnect from technology— like to forget it exists, or at least to have the notion to use it dissipate. It’s a great feeling sometimes.
Kendra: Based on your latest single, which social media platform would you 100% “Hope to Lose?” Like you could wake up tomorrow and it be completely gone, never to return.
Port Juvee: I understand it’s rather ironic, since they own Instagram, but I would say Facebook. I just see so much negativity on that platform. Someone told me that it’s a place where “out of touch people go to vent,” and I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Kendra: You also explore an endless search for more with “Desert Moon Palace.” Which reminded me of something Aziz Ansari wrote in ‘Modern Romance.’ He noted how we’re never satisfied because we’ve become conditioned to think there’s not just more, but better to find. Do you agree that we’re not just concerned with finding more for ourselves but also into searching endlessly for something “better” that may not exist?
Port Juvee: I do think it becomes more difficult to choose and commit to things these days, all under the ominous shadow of “more”. With “Desert Moon Palace,” there’s a few concepts floating around like that. Sometimes people do awful things to either themselves or the people around them in their pursuit of perfection, whether that comes through fixation or difficulty in choosing. When does the juice become worthless because of the deafening effort of the squeeze? It’s a balancing act for sure.
Kendra: Now that we’ve gone and conversed like a couple of college students penning thesis papers, let’s get back to the music – once ‘MOTION CONTROL’ is out, will you guys be out as well, on the road that is?
Port Juvee: We are so excited to be on the road. We are lined up for a March tour with North American Festivals which will include New Colossus NYC, SXSW and Treefort Fest Music fest in, then we head to the UK in May for some dates and also a slot at FOCUS Wales.
