Punks Jump Up’s Joe Attard and David Andersson are opposites on paper but after you talk to them it’s clear they belong with one another. Having a foundation based on having the same goals, tastes, visions for what they want out of life and sharing a love for Stussy’s attitude in the ‘90s is what makes them best buds. But while they have their similarities, again – it’s those differences that drive them. At least that’s what they said, “Our differences are definitely a good thing, sometimes the creative process can be tough but the result is usually a lot better and interesting than what we expected.”
Today they’re a decade into doing their thing in the dance realm, but before that it was all mosh pits and spiked jewelry as they came from the punk scene. When you hear that, you wonder – what? To most the two are polar opposites. One born out rage and anti-establishment sentiments, the other about movement. The men of Punks Jump Up disagreed, “Punk and dance music have got a lot more in common than you might think. One similarity is that both styles demand an instant reaction from the audience as well as they share the same energy and passion,” but did note the differences when it came to constructing music for each, “Dance music is more about repetition, about getting a strong rhythmic backbone and you build it from there. Punk is raw energy and about getting the message across as quick and efficient as possible.”
Their latest “rhythmic backbone” is their single “Give It To Me” which they worked on with Josh Caffe and Robert Owens. They noted how the experience was “cool” and added, “Josh is so focused and determined to work and get it right which made it so easy & fun to write the song. Robert Owens, I mean what can we say, the guy is a legend and still so on point and brilliant today. He has sung on some of the most important tracks of our lives it was such an honour to work with him, he’s also a die hard pro but the sweetest guy at the same time, sooo good! The fact that he fed us with the most amazing stories about the 80’s Chicago house scene and its main players was an incredible bonus too.”
An original that’s making waves for sure, but Punks Jump Up are also known for remixing some of the best tracks out there from Two Door Cinema, Peter, Bjorn & John and Lykke Li. How they choose the songs they do is partially liking what they hear and wanting to hear more from the track, “Sometimes we just use a small part and add our own ideas and turn the song into our own. We usually add a lot of our own music and production rather than edit the original.” In the grand scheme of things though, these two have been making music for over a decade now and in that time have noticed the changes in music.
“The dance scene is a lot more mainstream today but it seems that has been at the expense of an healthy underground scene, it seems less new producers are interested in keeping it “cool” and ‘real’ and would rather reach mainstream success as quickly as possible. We don’t say that’s a bad thing, as long as the result is good and interesting then that’s the most important thing. However, this usually means that people tend to experiment less which makes the music that comes out too sound very much the same as everything else, a lot more streamlined. We hope there are more people out there trying to be different and individual as that is more healthy in the long run.”
One thing that hasn’t changed is the love of live music and having toured around the world over the years, they seemed to have found a second home in Mexico, “It’s such an amazing country with super cool and friendly people. The colours you see everywhere and the general dress sense of “normal” people is brilliant. Not to mention the food!!!” but while they love it there, they hope to make it to Japan real soon. Possibly in 2016? For now that’s not in the cards, but new music is already in the works alongside some releases on their own Muzik Box label.
