#soulsundaysessions 02: Kiwi music duo Jupiter Project
Spring is well and truly here, so we’re celebrating the onset of summer with a new blog series over the next few weeks called #soulsundaysessions!
As part of the new Remix #soulsundaysessions, we’ve been inviting some of our friends and interesting contributors down to our favourite Sunday spot, Soul Bar & Bistro, to have a late lunch and a chat about what they’re up to.
And, we’ll also be sharing the mouth-watering dishes we try over the next few weeks, as well!
In our second #soulsundaysession we caught up with Kiwi musicians Jupiter Project for a chat about their new single ‘Sweet Disguise’. Remix publisher Tim Phin spoke with duo Gavin Correia and Marty Richard about their crazy Grammy party with P. Diddy and a legion of loyal fans online.
So how did it feel to get a gold record?
Gavin Correia: We’re actually pretty stoked eh? I’m really stoked! Mostly because they actually look cool! A lot of the awards I’ve seen in New Zealand look pretty crappy in terms of design so we wanted to make the design really good.
Did you actually brief your award?
GC: Well yeah, you can do whatever you want. Our A&R at Warner, Jim, had this excellent template that was like a Bob Marley plaque and we thought that looked cool so we did something like that.
How many actual units is the gold record?
Marty Richard: Gold is like 75.
Do they count now with streams?
GC: Yeah, so it’s like 150 streams equals one sale. It’s insane. So if you were doing it just on streams it would be over a million.
GC: I wish I knew [laughs].
MR: It’s all hands on deck really.
GC: So for example ‘With You’ that’s actually me singing on that. Usually it’s that I’m doing the production and he does the singing but sometimes we just switch it up. With that track I think it was just sort of a quicker project and we just got it out and it did its own thing. But with ‘Sweet Disguise’ he started the production on that and yeah, we kind of just go all over the place.
How long has the band been going for?
MR: Since we first started in maybe 2010. We were at university for a couple of those years so we were just figuring stuff out. More seriously in 2012.
With what single?
MR: ‘Catch Me’ was our first label release, but actually ‘Hook Up Girl’ was the first big one. That was cool.
Nowadays you’d call it ‘Tinder Girl’ right?
GC: Tinder Girl! [laughs] That’s actually a great idea. Keep an eye out for that.
The boys enjoyed a round of cocktails, including the fresh gin based ‘Betty Come Back’, the delicious ‘Dear Olivia’ with Belvedere Pink Grapefruit Vodka and the ‘Lady Marmalade’, with Angostura 5 year old rum. Perfect thirst quenchers on the sunny Soul deck!
So is an album coming out sometime?
MR: Yes. In the first quarter of next year.
Really? I’m going to hold you to that.
MR: Yeah, you can. Please do because we don’t want to be on the level of the Frank Oceans that just never release albums and they just keep promising shit. We don’t want to be that.
So is it going to be new singles or just a collection of the ones that have been?
GC: It’s going to be all new stuff. I think the only single that it will have on it would be ‘With You’. But I would say everything else would be new.
I heard Lorde was going to be on it?
MR: We’ve given her a call. If she’s down, then yeah! [Laughs]
Just waiting for her to call back?
GC: Yeah, yeah. She said she’d call us back. It’s been six months. She tweeted us once. That was cool. She’s awesome.
How far do you want to take this whole project?
GC: As far as possible.
MR: Yeah! I mean the thing is that we’re kind of going by ear. It all started off as just a project, that’s why we called it that. I don’t think we expected for it to be going this long. So, yeah, we’re just going with the flow, enjoying the journey of it.
And you’ve got gigs coming up in the States and Europe?
GC: Yes! A show in Paris.
MR: A big show in Paris and then quite a few other shows in Auckland that we’re trying to organise.
GC: Yeah we might do a little tour before Rhythm & Vines in late November-early December. Summer’s looking good keep an eye out for Our House and Rhythm.
The table shared spicy tuna tartare (with crushed avocado and warm jou jou bread) along with Little Neck clams with linguine and the handmade pork, spinach and pancetta agnolotti. For mains, Gavin continued down the seafood route with the tasty pan fried hapuku, while Marty had the Hawkes Bay lamb rack with roasted eggplant caviar, wild wheat and pistachio tabouleh.
How can a New Zealand band make it in the world? It’s obviously really hard to break it.
GC: I think it is and it isn’t. It’s easier to break in that front door in New Zealand because it’s so much smaller, so once you get that foothold here you get known as a premier person in your field in New Zealand and that helps you translate overseas.
MR: Yeah, I was thinking - think globally but you’ve got to start local. Really focus on your community here. It is important. It’s really important that you have the back of your own city, your city’s got your back, and everything like that. But at the same time make quality content for the world.
Do you see yourselves as more international or New Zealand?
MR: Our sound is really influenced by everything around us and I guess being on the Internet you see a lot of stuff that’s going on internationally so our sound is that way.
GC: It is what it is.
MR: Yeah, it is what it is. We’re thankful that it’s being picked up in other countries - France, whatever. They really like us in France.
GC: Yeah it’s like top 40 in France.
MR: Yeah, it’s so weird, but so great.
Is social media helping you? I notice you guys engage quite a bit.
MR: Yeah, I find that’s a lot to do with the community. We stay in touch with everyone, our fans and listeners and friends in the neighbourhood. A lot of our people are Kiwis you know, that follow us and communicate with us all the time.
GC: I hate when bands are too cool to follow people. You know you look at someone’s account and they have like 7 million followers but they follow three people. Don’t be so pretentious!
So tell us one story of something crazy that’s happened on the road touring?
MR: A lot of them wouldn’t be suitable for the magazine! A great story though was from the Grammy party last year actually. We were in LA for them and we somehow wound up at Puff Daddy’s house, as you do. It was pretty crazy, pretty cool. He was showing us a bunch of records from his record label and his songs, asking us what we thought of his music, which was kind of cool. And then we had to leave the party around 6 am and it was just getting bigger.
GC: Apparently they kept going the whole day.
MR: Yeah there were just more and more celebrities rolling through. We were just like “Wow!”
How important is style for you guys?
MR: I think it’s a personal thing. It’s just whatever feels good and at the same time whatever resonates with us. It’s not that important, it’s just what we do. Another avenue of expressing. That’s it.
GC: I see style as like attitude. What you wear expresses your attitude at that moment. Depends where you want to go and how you want to express yourself. So if you want to get a lot of swag then you dress swaggy. It depends how you feel. I don’t think you try too hard on it though. Otherwise that comes across too.
Marty couldn’t resist ordering the coconut crème brulee, while Gavin and Tim shared three varieties of cheese: the Mahoe Blue (5 months old, semi firm and creamy), the Whitestone Totara Tasty Vintage Cheddar (Aged 18 – 24 months, with a sharp finish) and the Brie de Meaux AOC Rouzaire (white bloomy rind, Ile de France). Oh and another round of the cocktails!
So tell us about the new single that’s out this week?
GC: Yeah man, so we literally just smashed it pretty quickly in terms of getting the whole thing done. It was pretty quick and now it’s on the radio and heating up. It was pretty cool we actually played a show this weekend and the kids are already singing it, so that was pretty cool.
MR: Yeah, it’s called ‘Sweet Disguise’. We dropped it just on Friday and it’s been getting a good response. Good radio play. Hopefully when we get back we’ll be hearing it everywhere. But yeah we love it.
So we’re here at Soul Bar. Tell us your favourite foods?
GC: Well we just had some amazing oysters and that was pretty great. And the clams! Amazing!
MR: The agnolotti! I love the agnolotti, that’s my favourite so far. And not to mention this cocktail - the cocktails are unreal. This one’s Dear Olivia.
Do you ever get sick of each other?
GC: Absolutely!
MR: Absolutely! That’s why we don’t live together because we’d kill each other. This guy takes so long in the shower.
If you want to head down to Soul for your own Sunday session (which we strongly advise), then visit Soul Bar & Bistro online here for booking details. Also remember to ‘Like’ them on Facebook here and Instagram here for their latest menu offerings and news.
Words by Tim Phin & photos by Carl Thompson.
So how did it feel to get a gold record?
Gavin Correia: We’re actually pretty stoked eh? I’m really stoked! Mostly because they actually look cool! A lot of the awards I’ve seen in New Zealand look pretty crappy in terms of design so we wanted to make the design really good.
Did you actually brief your award?
GC: Well yeah, you can do whatever you want. Our A&R at Warner, Jim, had this excellent template that was like a Bob Marley plaque and we thought that looked cool so we did something like that.
How many actual units is the gold record?
Marty Richard: Gold is like 75.
Do they count now with streams?
GC: Yeah, so it’s like 150 streams equals one sale. It’s insane. So if you were doing it just on streams it would be over a million.
GC: I wish I knew [laughs].
MR: It’s all hands on deck really.
GC: So for example ‘With You’ that’s actually me singing on that. Usually it’s that I’m doing the production and he does the singing but sometimes we just switch it up. With that track I think it was just sort of a quicker project and we just got it out and it did its own thing. But with ‘Sweet Disguise’ he started the production on that and yeah, we kind of just go all over the place.
How long has the band been going for?
MR: Since we first started in maybe 2010. We were at university for a couple of those years so we were just figuring stuff out. More seriously in 2012.
With what single?
MR: ‘Catch Me’ was our first label release, but actually ‘Hook Up Girl’ was the first big one. That was cool.
Nowadays you’d call it ‘Tinder Girl’ right?
GC: Tinder Girl! [laughs] That’s actually a great idea. Keep an eye out for that.
The boys enjoyed a round of cocktails, including the fresh gin based ‘Betty Come Back’, the delicious ‘Dear Olivia’ with Belvedere Pink Grapefruit Vodka and the ‘Lady Marmalade’, with Angostura 5 year old rum. Perfect thirst quenchers on the sunny Soul deck!
So is an album coming out sometime?
MR: Yes. In the first quarter of next year.
Really? I’m going to hold you to that.
MR: Yeah, you can. Please do because we don’t want to be on the level of the Frank Oceans that just never release albums and they just keep promising shit. We don’t want to be that.
So is it going to be new singles or just a collection of the ones that have been?
GC: It’s going to be all new stuff. I think the only single that it will have on it would be ‘With You’. But I would say everything else would be new.
I heard Lorde was going to be on it?
MR: We’ve given her a call. If she’s down, then yeah! [Laughs]
Just waiting for her to call back?
GC: Yeah, yeah. She said she’d call us back. It’s been six months. She tweeted us once. That was cool. She’s awesome.
How far do you want to take this whole project?
GC: As far as possible.
MR: Yeah! I mean the thing is that we’re kind of going by ear. It all started off as just a project, that’s why we called it that. I don’t think we expected for it to be going this long. So, yeah, we’re just going with the flow, enjoying the journey of it.
And you’ve got gigs coming up in the States and Europe?
GC: Yes! A show in Paris.
MR: A big show in Paris and then quite a few other shows in Auckland that we’re trying to organise.
GC: Yeah we might do a little tour before Rhythm & Vines in late November-early December. Summer’s looking good keep an eye out for Our House and Rhythm.
The table shared spicy tuna tartare (with crushed avocado and warm jou jou bread) along with Little Neck clams with linguine and the handmade pork, spinach and pancetta agnolotti. For mains, Gavin continued down the seafood route with the tasty pan fried hapuku, while Marty had the Hawkes Bay lamb rack with roasted eggplant caviar, wild wheat and pistachio tabouleh.
How can a New Zealand band make it in the world? It’s obviously really hard to break it.
GC: I think it is and it isn’t. It’s easier to break in that front door in New Zealand because it’s so much smaller, so once you get that foothold here you get known as a premier person in your field in New Zealand and that helps you translate overseas.
MR: Yeah, I was thinking - think globally but you’ve got to start local. Really focus on your community here. It is important. It’s really important that you have the back of your own city, your city’s got your back, and everything like that. But at the same time make quality content for the world.
Do you see yourselves as more international or New Zealand?
MR: Our sound is really influenced by everything around us and I guess being on the Internet you see a lot of stuff that’s going on internationally so our sound is that way.
GC: It is what it is.
MR: Yeah, it is what it is. We’re thankful that it’s being picked up in other countries - France, whatever. They really like us in France.
GC: Yeah it’s like top 40 in France.
MR: Yeah, it’s so weird, but so great.
Is social media helping you? I notice you guys engage quite a bit.
MR: Yeah, I find that’s a lot to do with the community. We stay in touch with everyone, our fans and listeners and friends in the neighbourhood. A lot of our people are Kiwis you know, that follow us and communicate with us all the time.
GC: I hate when bands are too cool to follow people. You know you look at someone’s account and they have like 7 million followers but they follow three people. Don’t be so pretentious!
So tell us one story of something crazy that’s happened on the road touring?
MR: A lot of them wouldn’t be suitable for the magazine! A great story though was from the Grammy party last year actually. We were in LA for them and we somehow wound up at Puff Daddy’s house, as you do. It was pretty crazy, pretty cool. He was showing us a bunch of records from his record label and his songs, asking us what we thought of his music, which was kind of cool. And then we had to leave the party around 6 am and it was just getting bigger.
GC: Apparently they kept going the whole day.
MR: Yeah there were just more and more celebrities rolling through. We were just like “Wow!”
How important is style for you guys?
MR: I think it’s a personal thing. It’s just whatever feels good and at the same time whatever resonates with us. It’s not that important, it’s just what we do. Another avenue of expressing. That’s it.
GC: I see style as like attitude. What you wear expresses your attitude at that moment. Depends where you want to go and how you want to express yourself. So if you want to get a lot of swag then you dress swaggy. It depends how you feel. I don’t think you try too hard on it though. Otherwise that comes across too.
Marty couldn’t resist ordering the coconut crème brulee, while Gavin and Tim shared three varieties of cheese: the Mahoe Blue (5 months old, semi firm and creamy), the Whitestone Totara Tasty Vintage Cheddar (Aged 18 – 24 months, with a sharp finish) and the Brie de Meaux AOC Rouzaire (white bloomy rind, Ile de France). Oh and another round of the cocktails!
So tell us about the new single that’s out this week?
GC: Yeah man, so we literally just smashed it pretty quickly in terms of getting the whole thing done. It was pretty quick and now it’s on the radio and heating up. It was pretty cool we actually played a show this weekend and the kids are already singing it, so that was pretty cool.
MR: Yeah, it’s called ‘Sweet Disguise’. We dropped it just on Friday and it’s been getting a good response. Good radio play. Hopefully when we get back we’ll be hearing it everywhere. But yeah we love it.
So we’re here at Soul Bar. Tell us your favourite foods?
GC: Well we just had some amazing oysters and that was pretty great. And the clams! Amazing!
MR: The agnolotti! I love the agnolotti, that’s my favourite so far. And not to mention this cocktail - the cocktails are unreal. This one’s Dear Olivia.
Do you ever get sick of each other?
GC: Absolutely!
MR: Absolutely! That’s why we don’t live together because we’d kill each other. This guy takes so long in the shower.
If you want to head down to Soul for your own Sunday session (which we strongly advise), then visit Soul Bar & Bistro online here for booking details. Also remember to ‘Like’ them on Facebook here and Instagram here for their latest menu offerings and news.
Words by Tim Phin & photos by Carl Thompson.
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