Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/989894
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 JUNE 2018 THIS WEEK MUSIC What was the main motivation behind the setting up of Djun, and what did you set out to achieve with the gathering of musicians that you had at hand? In the beginning of 2017 my old friend Mark 'Zizza' Abela, of Brodu fame, approached me to start writing Maltese lan- guage songs together. We both used to play in a funk band called 'Zizza Ensemble' a few years back and had been look- ing for an excuse to reconnect. While I used to write most of the music for Zizza Ensem- ble, I had never put words to music. But I somehow discov- ered I have a knack for it, and quickly got hooked, rapidly producing ideas that centered around the themes of finitude and the passage of time (early onset midlife crisis I suppose). We're both old hands in the local music scene now so we were quickly able to put to- gether a group of amazing musicians; Justin Galea (vo- cals), Paul Torpiano (keys) and Ryan Refalo (guitars). Eventu- ally, Zizza couldn't keep up the commitment, given that he es- sentially plays in every band on the island. So we amicably parted ways, with the very tal- ented Michael Vella Zarb tak- ing his place on drums. The boys brought a huge amount of passion to the pro- ject and made it their own. So at first it just started off as me and Zizza fraternalising over music and me dealing with a mild existential crisis, and now it's taken on a life of its own. With your influences of jazz and prog very much evident, would you say that there's something austere and serious that's essential to your sound? With this in mind, how would you define yourselves in terms of your chosen genres, and how does that influence your process? I've played in rock, jazz and funk bands all my life, and wanted Djun to be something different. Profoundly sad, but contemporaneously listen- able and uplifting and 'pop' is what we're aiming for. I'd like our audience to enjoy what we do, but not necessarily to 'have fun'. Although they're free to do so, within limits. Regarding influences, while I did indeed grow up listening to lots of progressive rock and jazz, I have been absorbing very different influences over the last few years – the sad folk of Sufjan Stevens primarily but also the Genoese songwriters, lots of voguish psychedelic re- vival bands like Tame Impala and Mild High Club, latter day Radiohead and such. In terms of how those influ- ences filter through into the process, we crystallised the core themes and ideas for our first album fairly early on in the songwriting phase, and so were also able to specifically seek out influences and ideas. Fundamentally, we're all song crafting geeks and we all love hunting down the right chord or sound for a particular idea. What would you say you contribute to the local musical scene – do you think you bring something on board that wasn't there previously? We're less middle class than the Travellers, less angry than Brikkuni, less likeable than Brodu, and less attractive than Red Elektrick. It's all about that austere minimalism. Less is more. Jokes apart, I think the combination of 'very sad' and 'very pop' is relatively unex- plored here. How do you feel about the local musical scene? What would you change about it? The contemporary Maltese language pop scene is small, but closely-knit and thriving. The jazz scene is also doing well, and producing some fright- eningly talented young musi- cians. I don't follow the festival scene and find it completely uninteresting. I wish more local musicians would take artistic risks and stop fooling The depths of sadness and the highs of pop With a focus on loss and the passage of time, the newly-minted, genre-hopping band Djun will be performing on June 10, while also prepping their debut album in parallel. TEODOR RELJIC speaks to the band's bassist and lead songwriter, Charles Cassar "I wish more local musicians would take artistic risks and stop fooling themselves baiting hits because they think they're trying to make it big"