New Zealand’s Jupiter Project have shared stages with the likes of Flume and Will.I.Am. The Indie R&B duo made up of Gavin Correia and Marty Rich have just released their debut EP, Zeus.
I love the fact that you chose Jupiter as your namesake to symbolize the extent of your ambition. What will fulfill that ambitious drive? Money? Fame? Superbowl half-time stardom? An interview by the Panic Manual?
Hahaha, hopefully an interview with Panic Manual is a stepping stone to all of those! We work hard because we love music and we set ourselves some pretty lofty goals because we’ve always believed in ourselves. But at the same time, we’re not in the habit of talking up our ambitions/goals – we’d rather show you than tell you!
New Zealand culture. Discuss: Do you feel that your geographic remove hinders/helps the music scene ‘down under’? You’ve said that you wrote Peer Pressure while on the road in the U.S. Do you find that time away from NZ helps your creative drive?
I definitely wouldn’t say that it is a hinderance at all. If anything, it makes us unique. We have a tonne of great artists down here who are set on taking our art to the rest of the world and it’s great that you guys and so many others are receptive to the flavour that us Kiwi’s are putting into our brand of music.
Time away is great for the soul and great for the creative process because you’re constantly being inspired by new things and new people around you. We have a lot of love for the States and write great music while we’re over so that’s why we’re always coming back.
When you work on songs, is there any specific focus on the intro as opposed to the middle as opposed to the end? I ask because the beginning hook of Peer Pressure is so catchy. Did that take you a while? Or no longer than the rest of the song?
Every element of a new song gets it’s own special attention but there isn’t a set formula for how we go about things. We do like adding different dimensions of hooks or things that draw people into the song. I think some people mistake this to mean making things catchyin a commercial sense, but the two can be quite different at times.
With the Peer Pressure intro that was a case of us having finished the record and listening back to it for the first time and all of a sudden, Marty goes “Hold up, I’ve got an idea”. It must have just came out of some random part of his brain ha!
What’s your favorite thing to wear on stage? Any must-have accessories you perform with?
Just shit that is generally cool and awesome. What we wear suits our personalities so it can be pretty out there sometimes.
In terms of accessories, some dope jewellery always goes down well too.
Any superstitions/rituals before shows?
Usually just a couple glasses of champagne to get things started!
What’s the one question you wish interviewers would ask you and how would you answer it?
Actually, there isn’t a ‘one perfect question’ but you definitely come across some of the same BS questions time and time again so it’s always good when an interviewer is original/creative in what they ask. A lil background info never hurt anyone either hahaha.