What does Jonathan Boulet do with his time? Good question. Since finishing up his second offering
We Keep The Beat, Found The Sound, See The Need, Start The Heart in May last year, things have seemed pretty quiet. That is, aside from playing Vivid LIVE with Tom Vek and Kindness at the Opera House, readying his upcoming tour, producing records for grindcore bands, screen-printing his own merch, and doing some serious research on alien encounters and alien-inspired religions. Told you it was a good question. Everything sounds pretty left field, Mr. Boulet gave us a tinkle to chat about it.
Lauren Bertacchini: So how was Vivid LIVE?
Jonathan Boulet: That was really good. We got to play the Opera House, which is ridiculous. To be able to say that is a really funny thing.
LB: Did you get to check out any of the other events?
JB: Not really, but I did get to squeeze in to
Efterklang who were playing just before us. And Efterklang are a band I’ve always wanted to watch. No one has brought them out to Australia, and the one time that they do get brought out it’s the same night as our gig. I was distraught because I thought I was going to miss it. I missed out on the encore, which apparently was pretty cool, but I got to see most of it so I was pretty happy.
LB: Do you feel that there has been a big shift in the sound of your first album to your second album?
JB: Yeah definitely. The first album was a learning curve; it was me trying to figure out how to record and trying out different techniques. You can hear different songs and the difference in quality. This time round it’s all done at the same time so it’s a lot more cohesive. It’s a lot thicker and I made it really dense and added too many layers. I feel like I got better at recording while I was doing it.
LB: Why would you say TOO many layers?
JB: Just because there is really. I know how many there are, and what’s underneath. For the outside ear it’s a lot to take in, and it would take a while to hear all the different layers. It would have been smarter to achieve the same thing with (fewer) layers, but at that point in time I wasn’t as good at recording, so I wasn’t sure how to make it so big without adding lots of layers.
LB: Are you interested in doing production for other people?
JB: Yeah definitely. I’ve been doing a bit of that every now and then. When I find a band I really love I’ll give them an email and just say, “Hey, if you need any help recording, I’d love to help.” Sometimes it happens and I get to work with bands that I really love and respect. I’m always trying to find more music to record, and get better at it as well.
LB: Have you done any recently?
JB: I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel like there’s been a bit of a drought of good music around. I hadn’t done anything for a while and I saw this grind band in Sydney, and I was like, “Do you guys wanna record?” and they were like, “Yeah sweet!” And that was fun doing a grindcore band. They were called
thedowngoing and their whole thing was trying to make it hurt people’s ears. When people listen to it they want (them) to be uncomfortable, which is a weird, weird concept.
LB: Are you interested in non-music avenues?
JB: Yeah for sure! If I get sick of music I’ve gotta go and do something else. I mess around with painting and drawing, and trying to figure out how to build pedals. Recently I got into some screen printing and figured out how to do that, and that’s fun. I’m going to make some merch for the tour coming up.
LB: People can go to a Jonathan Boulet show and also buy a Jonathan Boulet art piece?
JB: Yeah totally. It’s not going to be worth much, but yeah!
LB: Now Jonathan, I was having a look around on your
website, and I found a bunch of links to things like the
Australian Raelian Movement webpage. Can you explain these to us?
JB: Yeah I think that stuff’s great. With a bunch of our friends, we’ve been following the alien story; what’s been happening with humans and aliens in the last 10-15-20 years. That, and conspiracy websites, and all the theories that come with alien contact and then the governments and stuff. It’s just so interesting. I find it really intriguing, whether it’s crazy or not. And I found all those links to those religions based on alien interaction, and all the websites are kinda dodgy. It’s just so interesting to read up on all that stuff and what they believe in, so I put it up on the site.
LB: So this is just stuff that you find fascinating?
JB: It’s fascinating for me because I genuinely believe there are aliens, that there has been some kind of contact made with humans, and that it’s all just going to come out soon. Like one day soon it’s all just going to come out and they’ll be like. "Okay yeah, we have been contacted...” That’s what I think… Then with the religions, it’s interesting to think how they’d react to that; if they’d just be like “See...!” and then if people are going to go crazy about trying to get into those religions. It’s just such a weird topic.
LB: If you had to lean toward one of the alien inspired religions which way would you lean?
JB: Oh, I don’t know. I’d probably take the craziest one. Just because they sound great; they seem like a lot of fun. I kinda wonder what these people do daily. If they are just normal people and they believe in it, or if they’re like fanatics and if they’re just always thinking about it and talking about it and it’s the only thing they ever do.
You can stream Jonathan Boulet’s full album below.
Check out the photos from the Modular Party tour with Tom Vek and Kindness.
JONATHAN BOULET TOUR DATES (AND ALIEN ENCOUNTERS?):
Wednesday 27 June – The Brewery, Byron Bay
Thursday 28 June –The Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast
Friday 29 June –The Hi-Fi, Brisbane
Saturday 30 June – The Metro, Sydney
Thursday 5 July – Fowlers Live, Adelaide
Friday 6 July – Prince Bandroom, Melbourne
Saturday 7 July – Amplifier, Perth
WORDS: Lauren Bertacchini