Since their formation four years ago, Melburnian blues/jazz/cabaret outfit MOJO JUJU & THE SNAKE OIL MERCHANTS have experienced a groundswell of change. After releasing their debut, self-titled album several years back, and embarking on several thoroughly extensive tours of the country, the group went through a rather large lineup change prior to the recording of their recently-released second album, Sellin’ You Salvation. Prior to setting off on yet another expedition across our fine nation which will bring them by Canberra later this month, I ask Mojo Juju – the group’s founding member and lead singer/guitarist – how the recording of Sellin’ You Salvation compared to the creation of their very well-received debut effort.
“For the first album, we went in and did it in a couple of weeks in a room all together,” she says. “This album, however, was painstakingly meticulous in its crafting. It took two years to write this record, and there were a lot of tears shed, and punches thrown, in the process.”
While she assures me that her references to tears and punches are to some degree metaphorical, it’s unsurprising that Sellin’ You Salvation did not come about easily. The group’s previous album mixed dark, brooding Tom Waits-style blues with rapturous gypsy dance rhythms and Slavic folklore-type storytelling. Sellin’ You Salvation, by contrast, takes the jazz, cabaret and big-band influences that were barely a footnote on their debut, and balloons them out into the album’s raison d’être, and in the process transforming their sound from that of a Gypsy dancehall to 1920s New York.
“I think it’s always where I was heading and where I intended to go” says Mojo Juju, when I comment on the album’s dominant horn section and the extent to which, at times, listeners might think they’re actually listening to the soundtrack to Chicago. “The first album happened when I was putting the band together. Since then we’ve solidified the identity of the band, and now we have more of an idea of who we are and where we’re going. The lineup’s changed a lot, but we’ve finetuned our sound. I didn’t have access to horn players before, but I have them now, so I was able to do what I wanted.”
It’s not surprising that the group has chosen the musical path as reflected on Sellin’ You Salvation. Mojo Juju and her brother (T-Bone, the group’s trumpeter) are the grandchildren of jazz musicians, and children of singers, who immersed them in jazz festivals and jazz culture from a very early age. “I grew up with a really romantic fascination of the decadence of the inter-war years. People lived their lives with real immediacy,” she says. “The music was often played by people who were oppressed, but they still lived excessive and decadent lives. My appreciation of that type of lifestyle and attitude I think really comes across in our music.”
Mojo Juju & The Snake Oil Merchants play a free show at the Phoenix on Friday May 28. Joining them will be Kira Puru & The Very Geordie Malones, and Frankie Valentine.
