Sir Bobby Jukebox has released his new single Hire-A-Heart and his new album, Sir Bobby Jukebox in the Organ Loft at Midnight, will follow on 9 June. We asked him the BIG questions . . .
The album was made between 2019 and 2022, in Brisbane and Dublin and Sir Bobby describes it as a "surreal avant-pop adventure, navigating themes of self-discovery, otherness, ageing, geographic dislocation and . . . plenty of pleasant things too".
We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
He adds, "Sir Bobby Jukebox in the Organ Loft at Midnight will be the first ever album released as a set of collectable bubblegum cards - a collaboration between me now and myself as a boy.
"Not only is this a more environmentally friendly format, but it's also the cheapest format to mail - at a time when posting vinyl/CDs/tapes has become prohibitively expensive. Savvy all round if I may say so myself."
The album's thirteen tracks were produced by Sir Bobby Jukebox (No Monster Club), mixed by Brendan Jenkinson (Villagers, Aoife Nessa Frances, Davy Kehoe) and mastered by Aidan Foley (Rollerskate Skinny, Whipping Boy).
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
My name is Sir Bobby Jukebox. I am in the organ loft. It is three seconds to midnight.
How would you describe your music?
If somebody put fifty coins into a jukebox from a Twilight Zone antique dealer, and then bashed every button at the same time.
Who are your musical inspirations?
Anyone that's ever kept going, stuck to their guns, and ignored the funny looks they were getting from people. So, you know . . . Alvin Dahn, BJ Snowden, Jan Terri, Wesley Willis, Wild Man Fischer, The Space Lady, Daniel Johnston.
We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
What was the first gig you ever went to?
The Revs, circa 2002. Side note: promoters and venues need to make All Ages gigs and matinees a normal, regular thing. Teenagers are THE biggest music fans, 'cos they’ve just stumbled across the entire history of recorded music and it’s like being let loose in a sweet factory. To lock them out is so incredibly mean. The amount of hassle I got trying to see bands back then was awful. I had to be so sneaky, and still failed regularly. I didn't even drink! I just wanted to see HAL or whoever.
What was the first record you ever bought?
My first single was Rednex’s decade-defining reinterpretation of Cotton Eye Joe on tape, and my first album was bubblegum pop masterpiece Toonage by The Cartoons on CD. Eternal classics. I owe it all, and more, to HMV Blanchardstown.
What’s your favourite song right now?
Living Music by Onyeka Onwenu.
Favourite lyric of all time?
Too tricky to choose, but one that often pops into my head is Adam Green changing his mind about bluebirds mid-song: "Bluebirds are so natural, I wanna buy them for my friends/Bluebirds are so dismal and I want to trade mine in".
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I’d be a real wisenheimer and pick When The Fool Becomes a King by The Polyphonic Spree ‘cos it’s eleven minutes long and is basically five songs in one. In this scenario, am I being held captive by some weird baddie? Is that who is forcing me to pick a song? If so, it’s also a pretty uplifting tune, so it’ll help me get through the next five decades trapped in this stone dungeon or wherever I am.
Where can people find your music/more information?
Visit my website for that old-fashioned "band website" feel. The only way you can tell that it’s not from 2004 is that there’s no forum, and I'm not still in school.
