So Richie, you live in Sweden?
RE: Yeah, my wife is Swedish so we moved there, like, a while ago. But we go back so much we may as well be living in Ireland. We’ve been over there doing festivals all summer.
What festivals do we hit up in Ireland?
RE: The Electric Picnic is the best one to do, and there’s one called Forbidden Fruit.
GK: The Body and Soul festival is amazing.
Tell me about the Irish indie scene.
RE: It’s pretty friendly, there’s not much rivalry between bands you know… I noticed in the last three years there’s been really a lot of electronic stuff coming out of Ireland, like really good electronic stuff.
Where else have you ventured?
RE: All over the place. The last year and a half we’ve been touring like pretty much all the time
GK: Yeah we’ve been here, Japan, the States, Europe, the UK.
That’s a lot of travel!
RE: Yeah, the craziest one we ever did was we flew for 27 hours, we landed in Houston, drove three hours to Austen, did a gig in Austen then got straight in a van and drove 18 hours to Florida.
You must get along really well?
RE: Yeah we do, but when we got there they fucking played a trick on me. I was asleep in the van and woke up kind of all groggy and went in to the restaurant and said “what should I get?” and they told me to get grits.
I take it you’re not a fan of grits?
RE: I didn’t know what grits were, so I thought fucking cool, I’ll get grits. I thought it sounded like crunchy meat, but it was basically a bowl of sperm.
GK: He still ate it…
RE: I was hungry. But I wasn’t loving life.
I hope Australia’s made a better impression?
RE: Well we haven’t seen any of those spiders, or those brown snakes you hear so much about so I suppose we’re doing well. But we will, they’ll find us!
I’m sensing a bit of a phobia?
RE: We’ll be checking our shoes before we put them on, for sure!
Anywhere in Australia you’re especially excited to play?
RE: Pretty much Sydney. On our last tour the best gig by far of the tour was Sydney.
GK: I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Melbourne, we didn’t see anything last time.
You’re supporting Dappled Cities, are you excited?
RE: Yeah we’re really lucky to be touring with the Dappled Cities guys, because people go and see them, and they have good crowds so we can play in really cool venues.
What Aussie artists are Jape listening to?
RE: I really like Empire of the Sun, and I really like Tame Impala, like a lot!
GK: I like Nick Cave, and The Saints were great, they were Australian weren’t they?
What about those Swedes, who’s on the iPod?
RE: Swedish wise, we listen to a lot of electronic music, so The Knife would be there, and Fever Ray are great.
Have you tackled a Swedish tour yet?
RE: Not yet, but our booking agent is based in Stockholm. We’re going to eventually, hopefully tour in Sweden.
How’s your Swedish?
RE: I can order a beer. And say ‘knob cheese’.
GK [in hysterics]: why the fuck do you know knob cheese?
I’m sensing a theme here…
GK: We’re going to be in damage control after this for sure!
Jape are currently supporting Dappled Cities on their national tour. Catch their free gig at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi on Oct 17.
