this is the biggest one yeah this is the biggest one yeah well you don't do it very often and uh no I don't you know it's you're one of those artists and I respect it took me a long time to respect that that my time is not necessarily your time and that what I want to do doesn't always fit into the
psychology of the artist and it's speaking about music is often kind of a redundant place to begin but for now we get to talk about music and we get to talk about you know your journey which like we're still here bro and um and it's not lost on me that we're still here and and it must it must get even
more sweet for you uh less bitter more sweet the the longer you're able to continue to create and and just trust you in a voice well as you know with Toby you know Falling by the wayside and then just looking around at the amount of people who who we've lost you know over the last couple of years I mean but um but with
Toby it's way before time and um you know that that that's uh that's always in the back of my mind you know sometimes there's there's always that thing where you think uh because the number's still on my phone it happens to me as well and the messages are still there and so it takes a while to compute and
then you watch an old video you know and then like I was watching the emergency on planet Earth um you know that sort of re 4K thing and I'm just looking and just going I mean hey hey how young will work you know I mean I look about 12. and um it's devastating you know to to uh yeah to see somebody go like that but
you know the good news with that is that um stazi his daughter is doing some really great stuff really good and she's uh and Dylan his son as well so they have certainly taken on the mantle of what he was doing and you know when I look at them I just see little Toby's or well getting bigger Toby's
that's beautiful man it's that is you're right that is um that that is the positive energy out of out of something that doesn't seem fair and it takes a long time to figure out what it all means and that's a bridge that no one ever gets used to Crossing and I think um I think it also really really makes me
think about the indestructibility of Youth and the idea of of you and your friends coming out and forming this band and it's like all right our influences are authentic like we're in the acid jazz Vibe like that's our label we're just we're just trying to We're just trying to like impress the people that impress us when you found what you
wanted to do and I touched on this from the beginning of the conversation it was to me I felt like you were trying to appeal to a small room of discerning fans and I don't know whether it was timing certainly you have to factor the quality of the music in you the marketing side
of things you like you said you already had the Buffalo man everything was kind of there you had to you know the silhouette was there and Silhouettes are really important if you can sell it on a silhouette you've smashed it right so it was all there and then out of nowhere this kind of album starts to really pick
up beyond that room and you find yourself in bigger rooms and and kind of you said it happened so fast like how did that affect you looking back on it now so psychologically and and spiritually knowing that what you were doing with an appropriate level was becoming inappropriately successful well
I mean you know the thing was of a very spiritual thing for me you know it was it was really deep into and and still is you know I mean um I was really deep into it I I wanted I wanted to do anything that wasn't um you know like a stock cake and Waterman type thing you know like tinny pop and I remember actually going in The
Roundhouse Studios For the First Time to do when you're going to learn and they'd put me in with the the arrow the drummer from from imagination no I like imagination so don't get me wrong here but um but we were in there crikey it must have been in there for two days day and night and we got the track down and it oh it
had the full lyrics yeah yeah have you heard the news today people ran across the world and never thought about the holidays and then there was a whole discussion about chopping all of it out and I was doing everything I could to keep the drums raw and everything kind of quite low-fi on the whole thing
um you know down to the influences and the people that I liked that I had you know I I I uh you know I had a a good musical education in that department you know 15 16. I wasn't listening to the charts I was listening to pleasure you know yeah yeah yeah you know uh uh James Mason and that was James Brown and you
know that was my thing you know and uh and I remember them trying to wipe out the lyrics you know wiper you're gonna have to take half of these lyrics out I said how can I take half of the lyrics I don't get what you're trying to say to me it's like this is the song that's it anyway in the end I and and of course I
I was staggering you know to stay awake because I was so scared if I drop or go out the room or go home it's gonna get pressed they're gonna screw this track I'm gonna press it I came back I came back in the morning and uh and I mean it was just it it would just been destroyed the track it just sounded like some kind
of you know Hi-Fi really bad bad early 90s pop and I was just furious I threw it all out threw it really out take you back to where it was you know yeah rightfully so I have found the whole thing a bit of a battle and and you know I also I'm I'm aware that that the music that we do has not been a mainstream
thing and I haven't I've probably not I've probably been you know a more difficult custom customer when it comes to the thing of people saying hey you know um you know why didn't you do this and I've been very strict on what I want to do I want to do it this way so in the height of your success you know and and
you know when it was the first time around when the first few albums and stuff and it's all TFI Friday and top of the pops and met um you know the reputation that was kicking around when I was just starting out in the UK was you know JK is difficult and you've acknowledged that in this conversation that you had a
reputation for being a bit of a difficult customer so at that time right back then there wasn't social media and you could have been difficult today a nice tomorrow that reputation really sticks on a very human level how was it for you trying to do the best you can to make the best music and be true to your art
but kind of having this sort of early to mid 90s tabloid reputation for being a bit of an I think you know you and I both know that that um and particularly in light of stuff that's come out with the hacking and stuff which is you know um you know which we won't talk about in regards to me
um but you know that was um virulent you know in the in the 90s and um not only did it involve you know photographers and it went much further that into the Realms of the police and everything else it was quite a full-on thing you know they were breaking the law um um on every single level and and it was
a bit like not necessarily even on my side it was almost like you know you'd read the paper you know some poor guy you think this poor guy you know it's you know just an ordinary member of the public and you you know read the words it took me a long time and um because it took me a long time to go you know when I was a kid you know 22
you know but I didn't say that you know it took me a long time to work out they didn't give it whether you said that or not that's just been construed you know so how do you get on that list I think I think the issue part was you know get get followed around you know people in glazing Vans you know fake glazing Vans
um you know when you're trying to sit and just have a meal and you you know became an expert it's fine I said there's nine guys at the moment waiting for me to pick my nose you know nine guys waste they see I've got a motorcycle helmet but I'm stuck outside a bar with a bottle of wine and they're
waiting for me to get back on that motorbike to go he's drinking and driving paranoid just yeah I mean you know and and I have to say and then on top of that you know I think you know there are a couple of incidents outside nightclubs and what have you where all you really want to do is get to your car and go home but frankly you can't see
because when you've got 40 photographers all flashing away at you you're temporarily kind of blinded and um and then you know in the end yeah I suppose The Temper goes you know someone gets it in the chin and um and then and then you know and then I get arrested that's the Joy of it he went alone there was
probably I would say 10 to 15 artists that seemed out of step with that time didn't seem to court it didn't want it but found themselves on the receiving end of it I mean we forget that bjerk was one of those people at one point which is crazy to think about now can I just say that you know going
back to that point you know that through all that the one thing that did get me through was the people listening to the music people would stop me in the street uh you know love that track man blah blah love you it's great think that's a great tune and that is what gets you through it that is the thing it is the
fans and the people out there that get you through it 100 so we we were big big fans of of your band even through the early success people were like no they're they're real deal in New Zealand everyone was really big into jameric way you know that but I remember seeing the video for Virtual Insanity
I'm glad we've stopped here because of the fact that it's all over the internet again um and I remember I remember thinking oh this is another thing like this is now all of the elements that make Jamiroquai special to us as real music fans growing up finding digging for the same Funk records and searching for those little
hidden breaks but but JK has he has gone for it like that video is Iconic it's an iconic moment a video was a huge part of that it was a funny it was a funny day during that video uh you know not only as as you well knows that you know videos were vastly expensive in those days pre-internet that was your play
well I just remember um with uh Jonathan Glazier you know sitting um a couple of days before you know the original I I had an idea which was you know moving travel ages moving along moving travelators which as you can imagine technically I mean imagine trying to rip a traveler around of yeast in station and stick them all over on
top of each other it's not going to work and he'd obviously mulled over this mold over this and this is an example of when you really are working with somebody and you are clicking on the same level and he phoned me up about one in the morning I said hello I've got it he said I've got it I've got
it I'm gonna lock off a camera and we're gonna we're gonna move the room around and I was like right okay uh okay how does it uh all right yeah I'll pretend I know what I'm talking about but um but yeah okay sure see you in the morning go for it anyway turned up on set and all I can hear is no quickly South slowly
North again quickly and I'm thinking what is going on in here and anyway and a couple of Sofas in the room and I'm like right so and it was straight into action you know whatever it was seven in the morning eight in the morning you know a bit of makeup off you go and I remember standing in the middle of the
room okay and song play back you know and I kind of got into a sort of regular kind of you know slink about like I do you know Cat in the Hat and um and uh and then and then he went right I want you to be here on this line and over there on that line there's next line and I'm like I'm looking at the room and I'm going well
you want me to sing this on it how do I get there by the time I'm seeing this line anyway I said let me look behind the camera see what on Earth you're talking about and as soon as I look behind the camera I went oh I get it I see what's going on here and uh and from then on uh the magic happened apart from
I might add the there was only four shots that video and just um I never quite understood the crow what the is the crow doing here but anyway never mind and the other thing uh was all the blood coming out the walls now on the last shot um also there was a continuity problem because I picked up the wrong fleece
um which was a slightly lighter blue than the fleece nightmare is if he hasn't got enough to figure out where this Crow and his bleeding walls and his moving floors here you are showing up the point was though that that once the walls started to bleed that was it you know it was like there's no there's no mopping up
the blood can we take that shot again yeah and that's it it's uh it was like you know one of those things where uh well we're in for the penny for the pound let's hope it worked but how did how did it work I mean I'm sure it's been talked about before but I've never heard the story how does the floor move
not just front and back I see how Junior Watanabe did it but he you went left right and almost circular how it's done is that the if you like the sofas are are screwed into the wall so they go along with the wall and at any given point suddenly they are quickly unscrewed and then the war the all four
the whole the whole room is on Wheels so as you unscrew the sofa you know suddenly the sofa looks like it's moving but it's not it the whole thing is is the room moving and every you know I still get asked this uh just time and time again and it's decided tonight it's it's the room that's moving not the
floor and then of course I still don't get it and this is what's amazing about this idea I still can't get my head around it you know what you really know you've made it in this business when about six months later you see an advert for DFS furniture and they're doing the same thing some couch some
brown couches moving around the room you know when it ends 30 down nothing to pay till December you know you've made it there yeah but yeah here you are um you know and you're finding a way to celebrate the Legacy that you've hard-earned and and we've you know appreciated all the way through um paying respects of these albums
um and and giving us these these kind of beautiful anniversary editions and then you also I mean it's like we're only sort of four or five years on from the last album um which which saw you tour um I saw you on the side of a road you're on the way to Coachella and I went up there and just kind of like
totally got inside job got inside your personal space you know the other great thing I mean um you know and if I could shout him out Tyler the Creator you know he came to both of it and you know we've hung out a couple of times and he's been in London What a wicked guy he is you didn't know because I said to you did
you see what Tyler said and you were just like No And I was like look at this and you're like oh that's cool Tyler also the internet who've got the Buffalo man tattooed like on all of them it's just like Manic and um and um and they they told me that they did some uh interview you with um I don't know it
was it was it was it was definitely I guess one of the music magazines that doesn't particularly favor me much you know and uh and they went so uh you know who's your influencer they wanted Jamiroquai man all day long and and she was like well you're kidding what the Pratt and the hat and they were like don't you say that
about him don't you say that about him yeah right yeah right yeah I mean Tyler a week ago and we we sat down and we listened to all sorts of stuff from punk rock Jazz I mean everything he really has got his head out there you know uh he's a super guy uh as is I might add as well is um you know another guy who we
will work we just haven't got the chance to hook up yet is Thundercat I mean that is just that is so perfect he is you know and and uh I mean we're literally I've just had to what I've done at home is I've just because we didn't use it on the last two albums and I've reinstated uh uh not only sort
of it's not a question of the the expensive and it's the question of finding somebody who can get your SSL uh e with a G Series solid state logic um desk back up and running again after the poor thing was under its cover bless its heart and I was thinking to myself hold on a minute you know yeah sure you know
do the pro tours that's great in conjunction with but you know um Pro Tools you know featuring Mr SSL Mr solid state logic because it's just something so organic about it you know at one point I was going to get rid of the desk nobody uses them anymore I remember somebody saying to me yeah you probably get about five grand for that
money no no no no no and I was like you know what that is an old French lovely desk I don't want to get rid of it no and it's it's integral to the sound of of what you make I mean that space is a part of what you do and you just sacrifice space with technology you do well I mean I think the space we got at
home now we've sort of re-jigged up the studio we're kind of you know sort of ready I mean I've sort of wait well you don't need to wait long for this in England but I'm I mean no no not only with everything that's going on here but there's nothing left to do but go in the studio because because it's crumbling to
Pieces over here and um and uh so we are gonna get in there as the the leaves start turning brown and the November winds come and you think you know I've had a great summer let's get back in there and get our heads down and and and get this next uh part of the Journey Back Together there are you know a lot
of these people that I really I really would like to work with you know I've got to a point now you know where I I wanna I wanna stretch out my hands and um you know and and give myself over to somebody else I mean there's a there's um there's a there's a French band called uh um who are I think are absolutely
fantastic and I'd yeah you know I'd kill to do a thing with doer one day you know because I just think we could make some magic one day the kind of stuff that we do it's kind of like it's pretty on the same kind of level and um and I don't know whether you saw the other day as a guy from over here
called younger yeah did you see that thing he did when he smashed up he smashed up Cosmic virtual love form smashed him into one thing never seen it you gotta see it man it's just for jamirica I love you but you know what I just I just looked it and I thought Jesus this guy's got it going on you know Look What You've achieved over a
life lived dude and still so much to do and I think about I think about that success that comes out of nowhere you can never quantify it when you're that young it's wasted on the youth and then you sort of fight your way back into something that is ultimately that you can kind of is tangible and quantifiable
and then you find yourself at this point in your life I'm gonna rattle it off for you just to make you feel good in a nice cold wintery dark evening in London right you've still got your hair you're aging beautifully you got your voice you got your body you got your wits about you and you've got all these artists who
love you man I mean it's all there I'm fairly battle scarred to be fair I'd be I'd be lying if I didn't say you know up here in this little brain of mine has had a few battles of its own um the last few couple of years haven't helped I must say cooped up at home dude the music will lead you man it will always
be there for you it will always guide you you know what you you think to yourself that that for whatever you you know whatever you've done music um as again Sergeant quote Bob Marley twice in one interview but hit me with music hit me with music now you know I do bro think about music when it hit you feel no pain