Jockstrap recreate the feeling of a teenager discovering dubstep for the first time in 2010. The kind of music that far out-accelerates brain waves, leaving you dizzy and confounded after the track’s end.
Formed by jazz violinist Georgia Ellery (who also plays with Black Country, New Road) and electronic producer Taylor Skye, each of the duo’s songs contain twisted and minced up influences — a mixing idea they heard on a Madonna track, a feeling they had one Friday night, a joke from a friend, a song they heard on the radio several years ago — and turns them into something possibly unlike anything else you’ve heard before. Something vomit-inducingly fun.
The pair originally met while studying at London’s Guildhall School Of Music & Drama and have built up a quick reputation for their maverick-like range of structure, emotion, theatricality and whimsy. Since emerging in late 2017 with their first single, “I Want Another Affair,” Jockstrap have collaborated with the likes of Dean Blunt and Mica Levi, and become one of London’s most exciting new musical prospects. With near-peerless technical prowess, their songs masterfully choreograph the listener’s attention and emotional reactions. A typical Jockstrap song will inspire confusion, bemusement, laughter — and often in quick succession.
Even so, on their debut album I Love You, Jennifer B — out next week via Rough Trade Records—the pair have managed to warp expectations. Going beyond their established kinetic aesthetic, they explore moments of stillness — balancing the lovely with the repulsive, the hyperactive with the lackadaisical — to create a whole and holistic piece of work that feels new and exploratory, even for them.
In a recent conversation, the duo told me their unique creative process, how a schoolgirl inspired their first album, and some dude called Melch.
Has music historically been a way for you to socialize or a way to isolate yourself?
GEORGIA ELLERY: For me it was social, but I don’t know whether that was because I was in orchestras. I enjoyed socializing more than playing when I was younger.
What age did you start playing violin?
ELLERY: I started when I was five, and then I started playing in orchestras when I was about 12. That’s when I really started to enjoy it, when I was playing with other people. I didn’t really like playing music by myself.
Did you want to be a violinist aged five?!
ELLERY: No, absolutely not.
SKYE: Music for me started off as quite a solo thing. I started playing the piano; you don’t really need to play with anyone else to do that. I started playing at home. Then I was in quite a lot of school bands and we’d go on trips together. Then I’d go home and produce by myself, but at school my friendship group was based around music. I’d go into my music tech room every lunchtime and we’d just hang out there. Music became both my social and my private life.
Do you remember the first musician you discovered and fell in love with independently, without your parents’ or anyone else’s influence?
SKYE: For me it was a producer called Flux Pavilion. I found him on the computer.
ELLERY: My older step sister played loads of Destiny’s Child, so then I went in and discovered Beyoncé.
What drew you towards electronic music?
SKYE: I find playing other people’s music really stressful and nerve-wracking, and I found that especially difficult doing grade, having to be set against something already written. I liked the idea of writing my own music so I just improvised on piano and then my dad brought home a laptop one day and something clicked. Once you get a laptop you can start thinking about electronic music more.
When you heard Flux Pavillion and dubstep for the first time, did that reconfigure what you thought music could do?
SKYE: Yeah, there was one Flux Pavillion song in particular called “Cracks,” it shook me emotionally unlike anything else before. Around that age, I was…
Read More: London Music Duo On ‘I Love You Jennifer B’