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Japunga.
 I'd not heard any of Brisbane three piece hard rock band Japunga's two previous releases: the 2001 EP, 'Beginnings', and their 2003 debut album, 'Light At Days End'. However, upon being confronted with their latest full length CD 'Souls Conflicting' and noting how other reviewers had noted it as being a much more melodic, riff-laden and sonically elaborate yet still emotionally tortured affair compared to its predecessors, I had an idea about path I wanted this interview to pursue. What I hadn't expected was how candid vocalist Jef Carter would be when talking about the inspiration between much of the hurt and anger he reveals in song.
"With 'Light At Day's End' I was in a different frame of mind back then to now writing this album," he begins, referring to Japunga's newfound direction and outlook, "and the best way I can explain it is that as I was writing this album I really had to butt heads with the other band members and with myself because everything I wrote is really different to what I've done in the past. So to write something that sounds nothing like the first album is a really big challenge to begin with. And one of the hardest things is that we're not familiar with this style and the other guys were worried about what people would think about it. And that shows the character of the band because I had this vision in my head and I asked them to go along with me on it."
Carter, now in his late 20s, also admits that despite the success of 'Light...', and the constant touring and high profile supports spots that followed that album (Slipknot, Sepultura, Crusty Demons Of Dirt and the 2005 BDO), a lot of the energy fuelled by his inner-demons was misdirected. "Well, you also can't forget my influences back then," he considers. "At the time I was into a lot of heavier nu-metal bands like Metallica and Soulfly, and I was also pretty immature as a songwriter as I only started to write my own music about five years ago, so the first few years were very influenced by my favourite bands."
It was only in recent times that Carter realised that he had some very real issues to contend with; from the death of his six week old daughter to SIDS seven years ago to almost getting killed in a fight (after whihc he had to have emergency surgery to save his life). "What happened was that two years ago, when I first started thinking about writing this album, I broke up with a long term partner and that triggered depression," he explains. "It wasn't just because of the break-up, as they happen all the time and you just have to get over them, but I had all these other problems from over the years sitting there brewing, especially my little child because I never actually mourned her. I just blocked it out and moved on with my life. Social workers did say to me that it will come back if you don't talk about it and deal with it, but of course I felt fine. And you know yourself if you feel fine that's what you tell everybody; and that was another part of the anger in that I had a lot of people judge me. I was crook with all the symptoms and I couldn't understand what was going on - and when I went to the doctor's he said that I had a chemical imbalance in my brain and that's why I was feeling so down and felt like committing suicide, you know? I had these voices in my head telling me that it was alright to do that.
"Souls Conflicting is based on my theory that depression is when your soul conflicts with itself. You have these two voices in your head, with one saying 'what's the point of being here anymore because you have nothing to live for?' It's like what we're doing now, and that's having a conversation where I then say, 'Wait a minute, I don't want to do that'. I've got plenty to live for and I love my life and that's where I came up with a lot of the concepts for the songs and to an extent the lyrics to Souls Conflicting explain how I was feeling."
Steve Jones
 | Japunga play at the Enigma Bar on Sat 12 Nov, and 'Souls Conflicting' is out now through MGM. |
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