Junior Eats Alone -

Add a little to her pain @ LVC Leiden

henri — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:20:31 +0200

Second place in Top 10 2008 Ongekend Talent

henri — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:06:41 +0100

Second place in top 10 2008
Ongekend Talent

OngekendTalent (translation: 'unheard of - talent') is a Dutch radioshow and also one of the largest online communities for bands and performers.

Nearly every magazine, website or radioshow has their own little top-... list near the end of the year and ofcourse: OngekendTalent has one too!

Their top 10 so happens to feature a number two spot for Junior Eats Alone! Yeah, it's lonley at the top, expecially considering the total number of bands out of which they made their selection: A staggering 11,500 bands.

The review reads: 'One of the best dutch bands. The arrangements (including hornsection) are sublimely created. Dynamic, colorful and convincing. Amazing.'

What's JEA doing, really?

henri — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:11:14 +0100

What's JEA doing, really?

About a month and a half ago, Junior Eats Alone went into a recording-studio / live-venue (Qbus, Leiden) for two nights in a row, to record new material. Record? Didn't they just finish their last album? True that.

In July of this year, their debut-album 'Love Will Slow Me Down' was released (available through itunes or this website). Now it seems as though they just can't get enough of it. In the two nights they were at the Qbus, 10 songs were recorded, 'live'. 'It went really well, and there just was an incredible atmosphere', says frontman Ronnie Verton.

Thus was layed the groundwork for JEA's yet to be titled second album: an album that will be released in 2009, if all goes well. Whether or not this record will be released by a major record company remains to be seen of course, but the band is confident they'll turn some heads at the upcoming 'Noorderslag' festival. You would have to give these guys a pretty good chance of going the distance, if the quality of their second album is anything like the quality of the first.

And the band is working hard right now to achieve just that. 3-4 days a week, someone's in the JEA-studio, mixing, recording (because let's face it: you can never have enough tracks), polishing and throwing stuff away. Does JEA find the time to play live shows at all? Sure...check out the upcoming gigs page!

Artikel LOS

henri — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:08:04 +0200

Interview in LOS Magazine

Junior Eats Alone (Leiden, The Netherlands) can't wait to break through internationally. Their debut-album Love Will Slow Me Down, that came out in June 2008, was very well-received and radiostation 3fm labelled the band 'serious talent'. We had a talk with frontman Ronnie Verton, during a bandrehearsel. He tells us of a band without ego, living for music.One by one, the eight bandmembers of JEA (Junior Eats Alone) arrive at the studio at the industrial grounds near the Rooseveltstreet in Leiden. The atmosphere is relaxed as the gear gets set up for practice.

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As calm and laidback as the preparations are, as fierce and dedicated goes the rehearsel. Ronnie: 'we work professionally and are definitely not a hobby-band. We all invest enormous amounts of time, money and energy into this band and I think you can tell'.Whoever tries to describe the music of JEA faces a difficult task. There's so much to hear: one minute you're listening to some calm jazz, next thing you know you're being blown away by electric guitars and a brass-section who, through a dash of latin, give the music undescribable character.

The bandmembers have given up trying to describe their own music. 'We have no problem with being sterotyped. We don't believe we're making music that has never been made before. The best thing to do is just to listen to it and describe it yourself', thinks Ronnie.StorytellersJEA's music is music for listeners. 'It's a beautiful moment when, during a concert, the entire crowd is absolutely quiet. What we want to do is: tell the audience a story.Such a story can be heard in the song Heal Me. The creative process isn't always as easy when you have eight people in your band.

Ronnie: 'I start out with a lyric and a melody. This is then discussed by and with the rest of the band. Each bandmember then creates his own melody within the melody, and a song is born'. Ronnie's lyrics are all based on his own experiences. 'I want to share my vision with people and talk about what and how I feel about different things. But then I realise that I really don't know much about anything', he adds laughing, 'I only know about what I experience, so that's what I eventually end up writing about.Ronnie was made frontman by the rest of the band, a position he sometimes has difficulties with being in. 'It's hard. I'm someone that wants everyone to be happy.

But with eight people, you need a leader every now and again'. There's no room for ego and everybody's equal. The guys do leave some space for being influenced by eachother. This is probably the main cause for the huge diversity in their music.A SearchThe band has been around since 1999, and were once known by the name 'Id'(pronounce: it). Two years ago four new guys joined the band and the name was changed into Junior Eats Alone. 'The album Love Will Slow Me Down was being finished up and the idea came to integrate a brass-section into the band' Ronnie explains the growth in personnel.

'We wanted to sound as good live as we did on the album, so we added some brass'. This asked for a new name. 'Besides the extra bandmembers, we were also getting sick and tired of the fact that no-one was able to pronounce our bandname correctly', Ronnie jokes.Those new bandmembers caused a delay in the process of the album-release. 'We had been searching for a long time, to find out what we wanted with those songs.

It was a learning experience and a lot of fun, but next time we won't take as long. JEA recorded the entire album themselves and released uit by founding their very own record company called 'De Matenplaatschappij'. 'It had been a dream for several bandmembers to create their own label. However: the search for a bigger record-deal continues'. Finding one of those isn't easy in The Netherlands and JEA knows this well: 'This is a beautiful country but it's so difficult to get signed somewhere. It's not that there isnt' money, there's just isn't enough willingness to invest'.

JEA is looking to export their product abroad. First contact has allready been made in Germany, France and the USA. They've allready managed to get an international distribution-deal. To sum up: JEA is ready for their breakthrough! ALEXANDER SCHIPPERS

Recensie Speaker

henri — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:02:53 +0200

Review Speaker

Junior Eats Alone presents Love Will Slow Me Down: their debut-album, but you can hardly call it that. Why? Well for one thing the band have been making a name for themselves (and quite successfully too), with their previous bandname 'Id', for several years. Now, under their new name, their record is finally here. The eight members of the band have worked on it for as long as five years.

The cd is designed to look like a menu from a restaurant. The fourteen tracks are divided into four apetizers, six main courses, three desserts and a housewine. The appearance of the record is clever, but does the album sound as a well-balanced piece of music? I decide to put the record on and listen to it as if my gustatory papillae were in my ears.It starts of great, mainly because the dreamy sound of Chef cook Ronnie Verton is very easy to listen to. In fact, after a couple of songs, it starts to remind me of Thom Yorke.

There's a lot of diversity in the different tracks, where the brass (that often appear througout the album) deserve some extra credit.The laidback pace and the wonderful trumpet-solo in Anadine linger in my mind, while the modest Down And Lonely and the up-beat All Around really continue to impress me.

During the intro of Living Below the record almost starts to rock, but not too much. That's okay though, because the strength of this album is secured by the accessable melodies, the diverse rythms and the irresistable voice of Ronnie Verton.The cd-booklet includes a set of toothpicks: keep 'em. You'll need them later on, because Love Will Slow Me Down has a lingering taste! RICHARD

Junior Eats Alone -

Add a little to her pain @ LVC Leiden

Second place in Top 10 2008 Ongekend Talent

Second place in top 10 2008 Ongekend Talent

What's JEA doing, really?

What's JEA doing, really?

Artikel LOS

Interview in LOS Magazine

Recensie Speaker

Review Speaker

Second place in top 10 2008
Ongekend Talent