Trailblazers of the Eighties Asian underground music scene, Joi originally comprised brothers Farook and Haroon Shamsher. Masterfully mixing hip-hop, break-beats and Eastern grooves they released their highly anticipated debut album
One and One is One in 1999 to glowing praise. But in that same year, whilst the Shamshers were working on their second album
We are Three, tragedy struck when Haroon died following a heart attack. Understandably, Joi then spent a long period of absence from the music scene, but thankfully the experimentalist maestros are back, as innovative as ever, and having listened to
Without Zero it’s evident that the spirit of Haroon lives on.
How has growing up in the multi-cultural Brick Lane area of east London influenced your music?
It has been fundamentally part of what Joi does, being surrounded by so many different communities. My father originally started off selling music in Brick Lane over 30 years ago, so we were heavily influenced by Asian, Bengali, and Pakistani music.
Did your father have musical aspirations for you and, if so, what were they?
He probably wanted us to be lawyers or doctors, but because he was a musician himself we were brought up around different concerts, we’d go to gigs with him, he taught us how to play the harmonium, jam with him on tablas. I don’t think my mother was too happy though!
You have described Without Zero as having a distinct Arabic influence. What made you decide to fuse Asian and Arabic music?
I think they’re both very similar and with what’s going on in the world today it’s just nice to highlight Arabic music. The zorna on the first track on the album adds relativity to the dutara, they both bond together very easily, and it’s just something that I want to keep fresh, exciting – moving with the times.
What does the beautifully arranged track Forget Me Not mean to you?
It’s a tribute track I did for my brother. It’s a Bengali vocal that he recorded, which was taken from the second album in a way, so I just thought it was really appropriate to use, and it was really important for me to have a really beautiful, sweet guitar that kind of drifted off into the heavens. It’s a really important track that should be on the album.
When you first met Niladri Kumar, who plays sitar on Without Zero, you’d already written a lot of new material, but then promptly ditched most of it. Why was that?
Because he just took me into a different angle. Likewise, I was looking for a sitarist and came across a compilation CD that he played on and it just blew me away. I’d never heard anyone play like that, so I tracked him down and found that he was a dynamic 32-year-old that made electronic music himself. He’s been playing since the age of four; his father was a sitarist, and his father’s father was too. He’s created this new sitar that’s called a zitar - it’s fantastic and because it’s electronic you don’t need a mic pickup.
The sitar is always seen as traditional and you’re always [playing] sitting down, but Niladri walks around and he plays it like a guitar. I think he plays as good as Hendrix. He was supposed to play on just one track [on Without Zero], but I got him to play on about five - he’s on the next album already!
What’s the most significant thing you’ve discovered about yourself through music?
That I need companionship, and that in order for me to survive and make music I have to work with other people. There’s a quote from inside the album that it takes great people to make something great, and it’s not just ever about one person, it’s about promoting lots of different cultures, it’s about promoting lots of different artists, in a way it’s about coming together, and that we all need to be together, especially at a time like this.
Who has been the single-most influential person on your music?
Probably my father. During our upbringing he was definitely the greatest influence on us because he introduced us to lots of traditional, classical, and other forms of music. And then I suppose you’ve got to have the greats - Hendrix, Ravi Shankar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, they’re all my kind of bag.
Can we expect to see Joi performing live sets at any of this year’s festivals?
Yes, I’m hoping to play some - Glastonbury or Bestival, hopefully. I’ll be doing a few - watch out!
Further information:
Joi
www.realworldrecords.com
