We had a chat with Jim Jones of the Righteous Mind ahead of his gig at The Waterfront Studio in Norwich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEtJA0ro9uE

As part of Thee Hypnotics, the Jim Jones Revue, Black Moses and now Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind, Jim Jones has been constantly reinventing his brand of high energy rock 'n' roll whilst ensuring he leaves the audience's ears ringing.

We had a chat with the frontman, ahead of his gig at The Waterfront Studio on September 26, about plans to bring people together in dark times and kick out the jams.

"In the current climate, I think it's kind of important to be consciously doing stuff like that and showing people why you're doing it."

"It's beyond that are you left or right? Or are you remain or leave? Or are you black or white? Everyone needs to stick together."

He mentions the influence of proto-punks the MC5 who urged crowds in late 60s America to defy issues such as racism, police brutality and war and drawing parallels with some of the horrors of today.

"I think it gives the music and everything about the whole performance a more kind of urgent vitality and it sort of adds to the visceral feeling of the urgency of it all."

"As we all know with fascism or Nazism, which is undeniably on the rise whether you think it's a small degree or a large degree, there's a dangerous tipping point on the horizon that can happen with all that stuff if people don't speak up."

"It's not the time to do that thing where it's like, 'oh that's none of my business' or 'I better keep quiet because they may pick on me', it's not a time to keep quiet, it's a punk rock time."

New single, Get Down, Get With It, was also recorded by boot stomping glam rockers Slade, a band that wouldn't let you leave their gigs until you'd had a good time, something Jones echoes.

"It's not a selfish thing, well it is in some ways because you're having a lot of fun up there blasting out the noise but it's kind of like holding a portal open for everyone to come through, it's like come on we've got the gates open, everyone this way, let's get to a higher plane together."

The idea of togetherness giving music a greater purpose has filtered into the band's latest album, the aptly named CollectiV, where Jones takes a break from what he calls "meat and potatoes rock 'n' roll" to delve into the world of occult psychedelia.

"It's going back to that thing of bringing everything together, different elements, different cultures, different people, different music.

"Trying to make an exotic space where it's not just one flavour, but trying to show that it can all come under the same umbrella of everyone working together coming up with something cohesive."

When it came to making CollectiV the band looked to crowdfunding instead of a traditional label to finance the release, another way of showing a unified approach.

"I've always sort of turned my nose up at that [crowdfunding] a little bit and when it was getting down to thinking about what the album was all about and coming up with a concept, once that whole collective idea came in, that thing of bringing different elements, it was like, that's perfect, getting people involved again instead of going through one label.

"Whenever there was a decision to make it was like oh well that's the collective way, let's do it that way."

It took just two hours for the band to raise the minimum amount they needed, and Jones says the group is gaining peak momentum among his fanbase.

"It was very similar with the Revue, it took two, two and a half years before people really clocked on with it.

"I kinda think it just takes awhile for people to hear the name and recognise it and trust it and know that it's going to be an explosive night to go out to.

"But fear not the rock 'n' roll is rearing its head again and the meat and potatoes, psychotic rock 'n' roll is definitely taking a stranglehold."

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