Jane's Junction

As a group, Aurora Jane are known for their playful brand of funk infused pop-rock, and it's easy to recognise where that element of playfulness comes from. Jane possesses this genuinely fun and light-hearted vibe, which explains why the band's been so popular around the world. Touring abroad for most of 2012 including stops in North America, Europe and India, life's been very colourful for Jane Hole.

“Some of the greatest times we've had were in Cuba”, Hole reminisces. “I was down there before the tour started to record some songs, and that is by far the coolest place I've ever checked out on Earth. It's still kind of like it's the '60s there because it's so cut-off, and the music's wild – there's jams happening on every block, and we ended up connecting with this group of guys down there who played on a recording I did for the album. I've been visiting some really interesting places on tour; I haven't really done the regular U.S/Europe thing. This year it was definitely the intriguing bits that were the highlights.”

With the addition of drummer Marley Berry-Pearce, Hole is particularly focused on keeping the trio together throughout the creation of what will be the group's fourth album. As the group's discography has grown, so has the amount of work going into keeping the band focused and on track. “It's gonna be different again,” Hole continues. “The second album had very opened tuning and acoustic influences, and then the last one had heaps of funk and soul influences. The last one was done in India, Toronto and Australia, and my goal for this one is to keep the central core of the musicians together as a trio. There should be a bit of a difference in that sense, and this album's gonna be a lot more collaborative too – we're going to record for a week up in Byron, capturing some live improv that we hope to put in as little snippets between tracks, so that should be cool too!”

Having been amongst it all for the last seven or so years, this fourth album isn't the only project Hole will be working on this year. As an extension of her label, Hole plans on launching an interactive website designed by artists, for artists. “As well as ourselves, all our friend's bands have these wonderful side stories to their touring, because being a creative person these days means so much more than just writing songs. I had this idea to kind of bring this community together, so I'm creating an interactive website called Mojo Junction. It's going to feature short films about surrounding creative cultural concepts such art, music, food, photo stories, etcetera. We'll all be expressing and sharing in each other's realities and writing about what each other has done, and hopefully it will generate an interesting meeting place where people can connect. It'll open up more avenues for artists for publishing, as well as well as a good reference outside of their own website,” she says.

2013 is going to be a huge year for Hole and the rest of the trio, and although there is plenty to look forward to, she seems thrilled at the prospect of travelling to WA for the first time. “This'll be my first time over there, and it's pretty incredible really, considering I've been to all these other places all over the world. It's really exciting, like a little surprise that's been waiting for me all this time. I've got a whole new world to explore. I can't wait!” she concludes.

Aurora Jane will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 10 April - Mojo's Bar, Fremantle WA
Thursday 11 April - Indi Bar, Scarborough WA
Friday 12 April - White Star Hotel, Albany WA
Saturday 13 April - Settlers Tavern, Margaret River WA
Sunday 14 April - Clancy's Fish Pub, Dunsborough WA