Jay-Jay Johanson. "Cockrouch"

The most unknown in Sweden, the Swedish singer , popular in other countries of the world, represents the 9th album on colta.ru. According to the singer, this record, which is released by the new Bootlegger label, is “mysterious, lonely, insightful, reflective, melancholy, but still complete hope.”

"I Miss You Most of All"

"Laura"

"ForGetyouunot"

- Why did you call the album “Cockroach” (“cockroach”)? There is no song on the disk with that name. What are your associations with this word? In Russia, for example, these insects have a poor reputation.

- It seems to me that cockroaches around the world have a bad reputation, most likely this animal people generally hate the most. I think that this is why I wanted to somehow support this small creature, create something beautiful and name in his honor.

I don’t like to hate anything at all, I consider hatred a useless feeling. If I understand that I begin to feel some kind of hatred, I immediately pick up myself and try to solve the problem in order to be able to overcome this feeling.

What else is interesting about cockroaches is that they are very tenacious, probably, only they will remain to live on earth when everything else will die out on the planet. And, you know, I also know this feeling of struggle for life, because I never thought that I could record more than one album, well, or a maximum of three. But 18 years have passed, and I still write music, and it seems that there are still a lot of things that need to be done, that I am only at the beginning of the way. Many performers and groups record two or three albums and disappear. "Cockrouch" -my 9th album! I just can’t believe it, I probably myself like a cockroach-and, by the way, on the cover of the disk, in the photo, where I am in a hat, I seem quite very similar to a cockroach ... haha ​​...

- It seemed to me that Cockroach is a very sad and melancholy album, perhaps the most sad in your discography. Tell me, am I right? What happened? Does the album reflect any changes in your life or are all the plots of songs fictitious?

- I think that the saddest album is the 2000 “Poison” , it is the darkest and the only thing that I recorded in a state of deep depression, almost with thoughts about suicide. “Whiskey” (1996) is also sad, but romantic, “Tattoo” (1998)-sad and melancholy, “Long Term Physical Effects” (2006)-gloomy, but with a glimpse of hope, “Self-portrait” (2009)-sad and crazy, “spellboond” (2011) - more nostalgic, romantic, well, yes, sad. And I would call “Cockroach” mysterious, lonely, insightful, reflexive, melancholy, but still complete hope. So no, I would not say that this is the saddest album. It seems to me that my latest works are often about loneliness, but a general sense of hope is always dominated by them, there is also a lot about growing up and looking into the future. I think these changes were slowly growing in me since I got married, and especially after we had a wonderful son, he is now 6 years old. Previously, I definitely had much more gloomy and despair in me.

- “I Miss You Most of All” sounds like an Ommage “Autumn Leaves” - a very popular song of 1945. Do you know her? Do you have your favorite covers on her?

- Yes, I know this song, it seems that it was sang and Frank Sinatra and even Baker. This is a pleasant song, but I do not particularly notice the similarity. Although, of course, I admit that Chet Baker greatly influenced my work after I went to his concert back in 1985.

- Some songs on your new album sound amazingly similar to Russian romances - these are folk ballads that were popular almost a hundred years ago. Do you know what it is?

-A strange thing: the first time I arrived in Moscow (more than ten years ago), all with whom I talked, and all the journalists who interviewed me said the same thing: something in my songs reminded them of Russian folk romances. I have never heard them, but I would really like to listen, so you will recommend me, please, the best, the most gloomy and most beautiful.

And, by the way, I thought about it and remembered that when I arrived for the first time in Portugal in the late nineties, people also told me that I probably listened to a lot of folk Portuguese music of FADA, but I had no idea what it was. But here they found in my songs the same sadness and melancholy that caused their associations, and this is incredible, because in all countries where I am popular, the same thing happens - there is a strong culture of folk music, always beautiful and sad at the same time, and my songs about love cause a response among these people. It's just amazing.