Jung People strive to change the system
Don’t expect an ordinary album launch at the Lantern Church on Saturday night. Jung People the duo of guitarist Bryan Buss and drummer Giordano Bassi decided they wanted something different so they asked visual artists to join the fun. The result is an event that’s part performance and part art exhibition. Expect to see paintings and graphic art from some of Calgary’s most exciting young artists while you dig the sounds of Jung People and musical guests like Sons of Bullwinkle.
This inspired take on a release party is in keeping with Jung People’s outlook reflected in their name and their philosophy. “We like Carl Jung a lot” says Bassi. “We’ve been big fans of his work for a long time and we think he’s one of the fathers of forward-thinking and living. We wanted to represent ourselves as a forward-thinking band. With Jung People with the way you say it and the way it sounds it sounds like young people as in the youth of today being forward thinking.”
Forward thinking has been part of Buss and Bassi’s music since they first started playing in local bands in 2003. Seven years later after stints with metal bands they formed Jung People with its distinct mix of progressive rock indie rock experimental and folk. “We originally formed from a metal band a progressive metal band” says Buss. “It sort of had progressive rock influences. Then we started getting more and more into experimental rock and indie rock and folk. For the last 12 months from the first album it’s still more of a post-rock metal album and now the new stuff has more of a folk experimental and post-rock feel.”
The new EP Tenterhooks also marks a watershed moment for Jung People. “Listening to the new record we’ve just finished I’ve really realized that this is the first thing that we’ve done together that really represents how I feel how I have felt” Bassi says.
The artists exhibiting for the release party include graphic novel artist (and Fast Forward Weekly contributor) Mariella Villalobos and painters Maddi Matthews Anna Semenoff and Nathan Navetto. Villalobos and Matthews are both ACAD graduates the EP party is Semenov’s debut showing and Navetto is an artist as well as drummer for the band Atomis. Jung People will also have a short film created by Bassi projected onstage during their performance.
The Lantern Church is a perfect venue for this party and a perfect fit with Jung People’s philosophy. “The whole purpose of the church is we don’t want to label ourselves as ‘a rock band in a bar’” Giordano says. “We want people to look at our show as almost like a symphony. You go to a show that’s in a very personal quiet environment and you watch and you take it all in. We don’t want it to be something that you happen to be seeing while you’re partying.”
“We’re interested in new interesting ways to just change the system change the way people view music.”
