Jester traverses as many musical genres as they can in their short set of original songs. The one thing they all have in common is their upbeat, dancey vibe, which should get their crowd moving and help to win over some new fans. They’re looking forward to getting a chance to expand their fan base even more, and hopefully win a ticket to the finals, at The Factory Theatre on the 7th, so be sure to come out and see them then. Before the show, they stop off and talk to Emergenza about what makes them who they are as musicians and what they hope to gain from the semi-finals.

CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO YOUR BAND JESTER?
We're a band made of four year nine students of Mosman High who try to cover a bunch of different bases in terms of genrea, while maintaining an engaging live show and making watching us as fun as possible.

WHAT BANDS HAVE INFLUENCED YOUR SOUND, AND IN WHAT WAY?
The Police, Sticky fingers and the Chili Peppers have all been big influences on our sound, particularly in the way they utilise reggae and funk respectively in pop and rock music. From a song writing perspective, John Mayer is another notable influence.

WHO WRITES THE SONGS AND WHAT ARE THEY ABOUT? WHAT'S YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE?
James the guitarist writes the basis of the music and all of the lyrics. The band, however, does the arrangements, bass lines, drum parts, etc. The lyrics range from being about things that are really important to me as a person to really stupid things like a guy who falls in love with a girl on a bus and gets upset when she leaves three minutes later.

WHICH ONE OF YOUR SONGS DO YOU THINK SPEAKS TO YOUR FANS THE MOST AND BEST REPRESENTS YOU AS ARTISTS? 
That's a hard question to answer, given that our songs all fall into different genres and none of them can really give an accurate image of our overall sound, but probably outspoken, as it's upbeat and dancey which is what we try to do with most of our songs.

UP TO THIS POINT, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN THE BAND'S BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT? OBSTACLE?
Our biggest accomplishment was probably either coming third in The Fitz Band Competition or scoring a support slot for Stonefield. As far as obstacles go, we haven't really hit any.

WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE FIRST ROUND FOR YOU?
The highlight of the first round was probably just seeing the really great response of everyone that came to see us, particularly those we didn't know. It was even better given the fact that we didn't feel we played as great as we could have.

HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE EMERGENZA FINALS?
It feels exciting, although daunting, and makes us feel that we'll have to put on as good as show as we can.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR UPCOMING GIG AT THE FACTORY THEATRE?
We hope to take away a possibly expanded fan base, maybe some new contacts or, ideally, a pass into the final!

WHAT'S A LIVE JESTER SHOW LIKE?
A Jester live show is really all of our songs in their purest form, just three instruments and a voice, just letting the music speak for itself. We try to make it fun, but complex at the same time, traversing as many genres as we can in one set.

WITH OTHER BATTLE OF THE BANDS COMPETITIONS AROUND, WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE ON EMERGENZA?
We go in every band comp we can, take as many opportunities as possible- simple as that!