Green Banana spoke to Sheffield punk ban Django Jones and The Mystery Men
Who are Django Jones and the Mystery Men?
Django Jones and the Mystery Men are a post-punk band from Sheffield. When we're writing music we take inspiration from the likes of The White Stripes, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and The Ramones. We like to think of our music as music for the restless, we always want our live show to be entertaining and energetic and have tried to get this across whilst recording our music.
How and when did you first get together?
The band was originally formed a few years ago but we've recently changed the line-up and started giving it a proper go. We only started doing gigs again this year and our debut single is out 25/11/22, which feels like a long time coming.
Sheffield has always been a hotbed of great music. Why do you think that’s the case?
I think because there's so much going on and so many great bands there's a lot of inspiration and drive to start a band yourself. Sheffield as a whole is really supportive of upcoming bands and there are lots of great venues like The Leadmill, Sidney and Matilda and Yellow Arch that are putting on regular events. We also have Tramlines and Tramlines Fringe which allow a lot of upcoming bands to showcase their music to people in Sheffield. We did Tramlines Fringe this year and ended up playing 7 shows in 3 days.
Who do you think are the best bands to come from Sheffield?
There are loads of great bands from Sheffield. We love Pulp and I think elements of their music inspire the way that we go about writing. Obviously, Arctic Monkeys are a band that most people our age grew up with and it's really inspiring to see their style adapt and change over the years. Sheffield is still producing a huge amount of interesting and different music and more current bands such as Any Old Iron, Mouthparts and Get the fuck outta dodge are definitely showcasing this.
What is your method of producing music?
It tends to start with Will (vocals) and Joe (guitar) getting together and writing some lyrics and guitar parts. We then bring this to our practice room and start adding on drums and bass. We take inspiration from loads of different things and I don't think the songwriting process has ever gone the exact same. We've had songs that have taken a month to write and songs that have taken an hour.
If you could share it stage with any band, who would it be?
Probably The White Stripes, so much of our inspiration comes from them, from performance to songwriting and it would be amazing to share the stage with them... and just to see them in general.
What is mysterious about the Mystery Men?
Everything. We can't go into too much detail.
After the release of your debut single 'Bad for You', what is on the horizon for you?
We're going to get some more of our stuff recorded and released in 2023. We're really excited to see where this single can take us. We love playing live so we're definitely going to get some more gigs booked and hopefully go to some other cities to play too.
*'Bad for You' will be released November 25th
Interview by Thomas Imposter
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