Nine-piece jazz band Fresh Like Dexie, since forming in 2014, have worked hard to refine their sound.

WILL KAY catches up with members of the group to discuss the hazards of being unique, unusual gig nights and the future of their promising project.

How is it for you guys playing a genre of music that is so unique and largely uncontested?

CAMERON: I’d say there are good and bad things about that. We do stand out in that regard but finding a band to play with that has a similar sound is really hard so we do a lot of gigs with the same bands.

JORDAN: We add some versatility to an evening. We did this one night that was so weird it was a performance art night. There was a guy who put a rubber glove on his head and blew it up and some other girl was stuffing Ferrero Rochers in her mouth pretending she was a horse – it was the weirdest night ever. It was so good because it was such a mix of acts and it worked so well. I think our uniqueness definitely works in our favour.

Who would you say are your strongest influences?

JORDAN: I was brought up on 1990s pop. I was really into NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys but I’m mainly influenced by the greats: Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Queen.

ROB: I used to listen to a lot of American rock but now I’m more into neo-soul like Erykah Badu – anything with a sleazy bassline.

CAMERON: Yeah, I’m definitely influenced by stuff like Snarky Puppy but my songwriting idols are artists like Bill Withers. I like songwriters with a specific sound that you can identify with immediately.

What’s the songwriting process like?

CAMERON: I’d say I bring in an idea usually done on a computer programme such as Logic. It’ll have basic parts in it, I’ll bring it to the band and we kind of chip away at it.

DANI: We always do the music first, then the lyrics.

JORDAN: Most of the time one of us will have an idea and the rest run with it.

What’s your opinion on the Brighton music scene over the past few years?

CAMERON: There’s a massive pool of stuff to listen to – you’re never gonna be short of music.

DANI: The venues are really good.

CAMERON: It’s irritating that a few good venues, such as The Blind Tiger, have shut down in recent years. I think that needs to be balanced out.

What can we expect from you in the future?

CAMERON: We just recorded an EP. It’s all live. There’ll be videos coming out with it, so maybe around September time we’ll release the first video from it. We all settled on the name Anterograde. It’s gonna have five tracks on it. It’ll probably be released with the second or third video from it.

JORDAN: And we’re gonna do a photo shoot...

CAMERON: Yeah we haven’t done one in a while. The EP will be nine of us in the studio. We’ve got our friend Harley guesting as a rapper on it. They’re all songs from the last two years - a really good example of what our music is and where it’s heading.

JORDAN: It takes us so long to record stuff but I feel the end product is really good. We’ve taken a long time to really perfect it.

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