JJ72 - Back From The Abyss

It's been more than two years since the last JJ72 single. After the lukewarm critical reception of  their sophomore album, and the departure of bassist Hilary Woods, the Dublin three-piece disappeared off the scope almost entirely. Now, they're back -  with a new album and a tour to support. Despite the gloomy weather, singer Mark Greaney is in good spirits.   “We have a new bassist, a new lineup – it's like a new band, really.” Not that new – there's still the trademark wailing vocal and that particular wall-of sound softened distortion. Greaney's in an affable mood and tends to slip into Joyce-esque stream-of-consciousness musings, peppered frequently with "you know's" and "really's."  “I think we're a better band now . . . before, when we were good, we were really, really good – but some of our shows could be quite brittle, almost pained sounding, sometimes . . . we're much tighter as a band, now.”   Comprising an entire third of the group, it might have seemed that the departed Woods was central to the band's image – but neither Mark nor drummer Fergal wanted to replace her with another girl, feeling that this would somehow diminish her contribution. After dozens of rehearsals with potential new members, though, it became clear that it simply “wasn't happening.” For almost a year the band went without a bass player - until an encounter in a bar with Sarah Fox. “I know it sounds sleazy,” he laughs. “She was doing some sessions with a band there. We thought she was a really great bass player . . . we had a few rehearsals, a few rehearsals became ten rehearsals, and it went on from there.”   But it's not just the new bassist who has to win over the fans. The recent warmup tour debuted a landslide of new songs, and Mark confesses to feeling nervous about their reception. “Songs that you think are really great – when you tour them, they can turn out to be the worst ones. It all depends what people's reactions are like.” But the reception has been good, and Mark is unstinting in his praise of their fans. “They're very patient, they're very loyal, they're very – kind of hardcore, in a way.” He seems a little surprised by this, as if he'd never thought of it that way before.