Hey, how’re you doing?

"Great!”

Zal ik Nederlands praten or should I speak English?

"English! English is much better for me right now.”

You live here three years now, right?

"Yeah.” 

Do you miss the US?

"I was just back there the other week. It’s a police-state now man! Cops everywhere! I’ll tell you a little story about it. We went somewhere to buy a couple of sleeping pills, nothing big right? Like medicine, cough syrup and shit. And there is a self-checkout and we went through the self-checkout and the alarm went off. After the alarm went off, the security guy came over and he told the manager to came over and make sure that… really… we’re not like drug addicts or something… I wasn’t buying speed or like whatever. We’re buying pharmaceuticals. They checked me for like 20 minutes… It’s like a fucking police-state over there. What the fuck! Uhm… did that answer your question?” 

After a nice laugh and some disturbance on the background we continued the interview: What means Amsterdam for you, personally?

“It’s just where my cat lives.” 

Nothing more?

“Nah, it’s a nice city, it’s beautiful. It’s where our boat is, we have a little boat over there and my wife is there, I mean: it’s my home.” 

We had to wait a really long time for the CD More Late Night Transmissions With…

“Yep.” 

Why?

“I don’t know man, really… it was all fucked up… I don’t even know who to blame. Everything just went wrong that possibly could. The printing plan was fucked up, then the label wanted to wait, then the people… a shit… I don’t know! It wasn’t me… Ik was het niet!”

Would you change anything of the record if you had the chance to do it all over again?

“It’s just what it is, you know. This is all that there is and this is what you get. I would like have done a lot of things different, but that ain’t gonna happen, so… And in the end it’s alright, it’s fine. I think it came out pretty good, but the way we recorded it and the way it took forever to came out and all that crap; it sucks.” 

How was it to work with I Scream Records for the first time?

“So far I don’t really know, they are one of the reasons why our album is released so late…” 

How are the press reactions considering your latest release?

“It’s still too new, but so far so good.”

And what about the reactions of the fans?

“So far, so good. Even in like weird places we played lately people seemed to know some of the new stuff and that’s really great!” 

How do you prepare for a show?

“Just drink as much as possible and I try not to piss off the sound guy.” 

Whose idea was it to put a bar on stage?

“That was mine! Just brings the booze closer… It also breaks the ice with the audience though. Like if people don’t know you that well and instead of standing in the back looking at you they see free booze and they are right up front.” 

What’s the worst thing that ever happened during a Jaya The Cat show?

“Meeting these guys [Mise En Scene]! Everyone from Belgium… forget it! Hahah!” 

I know you're a party animal, but how about the other band members?

“Anything you put in front of us we’re probably gonna do, but it’s not that big of a deal. It’s not that we’re out of control or something, but you’ve got to live your life, you know! There’s nothing romantic about being a total wreck all day, but on the other hand… I’m probably drunk every day.” 

Do you have some crazy tour stories to tell?

“Pff… I don’t know… Jan-Jaap?! What’s the craziest thing ever happened back-stage?”
Jan-Jaap (keyboardist): “I don’t know, I wasn’t there…”
Geoff: “Yeah! I wasn’t there either! Hahah!” 

Okey, that was about it. Do you have something to say to our readers maybe?

“Yes I do! Don’t take any wooden nickels and don’t do something I wouldn’t do!”