Bony: The are several ways to translate the name:

 

Japanese battle radio, Japanese fight music or Japanese martial arts radio-theater-of-the-mind. There was no special intention when we picked the name. It just sounded funny and we thought it might make people more curious than some name like "post mortal rectum rodeo".

The history so far: Christof (drums) and Klaus (guitar) started Jaka in 1998. In the beginning it wasn't even meant to be a band. It was just grindcore roughly put on an 8 track-recorder by people who had given up their ambition to make it in the music business. They released some demo-CDs and put their recordings online as well. The new millenium saw the release of two CDs released by a small label from switzerland. The line up grew more and more so we were able to hit the road in 2003 which also was the year we released our first full-studio recording: the "Fertigmensch" ep. A year later we released our current album "hardcore aus der ersten Welt".

 

 

Bony: The new material sounds much more diverse because this time there were more than just 2 persons to write the songs. I grew up with lots of 80s thrash metal like Slayer or Kreator and you can definitely here that influence on the new record. The main difference between the last two recordings and the early stuff is the production. In the early days there wasn't any budget so we recorded on an eight track portable studio and later on a computer. Besides my job in a record store i work in a studio as a producer and engineer. When I joined Jaka we decided to record upcoming stuff there so the current releases sound a bit more hi-fi.

 

 

Bony: If we wouldn't constantly develop and try lots of stuff we haven't done before there wouldn't have been any need to put out any more CDs after 2002. But I think both old and new songs sound like Jaka... only with a little improvement from album to album. We don't feel like re-inventing ourselves on every album. We like the way we sound.

 

 

Bony: We wanna keep the Jaka-thing a bit out of the ordinary so we will never become the hardest touring band in grind-business. We think that Jaka is something special and we wouldn't wanna destroy that by playing every streetcorner twice a year like some other bands do. But if someone makes us an offer, some money for gas and bus rent + drinks and a decent place to sleep we will definitely think about it.

 

 

Bony: Half of the guys in Jaka listen to blast beat stuff all day. The other half (which is the songwriting section) does hardly listen to any metal. Christof is into stuff like Zappa, James Brown and lots of eay listening-music. Klaus likes punk and old school hardcore music. Me, I like brit pop and some of the new american bands that sound like England in 1982, bands like Interpol or The Killers.

 

 

Bony: Both. You cannot make fun all the time and on the other hand you cannot point your finger in every song. But I wouldn't call Jaka a political band. We do not complain about the government or tell people whom to vote, what to wear or eat.