Getting to Know…JJ Friends | Interview

For Interview #13 of the ‘Getting to Know’ series, The Musical Hype taps Barcelona hard rock band JJ Friends for the scoop. 

Do you know what time it is? Why, it’s interview time, of course! After ‘getting the goods’ from Australian melodic hardcore band Wildheart on Interview #12, we switch gears, moving to Barcelona, Spain to get to know hard rock band JJ Friends.  JJ Friends is a project comprised of musicians from various Barcelona bands, that is the brainchild of Jose Jarque, who serves as the band’s frontman and vocalist.

In addition to Jarque, the band is comprised of the following members:

Jose Jarque, voice
Paco Reina, guitars
Juan Cañuelo, guitars
Antonio Guirao, bass
A. Beast, drums

Without further ado, let’s jump right into Interview #13, Getting to Know…JJ Friends.

Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype (BF): Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes you/your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

JJ Friends: Our band, it’s not that it is unique, it is simply a powerful band that wants the audience to enjoy what we do, since we enjoy making our music.

BF: Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your band form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

JJ Friends: The band was formed because Jose Jarque, after several important bands in his career, Luna Llena and Doble o Nada, wanted to make an album where all his good musician friends were in it, the songs were composed and the tests were started to get a powerful sound, current riffs, etc. The pretense is that JJ Friends is a band of friends who make their music for the public to enjoy and recite the chorus.

BF: Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

JJ Friends: Our goals have not changed, we want to get to the public, we want our fans to enjoy the concerts, we want to tour Europe and USA, although we know that in our country, Spain, this is very difficult if you do not bet hard.

BF: Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

JJ Friends: The influences of the members are very similar – Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Dead Daisies, Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Satriani, Richie Kotzen, Black Stone Cherry, Pop Evil, Dio – all metal and hard [rock], since the 70’s until today.

BF: Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

JJ Friends: Some time ago, in a show in Barcelona, we opened the show for a big band of the country, we will not say which. Our excitement was so much that without realizing it, we got into the dressing rooms of the star band. When we left, several technicians confused us, and when they arrived, the stars did not let them enter the dressing room, because they thought that the stars were us.  Our answer, when we guessed everything, was, “Of course we are the stars, they are the meteors …” It all ended in laughter, and in the end, we shared the dressing room in a great party.

BF: Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

JJ Friends: On this album, my favorite song is “Dime” because I expressed in it what was really happening to me at that moment. Also, the theme of “Esta nochet” is just the dreams that filled me that week before its composition.  Both songs were very special by the time they were created. The theme “Mi Pequeña” is dedicated to the birth of my daughter, and I express that feeling from the moment they put her in my arms until this very day. It is especially emotional for me. In our presentation of the album, several friends of the audience raised my daughter was on stage when I was singing this song and it was really magical that moment. Father’s love.

BF: Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

JJ Friends: We are very simple, we want to continue enjoying our music, we want to be standard bearers of our hard rock, our friends are our family, our fans are our friends, we want to fill the world with our music, our two guitars are crazy about the guitars, Juan Cañuelo has a collection of great guitars that many celebrities would like to have, hahaha, and our guitarist, Paco Reina, is a true master who makes his own guitars, crazy ??? Noooo, amazing …

BF: Closing this thing out, what is you/your band currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

JJ Friends: It is ending the year, so now we are focused on several concerts, but at the beginning of the year we will begin to work seriously on our second album. This will be more powerful, more direct and much more heartbreaking, in which we will include several topics in English, to be able to go out without problems.

BF: Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

JJ Friends: Many thanks to you for this moment and for thinking of us, we are happy that the name of the band begins to sound outside our borders, forever thanks and enjoy the rock.

Interviews & Artist Interactions