bluejuice

No-one wants to be alone, but company is a complicated idea. Whether you're talking about romantic, social or professional life, sometimes you've got to work together to get things done.

New album “Company” sees the band trawl any and every avenue for inspiration, from classic hits radio like Phil Collins, Thin Lizzy, Steely Dan, The Style Council, Eurythmics, Steve Winwood and Billy Joel; to RnB and dance, from Boyz II Men, Mark Morrison and Cameo; ‘90s house acts like E.M.F.; ‘60s Stax and Motown, and inspiring modern pop and rock like Spoon, The Strokes, Phoenix, Litlle Dragon and LCD Soundsystem.

Jake Stone and Stavros Yiannoukas trade lead vocals, matching and harmonising their opposing vocal tones. Musical director Jeremy Craib brings his innate multi-instrumental facility to a variety of songs built around a strong foundation of piano and keyboards, while bassist Jamie Cibej and drummer James Hauptmann introduce electronics, drum replacement and other new toys to help motivate the dancefloor and beat back-beat boredom.

“We realised that we’ve never made a great album, from start to finish,” says Stav. “Increasingly we're a pop band and wanted to make ‘Company’ as big as possible; it was all about serving the songs, whether it needed horns, session musicians or girls‘ voices – we didn’t want to limit ourselves, so we built a community up around it.”

“Alex Burnett is a great friend, and a songwriting/production weapon. We had a great couple of days hanging out at his parents' house playing the piano and just talking music. I was increasingly feeling old, so ‘Act Yr Age’ seemed a logical joke, while ‘Shock’ happened while I was having a cold shower and thinking of Phil Collins,” says Stone of the collaboration.

“It was a really intimidating initially, but Julian made the whole thing easy. We talked about Joe Jackson and Steve Winwood, and how big, sentimental synth-ballads could be awesomely cheesy and incredibly sincere at the same time. We wanted to write a classic radio song; a ballad that didn't shy away from expansive emotions.”

On ‘Shock’ and ‘Act Yr Age’ UK producer Blue May worked with Alex Burnett to give the songs a big, European pop sensibility, while producer-in-chief Eric J. Dubowsky (Weezer, Art Vs Science) took the controls with assistant JP Fung (Last Dinosaurs, Little Red). Company was mixed in the UK by Grammy winning engineer Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, New Order, My Bloody Valentine).

While BLUEJU!CE are often portrayed as pranksters, there’s a depth to their intelligence, drive and musicianship that doesn’t always shine in the light of, say, the skipping team video of previous gold single ‘Broken Leg’, or the man pash that shocked Mel and Koshie on Sunrise. To say BLUEJU!CE are a dichotomy would be an understatement.

“Jake always has a band muse in one form or other,” says Stav, “a band he’s jealous of. [Usually] bands that he loves and talks positively about – there’s also a side where he’s jealous of their ability to be easily successful.”

“When we stopped being friends I kept writing about her anyway. She’d broken up with someone and I wanted to say, ‘Ha ha, you’re not that great’ – really sour grapes – and then I realised the song was about me.'

Stav’s diet of “daggy” ’90s R&B and Jake’s cheesy pop ethic makes this an album designed for dancing, from brass-infused number ‘The Recession’ (“our disco ode to the global financial crisis”) to more thoughtful and expansive closer ‘On My Own’.

It's no wonder that they chose to call their third album “Company”.