In the great tradition of musical love duos such as Johnny Cash and June Carter and Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, Jep and Dep make
their romantic connection work musically.
Darren Cross used to be in Gerling, a trio in which he made quirky, lo-fi electronic pop music. Jessica Cassar had never made music in her life
before she met Cross.
"I've always loved music and I've secretly wanted to sing," says Cassar. "I used to sing in my bedroom along with people I loved and harmonised to
the CD player, but definitely never thought I'd sing live. I'd never really written songs, just been a lover of music."
They met through mutual friends, and together they have discovered a unified musical voice in gothic folk. "You're not the first to ask us if we are in
a relationship because a lot of our music talks about doomed relationships and lovers that didn't work out and I guess there is that connection
through love as well and the style of music that we're playing enhances that idea as well."
The duo's strong, dark, '60s aesthetic has a lot to do with Cassar's background in photography. "It's definitely a collaborative thing, because we're
both inspired by similar film noir genres, and things like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire and '60s film. So because the music is inspired from that era
as well, it all came together and that's our aesthetic."
It's a big change from Cross' backpack-toting electro-pop freak pop days of '90s trio Gerling and post-Gerling project The ELF.
"He was in his 30s and he was a bit sick of playing to younger people in a genre that he didn't feel like he connected to any more. So he decided to
go back to basics and pick up the acoustic guitar and he was quite natural at it," Cassar says. "He's an incredible songwriter, and he's actually quite
good at all musical genres, so for him it was starting again in a genre that reflected where he was in his life."
It's paid off – the duo's debut Word Got Out is a gorgeous record. It's a confident debut, with a succinct, assured dark folk style. It attracted the
attention of The Smiths' Johnny Marr, who requested Jep and Dep to support him at his Sydney performance last year. "There was a
moment where I think we just forgot what it is we were about to do so we turned up at the load-in with just our guitars and he was doing his
soundcheck and playing How Soon Is Now and we both stopped and looked at each other and went 'Holy shit, this is what we're about to do!' Then
we got to meet him and he was just the nicest, down-to-earth guy."
They've only just released their first album, but Jep and Dep have already started writing their second album, and are planning a European tour
next year. Cross, who produces the duo's music, is a big fan of the Phil Spector "wall of sound" style of recording. "A few of the songs on the album
have quite big moments where the strings come in, so it is a plan maybe for our second album to have a bit more," Cassar says. "But at the
moment we like having that balance of the big moments and the really stripped back moments where there's just the voice."
JEP AND DEP
When: December 12, 8pm
Where: Smiths Alternative, Civic.
Tickets: $12 available from smithsalternative.com.
