The winter nights have well and truly set in haven’t they? It’s miserable and cold outside, while you’re dreaming about tropical shores and January sale beach holidays. But what of now? What if the wait for summer sun is just too long? You can still get your Tropical tipple from the explosive Molotov Jukebox. The delicious colourful sound of this London six-piece band have captivated audiences across Europe, and South America and are now have the much colder UK in their sights. Ahead of their Manchester pitch stop of the tour of new album ‘Tropical Gypsy’, VIVA caught up with lead vocalist Nat Tena who you may also recognise from Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and About A Boy. One busy lady who had a bit of time for us lovely lot!
Tell us a little bit about Molotov Jukebox
Molotov Jukebox is a fusion between folk, tropical with gypsy sound which we’ve nicknamed ‘Gyp-step’. It’s a sound that will make you want to dance, a lot.
What is your process for creating the album?
I don’t think there is one set process, it’s different every time. I mean for the last we were sent the rhythm first and I then wrote the lyrics, and other times it’s me and Sam (vocals/violin for the band and also Nat’s boyfriend) spending time together with Adam (guitar) and we start something. Overall for this album we very much had to stick to one focus, and that was the album’s title. Tropical Gypsy, we really wanted to get across what that meant and it let us hone in on what works for us.
What are you most looking forward to on the tour?
I’m really looking forward to testing out and performing new songs on tour. I’d say we have around 60 old and 40 new tracks that we’ve picked that we know work with the crowd and as a set. It’s one thing to play them for yourself as a group and you play them a lot. But it’s completely something else when you play them to an audience, you have no idea if they work or the response you will get until you play them live.
Tours and performances are notoriously very visual, for those who have never been to a gig what would you expect?
A potential gift if you dance well enough! Hopefully, you can also expect get laid; the music is pretty good so pick someone you like and just slide and dance with then and it might happen for you. Well really what we want to achieve with our gigs, is we want people to be able to leave their shit at the door and just come and chill and feel the music. We also have a brilliant band supporting us, The Church. Some support bands are there to spark up the crowd but these guys are going to inflame them. They are fucking amazing!
I read somewhere You were taught piano from your mum from the age of 5. Would you say you had a connection with music before acting?
Oh no my mum didn’t teach me piano, what it was was I begged my mum to let me get piano lessons. Kids are very changeable so she let me beg for them so to prove I definitely wanted to do it. So I guess I would say I found a connection with music but I would say it’s because as a kid you are already orally aware making music more accessible. Whereas in acting it’s more like playing and imagination as a kid, you don’t realise the core of it until later. I love both though, and I love their stories. I’ve always been obsessed with books and obsessed with poetry from very young.
You’ve named Chuck Berry as one of your influences. What other musical influences have you had as a performer?
I love blues, I love Salsa a lot. I mean I just like music really. I love anything that isn’t really hard trance or really heavy screamy metal; anything that tries to prove is technically good for goods sake. The band is influenced by a lot of world music and is quite eclectic, I’ve had some sort of influence from everywhere.
You of course played Tonks in Harry Potter and have stared in Game of Thrones. What attracts you to certain acting roles?
I love all different roles; it doesn’t really matter about the style. I think it can sometime depend on who producing it and the people making it. A script can be great and then spoilt by who is making it. I have been very lucky in my roles but It does happen where roles for women are over sexualized, you know it’s always a small spectrum of a Bond Girl or a Mum, It’s like these roles were props for the main action. But slowly but surely in some respect, the roles out there are become more three dimensional. My ideal role would be a film adaptation of the Hugh Howey book ‘Wool’ as Juliette, the book is fucking awesome, and she is amazing.
You were a part of the fantastic Knee high theatre company, which is great for combining music skills with acting and live performance, and it’s where you were introduced to the Accordion.
Yes, it was! I learnt the Accordion before playing it in Molotov Jukebox for my part in one of the shows, and when I did I just thought oh my God where have you been all my life? I fell in love with it. I never picked it up in all my life so I was completely fresh to it in the play. It didn’t take too long to learn in Kneehigh as the Accordion parts were only small. But then I carried on and play it for the band, and I’m still learning now. In 10 years I may be ready!
How do you balance these two creative outlets, do you get to spend the time on them as you would like to?
I get a lot from both but it is a bit of a juggling act, mainly because of clashing timelines. I mean we have the album release and tour sorted until May next year. You know those dates are booked and they are happening, but if then there is an acting job as well then it’s very different time frames to work in, so when I find out good news from one its always bittersweet because it usually always means it’s going to conflict with something else.
I am happy to read that you happily name yourself as a feminist, and its subject you seem very passionate about. Do you think there is still a lot of inequality and sexism within both the music and acting industry and how have you found your experience?
It’s such a good question, and I think this is only the second time I’ve been asked anything like it. I was asked what instrument I played for the first time in 7 years. I think there is still an association that musicians are men and women are the singers in a band, and they don’t play instruments or write songs. I definitely think more women should be more involved in general when it comes to creating music, producing music, whichever and the same can be said for film. Although there is a lot of theatre being directed by women; it’s still all written by white men. Women characters are treated like props or a device like I said before, I mean there’s 55-year-old Bonds playing with 23-year-old Bond Girls. I think inequality or sexism within the industries are both equally bad in different ways, but hopefully, no it is changing bit by bit.
Do you use your music to express your views such as equality?
It’s really important to us and a percentage of our album sales goes to fantastic charity Womankind. They are really amazing, and they helping women in need worldwide and challenging discrimination. We’re really proud of the work they do and to back them in this way.
Find out more about Molotov Jukebox on Facebook or follow on Twitter @Molotov_Jukebox