Whether it’s the dry, self-deprecating wit, the brutal honesty, or merely the fact that Cosmo Jarvis tours the country extensively at least twice a year, there’s definitely a strong and mutual connection between Australia and the eccentric 24-year-old singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, director, actor, and producer.
Born Harrison Cosmo Krikoryan Jarvis, the enviably talented artist actually originates from New Jersey in the US, but moved to the UK as a child. This is made obvious from the outset of the interview, with his heavy British accent abundantly clear to hear over the phone.
Jarvis is affable, effortlessly charming, and not afraid of the odd expletive, often talking for extended periods of time and never mincing his words. He is in the midst of his biggest Australia tour to date, and that’s saying something. There is a good reason for the continual visits to our shores.
“It’s the only place that makes it worth going on tour, where I can break-even,” he reveals.
And it’s Australia where Jarvis enjoys the most popularity far more than anywhere else, even his home country. Jarvis constantly packs venues across the country, and both ‘Gay Pirates’ and ‘Love This’ have polled strongly in the Triple J Hottest 100 countdowns. The love is definitely mutual, with Jarvis revealing plans to retire in Australia.
“If I had the cash to relocate I probably would. I’ll definitely retire here though. When I’m old I’m just gonna die here.”
The tour has seen Jarvis visit more regional towns such as Byron Bay and Ballarat, as well as given him a chance to try out some new material.
“It’s good to road test them because I do worry that sometimes the fans like the older, more juvenile, simplistic pop songs with more simplistic subject matters,” he says, in his usual rushed manner. “I feel like I’m gonna be alienating them by releasing heavier music, so it’s good to be able to play them and read people’s faces and see whether they’re into it or not.”
Jarvis has even become accustomed to Australia’s traditionally high ticket prices, saying he plays for longer to compensate for this.
“I like to play long sets, ‘cause out here the fucking ticket prices are astronomical, and I like the people that come to get their money’s worth”“I like to play long sets, ‘cause out here the fucking ticket prices are astronomical, and I like the people that come to get their money’s worth,” Jarvis says, something that is confirmed by a two-hour plus set in Melbourne.
Due to monetary constraints, the tour is a whirlwind one, despite the maverick visiting more regional venues. This has required him to take some untraditional methods to secure instruments and accommodation.
“Unfortunately this time, because money’s real tight at the moment, I’ve got no money right now, so with this we had to keep the days off to a minimum,” he laments. “It’s really useful, Facebook, for that kinda thing to be honest. Fans will roll up with their guitars and let me use them, and I’ll give them some merch or let them in for free or whatever.”
“They’re good fans. They put up with a lot.”
These money problems may seem somewhat surprising considering Jarvis’ popularity in Australia, but despite the overwhelming success of the breakthrough song ‘Gay Pirates’, he has never really found mainstream success – something that he’s not too fussed about, judging by his thoughts on the music industry.
“I think it’s the shittiest industry in the fucking universe,” he says in a typical blunt fashion.
The young jack-of-all-trades is certainly not one to hold back about what he really thinks, and it’s these issues surrounding the modern music industry that really sets him off.
“It’s nothing to do with creation, it’s nothing to do with artwork, it’s nothing to do with talent, it’s nothing to do with ideas, it’s nothing to do with any of those things,” he espouses. “It has everything to do with the lowest common denominator, and how many people you can relate to by being as bland as possible.”
‘Collaborating With Rhianna’, a stand-alone track released earlier this year, drew heavily on these harsh criticisms, and saw Jarvis adopt an aggressive hip-hop persona and some dodgy rapping while spouting lyrics such as “Well my music’s pretty blah blah / Yeah that’s right I’m no Madonna / So if I’m gonna make some dollar / I got to sing it with Rhianna”.
“‘Collaborating With Rihanna’ was about all these fucking nobodies, these fucking talentless fucking bullshit cunt fucking assholes that are just some rappers that get this gig with Rihanna,” he says, continuing the no-holds barred tirade. “The brand Rihanna gets stamped on someone else’ brand and you’re literally witnessing a business deal going down in a music video, and that can make someone’s career, just from being associated with that person.”
“It’s not fair on the people that are busting their ass around the country actually knowing their craft in terms of actually playing their instruments and trying to pave their way across many countries to try to spread the word of their music manually,” he continues, while in the midst of a nation-wide tour. “These people just take advantage of the platform they have, and do whatever the fuck they want.”
The expletive-happy Brit admits he is “so fucking negative”, and has also continued this theme on ‘Look At The Sky’, a highly sarcastic and satirical attack on this culture. The lyrics, drawing on a real list of useful words for pop music, include the likes of “I’m gonna throw you a shit load of adjectives you can arrange into magnificent explanations of why you and your associations are really not so strange”.
“I got presented with a list of things I should be writing about to try to get my music into a TV show,” he explains. “It was stuff like ‘happy’, ‘jovial’, ‘sunshine’, and try to use words like ‘chill’, ‘sunny’, and ‘good feelings’. They sent me the criteria and that’s what it was, it was laughable.”
It’s these sentiments that Jarvis sarcastically derides in the song, and when he roars “I’m gonna tell you how amazing love is cause that’s what I’m told you like”, it’s not addressed to a possible flame, it’s directly aimed at the music industry. It’s a stinging attack on what it takes to be successful and, in his view, the generic nature of the industry.
Jarvis confirms ‘Look At The Sky’ will be on his fifth full-length album to be released “really soon” at the start of next year. On the as-of-yet unnamed record, Jarvis moves away from delving into his extensive back catalogue.
“The next album I wanted to be pretty much brand new stuff. I didn’t want to delve too deep into what I’ve got left over,” Jarvis reveals. “I just want to do one album that’s totally made for itself to be an album, not made out of recycled stuff that may or may not fit together well on one CD.”
“It fucks me off that you can’t just put 40 songs on an album. It’s a shame that you have to get it short and sweet to maintain people’s attention,” he bemoans. “I just wanted to write lots of songs, fucking record them, and it’s sounding like one work, rather than a load of different works that have been put together in one work.”
Jarvis’ back catalogue is about as expansive as it gets, with the collection of over 300 songs drawing back to his early teens.
“When you put your heart into something, there’s a danger you can look like a fucking asshole.”“I must have been like 12 or 13, and they all sounded like Tenacious D,” he says jovially. “I used to write these big stories just about random shit, like a penguin that had a kidney malfunction…there was a song called ‘Microwave Of Doom’.”
The young singer’s music has always had a humorous edge to it, but it’s also solidly backed by a very real, emotional, and hard-hitting underlying message, something that is typified on his breakthrough hit, ‘Gay Pirates’. This ability was something that Jarvis developed over time.
“I didn’t like the way I sounded when I was trying to sing something serious,” Jarvis states, as open and happy to talk as ever. “When you put your heart into something, there’s a danger you can look like a fucking asshole.”
One of these old songs, written by Jarvis when he was 14, is the title track of the They Don’t Build Hearts Like They Used To EP, available exclusively in hard copy on the Australian tour.
“It’s a very old song and all the lyrics and the arrangement is pretty much the same,” Jarvis details. “I think I made it sound as credible as I possibly could, bearing in mind the subject matter and it’s quite a simplistic song.”
“There’s not a huge amount of subtext going on, but it is what it is. It’s a fucking pop song.”
The old track wasn’t even originally meant to be on the EP, but after the pressure that Jarvis is now used to, the more accessible and ‘poppy’ song was included.
“We gave the radio the EP and they said, quite predictably, that they weren’t interested in playing ‘99.99’, ‘Web’, or ‘Fall Down’,” Jarvis says, again lamenting the influence that the industry has on his music. “They only wanted that song because it’s obviously a catchy fucking short single song, so that’s why it ended up happening.”
With the imminent release of his fifth album due early next year, a return to Australia is inevitable. Jarvis confirms this by saying, “we’ll definitely be back, sooner rather than later”, and after that tour, he might at least gain an honorary citizenship.
Cosmo Jarvis will release his fifth album in early 2014
