Jools are the delightfully surprising new band you need to know

There’s more to Jools than meets the eye. Often decked out in leather and leopard print, they’re sometimes told by people who stumble across their music that they didn’t expect them to have the sound that they do – deeply rooted in punk, but with glimmers of genres as varied as rap, metal and shoegaze, and a vocal style compared to spoken word.

“Whatever preconceptions you may have about us from how we look or sound, we’re so much more than that,” asserts co-vocalist Kate Price. “Quite often, people try to put us into a box, whether that be a genre or attitude or comparison. We’re kind of a genreless band, and we’re quite surprising, I would say.”

Though they formed in 2019, it was only two years ago that Jools settled into the current iteration of their line-up. After several members departed, they scrambled to assemble Jools 2.0 with just five weeks to prepare to open for Hot Milk at London venue KOKO. Their relationships are a constellation of uncanny encounters. Kate and co-vocalist Mitch Gordon met on a flight to Budapest that Mitch was only on because his dad had a windfall that allowed him to take his son on holiday for the first time. Drummer Chelsea Wrones is guitarist Chris Johnston’s line manager at work. Mitch spontaneously reunited with guitarist Callum Connachie, who he met seven years prior, at a pub before a Fontaines D.C. gig – a pub Callum only ended up at after his friend missed his train. “We make a point of reminding each other constantly that the way we met is fucking mental,” Mitch grins.

“We kind of feel like we’re meant to be with each other,” adds Kate. “We all found each other at a point where we really needed something, and that something has evolved into Jools.” Several members of the band, including Chris and bassist Joe Dodd, had made music previously and quit, and Jools has been their gateway back in. For Chelsea, picking up her sticks again was her father’s dying wish. As for Kate and Mitch, Jools was always their creative vessel, and they had to hang onto it. “We didn’t want to be faced with not doing it anymore. We had ideas and something to say that we really believed in.”

On their debut album Violent Delights, Jools fearlessly own their narratives. Styled as an anthology of stories mined from their lives, they delve into matters including violence against women (97%), Catholic guilt (Mother Monica) and growing up around addiction (Dunoon) in a manner that is red-raw, confrontational and insistent. ‘Visceral’ is hardly an adequate word when it feels like the emotion behind it is a physical force digging its nails into your shoulders and not so much tugging on heart-strings as yanking them. Not just cathartic but celebratory, they get dark, they get real, yet never allow themselves to be victims.

“I think it was a real snapshot of this moment in time where we’ve almost journaled all of the separate things about each band member and their experiences,” explains Mitch. “It feels like a closed chapter, which was wonderful to live through in parts and then also really difficult to live through in others. I’m glad it’s over, but the record is so freeing and liberating.

“I get to the end of it and finally feel like I can breathe.”

Violent Delights is released on July 4 via Hassle. Catch Jools live in the UK in the coming months, including at 2000trees.

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