© I, Again by Jesus and the Zealots. Directed and produced by Adrian Zeqja and Hon Hryciak.
“We’re actually all quite weird. I think it’s often the weirdos who make the most interesting music, though. Just look at Gary Numan.”
It’s an appropriately moody day in East London and I am on my way to meet Aynjel, Henri, and JJ, the sweet and effortlessly stylish core of Jesus and the Zealots. They’re a self-proclaimed baroque-goth band with a passion for old vinyl, occult history, and “original goth,” Arthur Brown. As they come into view, squeezing through a bustling crowd of raccoon-eyed, black-clad fans waiting for a Black Veil Brides meet & greet, Aynjel laughs: “the goths are out today!”
Looking like they just fell through an 80s time warp, Jesus and the Zealots are totally at odds with Bethnal Green Road’s minimalist cafés and shiny green e-scooters. “We get cat-called out of vans quite a lot,” Henri jokes. “When Henri and I first met at school,” Aynjel adds, “people used to ask if we were brother and sister because we were the only ones who dressed differently!”
Formed in South London by Aynjel (vocals, flute, percussion) and Henri (vocals, twelve-string guitar), the band has been gigging around grassroots venues since 2022. In its current iteration, the band now also comprises of JJ (six-string guitar), Matty (synths), and Tiss (drums). Blending the rhythmic sounds of the sixties with the saturnine stylings of eighties goth rock, Jesus and the Zealots draw influence from the likes of The Doors, The Mission, and Siouxsie and the Banshees: “The Mission used lots of twelve-string guitars, which brings that really jangly sound that we want to replicate” Henri tells me. “They’re very goth,” Aynjel adds, “but their lyrics are quite witchy, which aligns with our love of prog- and psychedelic rock, too.” “We also love the theatricality of bands like Siouxsie,” says JJ.
The result is captivating. At live shows, Jesus and the Zealots often incorporate performance art or automatic painting into their sets. Aynjel - who is one half of the art duo Lizard Lizard, a tattoo artist by the name of strawb3rry pokes, and a vinyl DJ with a collection that started when she was just thirteen - by nature takes a mixed-media approach to her musical output:
“I have a lot of different interests; my world is very varied. We just want to do something different to capture people’s imaginations. It sort of says: ‘Welcome to our weird world!’ It’s not just a gig, it’s more like theatre.”
For JJ, this idea of performance lies at the heart of the band’s identity: “When playing live, the feeling of ‘putting on a show’ really drives us. You put on a mask and it’s like you’re projecting parts of yourself that aren’t normally there.” Escapist and immersive, a Jesus and the Zealots gig is a world-building endeavour.
This is nowhere better reflected than in the band’s latest offering, an eerie folk-horror-inspired music video for I, Again. Complete with candelabras, barefoot dancing around a fire, and actual masks, the video is a spellbinding accompaniment to the track’s killer riffs and punchy vocals. “‘I, Again’ is about time repeating, or time following you, and how repetition is sometimes quite scary. Days passing by the same, over and over again, seeing the same numbers, doing the same things, it becomes almost ritualistic in our minds.”
The Time Demon, a mask-wearing, clock-swinging entity appears in the video as a physical manifestation of this unease. Whether our inner clocks have been radically altered by the pandemic, or if the natural process of ageing skews our sense of time passing, “we all feel like time has been moving faster recently” Aynjel confesses.
“When we filmed the video, we went to Epping Forest with some masks and some extras. I think we accidentally summoned a real demon, though. It was horrific. You shouldn’t replicate ritualistic practices in an area like that.” The band laugh nervously as they tell me they think the Time Demon has been following them ever since the video shoot. They even have photographic evidence.
©I, Again by Jesus and the Zealots. Directed and produced by Adrian Zeqja and Hon Hryciak.
When asked what’s next for Jesus and the Zealots, they discuss their dreams of a tour. “After my previous experiences with record labels - which never went well - we thought we should just plan a tour ourselves. We’ve been looking at vans on Ebay!” Aynjel tells me. “We did a gig up in Liverpool earlier this year and it was really cool. It was good to travel and see what audiences in other cities are like. I feel like you really have to prove yourself to audiences in London sometimes. It can feel a bit unfriendly,” Henri adds.
New music is on the way, too, however JJ and Henri’s perfectionism means the process of writing, recording, and releasing songs can take a while: “It takes us about a year to properly write a song” Henri sighs. “We get obsessed with the minute details of the demos. It would take us forever if Aynjel didn’t come in and give her opinion.” JJ admits. “I take on a bit of a director’s role sometimes, saying ‘no keep that, that bit’s good!’. We work together really well as a three in that sense,” Aynjel tells me.
Fortunately, if time really is speeding up, it won’t be too long until Jesus and the Zealots bestow more music upon us. In the meantime, listen to them on Spotify and follow them on Instagram for gig updates. You don’t want them to pass you by.
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