After many years of playing in the band Fenster (so far producing four LP’s and the film Emocean) Jonathan Jarzyna adopted the moniker John Moods, releasing his debut full-length The Essential John Moods with Mansions and Millions in 2018. Now, having completed his first solo tours, he recently returned with So Sweet So Nice, which was released as two EPs.

We welcome John Moods to At The Barrier as he shares his love for Holger Czukay; krautrock pioneer, sample trailblazer and founding member of legendary band, CAN.

Even though I am heavily and fully “brainwashed” by North American culture and I am surely referencing many American bands in my music, I want to talk about my favourite German musical personality.

Czukay was the bass player and co-founder of the band CAN. I guess you can find all of the information on him and his life on the internet, so I’m not gonna even try to do his biography here. To me he is one of my musical and artistic heroes and THE archetype of the quirky German, lesser known to the world than some other archetypes.

I think my first song of his was “Cool In The Pool”. The song always brings a big smile to me and the people hearing or dancing to it but one of my favourites is the “Photo Song” that also displays a lot of humour but also implicates a sense of cosmic awareness and the question of identity treated in a psychedelic light-hearted way that I love. “Persian Love” has those incredible pitched guitars that I love and is an incredible track. And Fragrance (Ode To Perfume) is so amazing too, it sounds like an amazing enchanting perfume.

What inspires me most about Holger’s path is this infinite openness. He studied music and composition under Stockhausen but ended up making something more in the realm of rock or even popular music. Later he ventured into even more directions like ambient or electronic music. I love when that crossing of the threshold occurs.

Whatever you want to or should call it, it was a wild blend and opened up so many new creative pathways for people after. Also his special absurdist humour always meant a lot to me, teaching me to never completely forget to look at my own creation with a little humour.

Check out his music videos for Fragrance and Photo Song. Very good.

Unfortunately, he’s not physically with us anymore. Rest in peace Holger, we’re all coming to join ya.

Many thanks to John for taking the time to join us. So Sweet So Nice is available now. You can preview and buy the album from John’s Bandcamp page.

John Moods: Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram

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