Conor McTernan traveled to the second edition of the festival in the Amsterdam Bos this past August for a short rendezvous with Gal and Jordan and interviewed the duo for zweikommasieben. Juju & Jordash hadbeen performing live themselves and slugging out hazy hardware jams alongside David Moufang aka Move D as Magic Mountain High. The conversation took place behind a stage loudly inhabited by Joey Anderson, and despite the volume level and tropical, stormy weather conditions, Jordan and Gal were eager to talk about the Amsterdam scene, the new record, and the ongoing conflict in their home country…

Conor McTernan Being here at Dekmantel provides a good opportunity to talk about the rise of the festival and label. How did you first become involved with the guys be- hind it all?

Jordan Czamanski They booked us to DJ at a party around seven years ago, not knowing that we were already living in the Netherlands. They were still based in The Hague at the time and were throwing small parties locally. After booking us they found out that we lived here and eventually came over to our studio and listened to a couple of our tracks. Soon after that they decided to start a label, and our record Dekmantel EP was the first to be released.

CMT Let’s talk about the Amsterdam clubbing scene. Is it healthy? What will happen following the imminent closure of Trouw in January?

Gal Aner Seems healthy to me! We have no inside information about Trouw, though. Who knows, maybe its closure will be healthy for the scene. We’re not incredibly tight with that crew.

JC Before Trouw there was Club 11, which was run by the same people. They closed it and a few months later they set up Trouw. We’ve played there once before but we’re not part of their core family or whatever.

CMT How did you meet David Moufang and start the Magic Mountain High project?

GA We met at a festival in Foligno, Italy around six years ago [Dancity, 2008]. We had a three-hour airport transfer together so we kind of bonded in the car. It was an interesting ride because the driver was crazy. Later we checked out each others’ sets and the rest of the festival was good fun. We decided to hook up in the studio afterwards -that’s basically what happened.

CMT Would you like to discuss your forthcoming studio album on Dekmantel?

GA There’s no working title and there are no concepts. It’s going to come out around November on Dekmantel. It’s going to be heavily produced.

JC It might turn out a bit tighter, a bit less rough around the edges, a bit less space-echoey and jammy, and with more eighties-style production.

CMT Do you have any other major interests? Anything you guys are both actively involved in outside of music?

GA We don’t even have enough time to do music!

JC The live aspect and the studio aspect of our music are two different endeavours–when we perform it’s like jamming, and that’s what feeds our creativity. When we’re in the studio we have the convenience of time and space and the control of the environment so it’s not the same thing, anyway.

CMT I’m not huge into politics, but it would be very interesting to find out what you think about the conflict in Israel and to what extend you are involved with it.

JC The bottom line is that it’s fucked up! Both sides have totally lost any of the moral spine they used to have. As somebody who grew up in Israel, I’m obviously more concerned with the Israeli side losing its moral backbone. Of course the Hamas are bad if not worse that the Israelis, but they’re all fucking savages. It’s totally out of control and about to get fucked up.

[It begins to rain and all three run for shelter at the edge of backstage of a tent nearby.]

CMT Was the conflict the main reason you left Israel?

GA No not really, but subconsciously, maybe.

CMT What are your roles as artists in this whole situation? Do you think that it’s your duty to discuss this topic?

JC Usually I discuss these things in Hebrew when asked these sort of questions by Israeli press… European concerns over the Palestinians and the situation in the Middle East usually aren’t authentic at all. I’m more concerned with the deterioration of the moral fabric of the Israeli society. There’s a lot of European do-gooders but their interests are not the same as mine even though we often hold the same ideas.

GA In reference to the history of the conflict, no matter what has happened this year, I feel it’s more our business what goes on in Israel–the outside perception of what goes on is limited.

CMT Do you think international media is skewed?

JC Media in Israel is horribly skewed, but it’s skewed here too. It’s like everything–people want to look at the conflict like it’s good guys versus bad guys. They don’t want to understand just how complex the situation actually is. The bottom line right now is that children are dying. Israel is pulling the trigger but the Hamas are enjoying every child’s death. It’s all fucked up.

CMT How and when do you think they’ll ever arrive at closure on this?

GA Maybe in 100 years.

JC The Holocaust was sixty years ago and Israelis don’t hold grudges against Germans anymore, so in three generations’ time, maybe…