Rabbit Junk, a name that has inadvertently taken on an association with “cyberpunk retro futurism, maybe like a hacker call sign” according to founding member JP Anderson, was chosen with no specific significance and that was the point. JP wanted a moniker that would not imply any genre or sound. Although hard to categorize JP attempts to by explaining that Rabbit Junk’s music touches on Industrial Metal, Future Rock, Cyberpunk and Digital Hardcore.
The initial members of Rabbit Junk were JP on vocals, guitar, songwriting and all production for the band and Jennifer “Sum Grrrl” Bernert on vox and lead keys. The couple were married before the band formed. According to JP “I totally pressured her into being in a band because I was really inspired by plural gender bands at the time. She was thinking it was gonna be a temporary thing hahah! Whoops!” Past iterations of Rabbit Junk have included different guitar players and drummers. “In 2014 Rabbit Junk got a bit of a reboot and ditched the live drums in favor of a more electronic sound”explains JP. It’s was at this time that the band stripped the live show down to just JP and Sum Grrrrl. JP describes it as being “cheaper, more intimate and actually more fun.”
Shortly before JP recorded his first Rabbit Junk demo his first band, The Shizit, dissolved. JP said that he wanted to start “a project with more range than the butch digital hardcore sound The Shizit allowed for.” In order to bring in female punk rock energy JP recruited Sum Grrrl. “I grabbed Sum Grrrl into my little studio one day and said “yell!” JP confesses.
“I write most songs in my head before I actually sit down in a studio and bring them to life” is how JP describes the start of his songwriting process. Hearing random riffs, beats and vocal lines throughout his day, especially in the shower, inspire him. In the beginning the music he created for Rabbit Junk was a close approximation of what he heard in his head but now he is able to come very close to reproducing what he hears and creates in his head and bring it to life in the real world.
Using creativity to cope with stress and anxiety Rabbit Junk’s music explores lots of subtle political and social themes though Rabbit Junk is not something the band members uses as a soapbox. JP explains “These themes sneak in because I have a PhD in Political Science and am a university professor in my normie life. So I kinda can’t help it. Rabbit Junk also has themes of SciFiand horror because I’m just a big nerd.”
In terms of the aesthetic for Rabbit Junk initially JP was heavily involved in the aesthetic of the group doing all the art work himself. This was fundamentally driven by finances and a lack of appropriate connections. In 2017 the band started working with established artists. JP believed that working with artists saw them “bring an approach to life for the cover art of Rabbit Junk Will Die, our sixth album.” Enjoying working with established artists, the band tends to let them do their own thing and be inspired by the music. The one thing that Rabbit Junk insists on is the ironic use of the color pink alongside what is typical industrial and metal vibes in the music.
“Although live performances can be challenging and stressful the band enjoys playing live”. JP explains. He also enjoys ” indulging in a bit of rock star life every once in a while because my normie life is pretty constrained. So when the show is done, I wanna let loose. Then its typically back to mega-adulting until the next show.”
Rabbit Junk have a new EP set for release in 2023. The album has the quirky distinction of being a horror SciFi sound track for a movie that doesn’t exist. “I am hardly the first person to use this approach, but plan to make a totally enveloping and hopefully sort of terrifying sound. So far its much darker and heavier than “Apocalypse for Beginners”, with significant elements of ambient and soundscape. For those familiar, this EP i the final chapters of “ghetto blasphemer”, which is sort of a side project within Rabbit Junk that combines eldritch horror short story voice over with various metal and urban vibes.” JP expounds.
JP believes that Rabbit Junk fans are very interesting people that like a wide variety of music and genres. He describes them as “metalheads at a synthwave night. The raver in a mosh pit. They can hang with a playlist drawing from 50 different genres spread across four decades. They are not into gatekeeping or rules when it comes to style or sound.” If this sounds like you then Rabbit Junk is the band you should be listening to.
Links :
Bandcamp : https://rabbitjunk.bandcamp.com/album/apocalypse-for-beginners
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RabbitJunkOfficial
Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Cnkej21cJ1XgbAh98CbaS?si=WOWq9L1iTn2o000a9jA59Q
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/au/artist/rabbit-junk/91982341
Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_Junk
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