JAMALURA - Energy Unleashed ! (Germany - Garage-Rock - Interview with Ray).

Hello ! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you - your encounter with this musical universe, what appealed to you, what fascinated you and what made you want to get into music?  
Hey everybody! This is Ray speaking. I am the genderqueer that is singing and playing lead guitar at Jamalura. 
Okay, so I got into rock music and playing the guitar, back when I was thirteen. My best friend back then was playing for a few years and basically what happened was that I saw him play it and my brain went "Whoa, that's RAD! I want to do this, too!". So I started to take guitar lessons and my pals and I started formed my first band: A most likely not-too-good cover band – the so-called Rockaholics, best band name ever – that played classic rock bangers at some town fairs; with no solos to be found as we weren't good enough for that stuff yet. Big shoutout to my teacher, who taught me how to write, improvise, and think for myself as a musician, without which I most likely wouldn't be here to talk to you about my cool band. What fascinated me most was the ability to express yourself without saying a word.


 
Tell me about the band... How you met - the current line-up - past experiences - and above all - WHY the need to form THIS band?
I founded Jamalura after a hiatus during the covid pandemic; after my previous blues-rock band Traymore stopped existing in 2020 with the pandemic being the last nail in the coffin. At the beginning I met our first drummer, Javi, a gifted guy that plays any style you wish, without batting an eye. He then told me that he met some guy on the bus and while they were connecting over being both Hispanics the other guy told him that he played the bass. That's how Marco joined. He's our chill guy that whips out fancy bass lines or chords on the fly; don't ask him afterwards what he played. Next we tried to find a lead singer, which turned out to take longer than we would have wished for, so I decided to take lessons and try it myself. That solved one problem but came with another one: At the beginning I knew jack shit about singing and playing at the same time. Enter Lukas; he's the man to keep our engine running and MVP when it comes to running and jumping around on stage. Yeah and to end up at our current lineup, after Javi left Dresden, we need to introduce our current drummer Phil, my old and dear friend from college with whom I already played previously. He's as much on the making-up-great-stuff-in-the-moment side as Marco, knows every tiny obscure metal band under god's sun and is in charge of the backstage pre-game playlist (Vengaboys and Christina Aguilera are non-negotiable).
The need to form this band you ask? Well, there simply is no life without making music for me, but regarding Jamalura specifically: I wanted to move on from what has been my comfort zone for a long time; away from the laid-back blues rock to something more energetic, more raw, more fun to jump around. And this is precisely the squad for the job.
 
Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
Finding a description that fits all of our songs is a tough nut to crack! We tend to jump a lot between everything rock and beyond when we write our songs. There are garage rock bangers like "Jamrock Shuffle", punk rock songs like "Peter Pain", a fucking blues ballad with "Brush Akimbo", and metal-adjacent stuff like "I am Player One". And that's just what we have released; don't get me started on our new material that we are only playing live yet. But to name some commonalities, I'd say our sound tends to be catchy, energetic, and a little raw at most times. We are having fun playing our stuff, so you might as well feel good listening to it!
Another big part of our sound is our dedication to keep everything authentic. We don't need a lot of effects shenaningans, nor do we rely on state-of-the-art processes like going 100% digital on concerts, playing on click or going to the studio to record our albums. What you hear is what you get: We just turn on our amps, play exactly as fast as we (read: our drummer) intend on that night, improvise a lot, and enrich the live experience with happy little accidents here and there. 


 
Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ? 
The lyrics shouldn't take all the attention away from the music, because first and foremost we all love to play our instruments. But the lyrics aren't just some pretense to keep me singing, either; between all the over-the-top nonsense and mad ramblings are some cheeky pearls of wisdom to be found for those who look closely.
As for lyrical and musical experiences, there are a lot! The other three are a lot into almost everything metal: heavy, speed, thrash, progressive, power. Then there's me, the band's softie, and who listens mainly to garage/alternative rock, weird hyper or left-field pop or UK or post- punk. If I had to name my personal most influential artists, I'd say it's Jack White, Prince, Electric Six, Rival Sons, The Hives, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Guns 'N' Roses. (All pretty hard core, I know, haha.)
 
About your latest release ? 
Our latest and also first release is our debut album "Je t'aime!" from 2025. We recorded, mixed, and mastered everything by ourselves (including two good friends that helped us with sitting at the laptop during recordings and one assisting us in mixing and mastering the first single, "Jamrock Shuffle"). So what happened exactly was that we sat down at my place with all instruments fitted to go silently in the recording PC – amps thorugh DI boxes and an electronic drumkit – and played each song five times or so. No click, the whole band all at once. Then we picked the best take for each song and did the vocals afterwards. 
It's a unique experience doing it like this and I encourage every musician who is presented with the decision to DIY or go to a studio to at least try it out. You won't find major-label polish on our record but at least it sounds distinctly like us. You will be shitting bricks when you're approaching the end of the song, though; when nobody fucked up yet and the improv solo turned out to be great, but the gratification afterwards is something else. Kudos to my fellow bandmates; for putting up with my stubborn ass to do it like that and for being that tight to enable that kind of process.
You can listen to our album on Bandcamp, any streaming platform you use, and of course on physical media! We decided to do cassettes, which means me sitting in the living room at my tape deck and recording those motherfuckers all one-by-one. Send us a message if you want one! Or catch one live! As a fun gimmick, we are always giving away one containing a polaroid selfie that we do with the crowd during the show.


 
Future plans ? 
Priority number one for the moment is recording our second album. Same process as for "Je t'aime!" except for doing it in our rehearsal room with a acoustic drums (that we definitely know how to record and mix properly). When that's done and the release is on it's way, hopefully by fall this year, we like to play a lot of shows again and increase our touring radius gradually. We been going places all around Saxony so far and are looking forward to sharing our weird vibe with many more people further away as well.
And on a sidenote: Finally not making and ass out of myself in between songs when I try to think of something witty/meaningful/funny to say to the audience, haha !
 
Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
Aside from being able to do this full-time and live off of it? How delusional do you want me to sound? Hmm, I think I have something weirdly specific: Playing a show at the Blue Basement at Third Man Records in Nashville that is directly recorded to acetate and pressed onto vinyl that evening. Yes, I think that artistic experience would be to most insane dream for me personally.
 
Your BEST & WORST concert - as a band - and why ? 
Both are tough choices to make! Of course entering the scene playing on that huge-ass stage on UNI AIR was great, but we had a lot of exceptional shows afterwards as well: Our Halloween special last year in front of a goofed-up audience, all in costumes just like us; or playing at Ost-Pol, one of Dresden’s go-to spots to see hot bands from near and far, completely packed on a Tuesday!
As for worst, it's tough because I cannot remember of some distinctively bad shows. The worst ones for sure are those we are not able to play and have to decline. For any mundane reason like scheduling as we are all daytime wage-slaves, just like anybody else.


 
Next live-appearance(s) ?
The next show will be at Club Bärenzwinger here in Dresden, Germany on July 11th; also: a super cool, super secret underground festival in Thuringia, our Halloween special will return on October 31st, and we will hit Ost-Pol, Dresden again on January 26th 2027. Everything else will be announced when we are done with the new album. Contact us if you like our stuff and want us to drop by on our record release tour. We’ll gladly bring the party to you!
 
Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ? 
Where do I start? Dresden has such a diverse scene that produces interesting bands from almost all genres, with the "Neustadt" as the alternative heart of town; almost like a microcosm on its own. Definitely worth a visit to anyone reading. And I’d like greet our friends from Amptray, The Melmacs, Ups!ze, Home Office, and Schmutz!
 
Last word is yours.. 
Phew, I think I rambled on more that I have any right to… Thank you for the opportunity to introduce us to you readers! We are looking forward to meeting many of them in the future!

Credits :
Band Pic : Marvin Domaschk (Instagram: @marvindomaschk)
Live Pic 1 : Dave Mante (Instagram: @ihr_gossenpoet)
Live Pic 2 : Philipp Kühne (Instagram: @akamatsu02)
Live Pics 3 & 4 : Dave Mante (Instagram: @ihr_gossenpoet)