Jinniyah
by Mister Mime
10th July 2021
Gio Makyo’s newest album “Shade” in the avatar of ‘Jinniyah’ explores the melancholy of loss and the concepts of zen & space through a unique mix of chillstep and downtempo trance. Inspired by the literary & cinematic works of romantic poet and politician Lord Byron & surrealist filmmaker David Lynch, and the fearlessness of author Arundhati Roy, the hauntingly beautiful and ethereal music of Jinniyah can transport you to a moody and mysterious world.
MM: How did you decide to call yourself ’Jinniyah’? What does it mean?
Jinniyah: Oh, this could take hours. Jinniyah is the female form of Jinn, also known as djinn or genie. Most famous in Aladdin, but throughout North Africa, people believe in them quite strongly. There is another world underneath the surface of our world, some say it’s like a negative reflection, and sometimes the Jinn manage to enter into our world, like spirits. or demons... there are good jinn and bad ones, but either way, they generally bring you trouble, and you can be possessed by them as well.
I am interested in all things which exist between this world and another. But there are many stories of men being possessed by a female djinn, like Aisha Qandisha. I’m not sure why I am fascinated with stories like this (and of course Yakshini). I’ve had many strange and mysterious experiences in the world of dreams, which I think lead me in this direction. On a more practical level, I was looking to explore some music that was a bit darker and moodier than Makyo, and that didn’t need to follow the “rules“ of being Makyo.
The first album of Jinniyah music, which has a bit more of a Middle Eastern & dubstep feel, was recorded between 2012 and 2014, and is finished but still unreleased. The more recent stuff was composed between 2019 to 2021.
MM: Why is the album called “Shade”?
Jinniyah: From a very heavy poem by Lord Byron:
“And Thou art Dead, As Young and Fair “.
“ I know not if I could have borne
To see thy beauties fade;
The night that follow’d such a morn
Had worn a deeper shade: “
I think from the title, you can guess why I chose it.
Music of loss, melancholy, and yet the beauty of the memory you hold., your gift of having spent time with that person before they left this world. I’ve lost more than a few friends in the past few years, so this has been weighing kind of heavily on me. It’s not depressing music, I hope, but mixing that haunted feeling with something beautiful.
MM: Are there any stories behind any of the individual tracks or interesting incidents, challenges that you faced during the making of the album that you would like to share?
Jinniyah: The biggest challenge is of course a physical one. I suffered a freak accident that damaged my ears in 2014, and pretty much had to stop making music/playing live/dj-ing due to loud tinnitus, and pain hyperacusis. this also triggered a bunch of painful neurological conditions, so basically I was a mess for about four years. I still am, maybe I’m just used to it more. I just started making music again around 2018, and even now I can only mix at very low volume, and it’s very hard for me to even hear the high end, so I rely on visual EQ readout, and also some good advice from my mastering engineer., Gregg Janman. Many days I can’t work on music at all, so it’s just a question of chipping away a little bit at a time, and eventually, I manage to get something done. Shade took me about six months from beginning to end. I am not healthy, but I am stubborn!
MM: Can you tell us a bit about your musical background and how your journey began?
Jinniyah: I played the guitar in post-punk and hardcore bands in the 80s, nothing you would’ve heard of. I was always into ambient electronic music as well and released some experimental music with a friend from college under the name Truth when the cassette underground was a thing. And I spent several years dj-ing a freeform late-night FM radio show in Boston. I would often mix up tape loops of little sampled bits from albums and TV etc. over the instrumental b-sides of hip-hop records… We were calling it trip-hop but this was like 1990, lol. Then somebody played an Orb 12 inch for me and I realized that you can make a record doing this! After I moved back to Japan, I spent two years learning MIDI & programming stuff in the studio with a friend, and my first release as Makyo was in Spring 1994. I had a Sampler with 32 MB which gave me up to three minutes of sampling time, which seemed extraordinary back then, LOL. I’ve been active ever since, but that’s a whole other story…
MM: I find your sound to be a unique mix of psychedelic, tribal, trance, and chill out, among other things. Can you talk about how you conceived your signature sound?
Jinniyah: That would be a great description of my music as Makyo, maybe adding “dub” as well.
Jinniyah is a bit different. A lot of it was wanting to compose with more open space left in the music. I listen to all sorts of music... And I was enjoying some recent dream-pop like tiny deaths, Still Corners, SPC EKO.... and even Sabrina Claudio, who is alt r&b. I really liked how they were mixing their stuff, and tried to learn something from it. on the other hand, I was listening to older 80s stuff like EBM and 4AD label. The track “Spirit”, in particular, was like trying to put together This Mortal Coil‘s cover of Talking Heads “Drugs” with the cut-up/sampling style of Holy Other. “DV8” is a straight-up homage to Clock DVA. “Broken” was just deep sample cut-ups, from maybe a dozen sources. I’ve always been doing a lot of that, but with Makyo I would’ve been sampling somebody like Lakshmi Shankar or Sultan Khan...
I really don’t know what people would call this music. Holy Other is called “witch-house”; but that’s kind of a joke genre anyways, and I haven’t heard much else in if that’s any good. Chillstep? I dunno.
MM: Would you care to share any techniques, workflows, instruments, etc. that you believe are unique/essential to your musical process and shaping your sound?
Jinniyah: For Jinniyah, it is space: every sound has its own space to echo clearly. Trying not to fill it up with too many sounds. Zen. Also, the sampling. I cut up vocals into fragments and randomly try reassembling them and when I get something that feels like a phrase, I build on it. The words have to suggest something. Also changing the pitch of the voice a little ... a little microtonal tuning on the samples, that creates more complexity when you stack the vocals; everything is too perfectly pitched these days, it sounds flat, especially on harmonies! You can hear the difference in the layers on “echo rain” or “desordre.”
MM: Who are your main musical influences?
Jinniyah: For Jinniyah? Holy Other, This Mortal Coil, Muslimgauze, Tiny Deaths. Burial, Sorrow, Harold Budd. (Muslimgauze influence is more apparent on the first album.)
In general, too many to mention! Eno&Byrne, The Velvet Underground, Tangerine Dream, African Head Charge, Dead Can Dance, The Beatles, The Doors, John Coltrane, Brij Bushan Kabra, Global Communication, Sheila Chandra, Mazzy Star, Massive Attack, et al.
MM: Can you talk briefly about your association with Dakini Records?
Jinniyah: It’s my own label, I started it in 1998 because I didn’t see many advantages to being on other independent labels. Also, I wanted to create a place for other like-minded artists to come together. I mean, we all had day jobs, we would do two releases a year.. But since 2010, I’ve only been releasing my own stuff. Long story, but pretty much piracy killed the label in terms of being able to release music by other artists; it’s just not sustainable financially. I mean it’s barely sustainable on any level nowadays with fucking Spotify and the rest. I’ve been involved in music since the 80s, and it’s never been as bad for artists and as corporate-controlled as it is now. I’m not hopeful, and I see a lot of artists who are really hurting, especially after the lockdowns.
MM: Could you give a special mention to the artist who has done your artwork?
Jinniyah: For Shade? It is an artist known as Aelhra, she does these cool almost Andy Warhol style prints. It has a real vibe. I have a few, I like her work a lot. The neon mask I added myself. That might be the influence of FinDAC, another amazing street artist.
MM: Who/what are some artists, people, places or things that inspire you outside of the musical world?
Jinniyah:
Places: Angkor Wat was a huge influence, it’s where I decided to start making the Jinniyah music. I had the experience of walking around there around sunset when there were maybe only four or five people in the entire compound. Had a very haunted feeling, some of the architecture was almost Gothic, it left a deep impression.
Also, suspicious backstreet Roppongi or Kyoto clubs, where you open the door and step into some world you never imagined....
People: Arundhati Roy for being fearless.
David Lynch for keeping surrealism alive.
The dancers E-chan & Milla, a tribal bellydancer duo who are utterly unique, and for whom I wrote much of the original Jinniyah music. They would always perform live with me at festivals and such... there are many dancers I have received inspiration from, Tokyo is full of talent in that regard, but these two I have worked with the longest. They have a really cool video that’s about to drop off a performance set to two unreleased I Jinniyah tracks. (this will be out in the next week or two)
Jinniyah: In terms of finding inspiration from Bellydance, I really like that so much of it is born out of improv, responding to the music in real-time with the body. The connection between the sound and the movement always feels much more direct and deeper to me than a lot of other dance forms, which seem to be more about creating flashy movements and just making sure they’re on the beat. Bellydancers, sometimes you can see whether the dancer is responding to the rhythm, or maybe they’re lost in the melody, or maybe they’re working off of a second harmonic instrument or something, you can literally see the music reflected in their moves.
MM: How do you see the association between music/sound and other art forms like poetry and visual art for example?
Jinniyah: Well, you can see all the Jinniyah releases have a bit of poetry in the liner notes… It has definitely been inspiring me lately. I don’t read a lot, but you don’t need a lot if you read the greats … Not just western stuff but Tagore, Rumi...
“Reach high, for stars lie hidden in you.” Tagore.
I worked as a film critic for a long time, so cinema is another big passion of mine. I’m addicted to the Criterion channel. If you start me talking about film I can go for hours. Music teaches you how to listen, film teaches you how to watch.
It’s almost easier to be influenced by things like dance, poetry, or films, because they create a mood in you that you can then turn into music. Whereas when you’re inspired by music, you run the risk of just trying to re-create what it is that inspired you. memories, friends, muses, loves, basically anything that leaves a deep impression inside of you, that’s what you try to get out through the sound. It’s all a rather amazing thing, isn’t it?
You Can Follow Jinniyah on:
https://makyo.bandcamp.com/album/shade
All Images courtesy of Jinniyah
