In order not to forget about anything, I'm gonna try to respect the chronology of your short but brilliant musical career ;-)) :

Could you tell us about your starting and this musical family passion, which reminds us the JACKSONS'…

JARA: Both of my parents have some history with music. My dad played the trumpet and sang, while my mom grew up singing and playing piano in the church choir and sang on the radio every Saturday when she was 8 years old. So of coarse they made sure their children exercised whatever musical talents they had. My mom started giving my oldest brother James piano lessons at 5 years old. My other brother Jeff started teaching himself guitar at 13 years old. Shortly after that, at the age of 3, they discovered that I could play the drums by jokingly sitting me behind James's drum set. They put my older sister Julie up front to lead sing and that was the start of the family band "The 4 J's". Our parents managed us and had us on top-notch gigs all over California. The band fizzled when I was 7 years old. James went on the road as the musical director/keyboardist for the 70's family group, "The Sylvers", while Jeff went and started a rock trio called "Prophecy". Four years later I got the family band back together with the edition of my youngest sister Janine to perform at my school. The J. Harris Band was born. James added a non-family member, John Peterson (but still a "J") in the band to free up his left hand because he played chords and keyboard bass in the 4 J's. That lasted for 3 years as well.

You were an exceptional child, playing drums at 4, writing songs while a teenager and a multi-instrumentalist today. Is it a gift you couldn't resist or you're insatiable when it's question of music ? ;-))

I believe that anytime a person knows something or has the ability to do something without it being learned, I'd have to say, based off of my beliefs, is a God given talent.

Which artists did you listen to when you were young? The ones you admire the most? Who gave you this Funk inspiration that never left you since?

I grew up in Orange County, California (the whitest of white neighbourhoods). That's why my mixture is so twisted. As a kid I was playing Sly, Ohio Players, Mandrill, Buddy Miles, etc. when the songs were actually on the radio. Between 8 and 11 years old I was really into George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, etc. which was mostly influenced by my brother James. Rocker brother Jeff influenced the rock side in me. I would play my drums to Journey's "Escape" album (8 track tape) everyday while Julie was exposing me to Funkadelic, Aurra, Slave, Tom Browne, Isley Brothers to name but a few. It wasn't until I turned 13 that I was exposed to 2 drummers that changed my approach to drumming. One was Pete Carr who used to sub for me with the J. Harris Band on gigs that were on nights before school and Terry Bozzio from Missing Persons after seeing the "Words" video on MTV. I became a Missing Persons and Duran Duran fanatic. A year later "Purple Rain" came out and it changed my life as I knew it. Prince and the Time were the start of my infatuation with funk, but it wasn't until I started meeting with musicians and producers that were older than me that I sensed the old soul in me and knew that they could get more out of me if I were exposed to the real source. Songs that I played as a kid were being thrown back at me, but this time I truly heard what was really going on. Cameo, Zapp, Sly Stone, Ohio Players, P-Funk, George and Bootsy found there way deep into my soul. At the same time I was growing fond of Alice and Chains, Rage Against Machine and Fishbone.

Would you be able to explain your passion for this style of music and the irresistible attraction for the Groove which is SLAPBAK's trademark?

The groove comes mainly from how I feel beats as a drummer combined with funk, hip hop, jazz and rock. If you have all these elements placed in the right spot, on the right instrument, it creates a monster groove.

Can you describe us the " philosophy " of your band? The members & their respective roles?

If the philosophy behind Slapbak is "as long as it's funky." That means that it could be anything or any style and that is the same approach I had to building the characteristics of this band. Slapbak is a multi-racial band but it all works in the name of the funk. I am built off of rock, funk, jazz and hip hop influences. TJ Quake (Afro American/Puerto Rican) obviously brings more of the hip-hop flavor but with the funked out deranged approach. His high-energy performance brings Slapbak's show to the next level. Aleida, being the latest addition to the band, has brought a more R&B flavor to the vocals. She has also brought more female leads to the bands sound. Because of Aleida's Hispanic background, she brings Latin movements to her performance. Josh Schreiber (the funky Jew) holds the band down on the drums. He is the first of Slapbak drummers to bring a totally different edge that's so funky in the band. He also contributes to some of the production, vocals and a little bit of saxophone. DJ Ruffneck (Mexican) completely changed the tradition of Slapbak by bringing the funk through the wheels of steel. He's not a traditional DJ type, he already had the Slapbak seed in the sense that he had the attitude of "I own this shit." He also adds vocals and high-energy madness up on stage. Now Shelldogg (Afro American) is just the funkiest guitar player around. Slapbak has always had two guitar players but Shelldogg leaves no room for any other guitars. He's funk, R&B, jazz and rock all rolled up into one.

God really seemed to bless you (but who's going to regret it ??… not us ! ! ! ! ! ! ;-)) : you created SLAPBAK and Warner published your first LP " Fast Food Funkateers " with songs you wrote or produced with Bootsy COLLINS, George CLINTON and Larry BLACKMON, 3 of the Funkateers' idols ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! I'm sure you have unforgettable memories and have anecdotes to relate us about each of them…we're really impatient ! ! ! ;-)))

I have to say it seemed like Bootsy and I were related because we hit it off too easy. He had no ego and he just made everybody feel so comfortable to be around him. My experience was brief with George but learned that he's more of a genius than I already thought he was. He knows exactly where voices belong on parts and where on the mic to get that choir sound. He can take 3 tracks with 4 people and make it sound like 10 people on 10 tracks. You also want to make sure you're always pressing record even if they're just messing around on parts because it's all about catching the right vibe. Now Larry Blackmon was like a father figure to me because we worked together the longest. I worked with Cameo on the Emotional Violence album and he produced 9 songs with me but the only one we used was "True Confessions". Larry had a completely different way of producing.

I also read that at the same time (but not on the 1st album), you played with Zapp and the SO MUCH missing Roger TROUTMAN. Did you think about working together ? If yes, why didn't it happened ?

Although we did many live shows with Roger and Zapp, the idea was there about us working together but we didn't have the budget at the time because his management was asking $10,000 per song. "I Don't Know What's in my Head", off of "Blue Light Special" and "Leave my Momma Out of This", off of the unreleased version of "If It Ain't Broke Don't Funk Wid It…" were both written for Roger. Of course we all miss Roger Troutman. He will always be a major influence in our music.

" Blue Light Special ", your 2nd LP never officially released as well as " Futurevoid " : could you tell us why?

Warner Bros. was going through a bunch of changes during the time that "Blue Light Special" was being recorded. I basically told Warner Bros. that I was going to record this record myself with the band without the label being in our hair because I was already kind of fed up from how they were doing things with us on the first album. I told them I would turn it in when I was done and they could just tell me yes or no after they heard it if they wanted to put it out. Benny Medina spoke up for us after hearing a couple of songs off the record and he said he liked it. So Warner Bros. agreed to put it out and it was scheduled to be released July of 1994. Warner Bros. was dropping a lot of acts at that time but we weren't one of them. Instead, they decided to push our release date back until the following year. That gave us the option to walk, so we did. Warner Bros. still owned the rights to the recordings. Futurevoid was recorded during a time when we were trying to decide where we were going to go next after leaving Raging Bull records. It was also recorded after the commercial release of "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Funk Wid It…" So Futurevoid ended up being mostly a non-commercial album, which makes it one of the most colourful but we didn't have a deal at the time so it never got released. We had already moved onto "The Return of the Fast Food Funkateers" which was released only on the Internet in 2000.

But the good news about all this is we can get it now (as your 3rd album " If it ain't Broke, Don't Funk Wid it! ", with 5 bonus tracks) on your site (www.toxicfunk.com) … More and more artists have decided to work without majors and the Internet has become an unlimited playground for music fans like us .. What's your opinion about this new way of distributing music?

I think it's great because it allows smaller labels and independent artists to get their music out to the public without being filtered by the red tape that they get from the major labels. Although there is a lot of bootlegging on the internet, the major labels have been doing it for years.

I thought The J. Harris Band didn't exist anymore and I've discovered on mp3.com some titles of " On the mission ". That's rather far from the pure Funk sound of SLAPBAK : Is it a way of going back to the roots? What is it bringing you generally?

Since our family is a musical family, we've played together off and on for years. We all started in the family band and although we all do our separate projects, we still come together for certain events, but the sound is not from all of us. It's mainly my oldest brother James who creates the songs.

1996 was the year of your 2nd " official " album release, the excellent " If it ain't Broke, Don't Funk Wid It!". The TIME didn't make any mistake and invited you to play the 1st part of their show… More recently, " Return of the Fast Food Funkateers " was released. It's still as P-Funk as before but without any guest !!! These 2 albums show, for me, that SLAPBAK is the legitimate heir and the best representation of the modern P-Funk. Is it your musical ambition?

No it isn't. P-funk is a heavy influence obviously, but our ambition is to bring something new while keeping the old alive.

Who do you think are the most promising artists today? Who are the ones best defending the Funk spirit? Which are the LPs you can't take out of your Cd player ? ;-))

JARA: I don't have a new artist stuck in my CD player but I can name some that are putting it down and giving the funk justice. Snoop Dogg, DJ Quik, Me'shell Ngedechello, Musiq and the Neptunes to name a few.

Special weGofunk's Question: which are the 3 Funk LPs you couldn't stand to live without? ;-))

That would have to be Roger and Zapp's greatest hits, Sly Stone's anthology and Slapbak's Blue Light Special. Oh wait a minute… I don't have a CD player.

This interview will follow the presentation of your band and the complete review of your discography (even the one just released by Funk to the Max "Ghetto Funkography").
After reading all this and listening to excerpts linked to the article, I'm sure many of the French Funkateers will visit your site and dream to see you live. So when could this become reality? ;-))

February or March of 2003 we will be performing live at the Funk to the Max party in Amsterdam.

Why "Fast food Funkateers 2nd Edition" have so many different tracks from your last official release (before the new release by Funk to the Max) "The return of Fast food funkateers": Is it because you have new material and can't wait to record it? Or only for the fun of making collectors versions of your albums??? ;-))

Corinne that's not funny! Actually Return of the Fast Food Funkateers wasn't a commercial release, it was only released on the internet. So about the time we got with Funk to the Max Records, we had recorded ten new songs so we just took the best songs off of the last CD and made a new CD which is officially titled "Ghetto Funkography."

It seems your music is now more influenced by the West Coast sound (Dr Dre, Snoop Dog...): The Rap of Tj Quake is more present on this one too... Can you tell me what you like and don't like in the Rap Movement? The best rap sound for you? And how you find it interesting to add more of this in your music?

I find it interesting because Slapbak has always had hip-hop influences in it since that is the era we came out in. Hip-hop has always been to me a descendant to funk anyway. Whereas house was built off of disco, west coast hip-hop was built off of old school funk. What I like in the rap movement is that it has brought fatter beats and fatter production. What I don't like about hip-hop is some of the negativity that follows from messages that some hip-hop artists put out there.

Also what do you think of the actual "R'&"B" musical industry?

I think the R&B industry has changed for the better because R&B artists along with hip-hop artists are starting to expose more creativity and the industry is giving them more room to do so.

In conclusion, what are the current projects of SLAPBAK? An other album?

Slapbak is currently working on an old school LP that will be an actual 12" vinyl album with old school art on it. This will be the first Slapbak album to produce all funk tracks without any compromises or mixture of different genres. This will not be a radio friendly record.

What a great invention Internet is ! ! ! ! ! Thank you SO MUCH Jara for answering all these questions from a Fan admiring what you do (this is not flattery, it really comes straight from the heart ;-))))

KEEP THE FUNK ALIVE !!!!

Funkygirl (december 2002)

More infos : Full Discography's review >>>

New album (european release):

I don't see how if you support real Pure FUNK as ours, you couldn't like stay astonished if you decide to listen and come to visit those 2 essential addresses www.slapbak.com (The SLAPBAK's internet site) or www.funktothemax.com …