On the occasion of them releasing their ‘Djinn’ we got the chance to catch up with Uada‘s Jake Superchi. The Portland, Oregon four-piece released their third full-length record last month at Eisenwald. We thought it such a special release that we did have a few lingering questions which we hoped would be answered in this quick interview.

GRIMM: How are you doing over in Oregon? It seems the state’s been in constant disarray these past few months. Even in Belgium we’ve been following the political turmoil and natural disasters. I hope you guys are being spared from the violence and destruction.

Jake Superchi: Thanks. It’s safe to say that 2020 has definitely been one of the craziest years that I have ever lived through. Since I live in what used to be a country town now turned suburban hell, we are distanced from the violence that most of the world has seen going on in downtown Portland. The fires on the other hand were pretty close to my home and the smoke was very intense. Although we were not under evacuation we did live through a week of air quality that was over double the hazardous entry levels. Waking up was interesting as the inside of my home looked like something right out of a horror movie. Very eerie sepian glow, the scent of smoke and a thick enough to see haze filling the air. Those few weeks were really hard to breathe through and even normal things like eating dinner became a challenge where we found ourselves having to take a break after a few bites to catch our breath. This was right in the middle of the height of our pre-order and album release, so most of my time was spent in the garage packing and shipping albums. As they say though, nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.

GRIMM: Another thing we’ve been following closely is your new record, ‘Djinn’. There seems to be a specific story or concept behind it. Care to elaborate a bit?

The concept on this album is possession and I chose to focus on that in all forms: physical, metaphysical, spiritual, mental, societal, existential and so on. With each album there is a different concept as each album is a new chapter in our story. So, the lyrics are all based on the experience of what is happening around myself and the band at the time. Possession seemed to be a very common thing and it was time to face our demons and take possession for ourselves.

This interview continues on page 2.