About Mumbo Jumbo...
Welcome to Mumbo Jumbo, which is really about us at this moment in time and of course the new album and how it came to be, and why the story is what it is. As everyone knows, the original story was called “Zed” which I loved because of its simplicity, and it was also the name of our hero. During a recent tour of Japan we were informed that a Cirque Du Soleil show was about to open called “Zed”, so of course our title had to be changed.
If I have learned anything over the years about creating something new it is that someone else always has the same idea at the same time, it’s just who gets to the finish line first. The Heart of the Rose was a prime example! So I went back to the story and reread it and realized that the place in the story where everything happens, Mumbo Jumbo, would be a great title and in fact was more conducive to having fun with than Zed! So I was happy and pleased that we had changed the title, things always happen for a reason!
Looking for confirmation that we had made the right decision as I always do, I picked up a Joseph Campbell book that I always have lying around. Flicking through the pages I stopped randomly and read a few paragraphs. It didn’t surprise me that there on the page were the words Mumbo Jumbo. Then I knew for certain it was right!
I have always found writing for a story much more fun than writing individual songs; they seem to blend together so well. Funnily enough, two of the first songs, “Remember Me” and “Niranfarr,” didn’t make it on the album, but I’m sure they will pop up again. They were the catalyst songs that started it all off. You always lose songs when recording an album anyway, it just happens that way!
I was watching TV one afternoon - I can’t remember where it was, when a slew of televangelists came on the screen, so it must have been a Sunday. I was amazed to see that they all professed to have a direct link to a divine being, and that for just a few dollars you could share that connection and be part of the chosen few! Wow, I thought what a great deal! Then I saw all the merchandise they had for sale: scarves, books, pieces of wood, dolls, CDs, and DVDs. It was just like a rock show, people waving their hands to the music, shouting, screaming, fainting, and the more you spent the closer you got to the DB. {Divine Being}.
With a massive stretch of the imagination I wondered what a fictitious place would be like where money rather than knowledge was the prime objective…where everything we know is told to us by a few clever people talking to us through a flat screen from somewhere out in space, where greed and power make everything work, and the people at the “top” didn’t really have to answer to anyone because they make all the rules and then change them when things get a little sticky. This would be a tough one!! Not!
What if things got so corrupt that a DB sent someone “down there” to clean everything up and in truth destroy everything and start again somewhere else — a nice fresh start, ah, so refreshing and clean, minty fresh. Of course this is all fictitious; nothing like this could ever happen in real life could it. Could it?
So now we have the place where all this is happening, it’s Mumbo Jumbo! No it don’t mean a thing it’s Mumbo Jumbo! We also have our hero, Zed, and we have the Soldiers of the Light, who have come to wrap things up for the DB. One small snag though, yes you guessed it, Zed has to fall in love with one of the Soldiers of the Light, Sara. And it was all going so nicely too!
So what will happen? Will Zed and Sara get together, after all she is from another dimension? Will the Soldiers of the Light destroy the world? Will Zed be able to find the Meaning he is looking for or will he succumb to the pit of despair in Mumbo Jumbo and end up like everyone else on a quest for money, fame, power and greed! Can real and true love find a place to be in this oasis of misfits! Is it real, or just a dream? Has it already happened, can we stop it from happening, do we want to?
So many questions, it’s all so confusing, I had no idea, is this all going on now, nobody told me!
No, nobody will tell you, you have to find out for yourself, but the good news is......
No it doesn’t mean a thing it's Mumbo Jumbo, no sense to anything it’s Mumbo Jumbo!
What if any divine information or insight humans have been given since time began became distorted on its way to us? And what if this reflection was far from what was originally intended by the DB? Then instead of peace we would have war, and instead of love we would have hate, and instead of prosperity we would have power hungry megalomaniacs running our world! But we would never allow this to happen would we? We could never be that naiive, we know the difference between the real thing and a reflection, don’t we? Do we?
So now you're hooked, you have to read the story, go ahead, its right here. Then listen to the album, but listen to Setting the Seen first because it tells you what is going on, gets you past the credits etc. So now you can let go, so now you can let go, so now you can let go........go on let go!!
Graham and Russell