All Mojak musicians have a kind of creative connection in the past.
It started when singer-songwriter Fred Maenhout left the Candy Dates (Rock Rally finale) after some successful years of touring with the album ‘Candied Orange Peel’. Together with Staf Verbeeck he started the project Aiming Dishes. They played in the AB in Brussels and their album ‘Vertical Divine’ was released in Japan. Frank Coonen, former drummer of The Romans, a well-known rock band with an acknowledged history, assisted Aiming Dishes in the studio. These were the nineties.
Fred did some writing for other musicians (Kommil Foo, Mozaïek, PP Michiels, Mark Vanhie,…) and Staf worked himself up as an outstanding studio engineer and producer (BRNS, Selah Sue, Melanie De Biasio, Calexico,…). In his days as owner of the Jet Studio (Brussels) the idea grew of writing and recording together. To work with Frank and look for a female lead singer.
A first flirt with radio was attempted with a draft of the song ‘Mumble Days’. This was the result of a collaboration with singers of Zap Mama. It made it into A-rotation on Radio One.
In the late 2010s Fiona Brown (Reymer, Thé Lau, Dirk Blanchart) joined the project. Her Indonesian and British origins give her singing skills that extra touch. Finally Marijke Aerts, a young and promising visual artist closed the ranks. She works out ideas and visualizes the Mojak sound. You can also hear her backing vocals on some of the Mojak tracks.
Finally plans were made and songs were written. A productive cross-pollination in the recording studio resulted into a dozen of groovy tunes. Brotherhood and inspiration came to its fruition.
Mojak really kicks off in March 2015 with their single ‘Hazardous Girl’. In September 2015 their first EP ‘Arcades’ will be released on Matagne Records (BE), Mojak’s own label.
SOURCE: Official Bio
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