Hi guys,

First of all, wow, it was great to see you this weekend. Both getting the chance to say a quick hello can getting to watch you play six or seven years after the last time that happened were standouts in a weekend full of thrills. I’m pretty sure Karl said the name of the band onstage at some point during the set, and I wanted to talk with you guys about that for a minute.

It’s not my interest here to tell anyone how to live their life, or to tell a band they’re ‘wrong’ about a thing. It’s art. That kind of ‘wrong’ doesn’t exist. You guys have been around well over 15 years, have been through shortening your moniker from Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibus (which you were still called last time I saw you) and JIRM, and you’re well aware of who you are as artists and performers. That was clear from the stage, certainly clear on The Tunnel, the Well and Holy Bedlam, and has been a typifying factor of your artistic growth all along..

After the name change, when the leap was made from Spirit Knife (11 years ago now) to Surge Ex Monumentis, it seemed like you really were beginning to explore a new path. The band became more progressive, more melodically centered, and more intricate in terms of style. As a listener outside the band, it was almost like becoming JIRM set you free from genre in a way that Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibus maybe couldn’t or weren’t ready to be.

You should know that when I wrote that last sentence above just now and I said the name of the band, I said the word “germ.” Karl had it as J-I-R-M the other day, and that’s what I wanted to reach out about.

I don’t want to be telling anybody what to do, but I do feel kind of surprisingly strong about this, that JIRM should be the word and not the acronym.

Why?

A few reasons. First and foremost, it fits better. As JIRM, you guys are a heavy progressive, forward-thinking and forward-songwriting unit. Your songs are expansive and atmospheric, but you’re still able on stage to back, pull out an old song and riff away when you want. It’s a beautiful thing.

Calling yourselves J-I-R-M acknowledges where you’ve come from, sure, but I’d be to bet that the majority of your listenership already knows you were Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibus, and for those who don’t, well, it might be a cool thing to found out that this band you just heard called JIRM who’ve been around for a while used to be called something else and that their name, which, again, you pronounce like “germ,” actually stands or used to stand for this long band name, kind of absurd but still cool. It makes the old name lore, and part of the journey, which of course it is.

JIRM, as name-not-acronym, is less alienating to new fans in this way. You’re not immediately telling people there’s something they don’t know, which can be off-putting, and in evoking a germ, a thing that spreads disease, one is reminded yuck-factor classic prog and krautrock, records with gross covers and so forth.

Tying yourselves to this opens up a world of potential exploration, and you’re already there, so it’s wonderful, but JIRM instead of J-I-R-M keeps the focus on who you are now, where you’re going. It sounds weird. It’s short. It’s spelled funny. It’s counterintuitive to the fluidity of your music in a way that ties right in with decades of underground progressive heavy rock, and it’s memorable and no one else has it. To let that go seems like missing an opportunity to express part of who you are with your identity in a way that as J-I-R-M you simply can’t do.

Plus, JIRM rolls off the tongue in a way an acronym never can. There’s something to be said for efficiency.

Please know that I’m not being a smartass or trying to take the piss. I’m not, and I hope that with 16 years of doing this site behind me, you’ll trust me when I say that. I write to you as someone who genuinely enjoys and has enjoyed your music, and someone who apparently cares enough about the course of your ongoing progression to do something like this.

I hope you’ll consider the above, and if not, it’s cool, I get it. Do your thing. Thanks either way for the time and attention.

Much love,
JJ

Tags: JIRM, Ripple Music, Sweden

This entry was posted on Friday, February 7th, 2025 at 8:42 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.