Anglo-Maltese group ĠENN recently launched their debut album. Gwen-Jane Agius talks to their lead guitarist JANELLE BORG about their music and identity as a band.

GA: You released your debut album unum last October. Unum is the Latin word for “one”, which has connotations of solitude, but also of unity. What reasoning was there behind choosing this name for the album, specifically in Latin?

JB: I think Leona, our main vocalist, came up with it because she’s very conceptual and is the person who wrote the lyrics – she’s very much an artist. We kept going back to unum because, as you said, it means “one”, thus it is our first album.

Apart from that, it was also a way to move past the previous EP Liminal, which means “in transition” – we were no longer in transition, we found our collective voice. There is that sense of unity and being confident in what we’re doing, both as artists and individuals.

The cover of the debut album, unum. Photo: Facebook

GA: Latin is not the only language you use: the band name is the Maltese word for “frenzy”, your lyrics are in English, and you have a song titled in French. Not only that, but Leona created the word ‘Rohmeresse’ as a song title, which is derived from French director Éric Rohmer’s surname. Do you find that literature, playing with words and language act as a source of inspiration?

JB: Literature is important, mainly for Leona as she’s into existentialism and French philosophy. She likes coming up with nuanced lyrics that paint a picture of where she’s at in a particular point in time, or describe certain conversations or inspirations she has from film and literature. That plays a big role in her lyric writing.

We have conversations about things we have read, current affairs, and identity, and that impacts the music. With Rohmeresse, we took inspiration from Rohmer who always focused on these very existential characters. While writing the song, we were having discussions about our role as immigrants in the UK, or in Sofia’s case, coming from a family with an immigrant background in the UK. We also tried to take inspiration from different media like literature, the visual arts, and the news.

That song is our calling card that truly shows who we are, but also what we can do as musicians.

Lead singer Leona Farrugia in concert. Photo: Justine Ellul

GA: Existentialism plays a large part in your lyrics. I think this is especially evident in your song Days and Nights, where the verse “what will become of us” is repeated throughout. Is concern over our existence in such a fast-paced and materialistic world a part of unum’s message? Or is there another interpretation?

JB: What I like about Leona’s lyrics is that they’re not entirely direct, so anyone can interpret or relate to them in any way they want.

We are all overthinkers, but sometimes in a way that can be detrimental. Many can relate to that, but certain people are more inclined to feeling overly anxious. In addition to this whole existential motif, something that’s a bit more relatable is the mental health topic; this culminates to thinking about where you’re at in life and what the future holds.

As a group, we have these discussions and it makes the band work, because we’re also friends. It may come across as pretentious but, in reality, these are things we discuss about ourselves. That is as authentic as you can be: to put what you’re discussing on paper.

Drummer Sofia Rosa Cooper. Photo: Anna Rose

GA: One of unum’s songs, The Sister Of, was turned into a short film – the viewer sees a lone woman travelling through different settings of grief and darkness. What is the link between the song and the video? Do you find that film enhances music and vice versa?

JB: As a band, we have big ambitions and we want to get involved in different sectors. We like collaborating with other people as it’s a good way to keep yourself on your toes, rather than doing the same things or getting overly caught up in the ups and downs of the music industry.

The director, Kyryl Volovych, is based in Ukraine, and he and his friends were looking to collaborate with other artists from different countries to show that Ukrainian artists are still active despite the war. The news always broadcasts the tragedies, but many don’t know about the day-to-day life of young Ukrainian people.

We only saw the film when it was finished. We were receiving some behind the scenes, but they handled everything in Ukraine. It was a wonderful experience to be able to connect with people, who are going through a war, on something like art.

In my opinion, we don’t appreciate our heritage enough- Janelle Borg

In the film and song, there is this sense of being in transition and trying to find the light in the darkness. The scene of the fallen bodies very much encapsulates what the Ukrainians are going through. Kyryl was telling us how the war has affected them and he was doing military training while he was shooting the video. Something so dire can become normalised just for the human mind to cope with it – the play with darkness and light in the video showcases this.

Bassist Leanne Zammit in the foreground during a gig. Photo: Anna Rose

GA: The sound of your debut album is an amalgamation of your Maltese, Jamaican, and Portuguese heritages. There are influences from the traditional Maltese għana in Calypso, as well as jazz elements at the end of Wild West. As three of you are Maltese and Sofia’s [drummer] father was a Jamaican-British jazz drummer, it is clear to see where your influences derive from - but what about the Portuguese? Are there specific musicians or sounds you wanted to emulate?

JB: Sofia’s maternal side is Portuguese and she’s been on a journey to connect with these different aspects of her personality. Her heritage comes through in her drumming, which is an important aspect of the band’s music.

When it comes to the Maltese influences, I find it to be a difficult question to answer. Personally, I’ve been on a journey to find out what being Maltese truly is. In Malta, we have the tendency to reject parts of our identity, because it’s been influenced by colonialism. Even though we grew up with idolisation of anything that is western or Anglo-American, you still feel like you don’t fully belong when you’re actually living in the UK. In my opinion, we don’t appreciate our heritage enough.

The group mixes art-rock and post-punk music with Mediterranean sounds, psychedelic rock and punk. Photo: Anna Rose

With Calypso, I was listening to a lot of Maltese folk music and bands like Nafra and Etnika. We were trying to revive a sense of Maltese folk music and reconnect it with similar sounds from other countries, such as Sicilian folk.

With Rohmeresse and other songs, I tried to explore that Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and North African guitar-style, as well as certain chord progressions they used to play with għana and Maltese folk music.

GA: Although you originally started in Malta, you have widened your horizons and settled in Brighton. In comparison to your EP Liminal, you have experimented more with different cultures and sounds. With this transformation, do you still feel like you belong in the Maltese music scene, or have you shifted?

JB: In Brighton, we’ve been very well received and there is a sense of home there. However, all of us would say we feel like misfits in one way or another, wherever we are, so there can never be a 100 per cent feeling of "home" – I guess it’s something every artist says. That sense of outsider-hood between us has always been a source of inspiration.

Leona Farrugia and lead guitarist Janelle Borg. Photo: Justine Ellul

Obviously, for the three of us who are Maltese, Malta will always be our place of origin and whenever we end up performing somewhere in the Mediterranean, there's always a feeling of cultural familiarity that you don't get here in the UK. However, as musicians, when we were living and performing in Malta, it was difficult to make our voices heard and be taken seriously as young women or female-presenting people in the alternative scene.