"The reason we wanted to really work with Sean" explains JERK guitarist Charles Cilia. "Was that he had done Marilyn Manson’s ‘Anti-Christ Superstar’ album which whether you like Marilyn Manson or not, it was just a groundbreaking album. And we were really confident he could bring that kind of freshness and another set of ears to our project which thankfully, he’s done".

So what inspires such dark imagery and intense angst that JERK sing about? "A lot of the our material" begins Cilia, "is written about the kind of experiences that we’ve had. The single ‘I Hate People Like That’ is basically about some experiences that Jonathon [Devoy – vocals] had. Although our music is dark and heavy its also positive, in a way that a lot of ‘poppy’ music can’t be positive".

With all the members of the band having such diverse musical influences, was reconciling them with each other something that each member of JERK found hard to do? "The thing is you kind of don’t tend to be conscious of your influences that you love" answers Cilia. "Our influences are varied, really varied like everything from NIN, Ministry, Tea Party and Public Enemy. There are lots of different influences in this band. I think you tend to take the attitude more so. There’s a lot of emulation type bands out there. You know you hear them and they sound just like Nickelback or Limp Bizkit or whatever, we’re definitely not one of those bands". And their influences don’t just stop with their musical ones, it also seeps into their "angsty metal" from other facets of their life: Devoy is a professional actor having appeared in movies such as ‘Queen Of The Damned" and the recent "Garage Days". Bassist Leeno Dee devotes his time to the teachings of the Church Of Satan whilst drummer Lamar Lowder is a respected producer in his own right.

Add to this Cilia’s day job as a guitar builder. "I’m actually a guitar maker which is my kind of bread and butter job apart from the band" reveals Cilia happily. "I play Cilia Custom Guitars which are my own brand. I’ve made guitars for many others and I’ve been doing this professionally now for eight years. The guitars we’re using with JERK, because we’re tuned down to C, are an extra long scale length; they’re 26 and a half inch. The problem I had tuning down to C originally, which we don’t do for a heaviness thing but basically because tuning to C cause suits Jon’s voice, the reason I went to a 26 and half inch scale is because with the standard 25 or 25 and a half inch scale, I found that the strings I had to use to get the right tension were like 12-60. And the guitar tends to sound really tubby when you get there, as the strings were so heavy. So by increasing the scaling you can drop back to a standard gauge like a 10-46 or a 10-52 and still have the same tension which is great".

For his amplification, Cilia glowingly praises the reliability of Mesa-Boogie. "I plug through two Mesa Boogie Single Rectifiers in stereo" he exclaims. "We’re technology freaks in that we try out everything that comes out but, I really haven’t found anything that suits my needs as well as the single Rectifiers at this stage. For effects I’m actually using a MacIntosh G4 powerboard in the effects loop".