Killing Joke Frontman Writing Orchestra Music

Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman is quite the cerebral post-punk rocker. He is currently writing music for a choir and orchestra, translating Killing Joke's music and lyrics into Latin for a recording and a two-night London performance in 2011.

"I am doing it April with the Royal Festival Ball in London. And in March, I am doing it in Prague with Prague Chamber Orchestra, with different program," Coleman told Noisecreep while in Prague. "I am still doing that at the moment. I have finished a huge violin concerto -- which is a choral concerto in seven languages -- and I am in the process of getting this recorded, and then I will do the arias. I am not dying of boredom."

Coleman has some royal aspirations of sorts, too. "I did an opera for [the queen] in 2001, so I take commissions where they come," he said. "Classical music is the other side of my calling. It has no bearing on work with Killing Joke or other nonsense! It's a different audience. I write and conduct myself where I am the hermit; whereas the collective is the band, where I am able think of the whole. I enjoy these two modes."