Out Of The Darkness

by Paul Brannigan for Kerrang! (February 1998)

Next month, Therapy? will make a triumphant comeback with the release of their new album, Semi-Detached. They’ve had to come through depressions, drug binges, crack-ups, bust-ups and f**k-ups to do it…

A cold afternoon in south-west London. Four unsmiling figures in trendy Carrhart jackets and rolled-up jeans are posing for photos on their record company’s rooftop balcony. One of them flips his anorak hood over his head, crouches towards the camera lens, waggles a finger at the whirring shutter in an ‘Elvis: The Vegas Years’ style, and cracks up laughing at his own ludicrousness.

“Yes!” Therapy? frontman Andy Cairns roars, punching the air in mock exultation. “I’ve got the magic back!” it’s just a moment of silliness, but it’s a telling one. After a tortuously long period of self-imposed hibernation, Ireland’s best-loved harbingers of darkness are back in business.

I never wanted Therapy? to be the sort of band whose ultimate goal was to make a quick killing and then f**k off to the mansion in Beverly Hills.

Therapy? returned to the spotlight last month, appearing unannounced as ‘Special Guests’ to the Deftones at London’s Astoria. Our mission today is to find out exactly what they’ve been up to in the three years since the release of their last album, Infernal Love. The answer is an absorbing tale strewn with drugs, bloated egos, broken friendships and bad memories…

Infernal Love was supposed to be the album that turned Therapy? into international superstars. After a couple of independent mini-albums (Babyteeth and Pleasure Death), and a diverse and experimental major label debut (Nurse), the unassuming Irish band shook the public consciousness firmly by the throat in 1994 with the release of the fantastically tortured and tuneful Troublegum.

A classic album which married ferocious metallic riffing with devilishly infectious melodies, Troublegum was Kerrang!’s album of the year and elevated Therapy? to headline status across the globe. Ironically, this very success initiated a period of confusion, discord and disappointment which called the band’s entire existence into question.

“Up until Troublegum, we did things properly,” explains Andy Cairns with a rueful smile. “But then we started working too hard and partying too much, and we weren’t writing any new songs. After the Troublegum tour, we had two weeks off, then went into a big studio to write, record and mix an album in six weeks. That was a pretty stupid thing to do. I had no inspiration because all I was seeing was after-show parties, hotel rooms and tour buses. When I listen to Infernal Love now, the whole record just sounds over-manufactured to me. When I look back at that period I see false moustaches, frilly shirts and too many drugs… We had really lost the plot.”

“I didn’t actually realise that everyone was banking on Infernal Love big-time until quite recently,” adds bassist Michael McKeegan. “If I had known that I think I’d have wanted to put the brakes on a little. I never wanted Therapy? to be the sort of band whose ultimate goal was to make a quick killing and then f**k off to the mansion in Beverly Hills.”

For a while, it was total carnage. When we toured with Skunk Anansie, Mark Richardson (SA drummer) said that they were taking bets on which one of us was going to die first.

The small-town Irish boys began to feel deeply uncomfortable in their newly designated role as rock-gods-in-waiting. Cracks were beginning to appear. “It was obvious that Fyfe (Ewing, Therapy?’s drummer at the time) had lost interest by then,” says McKeegan. “And it was getting to be a struggle to get anything done because their was so much bullshit to wade through. For a while, it was total carnage. When we toured with Skunk Anansie, Mark Richardson (SA drummer) said that they were taking bets on which one of us was going to die first.”

While McKeegan, as level-headed a guy as you’re likely to find in a successful rock band, largely confined his partying to alcohol abuse, Andy began immersing himself in cocaine. “When you get successful, you start getting ideas above your station,” he admits now. “You begin to think you’re a bit special. When I started living my life as ‘Andy from Therapy?’ rather than as a human being, I lost sight of who I was and where I came from. And the more I pretended to be something I’m not, the more insecure I started feeling. No matter how much I deceive myself, I just don’t look like a world-conquering rock star but at the time I got f**ked up thinking I maybe could be. Once you start confusing yourself like that, your ego goes out of control. There were probably a couple of times I could’ve walked out on the band in a rock star tantrum because I didn’t know what the f**k I was doing with my life. I was losing it. I lost contact with my friends, stopped listening to music and didn’t go out at all. I just sat in my house getting out of my mind and staring at the walls. I was so numb with drink and drugs that I didn’t realise how depressed I was.”

As Andy struggled with everything going on in his life, Fyfe Ewing – the guy with whom he’d started Therapy? – decided he’d had enough. After an incendiary gig in their adopted hometown of Belfast on December 30, 1996, Fyfe announced he was leaving. It was obvious Cairns and McKeegan had to seriously think about their future.

“Andy and I had long realised that the situation with Fyfe was becoming unworkable,” Michael recalls, “so you do begin to consider all the options. Since he’d already been helping us from the start of recording Infernal Love, we wanted Martin (McCarrick, Therapy?’s guitarist/cellist) to join as a full time member and we wanted to change things anyway. It was a good opportunity to shake up the whole situation.”

With Martin properly installed in the band, the trio began holding auditions in Ireland for Fyfe Ewing’s successor, finally settling on young Dubliner Graham Hopkins. The addition of two new members gave Andy and Michael the kick up the arse they needed. The quartet began fusing together on lengthy US tours with Girls Against Boys and Australians You Am I. By the time they returned from America, Andy and Michael knew that Therapy? had finally clawed back the attitude and hunger which made them so unique in the first place.

Semi-Detached is a fantastic return to form; an exhilarating blend of soaring, scarring guitars, thumpingly aggressive rhythms and achingly melodic vocals. It sounds like the work of a band who are truly excited and passionate about their music again.

They decamped to rehearsal studios in Putney, London, and slowly but surely started assembling the songs which will finally emerge on March 30 as Semi-Detached. “When we were doing the album, Andy was bringing in MC5 and Stooges records and we really liked the intensity of those albums,” Graham reveals. “We also wanted that Hüsker Dü vibe, where everything is raw and manic, but has real songs that hit your heart every time.”

Everyone chipped in with ideas. They swapped instruments from time to time to work out each other’s riffs. The newly energised tunes were recorded in Homestead Studios in Randalstown, Northern Ireland, where the band had laid down their first single, Meat Abstract/Punishment Kiss. Initial reports from friends of the band suggested that Semi-Detached was shaping up as a monstrous blend of Babyteeth and Troublegum. “Babyteeth and Troublegum are my two favourite Therapy? albums,” Michael admits. “They sound like the work of a band with a bit of fire in their bellies, which was the attitude we wanted to recapture.”

Therapy? took their time making Semi-Detached. Scheduled release dates came and went. Rumours circulated that they were having trouble coming up with new material. People speculated that Cairns had lost interest in the band following his marriage in May 1997. The band found it all very amusing.

“Once you go into a recording studio and start spending corporate money, people at the record company start pencilling in release dates,” McCarrick explains. “And at times, I even found myself getting caught up in all the talk of getting the record out. I just had to remind myself that we always said it wouldn’t come out until we were totally happy with everything.”

Therapy?’s patience and attention to detail has paid off brilliantly. Semi-Detached is a fantastic return to form; an exhilarating blend of soaring, scarring guitars, thumpingly aggressive rhythms and achingly melodic vocals. It sounds like the work of a band who are truly excited and passionate about their music again. “I think of Semi-Detached as the debut album of Therapy? Mark II,” smiles Michael. “It’s brilliant to be part of a united band again, with everyone just really wanting to move forward in the same direction.”

Three new songs – the blistering Tightrope Walker, the super-melodic Lonely, Cryin’, Only and forthcoming single Church of Noise – were premiered at the Deftones show. In keeping with that low-key re-emergence, Therapy? will be bringing the noise of Semi-Detached to a small club near you next month. The talk now is about wanting to come back with “humility”, Michael admitting that the band want to build things up again cautiously.

“By default, I think to be the biggest band in the world you also have to be the shittest band in the world, because of the lowest common denominator thing,” McKeegan concludes. “But it would be good to see a band as noisy and ugly as us up there with Mariah Carey and Phil Collins. The ugly noisy people show you another side of life.”

Therapy? release their Church of Noise single on March 2. Semi-Detached follows on March 30. They tour the UK from March 2.

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