Trick or Treatment?—Andy Cairns at SXSW

by Tim Perry for Music 365 (March 23rd, 2000)

The biggest buzz around this year’s SXSW festival concerned loud rock and roll bands. Nashville Pussy, the return of the Supersuckers, Spoon, Backyard Babies and new Sub Pop acts like The Go were the ones drawing the big crowds. So are Ireland’s Therapy?, who played a sold out gig at the festival, their first show in Texas for several years. We caught up with the band’s ever-lucid front man Andy Cairns the following afternoon in downtown Austin to find out what’s hot and what’s not in the state of Texas and beyond.

Music 365: The local paper heralds your visit to SXSW as your first time in America since 1994. Why the delay?

“Yeah, I saw that too, but we actually played Austin in 1996 on a tour with You Am I and we played the same place as we did last night. That was the last time we were over here and it involved a dozen shows on Ozzfest as well as twenty of our own gigs. It was our first tour as a four-piece.”

… after Nirvana every single rock band seemed to have to sing about what a horrible fucked-up childhood they had but without any sense of humour or objectivity. It was all designer misery.

Music 365: That’s still a significant period of time to be away…

“Well, our last two records weren’t released in the USA. After Troublegum we had a discussion with A&M, our label at the time, and they didn’t really know what to do with us in the States. We were touring over here and there were never any records in the shops so it was like a waste of time. Between 1992 and 1996 we did come over at least twice a year but we never did come over and do the whole three-month deal, and that’s what we want to do with Suicide Pact—You First. The album title also kind of summed up where we felt we were when we were recording it. We hadn’t done much for three years due to personal problems and the band were trying to get the chemistry right as a four-piece, and we were generally in a kind of a rut. You see, after Troublegum, A&M saw us as another Offspring or Foo Fighters—that kind of poppy punk and MTV-friendly thing. But that was a one-off record for us and it was done before Green Day and that lot got big, and we didn’t really know where we wanted to go ourselves. But then when we signed to ARK 21 for this record it was the perfect time to re-evaluate what we wanted to do. It’s got a lot more weight and attitude and it has focus. With hindsight I can see that the two albums prior to that lacked focus. Nowadays we work more on instinct and bang things out quickly, more like the early Therapy?”

Music 365: Since you’ve been away the rock landscape in the USA has changed significantly. Korn, Slipknot and the like are selling huge amounts yet Therapy? seem to have gone back to their roots with Suicide Pact…. How do you feel about this challenge?

“Yeah, we’re more like an old-fashioned hardcore rock and roll or punk band. Like, I quite admire those bands and their genre for what they do but I’ve never creatively been drawn to that 14-year-old, Star Trek-watching generation of scary people. On one hand I can’t take a lot of that kind of pantomime stuff seriously, but having said that it’s good fun and I like seeing Korn and Slipknot’s shows. But I think what really got me about the change in American rock was that after Nirvana every single rock band seemed to have to sing about what a horrible fucked-up childhood they had but without any sense of humour or objectivity. It was all designer misery.”

Like, I respect Moby a lot and on a recent TV show he was asked to sum up his philosophy on rock and roll and he defined it as ‘Never trust a musician who doesn’t sweat on stage’.

Music 365: Which leads us nicely onto the title of your new album. What’s the reaction to that been in often over-sensitive America?

“Well, I think it’s quite a cheeky phrase. It comes from a novel by an English author called Rupert Thompson who created this scenario which was a pisstake of West Side Story, and had a guy running around wearing a T-shirt with Suicide Pact—You First on it. When we sent the finished record to our new label ARK 21 in LA it was just two weeks after the Columbine thing and they were saying that since it was slated for US release in February 2000, they’d see if things calmed down a bit, and they did. Since it came out about four weeks ago, we’ve had the best reaction to any record since our days on Wiiija. That’s coming from websites, from fans writing to us and from the reaction to the showcase gig last night. People were really into it.”

Music 365: This week at SXSW there seems to be a huge groundswell of enthusiasm for loud and dirty rock bands who like a dose of bad living. Is that your take on the festival?

“Oh yeah. I want to go and see the new Sub Pop bands tonight. The Go, Gluecifer and Murder City Devils. I think it’s a reaction to the Korns and Slipknots where you have to wear the outfit. A good example is the Supersuckers, who I’m also going to try to see, and they are an excellent, no-nonsense dose of heads-down boogie. And Nashville Pussy—yet another band on tonight—do a good show too. It also makes me think back to Britpop and it was really just people standing there on stage with fancy haircuts trying to look cool. But nowadays, especially in the wake of dance music and raves, people want more from a live show. They want to see bands that move around. Bands that have energy. Like, I respect Moby a lot and on a recent TV show he was asked to sum up his philosophy on rock and roll and he defined it as ‘Never trust a musician who doesn’t sweat on stage’. You know, it was great at the start of the ’90s with TAD and Mudhoney and that lot but then it all turned into miserabalism. But now I don’t think it’s uncool to say you like rock and roll whereas in the ’80s rock and roll was associated with Motley Crue and the spandex brigade. I think what we’re seeing nowadays and at this festival is that rock is returning to the values of MC5 and The Stooges, and I think that our record is in tune with that—it’s lowdown, dirty rock and roll.”

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