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summer_of_hate wrote:
Title: fantasy (paper) bag
Hey y’all, here’s an interview with Michael from the Irish News last Friday:
FOREVER UNREPENTANT
BY DAVID ROY
Released on Monday, Therapy?’s new album Never Apologise, Never Explain finds the three-piece focused and re-energised after 2003’s excellent LP, High Anxiety. Their music has constantly evolved over 14 years from its roots in the frenzied techno meets US hardcore sounds of their classic early mini-albums Babyteeth and Pleasure Death through the metallic pop-punk of their hit 1993 hit record Troublegum and beyond. Modern day Therapy? is a mischievous mash up of alternative, dance, punk, metal and rock, offering melodic hooks, coruscating guitar, doom-bringing bass, epileptic drumming and singer Andy Cairns’ trademark lyrical wit. David Roy spoke to bassist Michael McKeegan about their new LP and all it brings with it…
WHEN Therapy? lost their drummer Graham Hopkins to a solo career back in 2002, many thought it would spell the end of the road for the veteran Northern Irish metallers.
Forced back to indie labels after the collapse of A&M Records and having already survived the loss of the supremely talented skin beater and founding member Fyfe Ewing in 1995, the band looked like they might descend into Spinal Tap like line-up changes.
When Graham took over with his more straight-up heavy-hitting style on 1998’s Semi-Detached, fans lamented the loss of Fyfe’s primitive off-the-beat, double snare style which defined the early Therapy? sound.
However, in 2002 Neil Cooper quickly stepped into the breech and suddenly, Therapy? were sounding like their old selves again.
Super Cooper,’ as he quickly became known, seemed more than equipped to bring some of that animalistic magic back to the band.
The proof of this was in the tasty pudding of High Anxiety, Therapy?’s strongest record since the edge of despair brutality of 2001’s Suicide Pact You First.
A triumphant tour followed, with new songs such as If It Kills Me, Who Knows, Limbo, Stand in Line and Nobody Here But Us being universally hailed as brilliant additions to the Therapy? canon.
Their new record Never Apologise, Never Explain is less poppy than its predecessor, with the band instead working deeper into the grooves scored by a totally in sync rhythm section. These grooves have been filled with thrillingly abrasive guitar and plenty of catchy hooks. In other words, it’s prime-time Therapy?
There’s definitely a new kind of purpose to the band and a new kind of directness to what we’re doing, comments Michael.
I think a lot of people were surprised by how good High Anxiety was, and this one kind of consolidates what we were hinting at musically then. Hopefully, people will have stuck around to see if it was just a flash in the pan or if we would suddenly go all jazz!
Pretty much every record the band have made has been a reaction to whatever preceded it. Rather than kicking against the work on High Anxiety, the new LP builds on it, keeping the refreshing energy buzz while taking things in a slightly darker, more complex direction.
We don’t actually know how things are going to turn out before we start a record, comments the bassist. The only time when maybe we did was with the first two independent mini-LPs, Babyteeth and Pleasure Death, which were basically our 40-minute live set of the time put on record.
Troublegum was very different from Nurse and Infernal Love was a big leap from Troublegum. I guess you play the same set for 18 months and then want to do something different the next time. There’ll always be the core elements to our sound, but you have to keep things interesting for all concerned.
Having been pared back to the kind of three-piece set up that they first made their name with, Therapy? are once again lean and mean, relying on each other to stay 100 per cent invested in the band’s music.
Neil shares many of the same musical influences as Andy and Michael, and this chemistry is what has re-kindled the fire in their bellies.
When we did the last one, Neil had only been in the band for about a fortnight, Michael remembers.
We got him into the studio and were likedrum! Now he’s established himself he’s a lot more involved in the song writing and the decision making. It feels like we’re a proper band again.
A power trio is a good way to put it, and everyone has to work hard to make things come together. That’s cool, because with the bigger line-ups it sometimes got to the stage where our roles weren’t clearly defined anymore.
We were a three-piece for a long time when we first established ourselves, and it really suits where we’re at musically now.
The sound of Never Apologise, Never Explain is appropriately brash, at times pummelling the listener with a barrage of noisy bass and guitar. For a three-piece they make one hell of a racket, but according to Michael they were careful not to take the songs in directions which they couldn’t replicate live.
It was written as a three-piece rather than being in the studio, and we’d already played a lot of these tracks live on the last tour.
We gave ourselves 14 days to do 14 songs and tackled a song a day, which forced us to make decisions on the spot and kept the energy level up during recording.
Some of the guitar parts are doubled for extra effect, but there’s never more than one part at a time and we always concentrated on the hooks. When you layer on parts in the studio it’s easy to lose track of what’s important to the song.
The band took care to rehearse each song thoroughly well in advance of hitting the studio, in order to keep those tiresome differences of opinion down to a minimum.
We have this little system we call the paper bag moment, chuckles Michael.
Basically, this means that if something’s being played or done that makes you want to put a paper bag over your head, then you have to say so.
There’s three people’s names on the album, so it’s only fair that everyone should be 100 per cent confident in the music. In the past there’d be times when we’d try to find a compromise, and sometimes it would be a compromise not everyone was happy with. Now it’s a lot more direct. As long as we’re being constructive we can criticise anything that doesn’t sit right. That’s often how good songs turn into great songs.
Happily, such candidness has obviously paid off. There are many great songs on NANE the rolling groove of So Called Life, crushing weight of Rise Up, bitter stop-start bile of Dead, thrashing grunge of Panic and the soon to be call-and-response live favourite, Die Like A Mother ******* to name but five. With this album, Therapy?s conscience is clear.
Never Apologise, Never Explain is released on Monday. Therapy? have confirmed a December 8 gig at the Ambassador in Dublin. A Belfast date should be announced shortly. Visit http://www.therapyquestionmark.com for further info.
Posted on Mon, 27 September 2004 at 10:42
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