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wow.ie Interview - September 25 2003 "In Top Gear"There's nothing like a brush with the grim reaper to make you take stock of your life and snatch a glimpse of the bigger picture. There are few bands more aware of this than Irish 5-piece 10 Speed Racer whose bassist Pat Barrett suffered a brain aneurysm just as the band were beginning to write material for their second album. But, although such misfortune undoubtedly brought about a dramatic rethink in the camp, the band had by then already begun to reconsider their whole game plan. "Well, that left me wiped out for a couple of weeks, which I suppose is fairly serious stuff", remarks Pat (one of three brothers who figure amongst the ranks of this 5-piece). "But, it really changed our whole perspective on things." In such circumstances the sudden realisation of what was inherently important to the band only reinforced their long held reservations about the workings of the music business. So, instead of playing the same old venues while wallowing in the pubs and clubs of Dublin's back slapping/stabbing music scene, waiting to be signed to a major label or be touted as another 'next big thing' only to be dropped months later (an all too common story on these shores) they decided to yet again take the bull by the horns and do it no other way but their own. This involved leaving the stifling comfort zone of Dublin behind as they decamped to a farmhouse in Co. Wexford to create another batch of compelling tunes far from the madding crowd. "You can talk about doing this, that and the other 'til the cows come home and never actually do it and of course you can always find someone who'll listen to you too", stresses drummer Terry Cullen whose thunderous rhythms propel a wild concoction of feedback fuelled guitar sounds and addictive melodies throughout their second long player. "And you could quite quickly crawl up your own arse and be quite comfortable staying there because there's always going to be people who are doing the same as you", adds Pat. Despite releasing an acclaimed self-produced debut album (2000's excellent 'Eskimo Beach Boy') and a handful of striking E.P.'s, 10 Speed Racer faced the prospect of falling foul of an increasingly impatient media and fickle public whose focus appeared to rest more on the 'expiry date' of every new act than the music. In such a situation they found the only opinions they could rely on were their own and so they decided to self-produce the follow-up, thus avoiding clashes with 'name' producers while staying true to the essence of each song. The results of such working methods not only bear the evidence of emptying truckloads of disparate styles into tunes such as the manic malevolent wall of addictive noise that is 'Your Demon Heart' and the steamroller of bouncy guitar jangles 'I Just Don't Wanna', but also display the strength of conviction with which they write and record. "Your friends will always tell you you're good", adds vocalist/guitarist Dermot Barrett as he considers their decision to go it alone in both song writing and studio sessions. "They want to tell you you're shit, but they won't. The only time your friends will tell you your shit is when you're famous. So, I'm looking forward to them doing so." Although eponymous titles are usually the preserve of fledgling acts who set their stall out with their own name, the title of this second album (where the sounds of everyone from Dinosaur Jnr., Hüsker Dü, Rollerskate Skinny, Foo Fighters, Guided By Voices and The Velvet Underground to My Bloody Valentine, Blur and The Pixies bounce off each other like plutonium atoms in a power plant meltdown) points towards a band who appear to have started again from scratch. "We now believe that we've reached the first step of the ladder that 10 Speed Racer should be on", explains Dermot. "Now we're the band we've wanted to be and I think the album title reflects that. We're living up to the name and what we all thought it should be. Before, when we were recording I couldn't really relax enough to get into it all while singing with headphones on because everything sounds different than it should when you're wearing them. But, now I'm getting a lot more into it." Having whittled down their new crop of songs from 28 to 12 by use of the old reliable democratic method of secret ballot they finally were left with a collection that formed the musical equivalent of drinking shots of straight whiskey - initially overwhelmingly powerful, but inevitably intoxicating. To match such strong tasting tunes the band needed something striking to deliver them in, so they employed the talents of groundbreaking graphic artist Vaughan Oliver whose innovative sleeve art for such acts as The Pixies, The Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil has made him one of the world's most renowned designers. "In the middle of recording the album we suddenly remembered that we had to have some sort of artwork for it", explains Dermot. "So, Terry said 'Right, I'm going to ring Vaughan Oliver and get him to do the cover' just like that. Vaughan's big thing was that he wouldn't work with you if he didn't like the music and that was the first thing he wanted to find out about us. Of course we thought 'Bollocks! He'll never do it', but he rang back the evening after Terry brought him rough mixes of the album and said 'this stuff is fantastic, when should I get started on the artwork?'" Their refusal to approve the video for their 'Your Demon Heart' single (which featured numerous topless models gyrating in a send-up of the Pop Stars/Pop Idol phenomenon) on the grounds of being "too sexy" may have resulted in 10 Speed Racer being deemed "a prude band" by that daily paragon of all things conservative and crass, The Daily Star, but their decision only highlighted the fact that they're more about music than hype. "I remember buying The Pixies album 'Come on Pilgrim' when it came out and literally bounced repeatedly off my bed to the wall to the door and back while listening to it at home. For those 34 minutes you don't give a shit about anyone or anything else", enthuses Terry. "That was the most important thing in my life at the time and I know it sounds all wanky to say so, but there's nothing more purer than when you've got something like that in you and the more you do it the bigger it gets. If one of our records has that effect on someone then I'll shoot myself 'cos our mission is complete!" Not content with drawing increasing crowds at their live shows around Ireland and the U.K. while garnering much attention due to material from their 'Girls and Magazines' E.P. and their excellent swaggering single 'Ballad of Greedy Man', the quintet decided to show their wares stateside where they found the most unlikely of fans. "As well as playing some high profile venues in New York we hit a few dodgy places like Southanboy in New Jersey. This venue was really in the middle of nowhere", recalls Pat. "The only place nearby was a shop that sold colostomy bags and false limbs. It was like we were in that movie Angel Heart. There was this big, big guy in a white suit and a white Panama hat just sitting there watching us, surrounded by his 'ho's' twirling this silver headed ebony cane. His ankles were wider than my waist! I mean this guy was gigantic. There was a door behind the stage and while we were sound checking he just walked by us on the stage and opened this door behind us which led into this weird altar type place with red candles burning and pictures of Satan everywhere. He closed the door and came back out about five minutes later. But, in the end he bought a load of our T-Shirts, so we guessed he was going to cut them all up and make one huge one for himself." "Apparently Bon Jovi were regulars in this bar, so I reckon they sold their souls to the guy in the white suit. It adds up when you think about it", laughs Dermot. As they discuss plans to spice up R.T.E's 'Fair City' soap through their very own 'Who Shot Bella Doyle?' T-Shirt campaign (or alternatively by becoming scriptwriters/stand in's when they retire from music) we pose inevitable question of how this outfit would like to be remembered when the grim reaper finally calls. "How would we like to be remembered? By the entire planet, who by then will hopefully have all of our records!" The album '10 Speed Racer' is out now on Red Flag records. 10 Speed Racer launch their new album in Dublin's Voodoo Lounge on Saturday Sept 27th.
Colm Kelly
wheresthecraic.com Interview
Highlights: Run time: 10 minutes Intro Track: Death to Disco
Background Info: After only a few live performances in Dublin in early 1999 under another name (as far as the band are concerned, they never existed before this incarnation, so they won't let us tell you their old name), the band were pulled into the studio by some interested parties to contribute to a successful charity album alongside some of Ireland's most well known bands. Soon after, the band were brought once again into the studio; this time by a U.K. publisher. The aim; to see what they were made of. Turns out that the band's recordings sounded pretty amazing, so with the help of their new publisher friends they decided to release an E.P. of these songs on their own. It gained a lot of attention and after a few sales and some Internet attention, the band found that their gigs were drawing larger and larger crowds and an increasing amount of A&R Reps. Shunning all the attention, and recognizing that they really had something special, the band went into seclusion in the West of Ireland to write, rehearse, and begin recording their debut album, ESKIMO BEACH BOY. Several new songs, a publishing deal and a name change later they found themselves with several major record labels on their doorsteps. They, being of the independent minded sort, chose to go with long-time supporters Reverb Records. Their debut full-length album gets a release in August through Reverb in Ireland in and in America later this summer. The band are fresh off of a U.S. tour with label mates NINA HYNES, which saw them play Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C., Baltimore & New York City. The band continue to win friends and influence people - they recently played support to the legendary Rollins Band as a warm up for their Irish tour in support of their first single, the catchy and surreal 'Ballad of Greedy Man'. Their second single 'Death to Disco,' described as the perfect alternative summer song, is being released in August to coincide with their album launch in Ireland. After spending the summer promoting the album in England and Ireland, they return to the U.S. for a full on Western American tour. | ||
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