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the brain farm interview.
Um... sorry for nicking
this Brain Farm guys... it's just excellent!!
Please visit www.thebrainfarm.cjb.net
to save my soul!
The Brain Farm: So, how's it going? Looking
forward to the show tonight?
Fergal: Yeah
TBF: Biggest show you've played yet, isn't it?
Mark: As headliners, yeah.
TBF: You've played here before (i.e. at the Falcon), how was it last
time?
[mv note: NO KIDDING!!!! see live reviews hehe... they practically live there!]
Fergal: Yeah, it was great
TBF (To Fergal): You broke your arm, didn't you?
Fergal: No, I got a blood clot in me arm. I was just having too much fun
Hilary: We had to cancel some shows just cos Fergal was being too enthusiastic
TBF: When's the new single, 'Snow' out?
Mark: Um.. the end of February, 21st of February
TBF: Are you hoping for the weather to adapt?
Mark: Yeah, we've had enough of this hot spell. That'd be nice.
TBF: Have you done a video for it?
Mark: No, we haven't done it yet
TBF: D'you intend to?
Fergal: We do
Mark: Yeah, we'll do it soon.
TBF: Did you make a video for the last one, 'October Swimmer'?
Mark: No, we couldn't be bothered. We just thought, debut single and all that..
We'll do a nice little video for this one though
Fergal: Yeah, then we'll re-release 'October Swimmer'
TBF: And how's the album coming along? Is it finished yet?
Hilary: It is, yeah
Mark: It was more or less finished last week, mastered and everything. That'll
be out beginning of May. It sounds a lot like us live.
TBF: Got any possible titles for it?
Mark: No. Well there's a few
Fergal: We're playing around with a few
TBF: And is it sounding good, are you proud of it?
Mark: Yeah. It's like.. guitar music, you know? We're very good with guitar
music.
TBF: Who d'you see as your contemporaries?
Mark: You know the way we're a new band coming through and all that sorta stuff,
so on every page we're on there's another new band on the next page. It's a bit
silly, because lots of the bands that are in our position at the moment are
saying they're the saviours of rock n' roll and all this sorta stuff, which is
absolutely ridiculous.
Fergal: Yeah
TBF: Are you talking about Terris?
Mark: Well... just some bands, you know
TBF: D'you like any of the bands in the same pages as you?
Mark: Well, I dunno, you see. The thing about being compared to the Manics, and
then Terris are saying that the Manics are terrible... It's completely silly, if
you're talking about changing rock n' roll, but if you're gonna take yourself so
seriously, then you're part of what you're complaining about. You're protesting
about the state of music at the moment, but you're entering into that whole
industry. So, we like to see ourselves as a separate entity. We've just made an
album, that's very very good, and if it sells lots, it sells lots, and if it
doesn't, it doesn't matter, we'll just make another very good one.
Fergal: We're in no rush to do anything, you know
Mark: The next one could be 100 times different
TBF: You could make a trip-hop album...
Fergal: You never know
TBF: Cos you've worked with Ian Caple, who did that Tricky album
Mark: Shall we go in that direction? You haven't heard our demos for the next
album yet!
TBF: I haven't even heard the demos for the first album!
Mark: The thing about this album is, when I say it's just guitar music, it's
like, the demos are what the album is. Okay, the album's better than the demos,
but it's the same format, things like that. Because, the songs were written at a
time when we were all teenagers and stuff, so we just put it down as it is.
TBF: What has Ian Caple brought to the record, cos you said it was just like you
sound live?
Mark: Well, when I say it's more live, it's compared to demos, you know? Cos if
you go with certain resources into a studio, you're gonna end up, if you use all
the resources, you're gonna sound pretty flat.
TBF: How long was it between recording the demos, and actually recording the
album?
Mark: Year and a half
TBF: The songs didn't develop much in that time?
Mark: No, we kept them pretty much the same. Most of the songs were written in
the first month that I learnt guitar, so I reckoned they were strong enough to
keep. For this album, it's a case of every song, you can play on an acoustic
guitar on your own. It's quite important for our first album.
TBF: You mentioned being compared to the
Manics, and Radiohead. It must be a bit strange to be likened to these huge
bands
Mark: It's all very funny. It really doesn't matter at all. As time goes on, and
the more gigs we play, everything's getting a little less serious. You realise
that, it's all.. I know music's important to millions and millions of people,
it's a great thing, but ultimately it's completely unimportant to other things
that happen. So it's just.. nice sounds, really (laughs)
TBF: You must be getting to that stage though where you'd rather be known as
JJ72 rather than 'the new Manics' or whatever
Mark: Well, it's ease of description.That's all it is.
TBF: D'you like the bands you've been compared to, like Nirvana?
All in band: Yeah!
Mark: Nirvana were, like, the reason we started
TBF: And Placebo as well, weirdly
Mark: Dunno where that came from
TBF: Who would JJ72 say influenced JJ72?
Mark: Um.. Well, what we grew up listening to. Stuff like Roy Orbison, then the
Stooges, more raw stuff. There's two scales to what we do, there's the Roy
Orbison, very melodic...
TBF: A lot of that must make it into your lyrics then. Perhaps more Nirvana than
Roy Orbison..
Mark: Maybe, yeah. Probably. Then there's things like the Manics, 'Holy Bible'
was big for us.
TBF: How long have you all been playing together?
Hilary: A year
Mark: Hilary joined the band about a year ago. Myself and Fergal had made some
demos before, and then we had the perfect bass player. Isn't that right, Hil?
Hilary: That's right, Mark
All: Hahahahaha
TBF: Are you gonna play any festivals this
year?
All: Hopefully
Mark: Probably the new bands tent, Glastonbury, Reading
TBF: Any plans to go abroad?
Mark: Well, hopefully some festivals again, in the sunshine in Spain or
something
TBF: Have you played any shows outside of the UK and Ireland yet?
Fergal: No
TBF: Has there been any interest, as far as you know?
Mark: In Belgium and Holland of all places. It's still cool though.
TBF: What's the best thing about being in a
band?
Fergal: Don't have to get a job!
Mark: For me, because I write the songs, it's the horrible sickening cliche of
being able to sing your songs to a big audience. And just make some money out of
your hobby.
TBF: And the worst thing?
Mark: Um.. I dunno. I've found the whole thing about being in a band extremely
surreal, really
Fergal: It's all been a bit too strange
Mark: It is a bit weird, sometimes you just sit there wondering what you're
doing, you're only playing the guitar, you know. It's a bit mad. But, as I'm
sure you know yourselves, hundreds of bands come and go every week so.. I dunno
TBF: What're your ambitions then? Is there a big masterplan?
Mark: Not really. I suppose due to the faith that we have in ourselves, and just
the way we sound.. We're extremely happy with this first album, so the plan
really is, we've started recording some demos for the second album, so we'll
develop those more, and make a completely different second one, and stretch
ourselves a bit more. Again, a cliche, but if you read all the stuff about you
too much, like if you read the NME, you think that you're like all the bands
they say you're like, then you're gonna try and keep it going on the second
album, good recipe, whatever. It's just silly.
TBF: Do you have ambitions to do stuff like Top of the Pops?
Mark: Oh yeah, all that stuff goes without saying. All the silly things. We
could play with Boyzone and Westlife, all our Irish friends. We're all mates,
after all
TBF: Which one of you is the Westlife fan?
Fergal: Hilary!
Hilary: Fergal was just taking the piss, you know what I mean?
TBF: A lot of the songs, like 'October Swimmer' are very anthemic, so you must
look forward to the day when, at Wembley, everyone sings your song back at you..
Mark: Yeah, that'd be cool. If we had that many people singing, 'I don't
need anyone', I'd probably have to stop playing, and just say, "You
don't MEAN that, do you?"
TBF: What's the scene like in Dublin, where
you come from? How does it compare to London?
Mark: I don't know, really. Because we haven't done many gigs in Ireland. We
played last week there. It was a great big step up from our previous show there,
because in between gigs all the press and stuff started, so all of a sudden
we're playing Dublin and it's completely packed. Really weird, but really good.
TBF: Looking forward to going back there, then? Is the tour next month gonna
take you there?
Fergal: Not really
Mark: Probably not. We just live there.
TBF: What do you make of the whole London scene?
Mark: It's weird, we're supporting, who is it? Ocean Colour Scene in March at
the Astoria. The thing for us, the big buzz is, we're playing the Astoria, not
we're playing with Ocean Colour Scene. It's really nice to have people gathering
alone, you know, people being converted. Although a lot of things have been
written about us, and it's been building and building, we've been taking it
quite casually. We haven't been killing ourselves by working at all. There's no
point in pushing ourselves, is there? You're gonna like the songs or you're not.
Again, I know it's really cliched, but when you come home at night from a party
or whatever, you've been talking to hundreds of people all night, you just want
to sit there, listen to something good.
TBF: Have you been to the Astoria before?
Mark: No. I've walked by it hundreds of times though, going "Uhh, we're
playing there!" We've got videos of when the Pumpkins played there, in
their polyester shirts.
TBF: Big fans of the Pumpkins then?
Mark: Not so much now, but yeah
Hilary: I had enough when D'Arcy left
Mark: I just saw a big Goth picture of them in Kerrang the other day
TBF: Do you not rate the Hole bassist then?
Hilary: I don't know. Dunno much Hole stuff
Mark: She prefers Madonna
Hilary: Yeah, I am. I dance around my kitchen to Madonna everyday.
Fergal: Everyone does.
TBF: You've been getting a lot of good
reviews for your gigs lately
Mark: Yeah. It's weird because we were full of skepticism before we did
anything, so it's good to see some support building up
TBF: And tonight you're supported by Twist and My Vitriol. D'you like them?
Mark: Yeah, I had a chat with the guy from My Vitriol last time we played here,
seemed like a nice guy.
TBF: They're with you on the 'budding rock band' circuit
Mark: Yeah, "ooh, we're all going to be big!". And Twist we supported
in Durham
TBF: I've read about that being a legendary gig
Mark: Yeah, it was mad
Hilary: Yeah, it was a great gig
Mark: That was probably the biggest number of people we've played to. Weird
Hilary: It was a freshers ball or something
Mark: Unbelievably nice
Fergal: They were great. All off their heads.
Hilary: So enthusiastic
TBF: Have you had good experiences everywhere you've played, or have there been
some stinkers?
Mark: There've been some really really bad, toilets, like.. I'm sure Oldham's a
really nice place, but we played a really bad venue there
TBF: It's not a very nice place
Mark: Hmm.. Didn't think so. There's been some really bad ones. Just boring
technical stuff like monitors and things.
TBF: What's it like here?
Hilary: Great, really intimate
Mark: Definitely one of the better places
TBF: There's a lot of confidence in you, more
musically perhaps than in rhetoric
Mark: I think it comes down to intelligence. There're loads of bands who feel
some need, to become a great band, they need to mention the books they read in
interviews, or slag off other bands, and have quotes from poems and all this
sorta shit, where it doesn't matter. If you're clever, you're clever, you don't
need to tell NME about it.
Fergal: It's unnecessary, you know?
Mark: I don't know how a band can claim to being the saviours of the world of
music
TBF: Most bands who say they're great at the moment seem to say "We're
great because X band is crap". Recently Terris decided to have a go at the
Manics
Mark: It's just ridiculous to do that. The Manics have achieved a lot, whether
you like them or you don't, it's like, they were absolutely brilliant at one
time
TBF: D'you not like them now, then?
Mark: No, I still think they're alright. They've taken the old pretension route
a little too far, I think. Especially with their screaming quotes at the end of
their songs.
TBF: Are there any bands you don't like?
Mark: I dunno. A lot of the bands currently in the same pages as us, we've never
heard, and I'm sure they probably haven't heard us. It's just more of a case of
whether the music's good or not.
TBF: How'd you feel about the whole attention
that's building up?
Mark: Well, it's like the whole festivals thing. I've never been to a festival,
and I'd frankly never like to go to one.
Fergal: It's okay for a day, you know
Mark: I hope lots of people like what we do on a music level, but this whole
allegiance to fans thing, is just.. I dunno
TBF: D'you notice a difference between London crowds and playing elsewhere, cos
many bands complain about London audiences being less responsive
Mark: Um.. There's a difference slightly, but I mean, there are people in London
who come to see the gig who have nothing to do with the industry, and they have
a little more of a notion of what's good. I prefer here to Dublin, it's safe to
say.
TBF: Do you have shows where you've played really well, but the crowd have been
unresponsive?
Mark: Yeah, some of the places.. Sheffield. Nobody gave a shit who was playing
onstage when we were in Sheffield
TBF: Do you reckon that's just cos you're very new?
Mark: Yeah, that's what I mean. The London crowds, people come to see your gigs,
they want to take more note of new bands than people in Ireland will or people
in Sheffield perhaps. I know I'm generalising, but, you know.
TBF: I read somewhere, Fergal, that you said
you hate Boyzone, but you'd like to be Mikey
Fergal: Yeah
TBF: Would you care to elaborate on that?
Fergal: What did I mean? Mikey just doesn't go into the studio, he doesn't sing
live, doesn't do anything, but he gets 20% of the royalties. So why not be Mikey?
No-one likes him, so nobody will care when he leaves.
TBF: You're in it for the money, then?
Mark: If he was in Boyzone, he'd be in it for the money
Fergal: Yeah, if I was in Boyzone, that'd be it
TBF: What're you in it for at the moment then?
Fergal: I dunno. I like it, you know? If you like doing it
Mark: Maybe it's just our three years, four years off, before we go to college
or something, I dunno. It could be.
TBF: How long have you known each other?
Fergal: Me and Mark known each other for about five years. We went to school
together, so..
Mark: And Fergal used to go out with Hilary. But they don't any more.
TBF: Which of the Ten Commandments do you
enjoying breaking most?
All in band: Um...
Fergal: Don't know
Mark: We just can't remember them!
Fergal: Thou shalt not do it, I guess
TBF: What's your favourite film?
Mark: Mine's a Danish one called The Ox. Really nice. About this guy
who killed an ox so he could feed his family then he went to prison for, like,
fifty years
Fergal: Maximum Overdrive or Beyond the Thunderdrome. One or
the other
Hilary: I really don't know!
Fergal: She doesn't really watch TV
Hilary: (Laughing) I dunno! I enjoy thrillers I suppose
TBF: Whilst we're in this whole end-of-the-century mood, what're your favourite
albums?
Mark: Probably Closer. (By Joy Division)
TBF: I just got a copy of that today
Mark: Very upbeat, isn't it?
TBF: Laugh a minute, it is
Hilary: Probably a Nirvana album. Either In Utero or Nevermind.
Fergal: What'd I go for? They're not my favourite band, but the album,
probably Doolittle by the Pixies. I like the rest of their stuff, but
they're just not me favourite band. They don't have all the elements. I don't
have a favourite band.
TBF: Are you waiting for someone to come and correct that?
Fergal: No, I dunno. I don't have a favourite band, that's it. It's not a
problem. I like loads of bands.
TBF: Is there anything recent you like? Any bands still around..?
Mark: We've all been listening to the last Moby album, that's really good
Hilary: And Six by Mansun. Like that a lot.
TBF: 'Streets of Grey' make it into
lyrics of Improv and Gherkin. Is this a reference to London,
or Dublin, anywhere in particular?
Mark: Streets of grey.. All the lyrics to all the songs are quite basic, perhaps
naive. They're based on basic, naive times. The school we went to was very
central in the city of Dublin, so everyday it was get bus, walk up to school,
leave school, walk down the street, get on bus, get home. Just monotony.
TBF: Were you unhappy there, or just bored?
Mark: Just waiting. Waiting for this really (nods towards stage)
TBF: Have you written any songs since the first record, then?
Mark: Yeah, about four songs.
TBF: Are they more hopeful then, reflecting happier times for the band?
Mark: No, they're more segregated