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Q: How did you get together?
Mark: A very short story really, Me and Fergal were playing
around Dublin in little pubs, we really needed a permanent bass player so we
asked Hilary who lived just down the road from us.
Fergal: We don't know what were doing really we haven't got a
fucking clue really.
Q: What would you say your main influences
are?
F: The influences were not having a job or having a really shit
job. We don't really know a lot about music really, everything we listen to is
old really.
Hilary: Mark writes all the songs really so he's the main
musical guy. The music i'm into is Glam Rock, Gothic, Blondie, Pixies and
Madonna. I can see the Manics comparisons, I'm a big fan of the Holy Bible but I
really can't see the Placebo comparisons at all.
M: Musically its an amalgamation of things because I have quite
a varied taste in things. I've been playing classical music since I was about
seven on violins, classic melodies are in there and I listened to Roy Orbison as
a kid, then I got into dark guitar bands like Nirvana and Joy Division. Melody
is the main driving force.
Q: Lyrically you tend to be quite angry,
where's that from?
M: The songs are all about memories that I had that are
extremely special to me and that's why I can't expect anyone else to get them. I
know its a paradox but the bad things that happen are still a special memory,
its not teenage angst or me saying how terrible the world is just about me.
Q: The next single "Oxygen" -
tell us about it?
M: Were doing a video with the director or a few of Blur's video
but its in no way a big budget video. The thing is if this song doesn't get play
listed on MTV or Radio 1 I'm going to get totally pissed off and go to
Scandinavia for a year. Other guitar bands that are getting played are frankly
quite shit compared to us as regards actual musical content and actual emotional
content, I just don't get it.
Oxygen and October Swimmer are two of the best songs on the album, its also going to be something were leaving behind because we've already started to record stuff for the next album. Its not as epically grand and angsty really.
Oxygen is very precious to me because its the one that got us played first on Radio1, it deserves a bit of respect even if you don't normally like the band.
Q: What's the second album going to sound
like?
M: Its going to more subversive pop songs than angsty rock
songs. There's still going to be a dark element to it, you have to really. The
vibe I'm getting from the demo's is people are just going to able to sing along
and not really care about the lyrics.
No bands has anything to fear about music in Smash Hits as long as they have depth to themselves, having said that there are far too many rock bands who take themselves too seriously. I'm serious in the respect that the music I write means a lot to me because its personal to me.
What gets me about pop music is people in those bands who genuinely think their music is intelligent and they genuinely think that music is reflective and commenting on human emotions. Its just bubble gum and as we know with bubble gum there comes a time when you just have to spit it out, it will be discarded at one point. People like John lennon who made simple comments about life, S Club 7 can never go near that man.
I genuinely believe that somewhere in the heart of JJ72 there is a sparkling beauty.
Debut Album
Track By Track
October Swimmer
"Its the only song I've wrote that was about a dream I had
and I woke up in the morning and wrote a bit about it. Its a defiant song and
the music suits it"
Undercover Angel
"Its a straightforward love song, very simple lyrics and a
very simple song structure that was written like that on purpose. Loads of bands
and people from Simply Red have used Angel so we wanted a song that said
"You're my Angel" straight in your face and give it a new meaning. A
lot of the lyrics remind me of the romantic poets like William Blake. Its
classic guitar pop but its still as intense as a heavy rock song.
Willow
"Willow is again one of our more dreamy poetic tunes and
lyrically as well on the album. Its more classical, more mellow and its shows a
different side to the band which we find difficult to exploit live. Its a side
of the band we'd like to explore a little more because when we play live we just
tend to make loads of noise"
Surrender
"Surrenders the least anthemic song on the album, I'd like
to think. Its almost the background music track on the album because its strong
but its not too much in your face. Maybe its slightly weirder, its got weird
keyboard parts and I like that myself.
Long Way South
"Its probably the most theatrical song on the album. Its
the escape song on the album, its a I don't want to be here I want to be
somewhere else song. That's the essence of the song and its a common thread on
the album"
Snow
"This is the one that probably refers mostly to childhood
memories. Again a cliched theme but I think its important with this song being
about the loss of innocence and the distillation or purity.
Broken Down
"Its the most surreal song on the album, its just a
wandering maudlin ramble"
Improv
"Easily the most depressing song on the album. Its the most
pessimistic song and it worked best with just me and the guitar on the
album"
Not Like You
"To me its the most Kooky song on the album. Its a slightly
twisted waltz, a sweet sort of tune and then you listen to the lyrics"
Algeria
"Its a mystical song, a mere murmur"
Bumble Bee
"That's are rock song. It our In Utero song with the
quietest verse and the big chorus. Lyrically there's not much there.