|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
"WE won't do that, it's just a bit too... Irish." This is the very first photo shoot for JJ72, a Dublin trio who only left school a week ago. But even though they're still unsigned, they have a very clear idea of how they want to be depicted. " We don't want anything that says, Hooray, we're from Dublin" states lead singer Mark Greaney firmly. But this quiet sense of self assurance hasn't held JJ72 back. Their debut CD, paid for with their own cash, was sent out with hand written letters from Mark. As well as causing a press kerfuffle, it somehow made its way onto Radio 1. "Mark Radcliffe liked it", says Mark laconically. "It was very cheap though - the front cover is a picture we nicked from a Russian war book". They've only been playing seriously for a few months, when Mark and schoolmate percussionist Fergal Matthews recruited bassist Hilary Woods. "We were getting nothing done, so we thought we'd get a nice girl in the band", says Mark. "Our first rehearsal was the very first time she'd picked up the bass". But listening to their first release (self titled, naturally), it's impossible to tell that this is a band in their infancy. Blessed with a dense yet intricate guitar sound, it's Mark's vocals, however, that truly grip you, a voice that moves from the gently feminine to a forlorn howl.You'd be right to think of Nirvana and Placebo, but they claim a much earlier band as their main reference point. "We love Joy Division", says Fergal. "The only good band we've seen recently was a Joy Division covers band". "These days music is all about image - you get all these bands saying that they're going to change things and they always fail", says Mark. "But with Joy Division the music was so fucking strong". And while they want to sign to an Irish label, their ambitions go well beyond the Irish music scene. " There's nothing really going on in Dublin, that's why we started", says Mark. "If you look at the list of gigs coming up you always get the same bands playing three times a month. And everyone knows each other, so they reckon that they're all doing OK". They were so keen to test
themselves outside of this cosy environment that they hired a dodgy van
and played a few gigs in the UK. "We played some really odd
places", laughs Mark. "In Cambridge we played to a room full of
Goths and somehow they got into it. It was nice meeting them afterwards as
well - 'Hello, My name is Conrad, prince of darkness'. They say they're
not thinking about university because "we want to try this out for a
bit". On this evidence, their days of tutorials and protractors are
well and truely over.
|
|||