It’s been all very last minute, London Underground wasn’t on my side today, but I’m finally here, on a tour bus with Andy Cairns, Michael McKeegan and Neil Cooper from Therapy?
Last time I saw these guys was 2004 at Hammersmith Palais (RIP), McCarrick had just left the band and Therapy? were left as a three piece. After five years, they’re still a threesome and now seem to have found perfect harmony and long needed stability... And here they are all smiling and ready for our questions, so let’s go ahead and ask them!!
Altsounds: Welcome back, guys!
Therapy?: Thank you!
Altsounds: You guys didn’t have it easy through the years, did you? Ups and downs, label issues...
Therapy?: We didn’t have it easy when we started, and then we had a few lucky breaks... I think what we went through is what most long term bands go through; unless you’re the size of U2 or the Chilli Peppers, most bands kind of our size go through this, for ten, fifteen, twenty years, and it’s all part of it, it’s not probably as bad as it seems. Being in a band for a living when things are bad is not as bad as being out of work and not being able to feed your family if you work on a nine to five job. It’s all relative really.
Altsounds: Lots of your troubles were caused by label problems; would you have taken a different path back then if you had the choices available today, for example bands having the option to promote themselves via the internet?
Therapy?: If I was starting today and I was eighteen, twenty years old I think I would do what most bands do: they don’t really look for labels, labels tend to come to bands nowadays, because they check how many MySpace hits you might have... I think when we started with our band we did it the way that was best for us then, and that’s what everybody else tends to do. What we did was we realised if we released our single on our own label we’d get attention, and that is, I think what we would do now, set up a very clever website and get all the PR... It’s a conjecture, but I think that’s what we would do.
Altsounds: How are things with Demolition Records at the moment?
Therapy?: Very good, thank you!
Altsounds: Can we count on more Therapy? releases in the future?
Therapy?: Yes! We signed a deal a couple of years ago, and they were actually quite cool, ‘cause we said “look, we’re not going to get into the studio next week, we’re going to take some time and make a record we’re really happy with” and they were really, really cool with that, so that was a good sign.
Altsounds: You’re back as a three piece, are you happy with the current line up?
Therapy?: Definitely yeah! It’s good, it’s got a good energy to it and I think with just the three of us in the band everyone’s role is very well defined, and that’s really great ‘cause I think everyone can really concentrate on what we’re doing and what they all bring to the overall sound of the band.
Altsounds: What’s your current relationship like with ex band mates, were they mostly amicable or nasty break-ups?
Therapy?: Well, not really nasty break ups, no, but on a personal level we don’t really have much in common with them anymore, if we see them we’ll obviously have a chat and a drink with them, but I wouldn’t go out of my way... There’s no Christmas cards on the go!
Altsounds: Therapy?’s music has been maturing and changing throughout the years; for those familiar with your work but have yet to hear 2009's release “Crooked Timber”, what should they expect?
Therapy?: I think what we’ve got with “Crooked Timber” comes off the three piece thing as well. Sonically the guitars, the drums, the bass, the vocals, everything sounds exactly like the three of us wanted it to sound. About the song writing, we just signed this new deal and told the management and label “Can we just have a bit of time to get the songs together?”, a bit of breathing space really. They gave it to us and just left us to it, and we came up with a record that the three of us are very happy with. It kind of sums up where we are now, it may sound lame but it’s just as simple as that. And when we play them live they just feel great to play. Sometimes you can record some songs, but when you take them on the road they don’t translate as well as you’d imagine; with this record we’ve been playing most of the album live at the shows and it feels good at the minute.
Altsounds: If you had to describe this album to someone who is not familiar with Therapy? how would you sell it? What do you sound like?
Therapy?: It’s obviously rock music, and... I think different people take different things from it: some people listen to the band and think we’re very extreme, very dark, some people listen to it and think we’re quite uplifting and see some real positive in our music... I don’t know, I can’t really answer that!
I’d say just fuckin’... google it and just bloody listen to it! (laughs). You spend weeks recording an album and then you have to try and sum it all up in a sentence, that’s actually a funny question...
With all due respect, journalists ask this question but also say “what’s the point releasing a record, ‘cause people can hear your music any time they want,” ergo, if anyone can hear our music any time they want why would they need to know what we sound like? It’s on the internet.
Altsounds: I can see your point, but Altsounds has a very diverse range of readers, and some of them might not be familiar the band I’m interviewing. The idea is to get people who don’t know you to want to listen to you, and they will want to know what you sound like.
Therapy?: Yes, but if they’re already on the internet, couldn’t they just type the name of the band on YouTube for example?
Altsounds: We cover all sorts, from punk to R&B, from metal to hip hop, from indie to blues and so on. Now, if I listen to punk for example, and I read a record sounds punk rather than hip hop, I will think “yeah, this may be my cup of tea” and will want to at least type it in on YouTube, but I won’t do that for every band I see reviewed on a site...
Therapy?: Oh ok, good point there!
Altsounds: Do you reckon your live shows are as good as they used to be?
Therapy?: I think they’re better at the moment! I think that our live shows started really good but they were shambolic, then around the mid nineties they became quite good ‘cause there was so much money put into the show, we had so many technicians, so many pieces of equipment, and then it got I think more kind of ordinary.
Then when Neil joined in 2002 we took a little bit of time and I think over the last few years it’s the best we’ve ever been live, I honestly do. I think it just makes a lot more sense, we found the stability. Therapy?’s music is heavy and it’s aggressive but it’s not like Slayer, there’s bits in them that are drum & bass, there’s jazz and dubstep, you can dance to them, it’s not all about grief and aggression, and there’s melody underneath all the riffs and the heavy bass lines, there’s melody in there as well. I think what we learned to do that because it’s constantly just the three of us again, everyone has a place to play, and everyone has stepped up to their place and taken that challenge, whereas I think as a four piece we were not as successful as we could have been. When we were young we were trying too much, it was all over the fuckin’ shop!
Altsounds: You’re playing the Garage tonight which is a big enough venue but not huge, and you also played Festivals. Do you prefer intimate shows or arenas?
Therapy?: They’re both the same amount of enjoyment, only under different pretences. You play a Festival, and a Festival is about everybody else other than you; you turn up and you play thirty, forty-five minutes, sometimes longer if you’re higher in the bill, but there’s plenty of bands on the bill, thousands of people and it’s fun.
You play your own show and it’s all Therapy? fans, and they want to hear stuff from all twelve albums, and you’re never going to please everyone, there’s more pressure in gigs like this, but having the audience this close is more exciting. Playing at a Festival is like a day out. To me personally, if I turn up at Download it is like a fun day for me as well, while this is a bit more professional.
Altsounds: About Festivals... I’m getting on with age and I find the idea of sharing a tour bus and be covered in mud and beer at a Festival a lot less attractive... Is that happening to you as well?
Therapy?: The tour bus is brilliant! I wouldn’t camp at a Festival now, I’m too old for that, but to go over to Belgium, Germany or wherever for the weekend doing two or three shows we have a great time, it’s brilliant.
Altsounds: So yes to the tour bus but no camping?
Therapy?: No, I’m not camping. No no, I’m not!! (laughs) Leave that to the kids! I think it’s good to find the funny side, it’s what you make of it. I think sometimes you can panic a bit and think “There are so many people here, the pressure, the pressure...,” but it’s more what you make of it, you can make it as good or as bad as you want.
Altsounds: You have collaborated with so many big names throughout your career, which one do you have the fondest memory of? Any particular story?
Therapy?: Well, we did stuff with Ozzy when we were in a studio in LA with him and that was all very professional. He’s a very nice guy, but he turned up with his minder and his record producer... we didn’t really hang out with him. It’s hard to say really because we weren’t really around. Page played guitar on a track but he was in America. I think my most fond memory isn’t in recent years, but if we look back in history at all the celebrities, we did a tour with Henry Rollins, and that was amazing because I was a massive Black Flag fan and Henry Rollins fan, and Jesus Lizard and we liked them, we did a tour with them, we did a tour with Courtney Love and Hole which was good. To be honest, sometimes when you get celebrity people involved it is funny because it is very awkward; you think that it’s us and Ozzy, high fiving each other, having a laugh, and it’s all like in slow motion with lots of nice music... It’s not, you don’t see the cunt!
(Big laughs).
We talked for ten minutes when he was doing the vocals for ‘Iron Man,’ we had Page playing guitar, we had Lesley from Silverfish singing on the album, she turned up on the Tube in Camden, sang and went home, unfortunately there’s no story of me and Elton hanging out at the city crosslights...
Altsounds: I remember you using samples pulled from cult movies and obscure documentaries; is there any movie in the past five years iconic enough that would be worth sampling?
Therapy?: Yeah, we sampled some for “Crooked Timber” and initially we didn’t put the samples on ‘cause we were scared, but the record is being re-released before the end of the year with samples on the album again, samples from “El Topo,” an Alejandro Jodorowsky movie, there’s something from Werner Herzog’s “The Enigma of Kaspar Houser,” there’s samples from “Dead Man’s Shoes” with Paddy Considine, a brilliant film by Shane Meadows, which is my right kind of English director...
What stitches everyone up with samples is that if you get found you get fined hundreds of thousands of pounds, but a lot has changed now because of downloading; people can’t really stop it, so they realized that a few samples is actually advertising for them and people don’t really care about them any more, so we started sampling stuff again.
Altsounds: Since you like movies so much, which director would make your day asking you to feature one of your songs in his next creation?
Therapy?: David Lynch!David Lynch!
Altsounds: Everyone agrees?
Therapy?: I’ll take Shane Meadows actually! Keeping it local.. (laughs)
Altsounds: Looking back at your life and career, is there anything you would do differently if you could go back in time?
Therapy?: I don’t think so, no. There is no one I really want to hunt down and have revenge on, or anything like that, I don’t think anyone has done incredibly negative to me either, so no...
I think things happen for a reason, good and bad, and I think I’m here and I’m healthy and I’ve got a family, and my best years with the band, and friends, I wouldn’t change any of this; everything happens for a reason, to get to this point.
Altsounds: What’s your position about the whole file sharing issue?
Therapy?: It’s part of the business... What I will say is, apart from what it costs to me personally, which it does cost to all of us personally in the band, ask to yourself: if I was seventeen or sixteen years of age, and the new Metallica album came out, or the new Jesus Lizard, and I couldn’t wait to get it in the shops and there was a promo copy for download, would I download it? Yes, I fucking would!
How many tapes have I got at home, albums someone has taped for me? I was in love with music since I was thirteen or fourteen onwards. I loved the Buzzcocks and Joy Division, and if someone would have said to me when I was fourteen “the second Joy Division album, is not out for two months, but I’ve got a copy” I would want it!
You have to think like the kids who buy music and this is what the internet is doing. I know someone who never pays for any of his music, he loves music, goes to gigs, but does he buy any records? Does he fuck. People my age buy records now.
He might download the record but then he goes to the gig, buys the t-shirt, there is money going towards the band. A lot of bands moan we’re all going bankrupt, and that’s bollocks. If you’re pinning everything on a single, on an album, then yeah, because people will download that single and that’s it, but even if someone downloads the tune, or even the whole album, if someone is really into the band and you’re a band of worth, and you’re going to go out on tour, and do decent merchandise, and make it worthwhile for people to come to the shows, these people I imagine are going to want the album, they’re going to want the information, they want to know who’s the bass player, who’s doing what, who writes the lyrics... You can download the tune but you’ll want the rest.
They will buy the hard copy at some point, and not only people my age. We will adapt, everyone will adapt.
Altsounds: We’re an online independent music journalism website with a higher ranking than Kerrang! and we have readers all over the world; since we like Therapy?, this is your space to get your message across: say whatever you like, be it about global warming or your latest album...
Therapy?: What do we want to say to them?
Err... Go and buy the fucking album!! (Big laughs) Yeah, we’re socially aware and all that, but yeah...
We all agree, buy the fucking album! It’s a great album, go and fucking buy it, and come and see the gig, you’ll love it!
Altsounds: Well said, that’s what we’re here for... Your honesty and directness is refreshing! Thanks for your time guys, this was fun!
A quick shot with the band, courtesy of their excellent tour manager turned photographer, and I leave Therapy?’s tour bus, still laughing and looking forward to the show.
“Crooked Timber” is out now on Demolition Records, available everywhere, be it hard copy or download, legal or illegal... One listen and you will want the real thing anyway!
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