There's a temptation to slip into strange behaviour when interviewing teenagers. These old interviews, eh, guys? BO-RING! It makes you wonder what Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson had to put up with in their early days. With the exception of One Direction, child pop groups are a rare form of entertainment now, like beauty pageants or circuses. But as the Strypes show, the novelty in looking at a small, perfect version of something that is usually bigger will always be thrilling. Their first single Blue Collar Jane broke from YouTube into the world of Later… with Jools Holland, Noel Gallagher has been seen at their gigs and, not for the first time in the last 10 years, rock'n'roll is said to be saved. If only the lead singer would speak!
Sixteen-year-old Ross Farrelly is the most striking member of the Irish foursome, for his voice – a big pub-rock blast without the slightest hint of a transitional wobble – and for his big sunglasses, which he wears at all times on stage like Roy Orbison. "That came from when he did his first gig," says guitarist Josh McClorey (17) who appears to speak for him. "He was quite nervous and he didn't really know where to place his eyes." Ross opens his eyes very wide and pushes his lips together, fingering the corner of the table in the Marylebone cafe. "He can't leave school yet," continues Ross. "He's got a couple more months but he's barely there, he just goes in when he can…"
The rest of the band, aged 16 and 17, dropped out of school in October last year just before they were signed to Elton John's Rocket Music Entertainment Group. "People think he came to our house," says Pete, who plays with his bass slung up round his throat like John Entwistle and chats like an old man on a bus. "He did actually come to a gig in Brighton – a lot of people thought it was an impersonator. We'd been travelling around Ireland for months before there was any talk of record company interest, so it's not this big shock. It looks that way to the outside world – which is why people have this idea that it can't be real."
The Strypes have already come in line for a degree of message-board sniping because they model their sound on Dr Feelgood, the Yardbirds and the Animals (among others) and have not invented a music utterly new to the human ear. Their live show is a bowel-shaking rhythm'n'blues explosion delivered with humour and vim, betraying an obsessive interest in the musical heritage they're mining.
They've been playing together in the drummer Evan Walsh's bedroom since they were 13 and 14; they grew up in the town of Cavan in Ulster, famous for its railway connections and its closed, contemplative order of nuns. They played a lot of festivals, Pete explains – by which it becomes apparent he means family days out, "opposite the bouncy castle while the announcer is going: 'The Gaelic under-14s match is starting…'"
"We always knew that you had to practise for six months, get in a van and do 200 gigs and play everywhere that would have you," says Josh, and that's what they did, driven by Evan's dad, Niall, the band's official "guardian". In October 2011 they put a self-made EP on iTunes and the next day it was top of the blues chart. Various record contracts were discussed over a nine-month period until they got the one they wanted. Which still doesn't answer the question of why 14-year-olds decided that Chas Chandler and Lee Brilleaux would become their musical heroes, and how they found out about all this stuff in the first place. Is this where Spotify comes in?
"We didn't have Spotify in our day," corrects Pete. "We always loved the 60s and 70s bands," says Josh, "but then we researched the stuff they were covering on YouTube – Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Charley Patton. Now you've got Jon Spencer, Jack White, Gary Clark Jr – it's a trail that never runs out."
Is it depressing to hear people going on about how there's no good new music? "It is all new to us," says Josh. "Actually I'm inclined to agree that the past looks a lot better," says Evan. "And it's interesting, that whole discussion – it is all a kind of documentary for us."
You wonder what Roger Daltrey might have said in an interview at 16. Young musicians are not starry-eyed today, if they ever were – they know how fast the public's attention moves on. Still, I can't help but ask them about their introduction to the rock'n'roll lifestyle, the girls and the backstage shows. As soon as do, I feel like one of those 1980s children's TV presenters in dungarees leaping up and down for an invisible audience. "We don't have backstage parties," says Evan. "I can't speak for the lads, but I go to bed. I drink a lot of water and go to bed. I'm quite set in my ways."
No comments:
Post a Comment