With:	Andy Cairns
Conducted by:	jupitreas (phone)
Published:	11.03.2009
Band profile:	Therapy?

Therapy? is just about to release a new album called "Crooked Timber". We wanted to know more about it so we gave Andy Cairns (vocals/guitars) a call. What follows is a transcript of this conversation.




Andy: Hello mate

Jupitreas: Hello there, I guess we had some technical problems there

(laughs)

J: So how you guys doing?

A: Oh we're fine thanks mate, very very fine.

J: You're just about to release a new album aren't you?

A: We are indeed mate, yeah, it comes out on the 23rd of March.




J: I find it quite incredible that it has actually not been leaked on the Internet yet. (ed: Or at least it hasn't at the time the interview was conducted)

A: You know what, that really shocked me. The last album we did, "One Cure Fits All", we finished on Friday in the studio, by the following Thursday it was on the net (laughs) We finished ("Crooked Timber") last December and it didn't make it onto the Internet yet, that must be some record.

J: What is you attitude towards the whole issue of downloading albums?

A: You know what, if I'm realistic, I think its just progress, its just the way that music is going. I mean, as someone that is 43 years of age and grew up buying albums on vinyl, cassettes etc., you know, there is a sadness in me to think that thats gone, but I remember when cassettes came along, people said home taping was killing music, I remember when CDs came along, people were saying oh you know its not the same. I think music will adapt. I mean, its sad to lament the fact that there might not be any CD stores in the future but music will always exist, it will always be there and younger kids will always find a way around it, so you know, I have no problem

J: Does it hurt you as a band when an album gets leaked or does the record label get hurt more?

A: Oh I'm sure it does, I mean, it hurts the band sales wise. You know, a band like us that isn't on a major label anymore, it can hurt to a certain extent but we do understand that, we've got a worldwide deal, so you have to have faith in music fans. Its swings and roundabouts, we've always done very well touring so I'm sure even if people don't buy your records they're gonna come to your live shows cause they heard your album.

J: So I suppose if people download the album its kinda like free promotion is some ways.

A: Well it is and to be honest I do see that its gonna be that way that its gonna go in the future. At the minute what you do is you record an album, you press it on CD and on vinyl, and you give people in the radio 2 tracks as promo. I get a funny feeling that in the future everything you do mp3 wise is downloaded for free will be promo and the real test will be like the old days, your live show will be your bread and butter. Unless people start getting into albums bands, like Led Zeppelin was an albums band.

J: It seems to me that the whole idea of an album as an LP, a whole uniform statement from a band, is not such an old thing. Music before was more about singles etc.

A: Yeah, I mean, a band like us, if I'm truthful, did benefit in the 90s from having really good singles and as a music fan myself one thing I will miss about the death of the CD will be the fact that you know, collectors editions, colored vinyl, picture discs, things like that will be gone. But then again people have told me that this album that we have just done will come out on vinyl which our last few haven't because kids are buying vinyl again.

J: Well that's good.

A: Maybe its just the way you present it. Maybe if you give people something that is aesthetically more attractive than an mp3, maybe they will buy it.

J: Well, I have heard the album, albeit just the one time and it seems to me that it would work very well on vinyl.

A: Yeah I think so as well, its a very atmospheric album I think it would sound great on vinyl.

J: Lets talk about the album. You used to write a little bit about every track on your website, are you going to do this again?

A: Yes I will once the album's been out for a little while because I don't want to put any ideas into anyone's head (laughs). I actually think that was a mistake I did with the last album. I think what Ill do is Ill look at it a little bit like its a bit like telling someone the plot of the movie before they've seen the movie (laughs). Ill gladly talk to you about it right now but as far as putting it on the website Ill let the people hear it a few times before talking about it.

J: Ive only heard it once so obviously I cant really say much about it, although I did like it. One track that really stuck in my mind after the first listen was "Clowns Galore"...

A: Oh really? Cool.

J: It sounds a little bit like some of your older stuff, maybe like something off of "Nurse"...

A: It does actually, that's a very good point. I think its the rhythm. Its also probably because on the "Nurse" album we were listening to an awful lot of techno and rave as well as rock music and I think "Clowns Galore" was inspired by some of the kind of new style of techno that is coming out now. I think the guitar slide on it and the beat, I mean its got raging guitars and riffs on it, but I think that's probably why, it came from kind of the same point of origin as the stuff on "Nurse".

J: I've noticed you really try to analyze your music quite a lot and you are not afraid to admit what your inspirations are. So what were the inspirations this time around?

A: We decided that what we would do is because we were writing all the songs together, if we were gonna be inspired by anything, it would be quite interesting to take unusual sources. So for example track two, "Enjoy The Struggle", we were listening to an awful lot of Charles Mingus, the jazz bass player, because he had a really filthy bass sound and we decided to write like a swing song (sings the song). We took this riff, and you listen to it now and its a little bit like Helmet, its got a real swing to it, its even a little bit like Pantera, but we took the reference from Charles Mingus. The very last track on the album, its got a bizarre time pattern and we got the inspiration for that from listening to Stravinsky's "Rite Of Spring", the classical piece because its got this really bizarre section with this bizarre timing. So, I mean this runs thought the album. Some of the album has been inspired by this electronic style called dubstep.

J: I'm quite familiar with it.

A: Yeah, so we were listening to an awful lot of Burial and Kode9, Skream and Benga and its mostly the ghostly atmospherics that we like about the dubstep style.

J: I wasn't sure of that when listening to the album but it seems to me that "Exiles" has elements of this style?

A: That was exactly the track. There's two tracks that are very dubstep. One of them is "Exiles", the other is the intro to "Bad Excuse For Daylight".

J: I think I might have sort of dozed off by the end of the album since I only heard it only once (both laugh) but Ill make it a point to listen to all these little details.

A: (laughs) Well, good man.

J: How about the album artwork. Its kinda strange, what is that thing?

A: Well the triangle character in the front of it has been on our t shirts from the very first days of the band.

J: The character is familiar but the artwork kinda screams it at you...

A: Yeah. Actually, when we were thinking of the album cover, we were sitting down and looking at various images. And to be honest personally I always find it very difficult because if you make a really great album and you get the artwork wrong you can really fuck it up. The record is quite intense and atmospheric and there is so much going on in the record that it could have easily gone wrong. So we just wanted to put the t shirt design on the album cover and put the name of the band and the album title and its very minimalist and its very basic.

J: You didn't want to take attention away from the music itself I suppose?

A: Not even that, just the fact that we thought we'd give off the wrong signals if we got the album cover wrong and I think we were more worried about getting the wrong cover than taking attention away from the music.

J: But I don't really recall you ever having an album cover that didn't fit the music?

A: I think the last one for One Cure Fits All I didn't really like. I think thats probably a bit of residue from that because I had a really bad experience with that, I didn't like the color and I didn't like the picture, so maybe it was just an angry reaction from me.

J: Well, you make the kind of music that lends itself to being angry at things, so its alright

(both laugh)

J: So are you going to tour heavily after releasing the album?

A: Yeah, because the album doesn't come out till the end of March, well probably do a small tour up until the festival season. We will play like, you know, most countries, but only one show in most countries, in Europe anyway. But then we're gonna try to get as many festivals as we can, thats the plan. But then, when the festival season ends, we are gonna from September right up till Christmas we're gonna do a really intense and heavy tour.

J: Well, I hope I'll catch you guys on one of these tours. Anything else on your plate? You took part in a side project called This Is Menace at one point...

A: Yeah, they did a second album but that's no more since the drummer joined another band. But I'm always looking for stuff like that, I've recently contributed vocals to an Italian band's album, a band from Rome called Inferno. Their album is called "Pompa Magna" and it comes out next month. In you like Botch, Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge...

J: Yeah, I do like those bands.

A: Yeah, they're that kind of band, I sing on a track on the album called "The Second Triumvirate Of Lavonia" so that's something to look for if you like that kind of stuff, that's out in about a months time.

J: It also seems like the kind of music that you haven't really done before...

A: Well, I haven't but, I mean, I do like that kind of music, but we haven't played anything like that in the band. The guys contacted me and wanted me to sing just a little bit on the track and I was happy do to it because they're a really good band, it's a good album.




(ed: I have since heard this song, it sounds a little like Genghis Tron and is really worth hearing, Andy sings to the melody of the excellent Therapy? song "Stop It You're Killing Me")

J: Let's change subjects a little bit. Is songwriting for you an intellectual or emotional process?

A: Its a bit of both. I think the initial spark always comes from emotion, whether it is a turn of phrase, a melody or a rhythm and then, once its time to open my head and start writing, the intellectual process kicks in. Also, you know, this album's been greatly influenced by a few literary references, Samuel Beckett and an English writer called Gwendoline Riley so I think the intellectual process always comes after the emotional one, I think we've always worked at the end of the day on gut instinct and emotion.

J: That's interesting, I was always under the impression that Therapy? was one of the more 'intellectual' rock bands out there.

A: Well, we are but any feeling that we have to be the germ of the idea, to be the initial spark has to be an emotional one. I mean that is what starts the ball rolling. From then on, obviously, the thought process comes into it. But we do think very much about what we do, I mean every thing on this album has been very very considerably thought out, from the way that the rhythm works to the way that the lyrics represent themselves...

J: I remember reading on your website that at least in the beginning the album was supposed to be a little bit like "Semi-Detached"?

A: Well, I think Micheal wrote that blog and I think that was the initial reaction that we had when we heard the first couple of tunes but this is before we had any of the song titles or anything. I think Michael thought some of the material was a bit more like the track "Straight Life" off of "Semi-Detached", that it was going that way - slightly groove-based, a bit lyrically sharper than our previous albums have been for a while.




J: What I liked about "Semi-Detached" was the incredible textured guitar sound that I am basically yet to find in any other music out there. I've been wondering if the plan was to go back to this sound a little bit, the army of guitars, weird noises all over the place...

A: Well, the track "Exiles" on the new album, the dubstep influenced one, guitar-wise there is a section in that song that I wanted to sound like a haunted ballroom or an abandoned cinema, and I think that was kind of some of the same approach that we had on "Semi Detached". So I think maybe if we've done it on this album "Exiles" and I think that it was a success then its something that we will probably pursue again in the future.

J: That would be great. How about your other albums in the past? How do you look back at them, are there any that you don't particularly like or any that you are very proud of?

A: Some of them I like more than the others, some of them, I think, with hindsight, I see ways that could have been better. I tend to really like the more eclectic ones. I really like the very first album "Babyteeth" because it was our first album, we were so glad to have it made. I absolutely loved "Suicide Pact - You First" that we made in 1999...




J: That album is so difficult to listen to. I guess that is why you are proud of it but I find it really difficult to listen all the way through in one go.

A: Well, a lot of people think that but I think what I like about it is more from a personal light. Also, you know, we put a great deal of ferocity and energy into that record. I also really really like the album "Never Apologize Never Explain". I don't really have anything that is a great disappointment, there are some things I wish... "Semi Detached", there are a few tracks on that we could have recorded a lot better, just a few tracks. And we did an album called "Shameless" in 2001 that we tried to make a rock'n'roll record but I think we didn't really think the arrangement of the songs up properly and it wasn't either dumb enough to be a good rock'n'roll record (laughs) or it wasn't avant-garde enough to be a really kinda strange take on rock'n'roll.

J: Well, I actually like that album so it wasn't all bad...

A: (laughs)

J: I've never really been disappointed with your music over the years, I was just wondering what your take on your past was.

A: I never really think about things that I've done in the past until...

J: … some annoying journalist asks you?

A: (laughs) Oh, no (laughs). It's actually quite nice to think back because it gives you a different perspective on them.

J: So, are there any other announcements that you would like to make?

A: No, I don't think I have any particularly big announcements, I'm just really pleased with this record and I really cant wait to get out there and tour it.

J: Yeah, it's a little bit strange interviewing you right before its release as well, since none of the people reading this interview will have any idea what we're talking about...

A: (laughs)

J: Well, hopefully this will wet their appetites a little bit.

A: Yeah, well that's the idea, that would be great.

J: Alright, all the best then and have a good time over there.

A: Alright take care now, have a good weekend, its been really nice talking to you.

J: Pleasure is all mine, good night.

Thanks go to Flo for making this interview possible