(Muso's Guide, December 18, 2008)
Interview: Fight Like Apes
Picture the coolest band you can imagine. Pose-striking rock demons in leather and denim? Too cool for school heroes with no time for the normal folk? Seriously, everyone loves a rock star who is well aware of their status.
Which is why Ireland’s Fight Like Apes are such an anomaly. Because, well, they look just like you. Bright tees! Hoodies! Long hair! And they make great music - funny and interesting, referencing 1990s film heroes - like Jake Summers from California Man, who they namecheck on… um… ‘Jake Summers’.
It’s no surprise that such a funky, quirky band are dead good craic. Or at least, Pockets is - FLA keyboard maestro, so called because he likes to ‘pocket’ lighters.
If you don’t know Fight Like Apes, you’re really missing out. Just finished a UK tour supporting The Prodigy, their star is what might be termed ‘in the ascendency’.
When we catch up with Pockets, he’s on the tourbus, living it large - FLA-style - watching Mannequin.
“It’s a fantastic movie, I didn’t remember it being that good like. I realised that I quite fancied Kim Cattrall back in the day. Nowadays, she’s a bit much for me…”
This is very FLA - they have their limits, don’t you know. Pockets is pleased to pronounce himself “very relaxed”, and sounds like he could doze off at any time.
Pockets got together with vocalist Maykay, Tom on bass and drummer Adrian in the usual way.
“We’ve been friends for years and we’ve played in crappy little bands together that we don’t talk about.”
It seems that the experience has paid off, as the fun, interesting eight-legged behemoth that is FLA have a nice line in swagger that can only come from truly knowing oneself.
“When we started, we were just trying to please ourselves so anybody who liked us was a surprise. Anybody liking us whatsoever is a bonus so we’re just very comfortable with with ourselves and the music we make. I suppose we are kind of cocky brats.”
The cockiness paid off, and the band were snapped up in 2008 for their biggest tour to date with the Prodigy, but Pockets is characteristically laid back about supporting a Brit dance mega-act.
“It was a bit of a learning curve, adapting to playing their crowd because they’ve got such committed fans, but we were really happy with the response.”
As a Prodge fan, Pockets will admit to being daunted at first, but it’s all in his stride now.
“I loved Jilted Generation whenever it came out but never really anticipated playing with them - it’s been amazing to be able to do it. And they’re so nice as well! Keith Flint is actually really normal, he just looks absolutely terrifying.”
As well as a shared love of the Prodigy’s seminal classic Music For The Jilted Generation, FLA cite way cool lo-fi and rock acts as influences - My Bloody Valentine, Pavement. So why don’t FLA play guitar?
Pockets laughs. “We’re really crap at guitar! It’s genuinely that simple. I tried to be a guitarist when I was younger and so did Tom and we were just awful at it, so it made sense to just start a band without a guitar and look for a guitarist.”
By the time that they realised they didn’t really want an axe wielder, Fight Like Apes had already carved out their own niche.
“We always think of ourselves as being highly influenced by guitar bands, but we play it all on keyboard, and I guess that’s where we just got lucky - creating our own sound.”
Luckier still was travelling to Seattle to work with Death Cab For Cutie and Los Campesinos! producer John Goodmanson - surely the cause of some nervous moments?
“John was just so cocky, and he had done a lot of our favourite records, by Sleater Kinney and Bikini Kill. He was so chilled out and relaxed. Even when we were saying ‘are we ever going to get this record finished?’, he’d just be sitting there fixing keyboards and watching YouTube videos!”
The hard work paid off - eventually - and the band’s record, Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion, is a masterpiece. Even if they do say so themselves…
“When we did our EPs, they were initially just demos, so this time it was really nice spending some time working on the songs,” Pockets says.
“As we got better at the songs through gigging, the initial versions stood on record, so it was really nice to be able to record them, and actually think about them for the first time ever. We never really thought about them at first because we never thought we were going to play many gigs. We thought we’d get laughed off the stage and it didn’t really work out that way, fortunately!”
FLA fans foam at the mouth for the band’s terrific lyrics - witness “Hey! You! Watch your face! You’re like Kentucky Fried Chicken, but without the taste.” or “Hooks are for wimps and choruses are for gays”. Think part hilarious 1980s comedy, part excruciating emotional heartbreak. How does a band come up with a formula so off-kilter?
Pockets says it was unintentional, borne out of their peculiar lives of a few years ago.
“The cultural references came really easily from the fact that we hadn’t really been doing anything for a few years except for just watching movies and stuff, and when we started the band it was kind of a way of venting our own interests and it kind of happened really naturally.”
And so tracks like ‘Jake Summers’ and ‘I’m Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverly Hills 90210 To Me’ sit happily alongside one another on the record.
Pockets is quite fond of the Irish music scene at the moment, but says they never wanted to stick around at home - they want to get truly massive.
“I’m really looking forward to getting wires and flying during our lives shows. I’ve just always wanted to fly, so the bigger the stage, the more budget for flying.”
Well then, with big ideas like that, it’s time to start living like rock stars! What’s next on the FLA tourbus? Drinking? Debauchery? Worse?!
“We’ve got Willow set up to watch later on. I’m really looking forward to that.”
The Fight Like Apes tourbus - it’s no simian mobile disco.
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