Fighting With Wire Interview November 08

Fight Wire with Wire!


Fighting with Wire have been doing the rounds for longer than you may think. Formed in 2002 by front man Cahir O’Doherty (Jetplane Landing) and drummer Craig McKean (Clearshot), this rockin’ three piece hail from County Derry.
Often compared to the likes of At The Drive-In and Fugazi, the band have been garnering serious attention of late following extensive tours with the likes of Biffy Clyro, Ash, Reuben, Kerbdog and Million Dead.
The trio, completed by bassist Jamie King, like to do things the old school way; record, tour and tour some more.
As this writer catches up with the lads before their gig in The Venue at NUI Maynooth, the last seven months of relentless touring on the back of their debut album, Man Vs Monster, seems to have been very worthwhile indeed, as guitarist Cahir explains;

“Its been brilliant, basically we’ve been everywhere since April when we went out first with Get Cape Wear Cape Fly.
We did all the festivals in Europe, Ireland and the UK… so it’s been pretty full on.
I think Saturday is our last show and then we go into the studio to put some new stuff together, which we’re really dying to do because a lot of these songs are 5 years old. It just took us a while to get the record together and get the songs out.”

After funding the whole recording process themselves, the band pressed some copies of Man Vs Monster and set out to find the backing of a record label which turned out to be harder work than they first imagined.
“We got zero response, nothing. Nobody gave a shit. Even moderate Indie labels in the UK didn’t want anything to do. We wanted to put the record out, we had no idea how to do it but we had paid for it ourselves, written all the songs and we had recorded it.”

When times are tough you can always count on a friend. The independent label Small Town America, where former Jetplane Landing man Andrew Ferris happens to work, finally released the album and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the band.

“We had honestly decided to do 1,000 copies, one more tour and see how it goes, maybe call it a day. And then out of the blue Atlantic records from America got hold of three tracks from a website called Shadow Globe. The head guy phoned me up and said he wanted to bring us to America to play in front of Atlantic records.
A week later we were in New York, we did a showcase, played 5 songs and they loved it.
After we signed with Atlantic it basically all started snowballing. So we’re still with Small Town but have the backing of Atlantic. We’re still on an Indie Label, we still have our independence, our freedom so we have every say (in what we do) as a band.”

And that gives the band the freedom to get out on the road and come to college towns, just like the metropolis of Maynooth, to win over the students who’s minds have been corrupted by the processed dung that popular music continues to be...

“I want to see a band that kicks ass, I want to see a band that puts in the work. Because a band that puts in the work I know people can believe in a band like that.
I would say that with touring, loads of bands are trying to use the whole Myspace, online thing to escape the terrible touring schedule. But there is no escape. You’ve just got to still go out there and people have got to see your band and want to buy your records, you know what I mean? And that’s it. You’ve got to blow them away live.
Recently we got reviewed for the NME and they said we were an unrivalled pile of shit. Now, I personally, and the lads, we were very proud of that review because NME promotes nothing but bullshitter’s. It’s all fashion over content really so were glad we’re not lumped in with all those egotistical maniacs. We were a bit afraid that they might like us and we thought, fuck what if they like us? What are we going to do? We’ll have to wear skinny jeans and scarves indoors and eye liner, fuck that!
Kerrang! gave us a great review, Rock Sound gave us a great review and then all these great reviews of the album started pouring in.
That year when nobody replied to us and nobody gave shit we thought, this album is shit nobody cares. And then it all took off. It took ages for anybody to actually listen to it or give it a chance.
We love albums that you can put on and say, right, I love every track, like Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten and Soundgarden, you know?
You put them on and every fucking song is great. That’s the kind of album I miss.”

What was planned to be a five-minute interview has turned in to a half hour of engaging and laugh-laden discourse. There are of course a few stories a la Spinal Tap that are not fit to see the light of day. These include the terrible Leeds festival bus ride home where Alan, the drum tech, disappeared in to the wilderness to ‘drop one’ only to find that the only sufficient piece of wiping material was the coat his girlfriend (who happens to be the bands tour manager) got him for Christmas. Of course it goes without saying that she found out the next day via a very excited Cahir. A grin spans his whole face as he describes, in great detail, the happenings of that night.
Preconceptions aside, it turns out that these guys are as laid back as a sunny Jamaican morning and finally our focuses turn to the upcoming tour with ‘the Biff’ and the prospects of touring the states next year;

“We’re really looking forward to it, Biffy Clyro came down to our show in Glasgow when we were there a few weeks ago and basically asked if we wanted to do the Irish dates of the tour and we were like fucking right, that’d be great because we toured with them in Ireland 4 years ago when we just started out.
So we have the Biffy tour in December, back out on tour in the UK and Ireland in January to promote the third single and then off to America again. It’s looking good and we’re fucking loving it. We’re just getting our heads down and keeping it real, as they say. We’re up for a bit of craic, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but at the same time, we’re not fucking teenagers in a band crying about not getting pocket money or being grounded.”
On that note, a cheeky Jamie interrupts; ”Where’s my pocket money by the way?”
“Your Grounded!” Cahir replies, to rapturous laughing.

Five minutes later the Venue begins to fill and the band take to the stage. The first chords of Everyone Needs A Nemesis ring out and O’Doherty, in true rock n roll fashion, flings himself like a ragged doll around the stage for the duration. Now it’s clear what he means by the need to be blown away by a live band. This is rock n roll at its best. This Island needs more bands like this…

Steven Battle

Old Interview with Jim Lawlor of Saso

Steven Battle – A Quick chat with Jim Lawlor of Saso, October 2006.

You Guys played a gig in Crawdaddy this month to showcase some songs from the new album, how were they received?
It’s hard to know when your on stage but I suppose from our point of view we were very happy with the performance. We showcased a couple of songs from the new album which is called The Middle Ages so that was an interesting outing for those songs, particularly the electronic based songs.
For the first time we brought the electronic compponent to our sound onto the stage so that was an interseting experiment and it payed off very well. We’re very happy with the result.

I know the band comprises of yourself and Ben Rawlins, but for the live performances do you have extra musicians on stage?
Obviously the core artistic base of Saso is myself and Ben and that’s how we produce the music in studio but when it comes to playing live we need other players so we’ve managed to put together a really good crew of musicians. I suppose it’s a tradittional set up, vocals, guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and as I said, a computer on stage playing the more electronic ambient sounds which have become the Saso trademark.

Cool, Getting back to the new album, how much time did you spend in the studio?
Well the project started about this time last year and went through, I suppose what you would call a writing phase up to the christmas period. After that we began to put together what was looking like a finished product in terms of an album. But it didn’t achieve what we though it would in terms of a listening experience so we went back and revised a couple of songs and got rid of a few. Basically shuffled the deck a bit more which added a bit more time onto the project. It ended up being finished in may/june. About a year in total I think. It’s a slow process. We started off with the best intentions to have it finished before last christmas but we werent just gonna finish it for the sake of it. We decided to postpone the release date until this side of the summer. It gave us a bit more breathing space and as a result it’s a far better album for it.

Saso have been the compared to the likes of Talk Talk, Mogwai and Sigur Ros. Is that where your influences lie?
Its very flattering to be compared to those bands and ya we were influenced by them. I suppose what we would share with them bands is their sonic approach, not necessarily trying to replicate them. Its more of an atmospheric likeness that we would share.
I think what we have taken from Talk Talk really is more their recording technique The re;ationship between Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene would be very similar to the way Saso is set up. So that’s quite a big influence. Mogwai, I don’t know, originally back maybe 5-6 years ago we were compared to them but I think we have developed a more structured sound with lyrics and stuff where Mogwai have kinda stayed on a plateau with respect to their sound, especially live. They have a very distinct kida trick and that seems to be what they are selling. I think Saso have a bit more depth to the product, you know?

Any plans to play a few dates around the country to promote The Middle Ages?
Ya, if the opportunity arises we’ll cetainly take it. At the moment we’ll have no specific confirmed dates. We’re looking into it, as they say, at the moment. We’ll see what happens…

www.myspace.com/sasoband
www.saso.co.uk