The Apollo Theatre in Manchester is now well entrenched as being a
pedestal for up and coming bands en route to music’s elite territory. Some bands and artists prior to appearing here, have been known to display the nerves of a soccer player about to tread the hallowed turf of Wembley or the Millennium Stadium for the first time. However, for We Are Scientists’ bassist Chris Cain, and the artery that circulates their live and oft improvised humour, it would take more than this to throw him off his stride.
For all the controversy surrounding the bottle pelting of emo protagonists My Chemical Romance and Panic At The Disco, at the Reading Festival this year, the moustachioed Chris has a novel solution to this problem. When a nigh on full bottle of beer hit him at the NME Tour this January, he simply drank the contents of it and smiled politely. He has a permanent look of amiability, but also mischief about him. In true Family Fortunes fashion, in a recent poll of 100 people when asked which of the trio, who are each holding aloft a cute kitten on the cover of their album Love And Squalour’, is most likely to be placing their kitten in the microwave? 82 respondents pointed to Chris without hesitation.
The impact of the above mentioned album is still being felt on dance floors across the country and upon the ears of new music connoisseurs. Tracks like the bounding ‘History Repeats’ and the anthemic ‘The Great Escape’, form the fulcrum of a
vibrant and roving rock-a-round, with harmonies galore. Also, it is the buoyant and captivating live sets that have been increasing da’ Scientist’s popularity as much as anything.
“I think that bands can attract attention without a live show. Our live aspect is always important to the way we think about music. We always look at making a record that’s
as close to our live sound as possible.”
This is the genuine Californian’s humble response to a query about the importance of playing live these days. Also, it is an attempt to reason why some bands can’t get near to We Are Scientists’ dynamic musical strut and humour in a live setting and, why some are simply content to replicate their album sound. The guys are about to unleash a smattering of B-sides, covers and rarities upon the unsuspecting public, entitled ‘Crap Attack’. Does this uncover a different side to the trembling, harmony gushing trio and highlight unexpected influences?
“Oh yeah, absolutely, a lot of it is stuff that didn’t fit onto the album (‘With Love & Squalour’). For example, our Art Brut cover ‘Bang Bang Rock & Roll’, we only recorded that recently. It is different from anything we have done before and it is not definitely where there next album is heading.”
It is their Singapore on the way to Australia, a neat stop-over and different, but equally as impressive scenery. So what about tonight’s set any new numbers?
“Yeah, there are two new songs that we wrote on the road. We don’t know if they’ll be on the new album yet. They’ll also be a few covers as well, but not The Ronettes one this time around.”
Typical musicians answer, promising but giving nothing away. So, they’re thinking about a new album? A look of pride takes over Chris’ moustache as his main facial feature and his excitement at the opportunity to look forward is plain to see;
“When we’ve finished this tour in November, we’re going to focus on the new album and distance ourselves from ‘With Love And Squalour’. We are coming back to the UK for a show on the NME BRATS Tour, early next year. Then it will be spring before we are back here”
It is interesting the covers they chose, as ‘Crap Attack’ contains a version of The Ronettes ‘Be My Baby’ that has been a striking feature of their live set before. What does this band and song mean to them and what song of theirs would they like to be covered?
“’Be My Baby’ is a great song, one of the most notable aspects of it is the harmonies and the backing vocals, which we like a lot and try to incorporate in our music. The challenge with ‘Be My Baby’ was to live up to The Ronettes, which we failed to do, I think.”
1,800 fans at Manchester Academy may disagree with the last statement. Chris enthusiastically points to a state of the art laptop that he was fixated upon prior to this interview;
“Regarding someone covering one of our songs, there’s a page on our website that I have been a bit lax in checking. Whereby, we invited our fans to do covers of our songs and the quality is really good. ‘The Great Escape’, ‘Your Scene Is Dead’ and ‘History Repeats’ were popular choices.”
It’s time to stir up a bit of controversy. Does ‘Your Scene Is Dead’ take on extra significance here in Manchester? This is greeted with a wry smile and then some more diplomacy;
“I dunno, obviously Manchester continues to produce good bands. I don’t know what function the scene has or what part the industry has in scenes. Because of the internet and that, I imagine scenes will still exist, but geographical scenes may disappear. Myspace and MP3s presuppose the extinction of the live show, but you will always get local bands with no money who will keep the live scene going.”
And, not to mention bands for which music is a live experience and who retain a dynamic aura, like We Are Scientists. With singer/guitarist Keith Murray strolling in and chilling out, exchanging a witty back and forth with the interviewee, it is a good time to discover how creative differences are resolved?
“We don’t, our songs represent where we’ve gotten to, I suppose to a point we are all equally dissatisfied with. We value what each member brings to it, though.”
It is apparent that this is a clued up and genuine muso, so what does the term “indie” mean to him these days?
“I think there are two meanings; indie as a lifestyle and indie in financial terms, it describes a certain handicap, it lacks label backing and production skill. It has lost its meaning these days. Since the grunge days really, when the raw sound became popular the usefulness of that meaning of the term, has been dismantled.”
It is possible to argue that the term has a third meaning that just refers to artists who can think and act for themselves, with or without label and production backing. A member of such a group has just answered the above question. Given that the band has been together for five years and released three EPs, on top of their well known exhibits, are they still a changing and empirical outfit?
“Yeah, we’ll never stop being a band in transition.”
With influences as broad as The Ronettes, Art Brut and even Mudhoney (who are name dropped with pride at one point during the introductory chit-chat), it is hardly surprising that the band is going to fluctuate in its sound and impact. For many their jovial nature and focused set saved the NME Tour of 2006, from turning into an Arctic Monkeys’ uncle.
There is an impressive amount of people waiting outside the venue 3 hours before the doors open for their benchmark gig. The constantly evolving nature of We Are Scientists, coupled with their buoyancy for music and life makes for a dynamic and enthralling formula.