Interviews
PepperHead Online
INTERVIEW DATE: Aug '97
INTERVIEWER: Andy Duffy
THE IDIOTS:
Brian Mooney - Vocals, Guitar
Declan Costello - Bass
Andy Osborn - Drums
The Idiots are a highly praised band from Dublin, Ireland who have received good reviews from every quarter of the music press. Someone even went so far as to say that their self-titled album was so "monolithically huge it has tunes to fill an aircraft hangar". Big Black and Sonic Youth are names regularly mentioned in connection with these guys' sound and they are quite simply the kings of drone guitar. They also had the good fortune to provide the soundtrack for a widely acclaimed play called "A Bronze Twist Of Your Serpent Muscles" which toured all over Ireland and England. We spoke to drummer Andy Osborn about their career to date...
How did The Idiots meet and start out?
Andy : Ermmm, ah yeah we were all in...well myself and Brian were in
sort of garagey bands. Dec wasn't in any other band. This is actually
his first band, he's the bass player. He used to do sound for us and we
were looking for a bass player and then he was strumming the bass in a
part of the room one day and we went, "Oh, do you play bass?", "Yeah!",
"Yeah, there we go!". So that's how we got together.
So why did you call yourselves The Idiots?
Andy : No reason in particular really. I actually don't know - it just
came about and the name just stuck and we just started using the name.
Do you ever have a problem with your Brian being in the same room as the
one from Pet Lamb?
Andy : (laughs) Yeah. The two of them were out on the p*ss one night.
Did you hear about that? They got stopped by the cops, the place got
raided and the two of them got stopped by the cops!
Cool! But does your Brian get called 'Idiot' to make it simple?
Andy : Oh yes, absolutely! Ah no, I mean - I've never actually seen them
in the same room together properly so I don't really know!
Did you do any demos before getting signed to Dirt?
Andy : We did, yeah. The album that we released was originally supposed
to be a demo.
This tape here? (I indicate a sheet containing multiple sleeves for a
cassette copy of what appears to be the album)
Andy : No, no. This is actually. That thing there isn't [the album]. I'm
going over to the CMJ. That's actually not the album that. I'm going
over to the CMJ next week so I've made up a tape.
Oh, I thought this was your self-titled debut album...
Andy : No, well it's the same cover but what we've just done is scanned
in the cover and basically I've just put three tracks off the album and
then two other songs that we're working on downstairs at the moment and
we're gonna stick them all together on this tape to bring it over to the
States. So that's what that's all about...but no, the album was
originally recorded as a demo. There was actually six songs on the demo
and we just got a hundred lashed off onto cassette just to sell at gigs.
And then Brian O'Neill from Dirt heard the tape and really liked it and
decided that he wanted to release it, for what it was, as a CD. So we
had another song that we'd just recorded so we gave him that as well and
they stuck that on and [they] had an album out.
What song was that?
Andy : "I Should Go", the second one.
That's all you've really released isn't it?
Andy : Er, that's all we've ever released yeah. I mean, that's quite a
while ago. It's probably about three years now. So we're probably gonna
get somethin' else [out] fairly soon. So that's the score with that,
anyway. So we'll probably release something maybe early next year. We'll
work on an EP or something like that. [We'll] try and get something out.
It's kind of gone on too long now, y'know?
Are there any bands you like around Ireland?
Andy : Ermm yeah, there's a few bands alright you know? I wouldn't like
to exclude anybody and include anybody. But there are some...all the
bands that you're going to see probably - I probably like, y'know?
Stuff like Pet Lamb?
Andy : Yeah, stuff like that.
Or even Luggage?
Andy : Yeah, I really like Luggage. Schroeder's Cat - another band,
they're good! Yeah, there's a lot of good bands out there alright.
What bands do you get compared with?
Andy : Ermm, yeah. It's always strange 'cos anytime we get reviewed for
a gig or any of the reviews for the album it's always drawn comparisons
with Sonic Youth which is kind of a strange thing - none of us really
ever listened to Sonic Youth before but every time...like, a lot of
reviews for the album you pick up are, "Obviously very influenced by
Sonic Youth", and "Obviously influenced by Sonic Youth", "Obviously
influenced by Sonic Youth" - which we never really were, y'know? The
whole members of the band has a sort of very large mixture of
influences, not one sort of defined influence though. Y'know, amongst us
[there are no bands] that we all really liked and decided we wanted to
be like in the band.
Would you happen to know what any of the songs are about, Andy?
Andy : Ermm, any of our songs?! Yeah, unfortunately I do yeah! (laughs)
I just thought maybe Brian would write all the lyrics...
Andy : Well, we all kind of write. I mean songs sort of come out of a
rehearsal and there's nobody kind of goes away and writes a song and
then comes back y'know? I mean, Brian writes the majority of the lyrics,
I've written a few. A song could come out of anything really - a
drumbeat or...
So you've had some input into the lyrics?
Andy : Er yeah, I've written some lyrics in some of the songs but how do
you mean? What song in particular?
Well, what songs have you contributed to?
Andy : Ah, one or two. I kinda know what they're all about, y'know?
So "Rekcollector" is about someone who collects garbage?
Andy : Er, no. Well, that's probably a better definition than I'd come
up with y'know? A lot of the songs, I think there's a kind of a vein
that runs through that whole album but I think a lot of the songs are
very introspective in a sense y'know? I think that really does run
through just about all the songs on it. I mean, I don't think there's
any song I could pick off the album that wouldn't have that
introspective kind of aspect to it.
So there's none you could actually explain?
Andy : No! (laughs)
Well, what's "Slow" about?
Andy : "Slow"? Well "Slow", I mean I suppose it's probably about wasting
time in a sense. I mean, you can waste time in so many different ways.
You did a video for that didn't you?
Andy : We did yeah, yeah.
Have you done any more videos yet?
Andy : No, that was the only one we've ever done a video for.
Well Brian did suggest using the current footage for "Slow" as another
song's video...
Andy : Yeah, well I mean...the thing is we haven't really done anything
in the last [three years]. We haven't done our own gig here...our own
proper gig here in over fourteen months. We kinda went through a period
of not really doing anything which we're just kinda getting back into
now so we want to release something else so when we know, obviously
we're gonna get a video together for something and just take it from
there so we're in a process at the moment of trying to actually get
things organised which can be fairly difficult at the best [of] times.
What are your basic future plans at the moment?
Andy : Ermm, well definitely make another record. Regardless of whether
it's an album or an EP or what. We were over in the States as well,
about a month ago and what we did over there went down very well. We did
one gig for the Intel festival and that went very well, so we're kinda
at the moment trying to concentrate on getting back over there 'cos it
seems to be the sort of place that we get the best response from so far.
Didn't you, as a band, get to do the music for a play?
Andy : Yeah - no, we played live for a play that was on here. It was on
in Liverpool actually, yeah. It's a great time actually while we were
there [in Liverpool]. I mean, the play itself at that stage was a bit
ropey y'know? Basically we were playing live and there was two actors
onstage and one's deaf and the other one was Italian and there was no
dialogue in it at all and we'd just kind of play along. It was very
movement orientated although there was kind of a loose plot running
through the whole thing about a guy who tickled his wife to death! And
we were playing live to it.
That's quite a bizarre story! Maybe you should write a song about it?!
Andy : Yeah! The Fall did something very similar. A thing like that
"Curious Orange" thing. They played live with a ballet.
Was it about being tickled to death though?! It's a bit of a strange
concept!
Andy : Yeah, true. I mean, the funny thing about the play was nobody
really understood what it was about. It was more of a sort of sight and
sound experience.
What bigger bands have you played with?
Andy : We played with Pavement last week - it was grand! [It was] a good
crowd - we got a very good reaction and we played with Spiritualized as
well.
Are you into Spiritualized?
Andy : Yeah, I do. I kind of sorta half like them half don't like them.
Half the stuff I really like, half the stuff I don't really like. I
bought the new album about a month ago and I've only actually listened
to it twice. It's kind of hard to get into. It's very sort of brassy and
very Pink Floyd-y as well. It's very moody.
Are there any bands you feel an affinity for?
Andy : Ah, Status Quo! Yeah, that's one!
How about Queen?
Andy : Well, not Queen - there's only the Quo, y'know? [There's] only
ever the Quo! Ermm, to be honest with you - not really! I mean,
obviously everybody likes different bands but I mean, an affinity to
what we're doing musically and what we listen to - I don't think there's
much of a comparison because we've always tried to...not tried to do
something completely different but at the same time I think what we've
come up with and the sound that I've got...I think it's...without
sitting there sounding headstrong and I think it's our own in a sense.
So I don't really like to draw too many comparisons to other bands.
