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Picking up the industry bashing baton, Mick declares that “the record company’s have lost a lot of their validity. People can record their own albums now, they don’t need a recording budget from a label anymore. You sign with a major, you record an album and it gets shelved. You’re left waiting for maybe two years before it’s released. Not being able to put out your record. What kind of shit is that? I’d rather top meself than be in that situation. We’ve had a few record companies sniffing around, but the vibe you get off them is fucking horrific. First of all, when it comes to music, most of them don’t have a clue what they’re talking about; they don’t even seem to like music. Secondly, they try and fuck with you, try and tell you what type of record you should be making. It seems that we don’t really fit into the genres of music that people want to put out these days.”
He stops and points accusingly at a television in the corner of the room. On screen The Kooks are prancing through a rendition of their “bland, retrogressive, sentimental, sensitive shit.” Suffice to say Mick Pyro is not impressed.
“Bands like that shite,” he mutters, finger waggling in contempt, “these groups have one forte, bland. All their songs sound the same, they might have a few good hooks but there’s no ambition there. They’re more interested in their haircuts and what they’re wearing than having genuine musical ambition. What’s the point of playing shite that you don’t believe in? I don’t care if you’re playing it to 200,000 people, to not believe in the music you’re playing is the worst possible thing.”
As to the Loose’s own difficulties when it comes to marketing, Mick provides a typically forthright assessment.
“We’re not angling towards being marketable, or trying to court the so-called fashionable crowd, the NME and all that. Ultimately a lot of our marketing difficulties come down to the way we look, well, the way I look specifically, my paunch and face. But that’s gonna be remedied with plastic surgery! Sorry, hope I don’t sound insecure,” he laughs.
Extreme measures such as plastic surgery might not be necessary. Although the band have yet to make a significant breakthrough in the UK, their prospects have been boosted by the endorsement of high-profile music figures including Gary Lightbody and Bono.
“What I like about people like Bono saying they like us is that it confuses people,” says Pyro. “U2 fans who hate us, when they hear that Bono likes us they don’t know what to think. I love that. That’s the best thing about it all, confusing motherfuckers who are U2 fans, but hate us.”
Truly, Republic of Loose are a band who inspire or, more accurately, incite extreme reactions and not just from U2 fans. According to their online bio, there was a time when they considered themselves one of the most detested groups in Ireland. And not without reason. “We were accosted and abused on the street, on a regular basis. We would have all sorts shouted at us, you know, ‘You fuckin’ suck mate, you’re shite’, that kind of thing,” recalls Mick, before adding “not that I blame people for hating us, we kinda hate ourselves!”
The times, though, they are a changing. As Benjamin acknowledges, “Most of the hatred towards us has evaporated. Actually Ireland is the only place we can possibly do worse on this record than the previous ones. So it’s really important not to fuck up Ireland.”
Renewed assaults on the UK and America are on the horizon, but looking beyond that the band dream of establishing a Republic of Loose recording dynasty, what Benjamin describes as a “Factory label situation, something like Motown even, where within the one structure songs are being written, performed, arranged and produced.”
“We just want to keep pumping the work in and the good music out,” adds Mick. “We’ve got masses of musical and mental information, it’s just a matter of getting it our there, being more creative, developing more. That’s all I want, I’m not thinking of conquering Germany or anything.”
This article first appeared in AU46, June 2008.
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