How much has Ireland influenced the band – in terms ofpolitics/music/culture ?
Thin Lizzy, The Undertones, SLF, Rudi, The Outcasts, Ruefrex, NorthernIrish sense of humour.
Chris Sheldon produced “High Anxiety” – and there are a lot of “Troublegum“references sonically – is it a question of returning to what you’re famousfor?
No, Chris is a great mixer and we had been hanging out with him at thattime and we thought it might be fun for him to mix the record. Heobviously has a good insight into how we sound plus the few years gapallowed him to approach it with a pair of fresh ears. I think he did anamazing job.
Are there any European bands you listen to?
Lots of Scandinavian bands. Turbonegro..Hellacopters…In Flames..GreatDeciever..Wolf..Nasum..plus Millionaire, Zornik, Rammstein etc….
Has the DVD “Scopophobia” come out yet? And Why the title?
It’s out now folks! The title is meant to be a bit ironic as I alwaysfind the concept of watching yourself very weird let alone other peoplewanting to watch you. Plus it’s got that ‘therapy’/’phobia’ link.
Politics seems to rear it’s ugly head in “Not in my name” on the “HighAnxiety” – who’s it addressed to – Tony Blair? Paramilitaries? Bush?
It’s addressed to anyone who’s ever used violence as a solution.
Where’s the strangest place you’ve played in the last couple of years?
We played in Russia a few weeks ago and it wasn’t strange at all but itseemed slightly surreal to think of how our little band got from NorthernIreland in 1990 to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2004.
How did the last Italian tour go – any remaining bad memories from thePalestrina gig in 2000?
Last Italian tour was great. That fucked up incident in Palestrina wasjust one drunk asshole (someone threw a half full glass vodka bottle atAndy and it hit his arm, badly injuring it…), we watched it back onvideo afterwards and let’s just say if it had hit Andy on the head hewould not be here today.
How do you feel about MP3’s and file downloading? Are people who download”Thieves”?
I do it myself but if I like what I hear I always go buy the properalbum. What a lot of people don’t realise is that when they download analbum or copy it for a friend they make it harder for new or small bandsto continue. The record companies become more paranoid and conservative inthe bands they sign and are less inclined to take a chance on more’experimental’ or off the wall bands. The same people who download alltheir music are the ones who complain about the lack of fresh newtalent…
You’re recording new songs now – what are they like, and when can we expectnew material from Therapy?
The new songs are totally rocking…with the new stripped down threepiece there is no flab at all…it’s lean and mean with great rythmns,melodies and big riffs…we’re all totally excited. Imagine “High Anxiety“as a debut album…the next one will be a stronger, more focussed, moreadventurous ‘second’ album. I think the plan is to record it early Juneand with the usual production time scale, it should be in the shopsSeptember/October 2004.