Peter Hayes REBELS WITH A CAUSE
Hailed as saviours of rock and roll on the release of their debut record, BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB have kept the ante up with their second LP, ´´Take Them On, On Your Own´´. Una Mullally woke up bassist Peter Hayes in his London hotel room to chat about rebelion and rock ahead of their gig in Dublin´s Ambassador...
´´Ermm ugh fhurrgh ahhwgh´´. This is the sound a rockstar makes waking up. Which is what Peter Hayes was doing when confronted by a phonecall from the Event Guide. This is also what one third of the most celebrated rock band around sounded like for the next twenty minutes; mumbling mostly, occasionaly laughing uncontrolably and mainly making very little sense. Well, it was early in the morning (2PM).
Picking up from where The Stone Roses and Jesus and Mary Chain left off, BRMC injected an authenticity into rock when their epynomous LP came out. Their sound was instantly picked up on by the industry and the press and endorsed by most of their fellow musicians. So what did it feel like to be immediately touted as the commanders of `the new rock revolution´? “I take it seriously” mumbles Hayes, “we can only do our part. I don´t know if we spearheaded it. It takes more than one band and it takes fans of music.” Pausing awkwardly for a few moments, he adds, “hopefully we can be able to give a voice to people”.
Trying to write ´rock classics´ is usually a cliched experience, but BRMC manage to do it because for them, the rock comes from the heart and is without a doubt the essence of their material. Who´d of thought a song like ´Whatever Happened To My Rock and Roll?´ could be written with such authenticity and without a foundation of irony common to many so-called rock bands around at the moment. “I don´t care much for innovation”, declares Hayes, “I care about the spirit behind it”.
BRMC seemed to be obsessed with maintaining this authenticity of rock and roll. Like their music, they themselves constantly refer back to what has gone before them, “Rock and roll used to be pretty idealistic. In a way, it did everything. Rock has its enemy, but a lot of bands have lost sight of that.”
Despite their success, BRMC have turned away from the commercialism associated with today´s industry. Most recently, they turned down a six figure sum for a TV commercial. Were they trying to make a specific statement? “Yeah...I´m not sure what the statement was. It´s pretty easy to do ads, then everyone goes crazy for one song and your get albums sold”. Bohemian like who?, “well, we try to make it on our own”.
This self-sufficiant attitude extends all the way to the studio, where BRMC take care of production and engineering themselves, “it´s not really about independence, but if we do it all on our own, it feels a bit more honest in a way. It gives people more to hold onto than if it was done by somebody else”.
In Hayes´ rock opinion, a lot of bands have sold out when it comes to maintaining the rebelion that was once the centre of rock and roll, “It used to be ´us´ and ´them´ and I think that´s healthy. Now it´s ‘ok’ to do ads”. This is where, Hayes just goes a wee bit weird, “Republican/Democrat, Protestant/Catholic, all those lines are being blurred to make everybody happy and watered down”
This defiant attitude comes across more than ever on ´Generation´, a track on their current LP. Where The Who endorsed their peers, BRMC are rejecting theres, “we´re asking questions, ´where the fuck are we?´ Is it that generation they´re calling us? Do we love all this music being shoved down our throats? Is that really true? I don´t think so.” Not fans of Britney then, “We´re innundated with pop that doesn´t have a lot of purpose it´s the same crap over and over again. The American public is not given much variety. As far as I´m concerned, that´s the government controling it. If you control the art, you control the people”.
Whatever about their gripes and strange, hungover rockstar mumbles, live, BRMC continue to hit the g-spot of rock over and over again. Authentic, weird and pissed off - in other words, what rock and roll is all about.
