Fight Likes Apes

Fight Like Apes have enjoyed a couple of particularly triumphant nights at home in Dublin these past six months. There was September’s album launch at Whelans in January, a show that, by all accounts, the raucous synthsters absolutely killed. Then there was the step up and across the Liffey to The Academy where, again, a ferocious live reputation was rubber stamped. Before, in between and after however, the four-piece have been hauling ass round the UK, playing to smaller, tougher crowds who are blissfully unaware of the excitement across the Irish Sea. It may not quite equate to going cold turkey but it’s a down-to-earth thud none the less.

“It is a bit of a head fuck alright,” admits singer MayKay whose intimidating stage presence belies her friendly and chatty manner (‘she’s an absolute dote’ - her PR later confirms). “You know bands say they want to get out of Ireland because it’s so small and yeah, I totally understand that. As soon as you get a taste for it you really want to start traveling more but gigs away from home are tough because you’re starting all over again. Like we did in Ireland, you’re playing to nobody and waiting to see who comes back and every one person you get coming back is really exciting.

“It’s the same thing over there but as soon as you get tired you get to come home and play one of our favourite gigs, the Whelans show, and it just gives another boost again and kicks you back out and leaves you another while being able to play to tougher crowds.”

And those crowds are getting warmer. The band have been steadily moving up the UK venue ladder, progressing from when this writer first saw them play to 70-odd people the small room at 229 to a current headline tour doing the Barfly rounds. Add to that successful support slots with The Prodigy, Ting Tings and We Are Scientists and Fight Like Apes have got something most Irish bands would sell their bassist for - a UK fan base. What then has been the secret to reaching the level they’re currently at?

“I don’t even know what level we’re at!” MayKay says. “We’ve been quite lucky that a lot of doors have been open to us which wouldn’t to other people because of the kind of music we’ve been playing. There are not too many bands doing the same thing. As soon as you stand out a little bit, you get to places a little bit quicker, people recognise you quicker. We’ve never really turned doing anything that’s been… I mean we’ve never been lazy about gigging or doing press and I guess it’s cause we love doing it.”

That and hard work. Fight Like Apes have really put it in on the roads of the United Kingdom that can be unforgiving, mind-numbingly monotonous places. Chatting to Phantom FM before the Whelans launch show, MayKay and bassist Tom laughed about their relentless Gig, van, Travel Lodge… Gig, van, Travel Lodge schedule. So we want to know - are all Travel Lodges the same?

“They are all the exact same,” MayKay laughs. “The only way you can decide what makes a Travel Lodge better than another one is what’s around it so the best one’s are in City Centre’s obviously because you don’t have to do the whole Little Chefs thing. They are the bane of my life, as are jinster slices (speeling anyone!? - ed) ‘cause they’re stuffed with things claiming to be meat and they’re not. It’s disgusting. They’re fine for a snack but the fear of what’s going on in our bodies after a couple of days of truck stops is terrible.

“But yeah we love a good cinema, so any Travel Lodge that’s near a cinema is good. Other than that, honestly after a week, you just find yourself waking up in a Travel Lodge wondering what day it is, where you are, what gig you just played, where the next one is so there’s a bit of Groundhog Day going on sometimes.”

The current set of UK dates are sure to followed by more and more while a return trip to SXSW is booked for March and a queues-round-the-corner success at Eurosonic means the trains of Europe may also await. It all means Ireland won’t be seeing a lot of the band whose divisiveness shook up the local scene like no other last year.

“It’s certainly not to stay away from Ireland but it’s just to keep gigging in places where we need to start building up that crowd that we’ve got at home. The UK is a huge priority this year with the album coming out recently. I don’t think we’ll be spending that long there, but the Japan dates are amazingly exciting and hopefully we’ll get to go back if they go well. We want to get to Europe and places we haven’t been before. We got a bit of press in and around Holland, Finland and Sweden as a result of Eurosonic and hopefully things will come out of that. It’s so weird to get to go to places I’ve never been before and play gigs. It feels really jammy.”

Fight Like Apes will return next week to perform at the Choice Music Prize ceremony where they’re one of about six decent shouts in an incredibly open award. Before I really have a chance to congratulate the band, MayKay asks if I’ve “read the stuff online? Everyone’s been giving out no end,” referring primarily to the 191 comments on organiser and Irish Times journalist Jim Carroll’s announcement blog

“When people say, oh this band should have been on it, suggest a band to take off,” she says. “Well everyone’s giving out about The Script I suppose (laughs) but the reasons people are giving are just so ridiculous. ‘The Script are already well off.’ It’s not about being well of, it’s about Ireland having a credible, reputable award for someone whose produced a great album. Or there are people saying there are bands who work a lot harder than bands on this list. It’s not about working hard, or having money. We can never compete at award ceremonies internationally if we don’t take them fucking seriously and award people for playing lots of gigs.”

The fury over the Choice nominations slightly mirrors the love/hate relationship some have with her own band. Not many can lay claim to a 4/5 review in The Irish Times and 1/5 in the Irish Indepen…

“JOHN MEAGHER,” she shouts before Ragged Words can finish in a manner that demands capitalistaion. “Yeah, he just hates it. It’s so funny. He’s one of those guys who we wonder did we accidentally punch in the head some time or stab him by accident ‘cause he really has it in for us. So if we win, I’m going to dedicate the award to him. You really can’t have people being positive about everything, you do need a kick up the ass sometimes but unfortunately John Meagher’s not the kind of guy who’d be able to give me a kick up the ass. “

“It’s just really weird the comments people make,“ MayKay continues. “Like apparently Pockets is really petulant because of his vocals on the album. More often than not the negative one’s are really funny and when they’re not, they’re probably constructive but either way we wouldn’t be killing ourselves touring and living in Travel Lodges and eating fake meat slices if I wasn’t something we loved doing.”