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Sticky Jazz Interview Noel Burke (St Vitus Dance , Echo & the Bunnymen)
25 Plays2 months ago
So many "What if's" in music, Noel Burke was already successful in his band St Vitus Dance when he was asked to be the vocalist for Echo & The Bunnymen in 1989. Looking back, the album has stood the test of time, and now can be considered a great piece of musical literature.
I spoke to Noel about the new St Vitus Dance music, and his time in The Bunnymen, plenty of Liverpool, and Belfast culture as well. He tells some great stories that not many have heard, if only because there is not a lot written about him. He was very approachable, and happy to answer any questions, for a longtime fan of the bordering on obscure, this was a great conversation.
St Vitus Dance is going to be releasing new singles until they are ready to make them all into an album, AND they will be performing the Reverberation album in its entirety on October 19th in Liverpool
#music #postpunk #1980s #EchoAndTheBunnymen #stvitusdance #scouserrock
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Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:00
Speaker
The opinions expressed on the show are totally those of Jeremy Hinks and Sticky Jazz podcast, and do not necessarily reflect those of anyone else on this planet. Alright everybody, welcome to Sticky Jazz. I'm Jeremy Hinks.
00:00:13
Speaker
the amount of a million musical opinions, all of which happened to be correct. I had to take a bit of a self-care hiatus there, but I'm back in the saddle and we are in business. So this week I have Noel Burke. He is the, it was a one-time stand-in vocalist for Echo and the Bunnyman on the Reverberation album.
00:00:37
Speaker
And he's also the founding one of the founding members of the Saint Vitus Dance group out of well Ireland and Liverpool. That's ah quite a story. We get into that here. I'm going to open this week up with their Bunnymen song, Enlighten Me, from Reverberation. So sit back and let's all do those sticky jazz.
00:01:32
Speaker
took a shovel and a spoon which I bias now I can't see you now I can't see you regimental in my way detrimental
00:02:35
Speaker
So to say, there's a splinter in your spoon But today I could believe I would believe There's a world inside your world There's a glasshouse for the old soul to hold But you won't be told No, you won't
00:03:21
Speaker
I don't wanna look beyond
00:04:21
Speaker
Took a chainsaw to my mind Took a range I'd locked a cyber behind But all will be fine Yes, all will be fine
Welcome Noel Burke and Early Career
00:05:25
Speaker
and running through.
00:05:46
Speaker
All right, everybody, welcome to Sticky Jazz. I'm Jeremy Hinks. And this week, I'm in so i'm up in the mountains of central Utah here. And this week, I've got Noel Burke, the vocalist for St. Vita's Dance and a one-time vocalist for Echo and the Bunnyman. And I believe you are in Liverpool today. Is that correct? I am. Very sunny Liverpool today. Yeah.
00:06:17
Speaker
I've never seen this son ever in Liverpool. It is a rare occurrence. That's true. So let's see. i Well, thank you for joining us, Noel. um Last time we talked, well, I reached out to you and you were like, hey, I'd love to talk. I'm going on holiday and you run off to Germany of all places where I had just been.
00:06:38
Speaker
yeah so that was Yeah. Yeah. How was Germany for you? It was great. Yeah. We traveled around a few places, went to Frankfurt, Mainz, Heidelberg, Stuttgart. Yeah. It was a very good, very enjoyable. Yeah. Cause I had, I had just gotten back from a V spot in, which is right next to Mainz. Oh, I know the spot. Well, yeah. Yeah. So we probably, probably been a couple of the same pubs or whatever out there. no does Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:07
Speaker
So there was a place called Scotch and Soda in downtown Vispa and that's where all the British soldiers wanted to go and hang out. Oh yeah. I don't know if you've been there. We played gigs, so we played gigs in Wiesbaden and Darmstadt, which was not that far away. And Darmstadt was full of GIs. When we played Darmstadt, half the audience was GIs. Were they they were yanks then? Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. a good very Good audience.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah. Well, my, when I was there, there were Yanks, uh, the, about half of them were Yanks and half were Brits and Australians and Canadians. So, uh, but, uh, yeah, V Spud and Mine's big, big gather. There's a lot of partying. There's a lot of pubs and just a lot of festivities there. People really like it. Yeah.
00:08:05
Speaker
And so, but you, you posted a lot of pictures of it there. I thought, well, it looks like he's having a good time. And I was having a good time. Yeah. Yeah. The beer especially is very nice. Yes, it is. Um, I'm it's seven in the morning here. I'm drinking Pepsi. So yeah.
00:08:24
Speaker
yeah but for me even in the distance Well, you were like, so this is the thing yeah you. Um, I, so I mentioned this to you, right? I was at the, I was standing in line at the echo and the bunny man gig in 98 in Paris. And I met this bloke named Arnold.
00:08:44
Speaker
Oh yeah. And he, he, he, we're both sort of being big buddy men fans. He's like, Oh yeah. And I went and I stayed with no Burke. It is flat over. It's like, really? he He said no Burke. He's the most approachable, friendly guy in the world. you And I believed him. I just didn't know how to reach you until I just, but that you know, but there's not a lot about you online.
00:09:06
Speaker
and no i find And so I finally found you just here on Facebook. I just hit you up and man, you were like, Oh yeah, have sure. I'd love to talk. And that was great. It's good to, you know, but, uh, but it's a small world. If I bring this guy, Arnold up and you're like, Oh, I totally remember that guy. Yeah. do you Oh yeah yeah. I mean, Arnold, Arnold was here visiting us, um, in November. I think it was November. Yeah. I still see him occasionally, you know, uh, November.
00:09:34
Speaker
november Yeah, small world. Like again, he and i we just met it ah it ah in line at a Bunnyman show in Paris, yeah but the 98, right? So that's been, yeah so it it is indeed a small world, but no, there's just so little written about you and the thing, Vita's dance and all of that. that that there's I really wanted to just say, Hey, I,
00:10:05
Speaker
you know, I'd love to talk to the guy. And so, yeah, here we are, man. um So St. Vida's dance, you got some, some good, some new work coming out, right? The new single down to size. Yes. That just came out about two weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. And I went and got to, to go through that. It was a kind of a gap in between from the other work, but, um, yeah. Uh,
00:10:36
Speaker
Half of us are based in Liverpool and half of us are based in Belfast, so it's kind of difficult to get our act together in terms of recording or even playing gigs for that matter, but um we we do what we can. Some of us are retired now. That's made it a little bit easier, but a couple of them are still working, so we're we're limited in how often we can actually get our heads together and practice or record. you know So who's the rest of the guys? I know there's Roddy Doyle, right? He's one of them.
00:11:04
Speaker
No, roy no. Okay. There's again, there's not a lot written about you guys. No. Well, um, there's myself, obviously I sing, um, kids and play guitar, uh, Phil freckled him on base, uh, Hayden Boyle on keyboards, uh, Kevin O'Neill on lead guitar, Damien McGee on rhythm guitar and Peter Heskif on drums. okay That's the most Irish, those the most Irish names I've ever heard. Yes, they are. Some of them definitely. Yeah.
00:11:34
Speaker
And they're they're all up in Belfast, and then you're... No, Phil the bass player is from Liverpool. But spins me look we met in Belfast, he was at uni at Belfast at the same time as I was. So we met them and we went on from there, really. But we have fin know they ended up back in Liverpool.
Music Style and Influences
00:11:54
Speaker
yeah yeah so yeah and Yeah. Your accent is still very Belfast, but some of it sounds pretty scouser-ish too. You sound a bit scouser in there too. so Well, I think more of the old phrase you know that i I've picked up since I've been living here. I've been living here 34 years, so you're bound to pick up the old thing, I think. But I get back to Belfast a lot, you know five, six, seven times a year, so I keep refreshing the accent when I go back. you know so I think they'd all laugh at me if I turned up with the scouse acting anyway, so you've got to make sure you don't lose it otherwise. People in Belfast are quite unforgiving about things like that. Well there was a couple of years ago just walking down the street here in Salt Lake and I just i just heard
00:12:40
Speaker
It's like just the roughest scouser accent, li liver puddly into the, and I just turned around and I said, oh man, scousers. He's like, how can you tell? Well, first of all, your accent. Second of all, you have a big Liverpool tattoo on your arm right there. Well, let's see. So the same Venus dance, I was just, uh, your, um,
00:13:04
Speaker
You gave me the samples, and I knew other work, but I just went and did the whole dive, deep dive there. That song, Get Along, right? yeah um That one had such a... You guys are big psychedelic music fans, obviously, right? there is But that one had this... That reminded me of the icicle works doing all their beat sides. If you remember when Ian McNabb was on the psychedelic trip and they did it's the whole stretch of beat sides for their tingles that were just totally just, you know, it's like if George Harrison in the moody blues had gotten into your head for a couple of weeks. right That's what this sounded like. It was really fun to listen to.
00:13:53
Speaker
um and ah And just like Liverpool must just have that as just a very powerful vibe there. If that's what you guys... I think it probably does, yeah. Yeah, they have ah they have a psych fest that's been on here for the last few years. Bands from all over the place come and it's the very much the accent on psychedelic rock. That always gets a great crowd, a big audience.
00:14:23
Speaker
Uh, so I think there must be something to the about Liverpool and attracts that kind of music. um pluming the beat I'd say it's gotta be that. Yeah, it's gotta be a big part of it. Yeah. Big part of it, the Beatles, but, um, like, uh, do you know Alan Cosgrove? Do you know him? I don't think so. No. Okay. He's a, he runs the, uh, the biggest Fleetwood Mac tribute show in the world called groomers of Fleetwood Mac and he's up out of Liverpool as well. Um, right.
00:14:53
Speaker
Yeah, I was in there with Jeremy Stacy and a bunch of guys once in this music cafe. And you know i I just met a lot of these guys there. And I just realized how much of the Liverpool scene is based in the mercy beat psychedelic thing. And it just, it's, it's
Song Inspirations and Meanings
00:15:11
Speaker
just a very rich sound that comes from there. And the same Venus dance, just all of it from the very beginning, you know, and until now it it's just, it's, it's just a very fun,
00:15:23
Speaker
Um, it was a cultural thing, I guess. Um, well, let's see, there's some of the lyrics in here. Uh, I played the little field with little yields with with little yield to show for it, engaged in converse, the endless conversation with myself came to a place where no one knew my face or name. I called it quits and then I called it home.
00:15:49
Speaker
ered to prepared myself to tough it out alone. What what was what's going on with that one, Get Along, that she wrote it that way? i mean Well, it's not a personal song. I didn't write it from that personal point of view or anything like that. It was ten kind of something from the standpoint of somebody who has found themselves alone after a long time of having a long time partner and then try to at an advanced stage, trying to totally start their life up again um and and find it really difficult, I suppose. Yeah, um so yeah, that that's basically what that's about, you know, sort of being totally uprooted for more kind of life and then struggling, kind of like a turtle on its back really, you know. So it's all from that kind of book. I got it from like either like losing a family or losing a or just getting dropped into a place where
00:16:44
Speaker
having their call the new place home and ah you know not necessarily around the family or or the the partnership, but yeah i mean and I'm in this new town and trying to make it happen, you know trying to just figure my feet around there. Yeah. then well you You could read that into it as well, but i mean basically it was about um somebody in the later part of life finding themselves alone and and i'm struggling with it.
00:17:15
Speaker
which is not my personal situation. ah i'm trying I'm trying to write more these days, but not so much personal stuff. I used to write a lot more personal stuff, but I don't want anymore a trend that...
00:17:26
Speaker
you know, right from the point of view of a third party, you know, so it gives me a lot more variety in what I can write about and, you know, sort of, you know, rather than always try and base things on what I happen to be feeling at a particular moment, because eventually you realize, you know, know you know, you're trying to write a album them full of songs, it's very difficult to base every single of one of them on your own personal experiences, you know, so and I'm trying to form it out a bit, you know,
00:17:55
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Well, Ian McNabb said when your twenties in your, is a teenager and through your twenties, you're right about what you know. And, uh, after about 30 or 40, you're right about but what you want to know, what you, what you do. That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, definitely I find learning great and harder as I've got older. That's for sure. Yeah.
00:18:18
Speaker
Well, people get a lot more introspective as it gets older, ah I guess, as well. and Yeah, that totally fits with what you're talking about there. um Wait, what where did, okay. I knew St. Vida's Dance as the Bauhaus song when I was really young. Yeah. and Then I learned about it in in when in in one of my later, my high school classes, we talked about the plagues and all these different beliefs that came around the the physical ailments and the plagues and death and all of that. And then, they oh yeah, then there was St. Vida's deaths. I thought, wow, that's a, you know, and then I went back and I read the Bauhaus lyrics. Oh, that's what that really was about. And so how did you guys come up with such a morbid name for years? Um, it is strange cause it's, uh,
00:19:11
Speaker
At the time, we didn't know anything about the Bauhaus, and there was a Black Sabbath song as well, I think, called that. We didn't know about either of them. We were just sitting in a cafe and we were thinking we were just starting up the band and we were coming up with various names and most of them were awful. And then the keyboard player just came up with some Vedas dancing. And I'd never heard of it as a disease or as anything at all. What's that?
00:19:37
Speaker
It's alsos a disease. And I said, yeah, that'll be great. And that's it. So it was only subsequently we found out about the Bauhaus thing and the Black Sabbath thing. And I think there's some Doom metal band called that as well. So yeah all those associations were kind of like dark metal or Doth, you know.
00:19:58
Speaker
when we came up with it and we had no idea whatsoever, that was all after the fact. So then we sort of think, I mean, we have I remember one time when we first moved over to Liverpool in the 87 or 88.
00:20:11
Speaker
We played a gig in Grimsby on break the other side of the country. And once we got there, all the people who came to see us, and there weren't many, they were all goth. And when we came on, they were and they were incredibly disappointed when we came on, because we weren't what they were expecting at all. The name obviously led them to believe that we were a certain type of band, which we weren't. And yeah, that wasn't one of our best nights, really. But they are generally speaking, it hasn't affected us too much. but yeah Yeah, I can understand why people think of it as ah as a goth type name. In a way, you know it was just my ignorance of not knowing anything about the disease or anything about any other associations with other bands when we chose it. So there you go, but we're stuck with it now. so you see for like like Like I said, for me, it was, here's this, the curse, and the morbid, you know that and I was like,
00:21:10
Speaker
like I just imagined that and thinking, okay, so it's the people with this infection and they're there. and It wasn't the goth thing for me. I just thought, wow, that's just morbid. its see you know and From a medical standpoint, um yeah again, we're we learning all about the other plagues and and shit back down.
00:21:31
Speaker
So wow, you know, in this, you know, the things you did, when you're in in high school and and kids and you learn this stuff, you're like, whoa, what's the, you know, and so that stood out, but I never, I was like, yeah, these kids certainly don't sound goth. That's for sure. You know, uh, let's, let's, let's talk about down to size, the brand new one here. So you had the Russian dolls on the cover. That was symbolic. That was really cool. Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
um Let's see if I got the the the lyrics correct here. You say you're here to celebrate. You know, you could not wait to leave the fray. You could not wait to quit the flock. I turn up here today to tell me where I'm going wrong. Uh, it's the price you have to pay like razor blades of printer ink.
00:22:25
Speaker
Should we sit down at our deaths? Should we sit down on the floor? ah When I see the disappointment in your eyes, I get the feeling you're only here to cut me down to size. who
00:22:37
Speaker
Let's have it, man. That's great. That is some great lyrics right there. Well, thank you. um it's It's based on my previous career as a teacher. um I was a teacher for 27 years. And I don't know what it's like in America, but um increasingly over the last few years, ah very there's been a very harsh regime of inspection ah called offset ah for for teachers. They come to schools every three years or so. And, you know, my experience of them was was not pleasant at all. And, you know, hack I think I must have had about, well, through about six of these inspections and they were all, they got progressively worse. um And, you know, it just sort of and
00:23:23
Speaker
basically the learning tool about that. I mean, there's a celebrated case ah last year in England where after an off-end inspection, a head teacher committed suicide because of it. gee Yeah, and it turns out that there have been quite a few accusations of bullying by the inspectors and things like that. And it it doesn't really surprise me at all. um So it was kind of like inspired by that head teacher suicide, really, and then thinking back on my own experiences of it when I was teaching. um And that that at the end of the day,
00:23:55
Speaker
you know the whole point of the inspection was to supposedly improve the standards of education but my feeling was that at the end of the day it was more i government trying to keep teachers heads down so that they wouldn't be asking for pay raises or more resources or whatever you know it was you know like the kind of attitude you know you're not very good you're lucky to be in a job just keep your mouth shut and don't don't make trouble. you know and So yeah so that's that's the line. you know You're only here to cut me down. You're not here to really improve things. You're here to just make sure that everybody knows their place. you know um So the yeah, and that's basically what it's about. What did you teach?
00:24:41
Speaker
Uh, well, I think you call it elementary, uh, 10, 11 year olds. Yeah. Uh, just the last, the last year before they move up to, uh, we call it secondary school and you call the high school over there. Yeah.
Religious and Cultural Influences
00:24:53
Speaker
So yeah, 10 or 11 year olds and the 27 years. to Oh my gosh. So yeah, that, that was a fourth and fifth grade. Yeah. What we would say they're fourth and fifth. that Yeah. Yeah. but Yeah. Yeah. No, I taught too. I, I, I, I.
00:25:10
Speaker
i I teach computer forensics and hacking for universities. so very good yeah or I'm catching people in their 20s and 30s and I'm teaching them. you know yeah I never had a ah grueling, as you would say, inspection like that. but so That was interesting just because I was listening to those lyrics, I was going through them and it just was kind of In the last week, the American political spectrum that's been going on and how somebody's going to run for political office and then and and how the moods can change so quickly.
00:25:51
Speaker
yeah And how everything can can shift around something. And it's one wrong mistake in this world where somebody says something and they get completely destroyed while running for office. you know And I was just listening to those lyrics and kind of laughing about what's happened in America in the last week.
00:26:12
Speaker
You know, I was like, Oh my gosh, it's, it's, it was, it was wild. I was like, man, no nailed that one. like Like, was he kind of foreshadowing what America's what, what these people running for office are going to be going through, a man. It was great. That was where I saw the lyrics. They, they, they fit that situation perfectly. Well, that's it but you're free to interrupt them anyway. Yeah. But that, I was like, man, that, that totally fit it. That was, that was great. Um,
00:26:41
Speaker
Let's see, let me roll through some of these other questions here.
00:26:47
Speaker
Uh, so the love my dogma record, right? It was really, there was strong, there was a lot of strong Catholic imagery in there. Um, I guess you guys all coming from Belfast, uh, just probably a lot to, are you still, ah are you practicing Catholic or was it just, uh,
00:27:11
Speaker
or why No, was that it was it was just really, you know, yeah, growing up in Belfast in the sort of 70s and 80s, you know, it was it was a time of the troubles and stuff like that. and that You know, religion looms large in everybody's life, you know, no matter what side of the divide you were on. So it was it was probably not surprising that you know religious imagery you know going to Catholic school being you know taught catechism fairly rigorously from the day one you know it's not surprising that a lot of about those images and ah phrases you know from scripture like
00:27:50
Speaker
turn up in and also that the lifestyle, you know, I mean, there was a song is called Fishin' a Friday, which was something It's something that I grew up with, you know, in the house every Friday. It was fish and chips for tea, you know, but um but I mean even with not just the somebody who stands stuff but I mean if you listen to the the element with the bunny man there's a lot of religious imagery there which I didn't even realize it was doing so much until later on I listened back to it and thought oh god yeah there's quite a bit of um but I it's it's it's not because I've come at it from a a religious point of view it's just um you know I suppose
00:28:33
Speaker
being surrounded by, you know, Catholicism when you're a kid, a lot of it kind of rubs off, you know, whether you intended to or not, you know, and, you know, it's kind of like, it's a bit like Shakespeare, you know, you grow up with phrases of Shakespeare and, you know, off quoted lines from Hamlet or Macbeth or whatever, and occasionally they come into the conversation. And I suppose, you know, they,
00:28:58
Speaker
The King James Babel is probably second to that really in terms of like providing phrases that people, stock phrases that people use all the time and I tend to use stock phrases and almost cliches in the lyrics as well and kind of try and play around with them, you know.
00:29:14
Speaker
Well, I was raised in a very strict Mormon world. you know I'm i'm um in Salt Lake now, but I grew up in that. I was very devout Mormon until about nine years ago. but Yes, I get that, where your whole world is based around this paradigm of the scripture and the religion. and Uh, we had religious education at school. We had classes where we got released for one period of the day. We'd go across the street to a church owned school building and we would take a religious class there and then go back to the regular school. So yeah, I totally get what you're saying there, how that was, um, up there and in Belfast like that. Um, but let's see, uh, horse sense.
00:30:07
Speaker
Okay. That song, I wonder, reminded me a lot of teardrop explodes. That was fun. Yeah. I know. It's the brass. It's a, yeah, there's a kind of brass sound on it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But I mean, I, I love, I love teardrop explodes and Julian help. Right. And it's, it's weird. And I don't know if you've seen Julian lately, but, um, um, not for a few years now, but, um, yeah, I'm hanging with that.
00:30:36
Speaker
I think the last time he played in Liverpool I was away on the holiday, so I missed it. But that's one maybe about 10 years ago I think, yeah. wrote Somewhere around that he played. So I had that beautiful, really enjoyable teardrop explosion, right? That was fantastic fantastic, right? It just, it just, you plodding it. So let's see, uh, the line. I was an acrobat fell on my feet and broke my legs. Uh, now what we said is the best things are always comes to the ones who bags. Uh, I was looking for some horror sense. I was looking for more than just the time of day.
00:31:12
Speaker
Uh, and then here's the next slide. I couldn't figure this out out of all this, but I've been through this a lot. Let's see. I was my mother's pride and joy. Now I'm just, uh, something hand. No, i okay it's I was a mother's pride and joy, but now I'm just so much sliced pan. Now that that's a Belfast reference. Okay. Let's have it. Let's have it. Okay. So Yeah, the first line before it is, I was a stable boy who grew to be a most unstable man. And then, yeah, and then the next line is, I was a mother's pride and joy. Now, obviously, mother's pride as well as being, you know, a mother's pride and joy. Mother's pride is ah a name of a type of
00:31:55
Speaker
bread, bread, a loaf from Belfast. I never would have figured that out. Okay. Yeah. And mother's bread was like a soft white loaf sliced. And, and I said, well, I'm sure it was a play or not. And then the next time, but now I'm just so much slice time. I'm just a normal,
00:32:14
Speaker
piece of bread. You know, im and not I'm not a special piece of bread. I'm just a precise palm is what Belfast people call that kind of love. So I'm sort of like, i rather than being a branded loaf, I'm just a sort of generic loaf. So yeah change a play and it's it's it's probably a lyric only about Belfast people would understand, you know, but at the time I was still living in Belfast and only playing in front of audiences of people from Belfast. So it's yeah it muster then, but it doesn't so much now. Well, but OK, so and so there's the cultural references. Got that. that Thank you for filling that in because I like like never I never would have known. You know, now you see the cool part of my job is I get to actually ask you what these things are.
00:33:01
Speaker
instead of just wondering, although I do love the the idea that your play on words, your retrospective, you're saying this with this play of words and then what it switches to now to hear. That was, you know, your your songwriting. I really like that in your songwriting, how you can, you you play with words and concept a lot like Shakespeare. Well, I do like... No, go ahead.
Songwriting Process
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah, and I do read a lot and, you know, I've always so and I've always liked words and I like playing with words and I like jokes and, you know, so Normally if i have I hear a phrase or something, um I'm out for a walk or something like that, oh I'll hear a phrase in conversation, and they'll think, oh, what could you do with that? you know Could you turn that or twist that round? Or could you make it rhyme with something that might be quite appropriate and maybe funny as well? I don't know. and I'm always looking for the possibilities in words. um And then sometimes I'll get an idea and then I'll just store it away. I might make a note written note of it. and then
00:34:13
Speaker
then sometimes if I'm writing a song I've got a a lot of ideas I can kind of draw on really and say oh yes I can use that idea in this song you know and sort of piece it together like a jigsaw you know but yeah I do like the sound of words I tend to when I'm writing songs the last thing I do is write the lyrics and I say that I do find it harder as ah as times go on but But I'll write the tune first. I'll have the chords and I'll have the melody. But the last thing to come in will be the the words, because I want the words to set the song and sort of have the right rhythm and the right tone. And I think sometimes if you've written lyrics to order, it's almost like you're sure in the middle of the song. And sometimes I've done that a couple of occasions and it's never been very satisfactory. You know, I find it hard to listen back to those songs because I know
00:35:06
Speaker
that I didn't do the lyrics right. you They don't sound right to me. They sound awkward. you know So it's kind of an organic thing. and it's sort of ah when the When the song's ready for the lyrics, then then they'll come in, you know, but only, and it it drives the rest of the band crazy because they're all these songs that are ready to go. And they're just waiting for me to finish the lyrics. And sometimes it's been months and years before we've done it, you know, so it does drive them nuts. Look, we got the rhythm line down. The synth is ready, but come on. yeah where it's ready yeah like I mean, there'd been times
00:35:41
Speaker
There've been times when we've been in the recording studio and, you know, it's only blind panic has forced me to actually put the lyrics together and we get this thing right. You know, we've done the drums, we've done the guitars, right? Nothing has got to do with the vocals, but I'm not finished the lyric yet. So it's simple, you need to. So I'll go out for a walk and try and cobble something together, you know? And sometimes it works when you come up with something good, but, you know, I would really like it if it was able to do things.
00:36:08
Speaker
uh, less, uh, by the seat of my pants, let's say, you know, um, but, uh, unfortunately it doesn't seem the bit to work that way for me, you know, it's, uh, it's, uh, I mean, I was just saying it has got harder it be over time. Well, I have, uh, I've stolen your words, believe it or not. Oh yeah. i yeah Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, so, uh, my dad,
00:36:36
Speaker
and aswegian right just all right and and And so to say, why use one word when you can use 27, right? That was enough said, right? That's my dad. That was what he was. um And to say overkill, overkill so many times that I thought I was being really witty. And I said, yeah, my dad, it's, it was cheap at half the price. He would take a shovel where a spoon would suffice, you know? And it' and it just, I thought I was so witty and smart and my dad did not think that was funny.
00:37:16
Speaker
you know I described him that way to some friends and and that. and and he you know there the you ru yeah Your lyrics even in the Bunnymen were very much like that. I saw more or less you jumped from the teardrop explode sound to to playing with Will Sargent. That was how I viewed your you going in with the Bunnymen.
00:37:46
Speaker
And, uh, I guys, let's talk about that for a minute. I know. So that was a great time for the music. And it was a great record that you guys made. Uh, you had a bad deal with the label. I I've, I've talked to will about this and he, he said, look, that was the perfect storm of blood.
00:38:16
Speaker
Right. that That he, he, we had nothing bad to say about you, but boy will, uh, when you talk about, when he talks about the label and fat time, yeah. Like he's foaming at the mouth. He's like, you know, we've had every, we could have done so. And the label just here going, you know, he said they polished it all up and, and just the situation was abundant at the time. It all just went really bad. But, um,
00:38:45
Speaker
you know all my mates in high school when the record came out, and you know we all knew the story Mac had left and then we got the new the new record and we were listening to it and we were we dissected it. we We knew note for note every Bunnymen song up until then and so when we got reverberation, and we we did the same thing with it. It took us a while. you know We had to like shift gears, but it was really good and we renamed you guys echoing the Bunnymen.
00:39:15
Speaker
but We found that a more appropriate it end and and bands that have bands that lose their lead singer, they don't have a good survival rate. I think there's like Marillion and ACDC were the only ones that really were able to, yeah you know, I mean, even Joy Division said, we're we're not going to do this. Yeah. But.
00:39:37
Speaker
Coming back to it now, I mean, we like, everybody who goes back and listens to Reverberation, they said it was, in fact, a very, very good record. And we all liked it. it just It just didn't work for the time in the situation. And that was just yeah that that was the bad part about it. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, it's one of
Band Dynamics and Challenges
00:40:00
Speaker
those things. I mean, even the weird thing is, as I've said this before, Andrew, is that Even before all the stuff happened, most of the record released, you know, the idea of carrying on with the name wasn't something that I was terribly keen on. But I think there were there were two sort of reasons why it happened. I think number one, I think Will, especially Will, was put under pressure by ah Rob Dickens, who was the main guy at Warner's to keep the name, to just carry on.
00:40:31
Speaker
um And the other thing was, I think, Will and Les as well, they had this kind of thing, well, we never left. You know, he decided to go off on his own. Why should we have to change the name? We've just stayed. And at the start, of course, I've included Pete as well, because when they recruited me, Pete was still with us, you know, but so they sort of were very indignant about that And I think there was a kind of bloody mindedness that made them want to keep the name. But ah there was also a patient from the record company, which I think with hindsight, you kind of think just about right, I can see what was going on here. And I think that the record company
00:41:13
Speaker
And they did sort of drop the odd hint as well, just before the album was released, was that, you know, they were going to try out carrying on with the band to see if it, because obviously they'd gone quite well in Ireland just before he left. um And I think, I think they wanted to say, well, let's see how it goes. We'll we'll float the boat and see if that how it goes down. um But if it doesn't, then we're going to drop you like a hot kid.
00:41:37
Speaker
and that's exactly what happened. You know the reviews came out and even the reviews that said the music was good just said they should have no business calling themselves Echo the Bunny and the whole concept was just not entertained at all and I think both the record companies saw that was the you know the the the attitude of the music press and the radio stations as well that they just washed their hands in it and we were dropped within I think we were two three gigs into our first tour when we got the news that we were dropped by Warner's and then we were told then that the yeah because Warner's in the UK had dropped us then Warner's in the States would have to drop us as a matter of course and that was it you know but the the weird thing was that as far as the music was concerned like you know everybody
00:42:30
Speaker
the NR guys that used to come to record and she knew the lesson into the rough mixes. They were all hugely optimistic and thought it was going to be a massive hit. But, you know, once the record came out and the reviews came out, they were nowhere to be seen. So I can understand why it would have been frustrated. bob and As far as the the reception of the press and the readings there, I kind of knew that was going to happen. but And you know people would say, oh well, you know, Genesis carried on with a different singer after Peter Gabriel like ah so and the ACDC and as you say, you know, Meridian, but they were different kinds of bands. You know, there was
00:43:07
Speaker
The kind of people who followed the Bunnymen were not the kind of people who would were, that kind of change. Well, there'll be a lot more cynical. We'd think that it was just that you know a money making ploy to keep the name and try and fool people into thinking that it was the same band. And I think that that sort of fueled that attitude that the record got when it first came out and there was no coming back from that. It wasn't so pronounced in America once we actually did get over there to play. I think people are a lot more accepted in America, but
00:43:41
Speaker
um I think record companies in America, certainly at that stage, we hadn't got a deal. And I think record companies in America were afraid to go anywhere near it because you know because of the name and because of the what had happened, because we'd been dropped in the UK. So yeah, there wasn't much coming back from it really. And I think we all kind of knew that um quite early on, really. you know But there was a kind of, again, a kind of stubbornness that we wanted to keep going. and you know hopefully get the music across and but you know to some extent we did in America um um in um and in this country as well but you know I think as a band we got better by the time we finished playing and did those tours in America and in the 92 I think it was you know we were a very good light band you know we we really nailed it. I listened back so many
00:44:34
Speaker
maybe some tips of gigs that we did towards the end. Um, cause we were tight, you know, we can really go. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say, so the press were really unforgiving at the very beginning. I remember that. And then it wasn't until later that I actually got to hear the bootlegs, which I'm grateful for the, the, the, the moneymen have always been very keen on bootlegs or like, you know, eat the shows and, and well, we, we blessed that. And, yeah um, uh,
00:45:04
Speaker
those, the bootlegs I heard some of that again, probably later on in the sets were fantastic. Yeah. You know, yeah and yeah they were really, really good. And I was like, I remember with my mates, we were listening to reverberation going, this is going to be fantastic life. You know, and.
00:45:27
Speaker
You never came through Salt Lake City where we were living, so and and no we never got to see it. We know we we all would have been there like you know selling our souls to see it.
00:45:38
Speaker
yeah yeah and yeah You know, hindsight's 20-20, right? I'm sure you had a good time and it's it's a record you should be very proud of. Oh, yeah. I mean, I love my time, but it was great. I mean, it was, um I think because I kind of resigned to something that it wasn't going to go anywhere, that I just thought, well, just enjoy the ride, you know, and enjoy the experience, you know.
00:46:04
Speaker
how many people are going to get the tour with a band in America and go all the places that we went and around Europe as well and play with just great musicians. I just enjoyed for what it is and don't worry about how it's going to end because it will end but you know how many people get to have this kind of experience you know and I was just glad of it. and And you know yeah I enjoy just enjoyed it for what it was. Well, also with that record, we we all pointed out, as as my mates and I were getting deeper and deeper into the Lou reading the Velvet Underground stuff because we just were hearing, oh, these guys like the Velvet Underground. These guys like the Velvet. These guys like Lou. So we had to start trying to learn, well, what did these bands we like listen to?
00:46:51
Speaker
And then we realized that Will Sargent had single-handedly pulled the Lou Reed's guitar into the new wave world. And like, nobody did it better than Lou, you know? yeah yeah i and And so when when we did what Will did, like, man, Will is like, he's like the essence of Lou in the, you know, so, you know, i Will is still like, he's still a guy, like just, everybody just looks at Will Sargent as the the great guitar guy, you know?
00:47:20
Speaker
and And he's always been a really great guy to talk to. um I was just hanging out with him just barely two months ago today, two months ago today, on June 1st, I was with him in Salt Lake. and and That was when he just he went off on the label and how the label screwed everybody at that time. you know so yeah um but You posted the other day, prove me wrong. And I'm like, man, I get that CD single.
00:47:53
Speaker
Yeah. And I, I, back then I bought anything that had Echo and the Bunnyman on it. And so I, I, I should probably just get your address. I can mail you all this stuff and all you gotta do is bust out the Sharpie sign it and send it back to me. I love it. but ah probably yeah um But yeah, I've got everything that you did over there. Um, or at least everything that I get my hands on. So, um, uh, but that one was a really intense song. That one was like,
00:48:24
Speaker
That one reminded me of like, if you had done over the wall, it had that over the wall feel to it. This is like the, the, the Noel Burke version of over the wall.
00:48:40
Speaker
But in the same time, I imagine that you'd have like just a bunch of go-go dancers yeah on the side. it was just Just the way that it was pulled out those sounds. Talk about it proved me wrong for a second there.
American Influences and Thematic Shifts
00:48:55
Speaker
Well, it was kind of, um you know, when we did the reverberation album, it was very much kind of British in the, sorry, British psychedelia flavor to it, you know, all the cellos and the melatrons and whatnot. ah it was fair one yeah I wanted to do something that was more on the kind of freak beat side of it, you know, and I was listening to an awful lot of American garage rock and 13 floor elevators and people like that.
00:49:19
Speaker
ah Shadows of Night and a lot of even more obscure bands from the 60s and that that's where that that kind of came from, that kind of thrashy guitar sound. So that 60s garagey sound, that side of psychedelia rather than the kind of English pastoral side of psychedelia.
00:49:43
Speaker
And I think like I found that and I bought it and I'd never seen anybody else have it in their collection. So I thought it was pretty cool. And then he posted about them like, yeah, that was, that was a real cool piece. They're one of those really obscure ones that, uh, you know, that if anybody has that's cause they were a hardcore collector, you know? Um, so, uh, when you wrote king of your castle, that was the first time I'd ever heard out of the bunny men.
00:50:13
Speaker
Anything about social issues or or anything that would really be a contemporary problem. Yeah. Right. Yeah. um that Because the Bunnymen always steered away from politics and that kind of thing. and Yeah. But the thing is, I was growing up in a very abusive family. Right.
00:50:38
Speaker
and It was all coming to a head right about that time. I remember listening to that and I was going through that shit. I mean, I was going through that shit. When that record came out was when it was probably at its worst. right And so thank you for that. I mean, I was like, I really was like, man, I can recognize this and I can see it for, I had gone through this, but I looked at it as it's happening to other people.
00:51:09
Speaker
and their families, but then it was happening. I realized it was happening to me at the time that I was listening to that. So thank you. But anything else you want to say about, about that one? Cause that's that's not a, probably it probably wasn't an Edie Thunger, right? Um, no, it was, it was something that I've done a few rough drives. I've actually written a song that had some of those lyrics in it for some Vida's dance. Um, but then.
00:51:33
Speaker
I did a demo of it but never you know actually released it. And then when it came to writing that song, I started off by just you know resurrecting some of the lyrics from the original song and then added to it. um And so it kind of evolved, but then the idea, I i had the idea of writing a song about sort of domestic abuse like for for a long time. And yeah, that was the thing, and that was one of the big differences. like When it came out, it was noted that I was writing lyrics, not just that, but Flamin' Red as well on that album, which were quite political.
00:52:08
Speaker
you know, in their origin or social. And yeah, it was noticed that it was a departure. I think one of the guys at Warner Brothers, you know, kind of sort of said, well, that's not really the bunny man wearing this. Well, it's my way. You know, this is how I write. You know, I can't. I'm not going to, you know, cut my cloth because of what used to go on in the past. You know, I've got my own standard right now. I'm going to stick with it. You know, you like that very much. But there you go. But yeah, I mean,
00:52:37
Speaker
Yeah, I've always had, you know, a certain political element and in what I write or certainly social commentary anyway. Yeah. And still do. Yeah. yeah it just that That was the first I heard of there, the bunny man. I mean, I, you know, devilment and creeks dwell and all these great, and then there's, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's, let's isolate this one for a minute. And yeah. Uh, let's see, let's talk about, uh, leafo tech.
00:53:03
Speaker
I guess, um but your, your other, uh, you're saying Vita's dance work here. Yeah. Um, you saw reads make. Okay. Yeah. That was, um I mean, ah the the Liverpool sound love it. I can, I can go off on that. It just was such a fun. Um, let's see the ones left stranded on the side.
00:53:28
Speaker
The ones you danced with, such great praise. Yeah, damned with such faint praise. I think that's it. Damned, right. Yeah, sorry. Damned with such great praise. Line up to kick you when you're down. But give security a shout. They'll turn up in no time at all and run those memories out of town.
00:53:51
Speaker
it's It's basically about how we can kind of rewrite our own history. um ah You know, sort of
00:53:59
Speaker
trying to, you know, how how to live with yourself, you know, when you've done things in the past that you may be embarrassed about or ashamed of, and how you can be selective in your memory of of how things happened and what you did.
00:54:12
Speaker
um and and I suppose, you know, yeah you know, it's that kind of question. You say, well, you know, you you look at maybe certain politicians and say, ah you know, are people in position, your responsibility, and you know, who who do something quite shameful or and but don't seem to be embarrassed about it at all. They're just, you know, the backup on the parapet again. And, you know, and you say, how can you live with yourself when you've done all these terrible things and you know, people, they don't seem to have ah and an idea of self-awareness or any shame. And as it's it's about that coping mechanism. It's about how you can, if you want to, you can just totally look back over your life and the things that you've done and just clean out all the stuff.
00:54:57
Speaker
doesn't cast you in great light you know and and and then carry on and just as if nothing happened. you know I think there's quite a few politicians in this country certainly who are guilty of that. um You've got you know very dodgy things in their past. And they just they just are, you know, when normal people would be crawling away into a corner somewhere and then and hoping to be forgotten about, these people just still put themselves up as, you know, you know, paragons of virtue, you know, and I have that. I'm just always amazed by that lack of self-awareness that people can do that, you know, that they've got no shame. I mean, I know you've got people in America who are possibly even more obviously that way, you know,
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah, but um so it's about that really, it's it's about the fact that some people, you know, they don't have any embarrassment, they don't have any shame, they must have some kind of mechanism to sort of do a total retake on their whole life and just make themselves out to be, you know, cleaner than clean and um live with it, you know. And I just can't fathom that mindset at all.
00:56:06
Speaker
Well, like you said, reset your nightmare, retake your life. I mean, I don't know if you know what's been going on here in America. The last oh yes two weeks chat litter, the sofa, I mean, four stars. I mean, all of that. I'm like, where, where is it going to a yeah like, I mean, there's some stuff going on out there that everyone's just going, yeah what the hell is this? yeah couple yeah and I know.
00:56:36
Speaker
And we're we're just amazed at what what people are are willing to overlook, but also to this say, yeah oh, it never happened. but you were You were convicted, man. Well, that's what I mean. that that that That song was written, I don't know. It must be about 15 years ago, maybe. Yeah, but you're foreshadowing it, man. Yeah, yeah. yeah I didn't realize that things would come true as literally as they have. This is the exact world we're living in right now, you know, to, I mean, just, I was listening to that. Like the ones who damned you was such great praise line up to kick you when you're down. Um, I was just going through this going like, man, this is, it was, it was really interesting to, re-write everything. i was like if if you were Like I said, I i saw this as yourre you maybe rew you're you're writing your biography or whatever, but you're saying, no, this is actually a little more in the the in the moment, having to deal with it and handle that. That's so well done. i mean Your lyrics there.
00:57:49
Speaker
it It was very, very well done piece. I was very impressed with this one. I just like, I gotta know exactly what he meant with that. And man, what a story behind that. It's great. Gambling Man. Uh, bit my tongue to hell, ground my teeth as well, just like a model citizen. Word stuck in my throat. I made a mental note to smile and take my medicine.
00:58:11
Speaker
me Um, again, this, this is Noel Burke's lyrics. He's got one piece over here, meaning this one piece over here, meaning this and the word play bringing it together. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's, that song basically about dumbing down, ah you know, the whole sort of conversation is, it seems to have dumbed down in terms of like, you know, the media, um, the fact that, um, you know, the, the, the,
00:58:43
Speaker
that everything seems to be either black or white. Everything has to be really simplified for people. And I just think, you know, When you have a conversation, there's no room for nuance anymore. You can't be subtle or everything's just going to be so simple. You're either this side or the other. You're either with us or against us. And there's no room for any subtlety or intelligent take on any kind of topic or theme or subject. It was kind of a cry in the wilderness about that, really.
00:59:24
Speaker
So like Mike Scott from the water boys, his dumbing down the world was kind of, yeah, that's the dumbing down the world, man. We've got to take it down to where, to where the the dumbest guy would understand what you're talking about. Okay. Cause I had to smile and take my medicine. You know, I made a mental note at his mouth. Like, yeah, okay. yeah Yeah. I can't talk. You're just wrong and stupid.
00:59:48
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, um, and let's see, uh, gospel. Oh, uh, they say you won't tell us about yourself with some simple questions about your health. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? Uh, you know, in the end, you know, they paid for, I guess now that let's see. And then you say, uh, you and I are not the type to play this game that we get wrong.
01:00:20
Speaker
Great lyrics, I was, now that you told me that you were a teacher and that was what you were going through there and some of that, was this about
Social Commentary and Personal Experiences
01:00:28
Speaker
that? you Just the whole employment situation and how bad it could be? It was about employment. Yeah, it is a bit of about employment and about the sort of cliches that you get, you know, and job interviews that, you know, where do you see yourself in 10 years time? That's the classic line that you get asked, you know, in job interviews. It's also about London, because Gospel Oaks scenario, it's a tube station in London.
01:00:49
Speaker
um it's a but um It's also about that the fact that, you know, so certainly a lot of people from Ireland, but people from around London is like a magnet for people to come. It's where all the jobs are. You know, there's a lot more chance of getting work in London than there isn't anywhere outside, really. So a lot of young people end up there.
01:01:11
Speaker
um And, you know, in many ways, London's a great place, but I don't think it's a great place to live. It's so expensive to live there. Rents are so high. House prices are just ridiculous. And it's about the way that people have to, you know, sort of why people are kind of drawn into that world, ah you know, of but because of work and because everything seems to be, you know, concentrated in the capital. um So it's a big it's a kind of a
01:01:41
Speaker
a loose song, but it's kind of about that, about working about ah London's role and and just sucking everything like a black hole into it, you know? Okay. Yeah. You get what they paid for. Okay. And you and I are not the type to play this game to play this game. We get wrong. Okay. It's yeah. Um,
01:02:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's about surveys and in that kind of like, you know, some high moves, high pressure kind of jobs, where youve where where you' where you've got to be very quick on your feet, and you've got to be very, yeah ah very good with, you know, ah ah you know, a good mixer, like, you know, one of these people who can talk behind like a donkey, and you know,
01:02:26
Speaker
I, you know, not necessarily with any substance behind it, but I was kind of thinking like, you know, this is not the kind of, it's not for me, you know, I'm not that kind of person. So yeah. See, when I was teaching, uh, during the pandemic, you know, I, I told all my classes first day, I said, look, right. Let's face it. When every one of us was asked, where do you see yourself in five years, five years ago, we all got that wrong. Right. We know.
01:02:55
Speaker
but she Yeah, most people do. Yeah, like I ended up teaching people who like a lot of people went and decided that, you know, they worked in the service industry. They were working in restaurants and hotels and that.
01:03:12
Speaker
And then the pandemic hit and there was nothing. And so they're like, I'm going to go and learn to be a computer hacker and work in cybersecurity or computer forensics. and And I'm trying to teach them what I'd been doing for 15 years. Yeah. You know, so that was, uh, but yeah, the pandemic was, there was a lot of nothing time for people to learn things. So, Oh yeah. Yeah.
01:03:37
Speaker
So you your song Fish on Friday, you you mentioned it earlier and i yeah and again, this goes into, believe it or not, the same kind of, um i since I've left the Mormon faith and I've been deconstructing the the the family spousal abuse, the the religious trauma, the religious abuse that we all went through.
01:04:03
Speaker
I'm like, man, no, you, you hit a lot of good points in, in my life. Well, I've been doing this deep dive into your work here. Um, uh, fish on Friday with your wife and kids in tow, your Sunday suit on show. These men investments, holy investments. There's no replacement.
01:04:24
Speaker
It's about the guy who's pretending to be a great holy spiritual guy, but in the end he's a shithead, just like the rest of them. Yeah, absolutely. yeah that That's what I got from it was like, you're you're calling you're calling people, did did you see that a lot in in the people that you, I mean, they what were you seeing that you wrote this? It was my questions. Just generally, I mean,
01:04:51
Speaker
A lot of people who, you know, growing up in the in the troubles were a lot of people who, ah you know, at that time would have professed to have been religious on both sides um of the religious divide, who, you know, would have portray themselves as being, you know, devout Christians, whatever, but we're quite happy to condone, you know, violence at the same time. So there were a lot of there were a lot of people I thought were very hypocritical and in in you know what their Christianity was supposed to stand for. um You know, and because I mean, there were a lot of very nasty things going on. and
01:05:28
Speaker
and You know, there were people on both sides, you know, people who who would have considered themselves, you know, religious, like, but didn't seem to, it didn't seem to bother them too much that, the you know, there were, you know, there was death and destruction all around them, you know. So yeah, I suppose that that's probably what would have, you know, it's, it sounded the lyrics really, you know, that kind of thing. You see, I didn't really, I,
01:05:55
Speaker
even when I lived in France, I didn't see any of them care about fish on Friday, you know? No, no, it's log man Germany, whatever, France, but boy, when I when i moved to Boston, um I met a guy who actually grew up in the troubles and became a Catholic priest. Right. Because of the troubles, and he had actually
01:06:20
Speaker
You know, his dad was a, was a Lori driver, long distance Lori driver. And somehow he was marked as somehow a deal was made that he wasn't going to get beat up as much, like you know, and he, but he still got in a lot of fights and he did a lot of things that he was ashamed of.
01:06:42
Speaker
And he decided to become a priest to kind of, I guess, pay back for, you know, pay them back. But he, he was, he was like, yeah, you have your fish on Friday Catholics over there. And he said, you know, they they'd be doing that. And then they, there they are cheating on their wives and all that, you know, and he yeah he, he did that. And then he said, but in Boston, it was a very different situation. He ended up beating the hell out of another priest for touching the kids.
01:07:10
Speaker
in the parish. I'm like, all right, Jerry. Yeah. you He was, ah he was, they he just, he was the epitome of the, what was good about trying to be Irish Catholic in that situation there. Yeah. And, but he, he, he said that there was a term for the fish on Friday Catholics that, you know, it was the all for show, but most of those people were just terrible on the, on the
Future Projects and Live Performances
01:07:37
Speaker
backside, right? That was what I was seeing about those guys. or Yeah.
01:07:40
Speaker
You know, again, I wasn't there in the troubles. I never saw what people went through. But hearing the stories were, you know, that we're coming up on time just really quick. Do we have more from St. Vita's coming out? um Well, we've got ah one song we've just got to mix down, which is, ah yeah, it should be, i'd i'd say but I'd say probably early October.
01:08:07
Speaker
Yeah. um And then we've got we've got quite a few songs in the pipeline, but it's just because of the, as I said, the geographical distance between the two parts of the band that we when we can get together, you know, we've know, we just add to the recordings that we've got. We've got a few songs kind of in various different stages of production. This one just needs to be mixed and then that'll be ready for release. There's another couple that have been, the backing tracks have been recorded, still need to do the vocals on, stuff like that. But as we release them, as we record them and mix them, we'll put them out as singles and then
01:08:45
Speaker
was there enough for an album? Well, that's eventually, I think we'll just keep putting them on of single tracks until it's like, say 11 or 12, and then we'll call it an album. You know, we'll give it a title and and and package it as an album. But I think just the way, you know, but the chances of us ever getting together for, you know, a long enough period to record an album in one go, it's just not going to happen really. So I think if we can record the songs piecemeal and just eventually, and then just keep interest going by posting the odd record, the odd song,
01:09:14
Speaker
every few months, then eventually when there's enough to call an album, we'll give it a title and you know package it. That's the plan anyway. minute So that's the one piece of the future now. you You did say, or I saw a post of yours that reverberation, you're going to do it back to back, right? Start to finish here? Yeah. Yeah. Do the whole album.
01:09:36
Speaker
Yeah. So is that going to be that the St. Vadis guy's doing it or what what do you got there? Okay. So you're going to go and you're going to do the whole album live. The whole thing is that where and what give you give us the hole on that. I want. Okay. That's happening in the Liverpool. So our money music rooms is a Concert Hall were ah like we' cross classical orchestras based, but they've got this other venue at the back of it called the Music Rooms, which holds about 170 people, something like that. And that's where we're going to play on the 29th of November of this year. um And yeah, it's the guys from Savannah's Dance. We're currently learning the whole album and the two singles as well.
01:10:23
Speaker
prove me wrong inside me, inside you. And the big side of it, like me, which is a song called Lady Don't Fall Backwards, we're going to do all those. And then to invite us to answer, going to support, you know, we're just going to do a little bit of a half an hour set, you know, so it's going to be a busy night. Yeah. I just, so 170 people that should sell out pretty quick. Don't you see? Cause I would love to hear the album start to finish. So the way, the way that you describe it, I just like, man, I hope it,
01:10:52
Speaker
It's going to be fantastic. i i just I wish I could be there for it. but Well, the rehearsals are shaping up really well. We've had a couple you know, with get togethers and, you know, sort of teaching each other the songs. And, you know, but all the boys are all doing in their homework and the they've learned all the individual parts. We've got to come together. like we're I'm going to Belfast. We're all going to Belfast on at the end of August. And we're having two solid days of rehearsal then. And then they're coming over to Belfast, continuing to come over to Liverpool in September. And then we're having another two days really heavy practice. So that should knock us into shape. So I'm hopeful we'll be okay on the night. so
01:11:28
Speaker
Please tell me you're going to record this because I am. Oh, yeah. I would love to hear this. OK, this is one that. Yeah, this would be one of those like.
01:11:39
Speaker
I mean, like when, when the Moody blues did with their Philharmonic and the days of future passed all the way through, I was like, you know, that kind of thing, right? This is one of those albums I would just love to hear live like that. So thank you for, it's going to be great. I look forward to hearing the the recording of it when you guys release that. um time to get the he over his wow oh that That's to be fantastic. man i I wish I could get over there. I'd love to go and just experience it. I'd photograph it, whatever. But, um,
Conclusion and Reflections
01:12:11
Speaker
Shoot, ah so we are up on time, Noel. Thank you so much for the conversation and and and the walkthrough history. Real quick, what song do you want me to play us out with? Oh, I suppose they're the new single. Yeah. Don't decide. Okay.
01:12:26
Speaker
Okay. Cause I was, I i was opened up with, uh, uh, enlighten me and play us out with a down to size then. So, um, everybody thank you. Uh, no, thank you for the time and everybody, this is Noel Burke, the.
01:12:43
Speaker
the vocalist for St. Vitus Dance and the stand-in. He did did that album with the Bunnymen and still going great. So thank you for that everybody. Take care, be good to each other and let music do awesome in your lives.
01:13:00
Speaker
All right, thank you so much, Noel Burke. That was Noel Burke, the Bunnymen Saint slash Saint Vitus Dance vocalist. And we are looking forward to that performance of the Reverberation album. And everyone look for new singles from Saint Vitus Dance out. like Like you said, they're going to be releasing them as the time goes. That was a wonderful conversation. um Thank you for your time there, Noel. we I appreciate that. Special thanks to Barry Andrews of Shriekback for letting us use the theme and title of Sticky Jazz and playing us out with Down to Size by St. Vitus Dance.
01:14:14
Speaker
The stuff for present and correct, all key up for the daybreak Wait, you say you're here to celebrate And there's no need to be afraid You could not wait to even pray You could not wait to quit the front And now you turn up here today Now tell me where I'm going wrong And when I see that disappointment
01:14:44
Speaker
Get the feeling that you're only here to cut me down to the side
01:14:55
Speaker
All the hearts are pounding in the chest The minds just teeter on the break It's just the price you have to pay Like razor blades or printer A.D. So can we sit down at our desks? Or should we sit down on the floor? Why can't you just make up your mind? Cause I can't take it anymore And when I see that it's important
01:15:26
Speaker
You'll feel like you're waiting to cut me down to the side And when I see that disappointment in your eyes
01:15:51
Speaker
Feel like you're only here to cut me down to the side. Only here to cut me down to the side. Only here to cut me down to the side.
01:16:53
Speaker
you