Interview: Super Extra Bonus Party

Posted on 15th Sep 09 by Nay | 1

“Ah FFS!”

me: …?
gavinelsted: Sorry! Lunchtime and it’s pissing down…the one free hour I get a day and it’s raining!
me: Rodrigo won’t have this problem in Brazil!
gavinelsted: Fuckin’ right. I’ll hop in a case with him. Go live with CSS or something…

Ever wonder how many round-the-world trips have been prompted by yet another rainy lunchbreak? Most people have conversations like this but I’d never had one with Super Extra Bonus Party. As an interview process IM is an unusual method with the potential to be a bit hit-and-miss, lacking as it does the inflections of a speaking voice. But with a second album under their belts, Boner Land is gearing up for Bonus Level and so guitarist Gavin brought us up to speed on his band’s plans for New York, revealed what really goes on at kitchen parties and of course, told all about the new album Night Horses.

gavinelsted: I’m generally online all the time. I have a Blackberry cos I can’t get into Gmail in work, not because I’m a ponce.
me: Hey, we’d all have one if we could!
gavinelsted: Adverts.ie
me: Bills.ie…. How are you doing with the new album?
gavinelsted: It’s been going pretty well, we’ve yet to get a real stinker of a review for it, which is fairly peculiar. We got one from Nick Thinks which I thought was gas because I read that blog and think it’s great so it was a privilege getting poo-pooed by Nick. We’re all really proud of the record, if people don’t like it that’s cool, hopefully there are bits they’ll dig, they don’t have to like all of it!
Outside the media/blogosphere, it’s the same as the last one, slow-building then suddenly we find ourselves doing something mad, going “how the fuck did this happen?!” It’s great fun being in a band sometimes!
me: Where did the name come from?
gavinelsted: We were down in Waterford recording, we’d just finished guitars for the title track and went to the pub which was a mile down the road in pitch black. When we woke up the following morning Mike‘s car was covered in horsehair and the wing mirror was bent. We looked into the field beside the house and there were some day horses. Which then became Night Horses.
me: …What were the horses doing to the car?! Did they get in to the fucking thing, switch on the radio, chill out to some Cadence Weapon with a smoke??
gavinelsted: Havin’ a row I’d say!
me: Hah, strange though…
gavinelsted: It is…the gaff belongs to my folks and they had a string across the gate when we arrived, never asked what it was for…I know now.

me: Night Horses was recorded over a stretch of months, you were quite relieved to be finally releasing it when I talked to you at the launch (ALT, May 2009), like you couldn’t believe it was actually all finished!
gavinelsted: Night Horses was a bit of a stressful one at times, we started writing it before the Choice Prize etc happened so that’s why we recorded it across many months. A lot of self-imposed pressure was on us and that’s why I was so relieved, it was just like “Yes!! I don’t give a fuck, I’m really happy with this record and here we are, playing gigs again!” It was too good for words.
me: I think it’s a cool album, really fun and varied, a lot of the tracks have been well-accepted too, like Comets.
gavinelsted: Hah, yeah. We knew as soon as we hit that version of the tune that we had something. We recorded eight fucking versions of that song before we got Ellie and Louise (McNamara) on. As with Adventures on the first record, it was down to the wire whether that would make the final cos we weren’t happy with it, right up to the day before we went to mix everything. Our engineer is an absolute hero and we would’ve been fucked without him.
me: Who was the engineer?
gavinelsted: Sean Corcoran, purveyor of oddly-named curries and sound wizard.
me: Sounds like a band’s dream!
gavinelsted: You’d think that…his latest is called Nixon. I’ve had some, it’s a bit on the milky side but nice.
me: Were you always gonna work with Cadence Weapon on this album?
gavinelsted: We’d hoped to because we all dig his tunes so much and he’s a real nice guy, as is his DJ,Weezl, who scratches on Radar. He [Rollie Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon] did the remix of Everything Flows and so when we asked him to work on Night Horses he was up for it but scheduling kinda did us over. Then he got to do a gig in Dublin for Club NME and we got the support – he had a day off the following day so came over and did it in the kitchen…magic.
me: …Always kitchens with you lot…?!
gavinelsted: Indeed. Kitchen parties!
me: Best place for them, always.
That’s cool that you have your own links with Rollie though, it’s good to see bands reaching out while still remaining grounded at home.

me: So like, you said that having Heathers was what finally made Comets sound right, do you think the guest collaborations have been really important on a whole? Cos there’s May Kay from Fight Like Apes as well, along with Captain Moonlight, Mr Lif and RSAG….
gavinelsted: May’s track has been the divider on the record in terms of reviews – some people loved it, others rubbished it. We all think it’s deadly and May lived up to her status as the nicest lady in Irish music at the moment, she’s such a lovely person.
In terms of the guests, it’s good and bad: good cos we managed to put Mr Lif on a record with Captain Moonlight, which is pretty good going. It’s bad in that we can’t always have the collaborators with us so that might detract from the live experience.

me: Speaking of the live experience, Rodrigo isn’t with the band any more?
gavinelsted: Nope. Rod has been and always will be a great mate. ‘Do Incio Au Fim‘ [Portugese title of Rodrigo's only song on Night Horses] means ‘start to end’, which is fitting really- he was there from the start and the song is the end of this chapter of his involvement. He’s going back to Brazil, he has a kid there and that’s his priority. He’s a great dad and dotes on his daughter so it’s for the right reasons. He’s still emceeing though, he did some amazing shit with Prince Kong recently and is playing live with him at the minute.
me: Well Rodrigo sure brought an exotic twist to the music all right but his departure also shows that you’re not just a carnival band. I was gonna ask also about the different styles of music you’re all into…(are you okay for time here)?
gavinelsted: I’m in work dude, I can go as long as you like, honestly.
No band…I’M BOREDDDDD.
me: Okay, well listening to the records, it’s clear there are so many influences. On the first album you had Propellor which was progressive, almost Post-Rock and then you had some seriously bounding, undoubtably DANCE songs, now there’s Hip Hop and Rock. Is SEBP even definable by a genre?
gavinelsted: I don’t think so. What would you call us?
me: Carnival music, I guess. You’re just a fun, young band, open to experimentation.
gavinelsted: Fun definitely. Young is debatable.
I have something to add here – this is something I was talking to Fatz about yesterday. I think that we are very conscious with this record to have fun but not to be seen as complete goobers. Hence the lack of out and out ‘bangers’ on Night Horses. We are a serious band despite previous appearances.
me: Well you can be serious about music and have fun too, it’s not like you come across as eejits or anything. That’s why I mentioned there are harder rock tinges and more contemplative melodies on the albums…if every song was like Favourite Things, it wouldnt work
gavinelsted: Exactly. Anyway, favourite bands? Hmmm, okay. Well mine is easy: Adebisi Shank. The rest of the lads, El-P, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, The Beatles….Stevie is mad into his 80s shit. I’ll say At The Drive-In for him because that’s how we met and started playing tunes before all this SEBP rubbish.
And then there are bands we all love: School of Seven Bells, Channel One, Ponytail, Dan Deacon, Cadence Weapon, Battles, Pivot, Clark…the list is actually endless. UNKLE is a good one because we were compared to them and I can kinda see it, especially with their first record. That was pretty eclectic.
Oh shit, Why? as well. Love Why? Revisit A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under, I reckon there will be at least one SEBP song in that vein on the next release. Although the B-side we have for Comets is gas: disco city…and vocals from the band!
me: Whoah, hold up! Actual singing? *dies of shock*
gavinelsted: Well we’re not sure about that last bit yet… Thing is though, three of us can sing, very well in fact, we just never bothered before.
me: Wow, well we’ll look forward to that! So you’re releasing Comets as a single? What else is on the horizon?
gavinelsted: Yeah, we’ll be releasing Comets as a single soon but we have some other bits and bobs to tie up before we start all that. We’re gonna continue touring Night Horses for a while as we’ve had two albums in what, three years? Pretty good going for a band like us. So Hard Working Class Heroes next, CMJ in October, UK in early 2010 and after that…who knows? We have new tunes but we’re looking at doing an EP next rather than a new album because as I’m sure you’re aware, being in a band at the moment is a fairly weird place to be, especially if you do it yourself.
me: Yeah it must be tough, what do you do?
gavinelsted: Just contact people, that’s all you can do. Book something yourself before looking for an agent…It’s more time-consuming but the satisfaction is so much more potent if you do it yourself. We’re trying to sort the UK at the moment because we have something in the pipeline over there. We’ve got label interest, great contacts and it’s not as far as the States, so over we pop.
me: It’s good to have a few smaller releases to keep in your sights though, the EP should be cool. Have you considered other kinds of merch like DVDs?
gavinelsted: I think the thing for us at the moment is not what to release but how to release it. We want to do something that’s fair for people who like our music and want something physical but at the same time we don’t want to bankrupt ourselves either. Does that make sense?
me: Of course.
gavinelsted: I think our remix album [Appetite For Reconstruction, 2008] kinda opened our eyes to that, it did really well on the download front because it was available for free as high quality MP3s but then we had a few people requesting physical copies, which was also cool (and free)….
It is a hard one. I think being in a band without some kind of business acumen is hazardous really. Look at the Richter Collective. Mick Roe really has his shit together and I admire what himself and Barry Lennon have built up. The fact that they have these amazing bands under one umbrella is unbelievable.
me: Ledgebags. Seriously, it’s been great to see them help out the cause of so many bands.
gavinelsted: Good bands though. That’s the clincher.
What do you think of *** ******* signing a major deal? Is it an Irish thing to assume they know someone or something? Fair ball to them all the same….
me: I didn’t even hear about that….?! Who did they sign to?
gavinelsted: Universal.
me: Jaysus….
gavinelsted: Yep!
me: Well I dunno, I have their EP and they sound very dated.
gavinelsted: I dunno, makes little to no odds to me cos we ain’t a major band, nor will we ever be.
me: Well neither were they…
gavinelsted: Ah yeah but their sound is a bit more mainstream than ours. You can’t imagine fellas drunkenly singing Radar can ya?
me: Heh, I’ve sang it drunk, does that count? “Mainstream” doesn’t even seem to matter any more. Can I just ask, any changes you’d ideally like to see in Irish music industry?
gavinelsted: Not really…Ireland is so small that if you push hard enough and get a few breaks you could easily become a big band here. Outside Ireland…unfortunately that is a whole other horse in the night.

And with that, the man galloped back in to work. An interesting band in an interesting position, Super Extra Bonus Party have had a cloud-9 bumpy ride out of Kildare. They’ve won the trophy, jumped the wall and changed musical tack more times than you can shake a carrot at. Now with new music, a changed line-up and big plans, the race is really on….

www.superextrabonusparty.com
myspace.com/superextrabonusparty

Tags: Appetite For Reconstruction, Cadence Weapon, Captain Moonlight, DJ Weezl, Everything Flows, fight like apes, heathers, May Kay, Mr Lif, Night Horses, Ollie Pemberton, RSAG, SEBP, super extra bonus party

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