Chords for Therapy? Interview At Ramblin' Man Fair 2018

[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ [Db] _
[G] Well here we are at Rambling Man Fair and look who it is, it is the Mighty Therapy.
Hi [A] guys.
Hiya, how you doing?
[D] How are you doing?
Brilliant, yeah, we got here about an hour ago, so we've just [G] been settling in, getting the lie of the land and we're really excited to play later.
Yes, all good.
Is it your first time here?
Yes.
It is, yes.
[E] And what have you got in [D] store for us?
What's going to happen out there?
[G] Well we've got 45 minutes.
It's not long, is it?
It's not long and we've got 15 albums, so we're going to have to pack all the best of those 15 albums into 15 minutes.
But it's a beautiful day, we're on at 4 o'clock [Bb] which is a perfect time, so really, [G] really excited.
That is a perfect time because that means you'll be able to get off, have some dinner and then go and enjoy the festival.
That's exactly it.
Is that what you've got planned?
We're staying tonight as well.
Oh, trouble.
Because usually with summer festivals we do a festival and then we maybe have to go to Denmark or somewhere the next day.
Yeah.
We have to get on a bus and go, but we're staying the whole night for the whole festival so we'll get in [Ab] the mix of the whole thing.
You performed a Beatles track for us, this Off The White album.
It's its [D] 50th anniversary this year, why do you think that album has stood the test of time?
[E] I think because it's a double album and it's so musically diverse.
You've got bits of music concrete [Bb] on it which are avant [G]-garde, you've got beautiful songs like Piggies but which have got a really dark undercurrent.
It's a social critique on it.
[D] You've got so many amazing [G] songs on it, but initially whenever I first heard it, it's my favourite Beatles album,
but whenever I first heard it I thought it was a bit [E] too patchy, but then [Ab] that's the whole vibe of it.
Once you get into the fact that the songs are so [G] amazing and Glass Onion and Happiness Is A Warm Gun, it's just such a stunning piece of work.
It is, isn't it?
[D] And I heard that when they were making that album there was [G] lots of arguing between the band.
It was like the album that [D] broke the camel's back and then they obviously split up a few years after that.
Well, imagine [G] that.
The good thing about that is just the creative energy that comes out of it.
At least the public got a great record out of it.
[D] Do you think you need that?
Do you think sometimes you need to have a bit of friction between a band?
[G] I don't think for us personally.
I think we work better when we're all getting [E] on well and we've a good dynamic and we're all on the same page to be honest.
I think creative friction has a shelf life.
You might get a couple [G] of good artistic statements out of it, but for longevity, no.
I think that's too much stress.
I find that quite odd.
I've got friends in bands and when they hate other members of the band, when you're on tour and things, you're so close together.
[Eb] It's like, why are you [D] doing this?
[G] It's a bizarre thing to be part of.
I think if you're in that scenario, we [D] kind of come away and have a laugh.
I don't understand that kind [G] of thing really.
So what we're doing with everyone here today, we want to [Ab] basically see what's in your pockets.
We want to get [D] intimate with you.
So can you reveal what's in your pockets [Bb] please?
[D] _
_ Now we're really going to [Em] get to know therapy.
Phone [Dm] of [Ab] course.
That doesn't count I'm afraid.
[Dm] _ I've got chewing gum.
Goods.
And [G] money.
Nice.
A phone.
Two plagtrums.
That is so boring.
Is that it?
Catapult.
_ Conker.
Machete.
So is there anything you're [D] willing to give me so that I can maybe give it to the [N] fans a bit later?
We're going to do a little competition.
So is there anything you're willing to give up?
Well you can't have my phone.
You're not going to give me the [D] Chelsea season ticket?
You get to.
Thank you.
_ I've got 41p.
Let's [G] take 41p.
Good luck with that. _ _
_ Amazing.
I love that.
Okay well that will go in the bag for later.
Perfect.
Thank you.
So next [D] year is the band's 30th anniversary.
Any plans to mark that occasion?
Well we should really but we haven't thought about it.
Oh well that's rubbish.
Yeah I know.
Well see [Gm] we've just got a new album out.
We only ever worked [D] one year ahead.
And I think that's what's kept us alive.
A lot of bands [E] when we started had big 5 and 10 year plans where they saw themselves in.
It was all very fashionable in the 90s.
But we never had that.
We just worked within [G] our limits one album at a time.
So we've got a new album out this year in September [Eb] called Cleave and we're going to tour that.
And once we've toured everything out [D] of that next [G] year then we will do something.
It'll be great.
Yeah you should do something.
And of course I think it's the 25th anniversary of Trouble Gum as [Dm] well next year.
[G] You've got to do something for that right?
Well we've got no end of shows.
We [Dm] could do that.
Yeah [D] absolutely.
We need to sit down and work out what might be good fun for us and for the [G] fans.
It's well worth celebrating [Dm] 30 years.
It's incredible.
[Gm] That is a long time isn't it?
Can you believe it's been so long?
[G] Does it still feel really fresh for you?
Yeah it does.
I mean the thing is I was thinking about the White Album the other day when I knew we were doing this.
And I thought well whenever the White Album came along in 68.
So that would be Trouble Gum [E] you were saying is like [D] 25 years [E] old.
So that was my god.
But whenever we started the band _ [G] I was thinking of all the albums that were 25 years old.
And it's not that long a time.
[Eb] Because I remember whenever we started you would look at people.
[D] And to be honest there was very few rock and roll bands were around that long.
Because [Eb] most of them split [G] up.
Country artists, light entertainment you stayed around.
But nowadays rock bands do stay around so it's okay.
But it's gone like that.
It's crazy.
Maybe it's a naive outlook but I [D] almost feel like we're still kind of a new [Eb] band.
Because there's always something new to do and there's always a different piece to play.
You're always quite reinventing your sound as well.
You [G] don't ever put out an album that [Bb] sounds the same really do you?
No we don't really have a formula.
There's a lot of formula bands that are great like ACDC or Bad Religion or [G] Motorhead.
Where there's quite a strict template.
But ours is quite wide and I think that keeps it fresh for us.
And hopefully the listeners as well.
And we're talking about when you first came out.
It was around the time when Nirvana, [D] obviously Grunge was breaking.
And you were kind of pigeonholed [G] weren't you as part of that?
Yeah we were.
I mean there's a common misconception because we'd already put out some records before that happened.
And I think [Gm] _ because at [E] that time agitated, [Gm] angry guitar music was very fashionable.
And it was easy.
I mean we had just signed a major record label so it was very easy for them to put us in that category.
Because it meant to get press and to get front covers of magazines.
They could go to people and go well hey, especially in Europe and the States,
they'd go well if you like [G] Nirvana you might like these guys from Northern Ireland.
[E] But I [D] think what was good for us is that we knew we already had a good 3-4 years under our belts before that happened.
So we knew that whenever the wave had gone then we'd still be [Gm] around.
[Bb]
Which you are.
Like we say 30 years later.
[Ebm] Can you remember the first time you [E] heard Nevermind?
Yeah.
What did you think of it?
Well we were all [Bb] very lucky.
We knew the people, the band, Neil used to be in the [D] band called The Beyond 2.
And we knew the press people from Nirvana.
So we actually heard it about [Bb] 8 months before it came out.
Because we were on a record label called Ouija.
And the [Dm] boss of Ouija Records got us a demo.
Because this is how old it is, it's a cassette.
[Gm] And we'd already heard it.
Do you still [D] have that cassette?
No.
I don't [Bb] even have half my own records now.
_ Honestly yeah.
But [G] I remember we all heard it.
Because we were massive fans and threw [D] an album in it called Bleach.
Which was the first album.
And some of the singles they had in sub-pop.
But the first time we heard it, I'll be honest, I thought it sounded like Cheap Trick.
Because I'm a big Cheap Trick fan.
[G] And I went this is brilliant, [D] it sounds like the police meet Cheap [G] Trick.
None of us [Bb] realised it was going to be as huge as it was.
No, no.
Couldn't see it.
It was fresh and exciting but [Eb] you couldn't see what was going to happen. _
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