There are a lot of things you expect Maxïmo Park mainman Paul Smith to talk about in interviews – hats, comb-overs, scissor-kicks etc. – but the aesthetic appeal of Limerick’s waterfront isn’t really one of them.
“I remember somebody telling me it was Ireland’s murder capital and then walking down the river to King John’s Castle and thinking, ‘Actually, this is really beautiful’,” he reflects. “Unlike a lot of places that seem detached, you get the notion of Limerick people living side by side in these terraced houses and interacting with each other.
“I also took a Polaroid of this deliciously bleak graffiti near the venue that said ‘Nothing Happens’ and stuck it on our website.”
In the accompanying eulogy, Smith speaks of, “An ancient stone bridge arcing eight times and the icy clarity of the sky allowing eight perfect ovals to be seen in the water”, which I’m sure the locals will take any day over the usual Stab City rhetoric.
The 28-year-old has some equally warm, fuzzy things to say about the capital.
“I’m sure there’s a tourism aspect to it being sustained as well, but you do get a sense of Dubliners being genuinely proud that this is the place which inspired Joyce.”
Whose rock ‘n’ roll credentials have been boosted by Rough Trade supremo Geoff Travis and Bonde Do Role sex vixen Marina both telling hotpress recently that Ulysses is among their favourite books.
“I’ve got a copy at home but, well, it never seems the right day to start it,” Smith smiles. “That ‘I buy books I never read’ line from ‘Our Velocity’ is true – I’ve shelves of stuff that I’m saving up for when I have a really bad accident and am trapped in my room for a year. There’s great comfort in having things around you that you’ve chosen yourself and have an interest in.”
Which probably isn’t a train of thought you’d get from a member of The Twang. Are there any other giants of Irish literature that he’d like to convalesce with?
“Maeve Binchy. No, I’m joking. At the moment I’m really interested in contemporary American writers like Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy and Philip Roth.”
Talking as we were a moment ago of ‘Our Velocity’, am I right in thinking that a la previous Maxïmo single ‘Apply Some Pressure’, it’s two totally different songs cut in half and bolted together?
“I think the phrase you’re looking for is ‘seamlessly fused’,” Paul deadpans. “Yeah, we’ve had a few occasions when we’ve been struggling to finish songs and realised that the answer lies in coexistence. At first it seems like it jumps around all over the place, but after four or five listens it sounds completely natural.”
While Smith doesn’t claim to be reinventing the rock ‘n’ roll wheel, he’s proud of the fact that Maxïmo are willing to take stylistic risks.
“Just because you’re boys in a band with traditional instruments writing about love and life doesn’t mean you can’t be diverse,” he proffers. “We’ve reached the point with Our Earthly Pleasures where style, genre or something being ‘us’ doesn’t matter anymore. If we’ve come up with it, it obviously is us.”
I no longer own a pencil-case, but if I did Maxïmo Park’s name would be Tipp-exed all over it. What are the bands that sent Smith into paroxysms of schoolboy delight?
“I remember writing the words from ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ on the cover of my Biology A-Level folder. If my old geometry set was to be located, I’m sure you’d find REM, Neil Young and The Cocteau Twins’ names scratched on it with a compass. I’ve always loved people who can put hooks into their songs without being overly predictable.”
What’s been his most shameless act of fandom?
“Writing out the lyrics to every Morrissey song up ‘til Your Arsenal in the hope that it’d somehow transfer his genius to me,” he chuckles. “When you’re 13 and trying to work out what’s happening to your body and your life, someone like him is very seductive.”
Paul also admits to coming over all girly with excitement last year when Maxïmo supported The Rolling Stones.
“They mightn’t have made a great record since nineteen-seventy-whatever, but Mick – who’s tiny by the way – still gives it everything on stage, and there aren’t any other guitarists who match Ronnie and Keith for cool. Then there’s Charlie who hardly moves behind the drums but makes this huge noise. If I’m able to do that in my 60s, I’ll be fucking delighted!”