RSAG on working with Justice & upcoming releases

Kilkenny man Jeremy Hickey, better known by his nom de tune RSAG (Rarely Seen Above Ground), has cemented his reputation as one of Ireland’s most cherished underground musicians over the last decade or so. Seamlessly blending live drumming and sampler lead electronic textures an RSAG gig is always guaranteed to be a unique live experience. Recently Hickey accepted an invitation to work with what might m seem like an unexpected partner, Justice’s Xavier de Rosnay.

Hickey is a long-time collaborator with French electro-rock provocateurs Bot’Ox so the call from de Rosnay might not be quite as out of left-field as it would appear to the uninitiated. Hickey and de Rosnay first floated the idea of a potential collaboration as long as four years ago, “It all kind of started with my work with Bot’Ox” explains the soft-spoken production whiz, “I’ve been playing with them for 5 or so years now. About 3 or 4 years ago we did a Bot’Ox album release and they filmed the big release gig in Paris. Xavier happened to stumble across the video online and the Justice lads dropped me a line to say if they ever needed a drummer they’d give me a shout and it just came about this year that they actually needed a drummer for a couple of new tracks.”

Though Hickey is quick to clarify the tracks in question are not for an upcoming Justice product but for an Ed Banger release from a currently untitled future project shrouded in mystery. The RSAG man clearly takes great pleasure in waxing lyrical about the in-studio experience he shared with his Gallic compatriots, “I think the studio we were in is actually where Air record all their drums.” Says Hickey with an obvious sense of wonder “ It was full of every kind of instrument you can think of. It Probably the nicest most creative, atmospheric studio I’d ever been in simply because you know everything there is actually being used on a daily basis. There was no affectation in collecting all these old synths, they’re being put to work day in day out. You name any kind of old keyboard and it was there and that’s before you even start thinking about things like xylophones and marimbas and congas. There must have been seven or eight different vintage drum-kits. I actually got to piece together the kit I used from five or six different rare, antique kits which is a luxury you wouldn’t usually be afforded!”

As one might expect, when discussing stadium filling French D.J duos it was only a matter of time until the conversation turned to all conquering disco automatons Daft Punk. Hickey and his Ed Banger friends take the hype with a pinch of salt though, “The general kind of consensus there with the Daft Punk album is that people aren’t really that pushed.” Hickey says with the kind of audible wince that implies a genuine concern with sounding contrary “I think people who are into music or the nuts and bolts side of it at least would think that the production on it draws from some of the worst parts of getting in a load of session musicians, it ended up a bit soul-less. That’s always the way though when somebody is that aware of their legacy. When you have two guys who have been very successful for a long time it’s never really going to be a flop. It seems what they wanted to do was essentially reproduce all of their favourite records and that can end up quite cheesy; It ends up like Queen or something but with the cheese turned up even more.”
The kind of more is more ideology exemplified on Random Access Memories is perhaps just a reaction to the changing face of what is expected from pop music, posits Hickey “The industry has changed so much that it seems that pop music is just expected to be bigger than ever. When people are looking at things on their laptop or hearing a song for the first time on youtube you are dealing with people experiencing music in an entirely new way. Whatever their playing is pretty much in direct competition with everything else in the world since it’s only a couple of clicks away".

Back on home soil now Hickey is ready to focus on the upcoming release of a new RSAG single, “The new single is I’ll Be There and out May 16., It’s a kind of funky, slightly housey track but in an organic way, not totally dancefloor focussed. shuffley beats, a bit of brass on it, that kind of thing.”. We’ve also got an as of yet untitled full length to look forward to by the end of the year but Hickey is quick to point out that when you work solo that the hardest part can be stepping away from the mixing desk, “It’s so easily to constantly be like ‘oh I have to go back and do this or that’ it can be difficult to say ‘It’s finished and lets put it out’. That’s not to say you’re not giving it the full of you attention, it’s just there are so many different ways to approach my kind of music and so many different avenues you can go down. There are songs I have on there that have been around for a while and it’s just a matter of picking the ones I want and adding just the finishing touches with lyrics and stuff. I’ve got a few guest vocalists I’ve been talking about working with as well, a few Irish acts but I’m trying to get one or two other folks to do some bits and pieces”.

All in all it appears 2014 is going to be an exceptionally busy year for RSAG so be sure to catch Hickey live at one of his slew of upcoming gigs including, Vantastival as part of Decks & Drums (May 5); KFest, Killorglin (31); Life, Belvedere House (May 23-25) and Light Colour Sound, Kilkenny (July 4).