Another dose of the claps

Although Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s second album, Some Loud Thunder, has met with the classic mixed reviews, the band have nonetheless built up an impressive head of steam on the back of the record. It recently entered the US Top 50, a first for the group, and CYHSY’s reputation continues to grow on the back of their scintillating live performances.

“Some Loud Thunder is definitely more of an experimental record than the first album,” acknowledges CYHSY’s affable drummer, Sean Greenhalgh, backstage before the group’s recent Dublin show in Tripod. “There is some weird stuff on there that some people may find unsettling or off-putting, or whatever. But hopefully greater rewards come when you work through that a little bit.”
Sean is certainly right on the last count, but could he imagine the group returning to writing more straightforwardly catchy pop/rock songs?
“I think, especially with this album, there were certain songs that could have been arranged or produced differently,” he replies. “Originally they were pop songs, but they got deconstructed in the studio. Alec (Ounsworth, CYHSY frontman) generally has a lot of these songs written already and I think he gets a little bored of the conventional songwriting approach. He knows what he can do when he goes down that route and he wants to challenge himself a bit more.
“I think we could go either way; we could get even more experimental and fucked up or we could write more accessible songs – there’s certainly no anti-pop feeling in the band. Obviously we’ll need time to settle on which approach we’ll take before making the next record. It might be a little bit of both.”
The strange sonic textures on Some Loud Thunder are at least partly attributable to the album’s producer, Dave Fridmann, the US underground producer noted for his work with bands like The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Mogwai. Did CYHSY actively seek out Fridmann as a collaborator?
“Basically what happened is that our manager brought his name up to us,” explains Sean, “and obviously we knew who he was, but we didn’t realise that he would even be an option. We absolutely sought him out. I was particularly impressed by his work with Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney; he just gets great sounds. His studio is in a town called Cassadaga, which is about 40 minutes outside of Buffalo, so it’s essentially in the middle of nowhere. It’s good because there are no distractions. Preparing food in the kitchen and playing badminton were about the only extracurricular activities!”
Fridmann is not the only left field musical icon with whom CYHSY have been rubbing shoulders of late. Just before Christmas the band played a Music For Youth benefit show in New York entitled A Tribute To Bob Dylan, alongside an illustrious line-up including Phillip Glass, Patti Smith, Ryan Adams and Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth.
“Yeah, that was a pretty funny, surreal kind of experience,” reflects Sean. “It was strange to walk in and see all these people together in one place. Patti Smith was there, Michael Stipe, Tom Verlaine from Television… then you had a folk performer like Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, who was a huge influence on Dylan when he was just starting out.”
Does Sean enjoy meeting his musical heroes generally?
“It’s kind of like icing on the cake,” he responds. “It’s different for everyone in the band, some people are less bothered than others. I guess, over time, seeing these people becomes less of a shock. Like, we did a show recently and David Byrne was there, but it wasn’t like, ‘Wow, it’s David Byrne!’– which is how it would have been in the beginning. After a while it just becomes a part of your life.”
How did the band feel when David Bowie turned up at their early shows?
“Bowie coming was fucking amazing,” enthuses Sean. “I mean, it was so early in the game too. We’d been together for about a year and we were still playing small shows. In fact, I think the first gig of ours he came to was in the Knitting Factory, which is about the size of this room. But you’d look up and see this silhouette back there, and that was David Bowie! The guy’s a fucking legend, so having him take an interest in the band so early on was incredible.”
Speaking of rock legends, it would be remiss of us to finish without mentioning Sean’s stint as frontman with Guns n' Roses tribute band Mr. Brownstone, who called it a day in June of last year. Did he do a full-on Axl Rose impression?
“Oh yeah,” he beams.
What, with the serpentine dance moves and everything?
“Yeah, I refer to it as ‘musical theatre’,” he laughs. “It started as a joke, but then we started getting offered a lot of money to do it. It got bigger and bigger and after a couple of years we just thought, ‘This is ridiculous’, which it absolutely was – we weren’t taking ourselves too seriously.
“I’m a still a fan of Appetite For Destruction and the Use Your Illusion albums, although the more recent incarnation I’m a little unsure about. I saw them in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York and also in Denmark. It was just a bit too slick for me – not insincere exactly, but close to it.
“The Hammerstein gig was actually the first show on the recent tour. It was cool to see, because it was Guns n’ Roses in front of 3,000 people. That was interesting, seeing them in a venue that small… they still kept the pyrotechnics though!”
Some Loud Thunder is out now on Wichita