Doll Parts

“This week the band are celebrating our three year anniversary and I think our album, The Knife Throws And His Wife, represents everything we’ve done up to this point,” begins Finn Sedas, singer/guitarist for Cork-based avant-guard alternative rockers Ladydoll.

“I think the record is a good indicator of where we are as a band now. At the same time we’ve been building things up on the live scene for a while so we’re not pinning all our hopes and dreams on the success of the album. Whatever happens, we’ll go out and play the way we always play.”
While some people might feel Finn’s steadfast refusal to adopt Journey’s mantra of ‘Don’t Sop Believing’ is an affront to the very nature of being in a band, this writer (and I’m sure many others) thinks that keeping your feet on the ground and your fingers in as many pies as possible is a shrewd move.
You see, in 2010, an independent band needs to hustle in order to keep their heads above water, and Finn is canny enough to realise that while there mightn’t be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, there are plenty of rewards for those who work hard enough.
“A lot of groups are under the illusion that they’ll be spotted in their local pub: it doesn’t happen like that,” he offers.
“A lot of the time bands aren’t willing to travel out of their own towns for gigs. We will. The live show is our main priority. We’ve some good dates lined up at the moment and we can’t wait to tear into them. I’m looking forward to hearing people’s reactions to the album first-hand.”
Operating under the mission statement that there is nothing more important than the next gig, the four-piece (completed by drummer Eoin Ryan, bassist Nora King and Finn’s old school-mate Dave Shaw on guitar) are perfectly happy to turn down the day jobs in favour of getting their music heard.
“From day one I told my boss that I’ll work whenever he wants, but when I’ve gigs I can’t because I don’t ever want to miss a show or tour for any job,” says Finn, who moonlights as a barman when he isn’t getting his rocks out onstage (in a purely musical sense of course).
“The way I see things, being in Ladydoll is my number one job and that’s it as far as I‘m concerned. I can see why so many other bands have issues with jobs, though. There aren’t any grants or funding for people in our line of work and that’s a real shame.”
Formed in 2007 when they met while attending Coláiste Stiofán (“It was pretty much the only music college in the area,” says Finn) the band’s blend of Dresden Dolls melodrama and Placebo-riffage has won a legion of panda-eyed followers. And their profile has been steadily ascending with each show. The Knife Thrower And His Wife sees Ladydoll at the height of their powers – the record is a darkly comic and diverse piece of work which should hopefully see the group elevated to the next level.
“We recorded it in the Jam Factory in Tralee,” reveals the frontman. “We self-produced all of it except for tracks five [‘Honeybunny’] and six [‘Genetics’] which we did separately with Ciaran O’Shea [from Cyclefly], and the rest we did ourselves. We chose to self-produce because we wanted to have full control. If we’re being honest, it was also because of financial reasons. We were stuck for money and we were so well rehearsed we decided to do it ourselves and save cash for the mixing. When you’ve been playing for so long you’ve already got an idea of how they should be produced anyway and we recorded all 10 tracks in nine days.
“We’re really proud of the fact that we produced it ourselves and I think we got the most character out of the songs,” he continues. “The album’s a really good representation of our ideas and if we brought in an outside producer then I don’t think it would have sounded as strong.”
With Finn and Co. currently on the promo trail, it looks like he’s got a busy few months ahead of him. As we wrap up our interview, we ask him about where he sees his band in relation to the much talked about Cork music scene.
“In every city people try to build up their scene as much as they can,” he says finally. “I suppose it’s good for the bands, but I actually don’t think the scene is that great down here in Cork. We live in a small island, so obviously you can’t really compare it to the States or the UK. However, there’s always been a handful of bands that have been really, really good that come out every few years and we’d like to become one of them.”