Eyes Wide Shut

It’s been a good four years since we were able to talk about a new Blink record, virtually a lifetime for some bands.

Some of you may not even have a clue just who we’re talking about here, yet Blink have been perhaps one of Ireland’s most astonishing success stories. Taken very much to heart in the US, they spent most of the late ‘90s across the Atlantic being lauded by all and sundry and touring with the likes of Mercury Rev and Moby.
The result, as Dermot Lambert explains, was that business at home didn’t really get taken care of. “We released the second album here four years ago and we were just too tired to tour it or promote it. We just put it out and left it. It got no airplay and we weren’t really surprised. This time round we’ve put it out here first, the rest of the world can do what it likes. We wanted to finish the record for ourselves, for all sorts of personal reasons, and it took a long time until we were really happy with it.”
As further tales of their success filtered back from the States, we might have been forgiven for thinking that the four Dubliners have spent the last while living the high life. In fact, with a series of unfortunate events leaving them without a deal, the reality has been a lot more down to earth. “We came back here properly in 2000,” says Dermot, “knowing that we wanted to make a third album but it just took so long. Our entire career has been like walking through treacle with concrete boots on. We decided to stop waiting for other people to give us the go ahead to do things and do it ourselves. We set about getting all manner of part time jobs, anything that would bring money in, and started the ordeal of paying for the record”.
Which was tough to deal with, admits Dermot, “especially after the highs of before. At times it was even humiliating. I have to say, although I’d rather not go through an awful lot of it again, I’d rather be the person who is sitting here today than the one I was ten years ago. That’s the result of all the complications and the good times and bad times.” Robbie Sexton agrees that the hard times spurred them on. “When you’re sitting back in Dublin with absolutely no money waiting for someone to make a decision, you realise that you just have to go with it. We were very lucky really with the people that helped us and encouraged us.
“We had to do this for our own personal self control and sense of freedom,” says Dermot. “Now I know that there isn’t a single note or word on this album that I’d change”.
He’s not far wrong to be so proud. Deep Inside The Sound Of Sadness echoes with the sound of confidence, an album at turns brash and bold – thanks to the production of ex-Ministry member Howie Beno – but also steeped in introspection. The latter comes from Lambert’s often deeply personal lyrics. “The lyrical content is coloured in places by things that happened along the way on the road, but there’s no doubt that it’s to do with the personal cost that that has had. During the darkest times the band has always been there for me. I had a couple of emotional bombshells dropped on me during the recording of the album and was in no physical state to do anything but had to write the lyrics for the rest of the songs.
“We were in New York and Robbie had to baby-sit me effectively. A year and a half later I can look back and not believe that some of that stuff got written, secondly that it was allowed to be put on a record and finally that I’m playing in a band that would go with that. Now I’d love to fall head over heels in love and write about that for a while because this is very dark.”
Did Robbie find it a shock to find out what his bandmate was going through? “Believe me I knew what was going on at the time. He was in absolute trauma. It’s fair to say that I wouldn’t leave him alone in the apartment at the time. It was a very heavy time.” And then he starts laughing as only best friends can. “At one point I had to go drinking for 48 hours just to deal with it, giving him a call every hour to make sure he was OK.”
Does this make them hard songs for Dermot to sing now? “Strangely, they’re lovely to sing. I’m sort of removed from them because I’m in a different place now but I have full empathy for that person. It’s almost like singing someone else’s songs. What I said about not wanting to be the person I was before, a year and a half ago I wouldn’t have said that, but I know that I wouldn’t have written lyrics like this before, I would have hid behind them.” There’s been ups and downs but personally I can sit here today and tell you that I feel like I’m in one of the best bands in the world”.