Fairuza play, good sports

Fairuza are a Dublin three-piece who enjoy messing with the programme. Once, when their bass player was unavailable for a gig, they simply filmed him performing the songs beforehand, hauled a TV set onstage and played along to the video. The band recently did a series of shows under an alias without informing or inviting anyone they knew.

Not that Fairuza are publicity shy – they have a team of models (friends of theirs, rather than hired for the occasion) who hand out flyers at gigs, occasionally dressed as schoolgirls, dispensing lollipops to an unsuspecting and delighted crowd.

“The girls were totally up for it – it’s not like we were being misogynist or anything,” bassist Dan Bodwell assures. “And we did get a huge number of hits on our website just afterwards.”

Such gimmickry aside, it’s the music that really strikes people about Fairuza – a strange and visceral affair, juxtaposing subject matter such as Star Wars and vampires with intensely serious, hyper-dramatic guitar, drums and vocals. Their style has seen them likened to Jeff Buckley, Muse and Shellac, although the band are non-comittal about any influences or comparisons.

Fairuza was first brought to life by brothers Kryz and Carroll Reid when their previous band Octopuss Underground parted company with both bass player and vocalist. The new incarnation saw Kryz take over the singing, as well as guitar and song-writing duties, and a rhythm section consisting of Carroll on drums and Pennsylvanian native Dan Bodwell, a classically trained cello and bass player, who moved to Dublin about four years ago with his Irish-born wife.

Kryz recalls: “Dan and I were working together in a restaurant for months - I was cheffing and he was waitering. For ages, I was telling him the saga of searching for a bassist, until he finally convinced me to give him a try.”

So, with all the vital elements in place and newly-named after the American actress Fairuza Balk, the band rehearsed for about a year and a half and recorded the three-track demo ‘Absolut Fairuza’, before playing their first gig in the Temple Bar Music Centre early this year.

Kryz, who works as a cinema projectionist, has also found plenty of use for his film-making skills within the band: ”Our first gig was great. The venue has a facility to project things onto a screen behind the stage, so I did some visuals on a camcorder. People were really impressed. In fact, I think the visuals were a bit too good – they probably distracted from the music, but it’s something I’ve been playing around with since.”

What with Dan being a full-time jobbing musician, recently appearing with Mary Coghlan in the Olympia, and in the play 1900 - Pianist on the Ocean in ther Andrew’s Lane Theatre, such other commitments have led to him having only a virtual presence at the band’s second gig.

Carroll explains: “We filmed a video of Dan playing all the songs to a click track, which was relayed to an earpiece which I kept time to on the drums. It worked, surprisngly enough. Although, we should have pretended it was a satellite link up.”

“I think our worst gig was one of the college ones,” Dan laughs. “Students - they just don’t give a fuck! They had Home & Away on the TV at full volume, and there were dudes arguing about whether or not it was cool to keep playing pool. At a pool table situated directly in front of the stage. They kept playing – so did we.”

Strangely enough they have another college tour planned for next year.

“We’d also like to play a few gigs in the US – New York and Boston, that kind of circuit. We’re starting work on recording songs for an album at our home studio, and we’ll hopefully put out an E.P. before the year’s out.”

I’m no relation and my male siblings can’t play so much as a tin whistle, but Kryz suddenly remarks on the preponderance of ‘Reid’ brothers in bands. “The Jesus and Mary Chain… The Proclaimers! All the greats,” he laughs. “Now us!”

Must be something in the genes.