Fearless whisper

“I’d been doing it straight, all through college. All the art work and video,” says Fearless of the band which he founded as Dead Elvis in 1994 (he was forced to change the name because a Dublin-based label shared the moniker). “I just needed to put things on ‘hold’. It wasn’t that it died down.”
While Death In Vegas went into hibernation, he started up garage rock band Black Acid which was quite a departure from his electronic roots. Other projects saw him produce up-and-coming acts like Dark Horses and he also left London to study photography in New York.
But all the while, Fearless had been beavering away at new songs that now form the bedrock of Death In Vegas’ fifth studio album Trans Love Energies. Full of the psychedelic electro tunes that first brought him to the world’s attention in the ‘90s, Fearless feels the new record is a return to his artistic roots. The fresh material also continues Fearless’ tradition of collaborating with guest vocalists. In the past Iggy Pop, Liam Gallagher and Bobby Gillespie have lent their vocal cords. This time round, Austra’s Katie Stelmanis provided vocals for two songs, lead single ‘Your Loft My Acid’ and ‘Witch Dance’.

“It’s a little bit of a sonic journey. It’s quite honest as there was no pressure. It’s purely the record I wanted to make,” Fearless explains. “There are more electronics this time. It goes back to my roots, to my personal interests in electronic music. The second CD has some straight up heavy techno tracks. It’s all over the shop.
“It took about two years. At first, it was just a collection of stuff that we’d been working on. It was stuff that didn’t sound like Black Acid. A friend of mine said to me that it sounded like it was Death In Vegas. I was just churning out the record. I’m actually sitting on three albums’ worth of material.”
Although most of Trans Love Energies was recorded in London, Fearless reveals that key parts of it were actually committed to tape in Donegal.
“My dad lives up that way. I just got back from there actually. I go about three times a year and I do a lot of recording there. In fact, I recorded the vocals for the album in Donegal.”

His connection with Ireland is sure to get deeper as he prepares for Electric Picnic.
“This will be my first time there with Death In Vegas. I was there once with my other band Black Acid. It was actually one of our first ever shows,” he enthuses. “It’s beautiful, stunning. Festivals with big, open, flat land – they really lack something unlike the rolling countryside at places like Electric Picnic. It reminds me of how festivals used to be.”
In the here and now, Fearless was also near the epicentre of something infinitely uglier – the rioting which gripped the UK. His London studio space was based in Shoreditch, one of the worst affected areas.
“The atmosphere was insane. We were in the studio following it all on Twitter, but we didn’t see anything ourselves. It was small pockets and it had been brewing for a long time. To blame anyone would be pure opportunism. It can go all the way back to the Thatcher government. There are no playing fields. I know sport won’t solve anything but there’s nothing for these kids to do,” he says philosophically.