Happy Bunnies

It’s a busy time for Belfast’s premier club-running/show-promoting/remixing/music-making duo, Skibunny. To mark the launch of their tuneful debut album, Hugs, they’ve bounced off on a mini tour of sympathetic spots around Ireland and Britain.

Well, one of them has. While vocalist, Tanya Mellotte is currently leading a band of musicians through the long coach-journeys, extended sound-checks and late nights of the tour – her long-term co-conspirator, Mark Gordon, is happily ensconced in Belfast, sitting over a toastie and Americano with yours truly.
Which, in the nicest possible way, begs the question: what are you doing here?
“I decided I wasn’t going to be part of the touring band anymore,” says Mark, “I’ve a wife and daughter – it’s something I don’t really need to do anymore. There’s so much madness that surrounds going on tour and playing live, I can live without it. And Tanya’s fine with it. We’ve always operated in that kind of way, anyway. I could always have gone to bed half an hour ago; she’s bouncing around wondering where to go next.”
The knowing way in which Mark speaks about his musical partner is entirely understandable. The pair’s relationship spans almost two decades, beginning in the early nineties in Glasgow when both were members of art-rockers, Tunic, then continuing in Belfast, after that band’s demise, with the establishment of a seminal club night (first in Vico’s, then Auntie Annies), and lasting until now, with their remixing jobs for the likes of ASIWYFA, Oppenheimer and Clone Quartet. Not to mention the 11 song marvel that is Hugs. Considering how long their partnership has existed, it’s a rare achievement to find their new album manages the trick of feeling simultaneously box-fresh and also the product of a long, meandering, gestation.
“We started playing music together as teenagers,” says Mark, “which is pretty incredible when you think about it now. It was the easiest thing in the world back then. We’ve had our ups and downs, as any two people would over that length of time, but I think it’s clear from the record that it’s by people who have known one another for a very long time. There was no tension, it was a really mature and relaxed way of working and I think it shows. It probably would have been a very different album if we’d been going in at ten, working though the night, hammering away at it like lunatics.”
The placid backdrop of the album’s writing and recording was a result of changed circumstances. Last year, the pair decided to call an end to their club-nights following a run of success that lasted more than a decade. Was it a tough decision to call it quits?
“Not really,” laughs Mark. “We didn’t want to look like the oldest swingers in town. That was always a huge fear. I’ve always loved the Paul Weller attitude of quitting while you’re still relevant and, you know, it felt like a generational shift had taken place. There wasn’t any one moment, it was a nebulous thing but you can push these things too far and it was the right time. We didn’t do too badly. I’d say the crowd changed every two years and we went through maybe four or five generations. We’re happy with that.”
Even as the club was coming to an end, Mark claims the pair weren’t actively looking for an escape route from DJing. However, when the opportunity arrived to remix an Oppenheimer song, the process proved so successful, it seemed to open up another path.
“It was a great experience for both of us,” he reveals. “We’d independently been in other bands (Go Commando and Olympic Lifts), but it was the first time the pair of us had been in a studio together for nine years. It was a great experience – just creating music together again rather than playing other people’s stuff. We lifted the vocals from the song and wrote a completely new backing track. We listened to it back and I think we both thought: that’s a song in itself. It was incredible. There was also that thing about then having to give it away. You begin to wonder – I’d love to keep it for myself.”
With Hugs proving such a low-key triumph, that hunch has turned out to be a very good one to follow.
With all their shared indie air-miles, it’s no small wonder that Mark and Tanya are producing the best music of their lives.
“We’re really happy with where we are at the moment,” he beams.“When you get to the end of an album, you forget that something has to come next. Skibunny has never been of the moment, and it’s never had a game plan. It’s just evolved and it’ll continue to evolve. I don’t think either of us can predict what will happen next – just that there’ll be more music.”

Hugs is available now through Small Town America.