Heaven knows The Thrills are miserable now...

You’ve spent the past three years working harder than an Alabama State Penitentiary chain gang. Do you A) Tell your multinational employers to fuck right off if they think you’re going to keep slaving away like that; B) Demand some quality downtime to recharge your batteries; or C) Poo-poo any notions of a holiday and masochistically sign up for more of the same?

The Thrills have gone for the last of those options, and Conor Deasy is not happy about it.
“I could have been looking forward to a couple of months on the sofa watching UK Gold and the Sci-Fi Channel,” he sighs, ruing the loss of all that lovely Bergerac, Dad’s Army and Quantum Leap time. “The earliest that’s likely to happen now is 2007!”
Before we trigger off a spate of “Thrills Disillusioned With Music Biz” stories, there is a qualifier.
“The record company were happy for Let’s Bottle Bohemia to come out next year, but there’s a momentum to the band at the moment that we didn’t want to disrupt,” the newly-bearded singer explains. “The ‘difficult’ second album turned out to be a relatively easy one because the tunes were flowing and we were playing really well as a band. The drawback is that we haven’t had the five or six weeks off that we all need. I used to think it’d be really cool to release three albums in three years, but now I’m not so sure!”
Well, David Bowie managed to bash out The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Diamond Dogs within eighteen months of each other.
“Really? That’s what gets me thinking like that, although back in the ’70s there weren’t tours of the ‘lucrative Ukranian market’. America, Japan and Europe were pretty much it in terms of touring, whereas now you can spend three years on the road and still not get to all the countries where there’s a demand or potential demand for your music. If The Beatles went out to the Philippines in the ’60s it was a world fucking event, now it’s just another gig.
“There’s no point resisting the iPOD and the internet because it’s so convenient,” he expands, “but the romance of music has definitely taken a hit. Downloading the whole REM back catalogue in two minutes is not the same as building your collection up album by album.”
Not only that but it’s a bugger to roll a spliff on an iPOD.
“(Laughs) That too!”
While Deasy says he can’t believe how supportive Virgin have been, certain elements within the U.S. label’s Accounts Dept. were piqued by the band’s decision to stop touring So Much For The City there.
“We could have milked it a bit more and maybe got into the American Top 100, but at some point you realise you’re turning into a fucking jukebox. You can’t sing the same 10 songs for three years without at least partially going through the motions. Playing the well-known songs is cool ‘cos they’re the ones people respond to, but there are others you start resenting and that’s when it’s time to shift the dynamic by making another record.”
The impression you get talking to Deasy is that The Thrills have figured out that you can be both successful and in charge of your own destiny.
“I see our career up ’til now as being in two parts,” he proffers. “The first is just being happy that your band’s been signed and making records. Second half you’re getting a bit wiser but you’re so fucking fatigued you haven’t got the energy to argue with people. Having been through those cycles we now realise that whether it’s artwork, B-sides or some live album turning up without your permission, you have to take control.”
Was there a particular moment when they said, “Right, from now on we’re the ones calling the shots?”
“Yeah, turning up to do an in-store signing in Austin, Texas and discovering that they had this live CD of us, which is the most shocking thing I’ve ever heard. The photograph on the cover was an embarrassment, the sound was sub-bootleg quality and we had no prior knowledge of it. I hate drama queens in bands, but that was one time I said, ‘No fucking way’, and refused to go in. Since then, if I even see a tour poster that we haven’t approved I want to know why an e-mail hasn’t been sent to Dan and myself about it. It increases your workload but at least you sleep soundly at night.”
It’s testimony to The Thrills’ platinum-shifting status that Let’s Bottle Bohemia (great title by the way!) features guest appearances by REM’s Peter Buck and legendary Beach Boys strings man Van Dyke Parks.
“He’s eccentric in the best way and talks very poetically – everything’s an eloquent soundbite. The first time we arrived at his house he was wearing an outsize pair of dungarees and smoking roll-ups, so he’s everything you want him to be. The guy oozes talent and ideas but isn’t precious about it and keeps saying, ‘If you want to cut that bit out or move it around, do, it’s your record.’ That’s when we felt like the kid in the candy store.”
Clem Burke said that when he recorded with Beach Boys keyboard-player Don Randy he was cool for the first few days, but then he broke down and had to ask him about Pet Sounds.
“There were a couple of questions that Kev had to get out of his system, but we didn’t nag him too much because the stories are better when they come out naturally. To be honest everything about Van Dyke is interesting – he’s done crazy Hollywood stuff like the theme to Melrose Place, loads of soundtracks and, of course, the weird strings at the end of Rattle & Hum’s ‘All I Want Is You’.”
Talking of Hollywood, what’s the goss about The Thrills and this year’s Britney, Mandy Moore?
“They wanted us for a movie in which she plays the President’s daughter who breaks away from the secret service guards and goes travelling round Europe to discover herself,” Deasy winces. “We were supposed to be the band playing the nightclub in Prague when she meets her crazy guy from the wrong side of the tracks, but we were all washing our hair that day. We also got an offer to play in some shitty American thing called The OC – that’s Orange County – which we thought about for two seconds and said no to.”
They may have given Mandy Moore the rough end of a pineapple (figuratively speaking of course) but there was no turning down Peter Buck when he collared them backstage and said, “I want to be on your record!”
“The good thing about that is that it wasn’t our publishing company getting in touch with their publishing company or anything schmoozy like that. His wife owns a great venue in Seattle called The Crocodile Café, which he was in the second time we played there. The story that he volunteered to be on the record isn’t entirely true. He did, but only after Daniel had shamelessly asked him to come to the studio.
“What’s great about REM is that after all these years, they’re still best buddies. There’s no separate car routine. We ran into Peter and Mike Mills in New York when we were both doing a photo-shoot, and it was non-stop laughing and chatting away. We’re Johnny-come-latelys compared to them, but the fact we’ve been friends since childhood means that when arguments arise we don’t fall out over them…well, not for long! We’re our own worst enemies in that we’re always ripping the piss out of each other and arranging complicated set-ups.”
They don’t have sex with one another – well, maybe they do – but in every other regard membership of The Thrills is like being in a five-way marriage.
“Absolutely,” Deasy nods. “For five straight guys to be living in each other’s pockets for two years non-stop and not hate the fucking sight of each other is pretty amazing. It’s a big help having crew around us that we know from Dublin rather than Americans who are great at changing strings and miking up drums, but haven’t a clue who Father Ted is. There’s always somebody to have a laugh with if everybody else in the band is annoying you.”
This seems like a good time for Conor to regale us with the tale of The Thrills’ keyboard-player Kevin Horan, Daddy G from Massive Attack and Daddy G’s highly attractive girlfriend.
“I’ll give you the slightly censored version, which is that Daddy G, a very tall guy, came to a party we were at with a girl who Kevin, a very small guy, proceeded to chat up. Fast forward to T In The Park and we persuade Daddy G, who’s actually cool with the whole thing, to storm into our dressing-room shouting, ‘Where’s that bastard Kevin!’ Given that this guy is 6ft 5” and built like a pro boxer, it’s no wonder that a change of the Horan underwear was called for!
“Another really nice person we met recently was Robert Smith. He asked if we’d mind him coming to say ‘hello’ to us in our dressing-room, which is rather more humble than I’d be if I was one of the most iconic rock stars of the past 25 years!”
While not quite in the Bruce ‘n’ Tarby league yet, The Thrills’ adeptness at hobnobbing means that they’re touring the States this month with new best friends The Pixies.
“People are like, ‘Oh my God, how did you pull that off?’ but they just got in contact with our agents, said ‘We like the band’ and that was it, done deal. They watched us from the side of the stage when we played before them and the Chili Peppers in the Phoenix Park, but we didn’t get to hear what they thought of us until their call.
“A bit of useless information for you – the Pixies’ drummer is part of the Magic Circle and does these amazing card tricks. He’s a cool guy who’s aware of the mythology surrounding his band, but doesn’t use it as a licence to act the asshole. We’re doing six weeks with them starting in San Diego.”
This time last year saw The Thrills subjecting themselves to a rigorous bout of model bonking, powder snorting and Jack Daniel’s swigging in preparation for their Rolling Stones supports. How were Mick ‘n’ Keef?
“We played the Astoria with them and then The Point where we briefly got to say ‘hello’ to each other. The full-on Stones experience came when they invited us to the end of tour party in London. I thought the hedonistic days of record companies sinking a hundred-and-fifty grand into a party were over, but apparently not! If that’s the Stones post-rehab, I’d hate to think what they were like when they were going at it hammer and tong.”
Stillorgan stallions that they are, you’d expect The Thrills to have turned their tour bus into a motorised version of Caligula, but no, depraved sexual practices appear to be thin on the ground. As for love, the band are never in the same place long enough to get past the “Do you come here often?” stage.
“A couple of the guys had steady girlfriends and Daniel still does – I think! – but being on the road doesn’t lend itself to relationships,” Deasy complains. “Of the 15 bus drivers we’ve had over the past two years, two-thirds have either been in the middle of a divorce or got the doomsday call at some point during the tour. Paranoia and distrust creeps in and then it’s bye-bye significant other.”
I like to think I’m well-schooled in the art of bullshitting, but there’s no way I could persuade a girlfriend back in Dublin that I wouldn’t be in Boise, Idaho one night and avail of the 18-year-old cheerleader who wants to do rude things to me just because I’m a rock star.
“The kind of world you read about in Motley Crue’s The Dirt does exist if you go courting it – just ask Har Mar Superstar! – but usually it’s back on the bus with whatever’s left of the backstage rider. Of course, girlfriends five thousand miles away don’t believe that!”
What with Ash, The Frames, Snow Patrol, Simple Kid, Mark Geary and Damien Rice all touring there this year, it’s almost impossible for Americans to leave the house without running into an Irish rock ‘n’ roll act.
“The best thing about The Darkness becoming huge in Britain was that it happened without the permission of the NME who fucking slated them,” he chuckles. “Damien’s the same in that, to a large extent, he’s the antithesis of what you’d expect to sell in big numbers in the States. Which is good news for the likes of Republic Of Loose and Hal who no longer have to walk in the shadow of certain Irish dinosaurs. He’s a soft target I know, but it’s also one in the eye for Louis Walsh whose dominance of the music industry here for the past ten years is an embarrassment. It’s sad that a lot of Europeans perceive Irish culture as being Boyzone and Westlife.
“What’s great about music at the moment,” Deasy continues, “is that there’s no scene for bands to rigidly adhere to. The Strokes and The White Stripes were great when they started, but 99% of the groups who jumped on their bandwagon were unlistenable. It was the same with grunge, baggy and Britpop – the first wave was cool, but the rest was wannabes missing the point.”
There are those who’d suggest that The Thrills have already spawned their own imitators in the shape of the aforementioned Hal.
“What’s funny is that we were both signed to the same Dublin indie label, Supremo, and would have heard each other’s demos four or five years ago when we starting off. We probably have some similar records in our collection, but I wouldn’t say there’s been copying on either side. Without wanting to piss on anyone’s parade, I’m glad there’s more to Ireland than the singer-songwriter scene which has become too predictable and incestuous.”
A debate which will doubtless continue when Deasy & Co. pop in to Whelan’s next. Another group that they probably don’t want to share a dark alley with at the moment are Aslan.
“Don’t ask me why, but every opportunity they get they slag us off. That said, they’re gods walking the streets in certain part of Dublin and it’s good that bands like them can be self-sufficient here. The days of having to break Britain and the US or otherwise starve are over.”
While The Cranberries got a little more rawk every time they touched down at JFK, spending the last year in the States has actually made The Thrills sound less American. An observation that goes down well with somebody who’s been subjected to more than his fair share of Eagles/Little Feat/Beach Boys comparisons.
“Although a lot of Let’s Bottle Bohemia was written on the road, it’s a document of what we were thinking rather than what we were doing. I didn’t want it to be a tour bus record or a CNN record which can happen to bands when they’re away for long periods.”
They’re spoilt for choice at this stage, but gun to head, what are Conor’s favourite Thrills moments?
“The highlight for me is making the records, because everything else that happens is a consequence of that,” he reflects. “Often days will blur into one, but there are little pinpricks in the canvas like appearing for the first time on Top Of The Pops; turning up in New York and doing David Letterman; and being screamed at in Japan. We were talking earlier about being tired and not having enough time off, but really it’s the best job in the world!”
So he wouldn’t agree with Thom Yorke’s assertion that being in a band is only slightly preferable to having a kangohammer shoved up your bum.
“Did he say that?”
I’m paraphrasing.
“If you hate traveling round the world and playing to venues full of fans that much, get a job in McDonald’s. Don’t go whining and moaning and insulting people who’d give their right arm to be in the position you’re in.”
And so say all of us!

The Thrills give their Let’s Bottle Bohemia album a live airing at The Dublin Point on December 21