Hot Press XMas Summit 2013: Pressing Matters part 1

The doormen won’t let the herd of reindeer we’ve brought with us clomp up the stairs – Ebenezer Scrooges or wot? – but otherwise the Vintage Room in the Workman’s Club couldn’t be any more festive as we gather for the meeting of brilliant musical minds that is the Hot Press 2013 Summit.
Among those getting egg-nogged up for the occasion are:

Nathan Connolly
So much for taking the year off! While Gary Lightbody helps make Taylor Swift even more famous, his Snow Patrol colleague has formed a rocking new outfit, Little Matador, whose debut album will be dropping in March.

Troy Stewart
A member of Snow Patrol’s touring line-up, the American spent the fi rst half of 2013 as part of the G. Lightbody-led Tired Pony collective before becoming a Little Matador. His own combo, The Windsor Players, have included Tim Burgess, Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey among their revolving cast members.

SOAK
The Derry Artist Also Known As Bridie Monds-Watson joins us on Skype from Limerick where she’s opening tonight for Bombay Bicycle Club. Having bagged a major deal during the summer with Universal, the Derry 17-yearold is currently readying her new EP.

Jenny Greene
In addition to helming 2fm’s Friday and Saturday night Electric Disco partyfest, Jenny has been up hill and down dale again this year as one of the country’s most indemand club DJs.

Gar Byrne
Sticksman with The Riptide Movement whose extremely good 2013 has included selling-out The Olympia, supporting the Stones, making their first foray to India and recording an album that come next spring will blow yer’ socks off!

Lethal Dialect
Better-known to his family as Paulie, the Dubliner has devoted most of the year to assembling 1988, an album which we reckon is going to be as big a landmark for homegrown hip hop as his mate Maverick Sabre’s Lonely Are The Brave.

Evan Walsh
This time last year he was studying for his Leaving. Also joining us courtesy of Skype, The Strypes drummer is pinching himself in case scoring a top 5 album and hanging with Elton John, Paul Weller, Alex Turner, Roger Daltrey and – all kneel in praise – Wilko Johnson is just a dream.

Kieran McGuinness
What with his band Delorentos winning the 2013 Choice Music Prize – we had a tenner on ‘em at 6/1, so thanks! – and sell-out shows wherever they go, Kieran is another HP Summit-er who probably doesn’t want the year to end.

Stuart Clark
Hot Press’ Assistant Editor who’s going to need the combined marshalling skills of Vincent Browne, Miriam O’Callaghan and Jeremy Paxman to keep them lot in check
for the next couple of hours! So, let the fun begin…

Stuart: Nathan, instead of a year of quality sitting on your arse, you’ve started a new band who are playing the sort of tiny clubs Snow Patrol were 15 years ago. Why such a glutton for punishment?
Nathan: It’s exciting, it’s fresh, it’s new. So much so that I’ve gone back to worrying about reviews again! I’d stopped reading them when Snow Patrol became a dirty word – well, two words! – for an indie band becoming successful.
I’m not giving out about it; it’s just the way it is. The response has been amazing, with people sort of going, “This is the guy from Snow Patrol?” I did an interview the other day and the journalist didn’t believe me when I said I listened to everything from Dusty Springfield to Queens Of The Stone Age.
Lethal: It’s the same in my game. Become somewhat popular and you get the whole fucking “he’s sold-out” thing, even though you know in your heart you haven’t. People are comfortable with you at a certain level, but you’ve got to keep pushing it.
Nathan: There’s no crime in selling records if there’s honesty. These past few months with Little Matador have been great because on one hand we’re doing clubs like The Grand Social tonight, which I love, and on the other we’ve got to support Josh Homme and Trent Reznor who are both massive heroes of mine. We’re all music fans sat here.
Stuart: So what’s your most wanton act of fandom?
Nathan: Collaring Dawn French, I swear to God! Richard Curtis is really into Snow Patrol and last year asked us to do Comic Relief, which you can’t really say “no” to. We were walking along the same hallway, so I said, “Excuse me, I’m Nathan from Snow Patrol and I’m a really big fan” and she just screamed, “Aaaaaaaahhhhhh, I love Snow Patrol!” We had a moment.
Troy: In 2008/‘09 we were working on a Snow Patrol record in Berlin and REM were in town. We went to the gig and afterwards walking through the backstage area I almost passed out with excitement when I clocked Peter Buck outside his trailer. And then I end up playing in Tired Pony with him! We’re bandmates, sure, but when I’m drinking tequila with him I’m still thinking, “Fuck me, it’s Peter Buck!” This dude, who’s sold a trillion records with REM, gets in a van and humps his own gear into a club in Seattle. He’s amazing. I thanked him one night for the ‘Orange Crush’ video, which had an enormous impact on me as a kid, and he goes, “Want to do a shot?” Peter’s got these stories – “I was going to go to bed but then Lindsey Buckingham called me up” – that we listen to open-mouthed.
Gar: There’s no VIP pecking order at Benicassim – it’s superstars with supernobodies. Our dressing-room was next to Dizzee Rascal’s, which had green smoke pouring out of it! We got to have beers with Primal Scream and Josh Homme and Liam Gallagher, which was pretty amazing.
Evan: The Strypes’ would be arranging a gig in the Oysteryfl eet Hotel in Canvey Island just so that we could get to play a few songs with Wilko Johnson and Sparko the bass-player from Dr. Feelgood.
Stuart: Wilko, of course, being terminally ill with pancreatic cancer.
Evan: The bravery of the man to keep on playing… it’s amazing to be so at peace with the fact you’re going to die. You know the Dr. Feelgood documentary, Oil City Confidential?
Stuart: Part of Julien Temple’s great R’n’B/punk trilogy; I most certainly do!
Evan: I live by that fi lm. Wilko’s amazingly passionate and always stayed true to his roots. He’s 100% the real deal and we all feel very privileged to have met him.
Stuart: Some of you have been clocking up serious air miles of late. And So I Watch You From Afar are over there now, but by my reckoning The Riptide Movement were the fi rst Irish indie band to visit India.
Gar: I think possibly we were. It was an amazing experience. We were brought out by a huge college there and played to an audience of about 3,500 people in an auditorium. The day before we all bought Indian gowns and headgear and as soon as we came out they went bananas.
You’d have thought they were hammered, but none of them were drinking. You wouldn’t get people in Ireland going nuts like that if they were sober. We’re in touch with this Indian indie band who either have the best or worst name ever – Men Who Pause.
Nathan: That’s awful… and brilliant at the same time!
Kieran: We played in Russia and every single person had a cigarette in this hand, a cigarette in that hand and a cigarette in their mouth. They’re possibly the unhealthiest people in Europe in that respect, but really into their music. Because we were hanging out with locals, we were able to find these tiny little pubs, which were at the end of an alleyway, up a fl ight of stairs, knock on the door three times and they let you in. It was like a throwback to prohibition.
Stuart: Was there a lot of talk about Pussy Riot?
Kieran: No, not a single person mentioned them. Whether that’s because they're frightened to or it’s something that’s made more of an impact internationally than domestically I don’t know. You kind of feel, “It’s not my place to bring it up.” What they do want to talk about when they know you’re Irish is U2. Bono is still God in the Russian Federation!
Evan: We were in Japan in October, which was pretty mind-blowing. Their pop culture is very, very different to anywhere else in the world. It’s much more loud and in your face and constantly upbeat. We did three gigs in Tokyo and then went to some slightly smaller cities, which I couldn’t pronounce then and have forgotten now! They’re not the most rock ‘n’ roll of affairs in that you’re coming-off time is scheduled to coincide with the last train home, which is 9 o’clock! People are into it, but in an extremely polite way that’s a bit of a shock to the system after the mayhem you get here and in the UK.
We were on their big TV show, Music Station, with Kiss, which was really weird. They were in the heels and full make-up, so we felt a bit underdressed!
Stuart: Who’d have thought a year ago you’d be hooking up in Tokyo with Gene Simmons and the chaps.
Evan: I wouldn’t have thought it a week before! It wasn’t the biggest studio, but there were still confetti explosions… and lots of tongues. Even more bizarre was ending up on stage with these two middle-aged Japanese men who were supposedly International World Air Guitar Champions, but were appalling at it.
SOAK: I’ve just done my fi rst tour with Tegan& Sara, which took in places like Bosnia and Croatia, which I’d heard of but didn’t know anything about. Half the time I wasn’t sure where I was – it’s amazing how similar Germany looks to Poland! I loved the contrasts like it being 20 degrees in Italy, and then a couple of hours
later you’re in the Swiss Alps where it’s minustwo!
My one day-off was in Warsaw, which I’d been told was a bit grey but turned out to be an amazing city. The fact that Hitler razed it during the war and it was pieced back together almost like a jigsaw… I fi nally got over the trauma of being 13 and my Mum not letting me buy a fake ID to get into a Tegan & Sara gig that was over-
18s, even though my 14 and 15-year-old friends had them. The crowd in Germany weren’t great; they turned up early for the €1 beers and talked really loudly through all the sets, but everywhere else was brilliant.
Stuart: It’d be easier if you had a band that could crank it up a bit if people don’t shush.
SOAK: I wouldn’t mind one, but I don’t want to rush into it. I’ve still got a lot to learn as a performer, which I maybe wouldn’t learn if I was hiding behind other people. I’ll leave it until an album comes around or maybe a second album.
The Tegan & Sara tour was very, very good but I think Canadian/American artists work in a different way to Irish/UK ones. You had to be on at this time to the second and there were walkytalkies and lights to guide you to the stage. I know it’s meant to be professional but, Jesus, have some fun people!
Stuart: This was the year that “twerk” made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. I quite liked Miley until she used Sinéad’s past mental health problems as a stick to beat her with. What did you make of their anti-social media spat?
Evan: Normally I don’t pay attention to what’s going on in that showbiz world, but I read it out of curiosity and Sinéad was spot on. She was making serious and intelligent points and Miley reacted in the most idiotic way possible.
The business they’re in being what it is, I think most of those Disney kids were fucked up from an early age.