More Meringue For Your Buck

Nobody could accuse Brian Crosby of thinking small. Eighteen months ago, Crosby, who bangs the keyboards in Bell X1, reckoned Ireland deserved an indie supergroup to call its own.

Thus was born The Cake Sale, a multi-headed singer-songwriter ensemble drawing on the talents of, among others, Neil Hannon, Glen Hansard, Gemma Hayes and Gary Lightbody.
“The idea just popped into my head one evening,” reminisces Crosby. “I was a big fan of the Reindeer Section [a Glasgow indie collective marshalled, coincidentally, by Lightbody] and thought it would be great to do an Irish version. I also thought there was enough talent here to sustain a project of that scale.”
A charity album that chooses not to wear its heart on its sleeve (proceeds go to Oxfam, but you won’t hear anyone screaming this from the rooftops), The Cake Sale brings together some mouthwatering pairings. Gemma Hayes performs a Glen Hansard song; Matt Lunson, an Aussie exile, gets to hear Neil Hannon interpret one of his ditties; and honorary Liffeysider Josh Ritter delivers a tingling reading of Bell X1 singer Paul Noonan’s ‘Vapour Trail’.
Co-ordinating the schedules of so many artists was, Crosby recalls, a nightmare.
“Gary Lightbody and [Damien Rice foil] Lisa Hannigan actually recorded their vocals for ‘Some Surprise’ [another Noonan number] in different countries,” he reveals. “Gary was on tour, so his piece was done on a portable studio. Lisa’s was added later on. We’d already recorded the music, so it was just a question of bolting it all together. There was also a bass part from [Frames guitarist] Rob Bochnik that he sent us by email and which I slotted into the record in Dublin. Technology rescued us on a few occasions!”
Despite the ever-shifting line-up , The Cake Sale feels remarkably cohesive. Credit, says Crosby, goes to the Cake Sale band: a core of four musicians (Crosby, Noonan, former Crowded House bassist Nick Seymour and Boss Volenti sticksman Graham Hopkins), who play almost all of the music on the record.
“We didn’t want it to sound like a compilation album,” notes Crosby.
Some contributors seem to arrive out of leftfield. How, for instance, did Cardigans frontwoman Nina Persson, singing an Emm Gryner song, come to be involved?
“Emm has toured as part of The Cardigans, so she contacted Nina for us. She was only too happy to come on board.”
Gryner, of course, used to sing backing vocals for David Bowie too. Did anyone think to approach the dame?
“No, but most of the people we went to were only too happy. A few people simply couldn’t find time in their schedules,” Crosby resumes. “Overall, though, we were delighted with the response. People were willing to go to great lengths to be on the record.”
As the latest Irish rock star to embark on a charitable endeavour, one wonders whether Brian harbours ambitions of one day joining Bono and Sir Bob in their quest to raise humanity up to a higher state of consciousness?
“People are very cynical, I think, when they see musicians up on podiums,” he avers. “I won’t mention any names as I don’t want to get into trouble. From my perspective, I’m not a great public speaker. It’s better, I think, to let the record do the talking.”