New Stars

If you think that Donegal rock three-pieces begin and end with the punk pop of The Revs, you obviously haven’t been exposed to the far more menacing guitar rumblings of Berkeley. Formed two and a half years ago, the fledgling outfit promptly recorded an independent EP, cheekily entitled The Best Of Berkeley and used it as a demo to send to record companies. Things got busier and two of the trio, who were holding down permanent jobs, decided that they couldn’t commit to the band full-time, and left.

However, all was not lost, and singer/guitarist Tommy McLaughlin was soon joined by two new like-minded souls in the shape of Eugene McGinty on bass and Hugh Law on drums, and Berkeley as we know them started making noise again. And what a beautiful, raucous white noise it is, as evidenced by recent hotpress Single of the Fortnight, the New Star EP, which was recorded in Chicago last November with the legendary Steve Albini.

“Our favourite album is probably In Utero,” admits Tommy, “and we also love the PJ Harvey stuff and Shellac. We were always big fans of his.”

Albini has twiddled knobs for some of the biggest alternative names on the planet, including his sterling contribution last year to The Frames’ beautiful birdsongs. In fact, it was mainFrame, Glen Hansard, who started the ball rolling in Tommy’s head that maybe they should head into the West rather than looking for a studio at home.

“We did a gig with The Frames in Derry and I asked Glen what Steve Albini was like,” recalls the singer. “He said that he [Albini] was a really nice guy and anyone can go over and record with him. So Glen gave us his phone number and said that we should just call him, so we did. We just phoned and asked him and he said yes.”

In total, Berkeley spent a month in Chicago, which included 14 days in Albini’s Electric Audio studio, where they recorded 16 tracks with the renowned producer.

“He’s just a normal guy,” Tommy opines. “He doesn’t drink and he doesn’t really go out. He walked over to the shop with us one day and he said it was the first time he had been outside for a month. After we were finished recording, he took us out to a couple of parties, because he had a couple of days free before the next band were in. But when he’s working, he’s very quiet. We’d start recording at lunchtime, finish about one or two in the morning, and he just goes up and sits with his girlfriend for the rest of the night.”

The quintet of tracks that make up New Star are the first fruits of Berkeley’s American adventure, and while Tommy admits to feeling relieved that it is finally in record shops, it is not the sum total of their ambition. Their as yet untitled debut album is pencilled in for autumn release and having heard a sneak preview, I can confirm that it is one definitely worth waiting for. However, the band are quite relaxed about their expectations.

“We’re hardly a commercial band,” Tommy admits. “We’re not expecting to be in magazines or the newspapers.”

So what are their hopes for their EP, album and the band in general?

“We’d like to get out of Ireland, to America probably,” he muses. “You can’t keep playing Ireland because you run out of places pretty quickly. It would be nice to do something in the UK but the main thing is America. There seems to be more of an opportunity for people over there. It seems that you can go out there and tour for a year, even if nobody knows who you are, because of the size of the place.”

Playing live is what it is all about for Berkeley and they have been regulars at gigs over the last few months, which saw them support everybody from Jimmy Eat World to Sparta, as well as a few dodgier performances.

“We’ll play anywhere, within reason,” Tommy grins. “I think the worst gig we ever did was at a school prom last year. It was hilarious. But we had to do it for the money. We were really poor.”

In their short life-span so far, Berkeley have already been compared to everyone from Buffalo Tom to Sonic Youth, and quite a lot in between. It’s not something that bothers them too much, though.

“Everyone thinks we sound like someone different, which can only be good,” Tommy laughs. “I hate music that has a tag on it before you buy it, like this emo crap. There are only two kinds of music, good or

bad.”