Reaping What You Sow

DUBLIN'S HARVEST Ministers release their debut LP Little Dark Mansion this week on Sarah Records, the UK independent label that released their first two highly successful singles on that side of the water. But is it their dream album, the one they've talked about for years and now finally got a chance to record?

Kind of. Well, sort of. Actually, no, not really.

"Sarah gave us a list of ten songs and said, 'record these for the album'," explains Padraig McCaull, who plays any number of instruments in the band including sax, guitars, and clarinet. "I mean if we had been offered a huge budget we could have recorded our ideal debut album, but there's a lot of stuff that we would have put on it that isn't there because Sarah just weren't into it.

"They're all songs we were going to record eventually anyway, but I think we might have given the album a little more balance. For me personally, at least, I would have liked to see a few more uptempo songs."

"But it's like with some of the Smiths albums...," cuts in singer/songwriter/guitarist William Merriman, "had someone given us fifty grand to make a record, I'm not so sure we would have made such a different album. Pat O'Donnell produced the album and he did a brilliant job. He was working on a no fixed fee arrangement so if someone gave us twenty five grand to do an album we'd probably give it to him."

(If I were Pat, I'd stick around!)

Still, in this age of artistic control, isn't it frustrating to have your album's track listing decided for you?

"It's annoying to an extent," says Padraig, "but it's a question of taking what's there. If someone offers to put your album out the thing to do is to make the best of it, you know. Hopefully this will lead to something else in the same way that the singles we put out on our own label here led to Sarah wanting to release them over there and then do the album. What's important is that the album is out. And hopefully this will just lead to bigger things."

If the reception of the band's recently released single 'If It Kills Me And It Will' is any indication, Little Dark Mansion is likely to do just that. And to help things along the band will be playing a number of dates in Ireland and hope to play five gigs in London in mid-October.

"Sarah don't have any money," says Padraig, "so there's no marketing budget or touring budget. There's just the cost of recording. So we'll have to pay our way to go over to England." (And with five core people in the band and two floating members, that's no small task!) But because touring isn't a priority for Sarah, the band will have to take it into their own hands. "Most of the bands on their label don't play live anyway," William points out. "They just write songs and put them out."

Sarah's approach, while probably not ideal for your average young band, actually seems to suit the Harvest Ministers to a tee. They don't see the point in playing gigs to people who have no idea who they are. They don't appear to have any particular interest in superstardom and there are no immediate plans to leave day jobs to rough it in the UK or the States.

"I'd be perfectly content to record a few more albums," William admits, "to just keep writing songs."

• Tara McCarthy