Return of the Mack

WHEN YOU call your group Mackerel Sky and release an EP on Flying Fish records you are duty bound to accept the inevitable. Which is, of course, the fact that dog(fish)-lazy hacks (yours truly included) are going to er, take the bait and come up with the obvious aquatic angles, puns and hooks and regurgitate them ad infinitum.
But when you record self-same EP in the north Dublin fishing village of Howth, a stone s throw away from the harbour, it s time for some sort of explanation. Not since Cork s Five Go Down To The Sea? released the classic There s a Fish On Top of Shandon Swears He s Elvis has there been so many fish references attached to one band. Just what is this unhealthy obsession with all things fishy?
Well, we re definitely not sponsored by Bord Iascaigh Mhara, offers Feargal O Higgins, one half of the Dublin-based duo. The name has nothing to do with fish, actually. A mackerel sky is a type of cloud formation Stratus Cumulus to be precise. Country people, especially farmers, tend to know what it means but urbanites think it refers to the fish. (That s put you in your plaice, O Hare Ed.)
I don t mean to carp on about this but isn t that a herring-bone tweed suit you re wearing? You re not going to tell me that you re a sole band, now are you?
I don t quite know where we fit in, or how we d be categorised, answers Paraic O Beirne, obviously gutted by the accusation. So far we ve been likened to the Everly Brothers, REM, Heaven 17, Cat Stevens, The Prodigy and it goes on. We don t mind the comparisons but hopefully we re beginning to sound a little bit like ourselves.
A quick trawl thorough their EP reveals an interesting, accessible indie/pop sound which is mainly guitar-based but with equally impressive rhythmic sequences, lending, on occasions a strong dance feel.
It s not meant to be strictly studio-based, O Higgins stresses. The idea of putting out the CD was to test the water as we haven t performed that much live. But the reaction has been very good and we intend to go on the road to promote our album when it comes out next summer. We have people in mind to play on stage with us but they don t know about it yet!
Two of the songs contained on the EP, namely Moving and Bittersweet , have already made an impact on the 2TV indie charts and the nation s viewers thanks to a couple of rather tasty videos accompanying them. We ve been lucky in that we have a cousin who made them quite cheaply for us, says O Higgins. It s funny, we went around various places in the country promoting the EP and when you say you re on the indie charts on 2TV it makes quite an impact.
With most of the tracks already recorded, Mackerel Sky intend to release their debut album, I Know Where You Live, by next August. The project, which is funded entirely by the band, is intended to attract the attention of record companies, as O Beirne explains. There are so many studios where you can produce good albums and then give it to a record company and say this is what we re capable of. It also demonstrates that you re fairly serious about what you re doing.
There are already one or two indications of record company interest to date. But there aren t any big negotiations going on or anything like that. The album will come out anyway, with or without record company support.
Presumably, then, we can expect to see Mackerel Sky guesting with the likes of Ocean Colour Scene or even Hootie And The Blowfish in the near future! n