Rhesus To Be Cheerful

It’s an overcast May afternoon in a fashionable part of east London, and soon after the four members of The Arctic Monkeys amble into the bar of exclusive private members club Shoreditch House, the fire alarm goes off.

A moment earlier there’d been a nicely un-intrusive conversational buzz about the place, but suddenly all is drowned in headache-inducing sound. It doesn’t help that the alarm sounds like the final shriekings of a fat opera singer dying mid-orgasm. On repeat. I won’t even attempt the phonetics...
Hilariously, few people move to flee the building. Instead, they all just look mildly annoyed. With good cause, as it transpires.
“I’m terribly sorry about this,” a stressed-out Polish waitress explains to the band’s affable but aggrieved longtime manager, Geoff Barradale. “There isn’t a fire, but there’s some kind of glitch in the computer system, and I’m afraid the alarm won’t stop for another 15 minutes.”
The bells! The bells! Unfortunately, the band are here to do press interviews to promote their fourth long-player, Suck It And See, and their schedule is so tight that interviews have to go ahead as planned, despite the din.
Your Hot Press scribe isn’t overly concerned. My own interview isn’t starting for another 30 minutes.
So while waiting for the sirens to stop wailing, and smiling sympathetically at colleagues who have to talk to them over the noise (there isn’t time to move to a quieter location), here’s a quick potted history of the Monkeys’ evolution from spotty teen wannabes to full-blown mega-selling rock stars.
First formed in Sheffield by a group of indie-loving school-friends in 2002, the Arctic Monkeys have shed and gained one or two members over the years. The current core line-up is Alex Turner (vocals and lead guitar), Jamie Cook (rhythm guitar and
backing vocals), Nick O’Malley (bass) and Matt Helders (drums).
Signed to Domino in 2005, their 2006 debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, remains the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history, trumping Oasis’s record for Definitely Maybe. Combining bardic barrages of cleverly observant lyrics (“All the weekend rock stars in the toilets/ practicing their lines”) with short, sharp and spiky guitar riffs, the album instantly made the band Sheffield’s biggest musical export since Pulp.
The title came from a line in Alan Sillitoe’s classic, working-class, rebellious novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. While not quite angry young men themselves, the band certainly had attitude, and totally refused to play the industry game. Before they were signed, A&R men were told to pay into their gigs like everyone else. Even after they were successful, they regularly took the piss. They once accepted a Brit Award dressed in Wizard of Oz and Village People costumes.
Any cynical suggestions that they were one hit wonders were blown out of the water with 2007’s harder and heavier Favourite Worst Nightmare, which also went straight in at No 1 in the UK, garnered them more awards and acclaim, and also landed them a prestigious headlining slot at that year’s Glastonbury.
Things got even more rock ‘n’ roll after that. Partly recorded in the Nevada desert with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, 2009’s Humbug was a deeper, darker and more eloquent affair – something Turner partly attributed to his new-found love of Nick Cave (though some critics suggested it had more to do with smoking American weed). Spending a lengthy time touring it, they opened the 2009 Reading Festival with an unexpected cover of Cave's apocalyptic ‘Red Right Hand’.
Although they spend a lot of their time on the road, they’ve managed to record various EPs and one-off downloads along the way. Alex Turner, meanwhile, has somehow found time to compose movie soundtracks (for Richard Ayoade’s hit indie flick Submarine) and work with his friend Miles Kane on The Last Shadow Puppets project.
This is a hardworking band that gives bang for your buck. Just two years later comes their fourth studio album, Suck It And See. And now that the Shoreditch House alarm has stopped wailing, hey, hey, it’s the Monkeys coming over to tell us all about it...

When I last met The Arctic Monkeys, four years ago, they had an average age of 21 and weren’t the most forthcoming or cooperative of interviewees. In fact they hardly seemed interested: I actually had to ask them to stop texting mid-interview.
Today, they’re friendlier, more open, and more confident. Even so, you wouldn’t peg these casually attired young Yorkshiremen as rock stars. With his scraggy mop-top and high cheekbones, Turner is the most striking of the bunch, but wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, he could as easily be mistaken for a member of the bar staff. Then again, the staff in Shoreditch House all look like models.
Having politely pretended to remember our last encounter, Alex assures me that their media skills are much improved – and still improving. “More and more, I think,” he says in a still perceptible Northern accent, diluted only slightly by a few years on the international circuit. “I know I’m a lot more comfortable doing interviews now than I were a couple of years back.”
Actually, they're all more comfortable. My first query is picked up by the bassist. That definitely wouldn’t have happened in 2007!
Your new album’s got a fairly appropriate title given that its predecessor was named after a hardboiled sweet.
“It’s this confectionary road we’re going down,” Nick O’Malley explains. “Our next one will be called Bon Bon!”
Whatever about sweetness, there’s a lot of light on the new album. Recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles earlier this year with regular producer/collaborator James Ford manning the desk, Suck It And See has a decidedly summery feel compared to the dour Northern gloom that permeated other AM albums. The change in atmosphere may, of course, be a product of the fact that it was recorded entirely in America.

It was last January, when the band fled rainy England, decamped to Los Angeles, and rented a six-bedroom, Spanish-style villa in the Hollywood Hills.
“A big part of the reason we went there, I’m not gonna lie to you, was because it was January,” laughs Alex, miming a chill shiver. “We just wanted to get away from the cold. But also the studio that we used was a big draw. It were recommended to us by a few people – John Leckie and folk like that."
I take it you enjoyed the experience...
“Ah yeah, I love it out there,” he enthuses. “Not just the weather and the food and the drinks. It’s a good place to make records, I think. They’ve got some great studios there. We like to record quite live and that, and it was a good place to do that.”
Nick agrees: “Yeah, and they’ve got great equipment over there. You can get anything you want – guitars or amps or whatever. And Sound City was a brilliant studio. Some of (Nirvana’s) Nevermind was recorded there. They’ve got a great drum room.”
The band changed their normal working methods for this album. Rather than going into the studio with a few half-finished songs and then developing them with the clock ticking, they had the tracks almost finished before they started recording.
Nick explains: “Yeah, we had about a six week period down here rehearsing the songs and getting them ready and arranged. And James Ford came into the rehearsals and put his own ideas into it. So yeah, we had it more or less all polished and just ready to go before we went in. We didn’t really change much because we’d already made all the decisions about everything. It were quite good.”
So it were...
“We sort of got quite prepared this time," Alex adds. "That was the plan. To try and get closer to that point. Because when you’re recording a song and you’re making it up as you go along then... you know. There was a decision we made early on to try and get a really stable foundation of songs together.”
Some musicians have said to me that you really only finish a song properly after you’ve played it live countless times when you’re out touring it...
“That’s often true,” says Jamie, with a nod. “But we’ve had these songs around for quite a while. Sometimes when you write a song in studio and record it, you’re out on tour and you start playing it differently. And you’re going, ‘Shit! I wish I’d done summat like that when I was recording it!’ But with this record, I think we’ve bypassed that by living with the songs for quite a bit before recording them.”
How do you get along in studio? Are there disagreements?
Alex shakes his head. “No, never really. We’ve
been mates for such a long time that we all tend to get along.”
Nick: “No-one ever says, ‘No, I’m not doing that!’ You know, if someone says, ‘I want to try it like that’, we’ll always try it. Even if you think it’s not gonna work. Nobody ever says, ‘No, that’s a waste of time!’ It’s never happened. We all just know how to not be a dick.”
Alex: “That’s the thing, really. Like, when we went out on tour, the four of us, for the first time in America, it really worked. Just that thing of us knowing each other so well that we never fell out. It’s why we continued.”
While they’ve been nominated for two Grammys and have had reasonable Stateside sales, the band freely admit that they’ve yet to crack America. They don’t seem overly bothered about it, either.
“We’re not really that big there,” says Nick, with an indifferent shrug. “Not really. Like, in New York and LA we get a few thousand. But throughout the rest of it we play much smaller shows. It’s kinda fun to be able to play that size venue.”
Alex laughs: “It’s a lot more intimate!”
Jamie: “We’re quite lucky in a way. Because we get to play a lot of festivals with really big crowds. But we’ll be in America next week playing a lot of small clubs. Sometimes those gigs are more
nerve-wracking.”
Although they play more than 100 gigs a year on average, they still sometimes get nervous before shows. Not that it'll affect their performance at Oxegen. “I was very nervous before the first show we ever played,” Alex admits. “I still sometimes get nervous. Obviously some more than others. I remember we played Glastonbury one year and I were really nervous before it... and during it... and after it (laughs).”
What do you draw on to get over it?
Nick: “If you allow your nervousness to get the better of you then it’s gonna be shit. So you have to ignore it. Which can be difficult. Of course the more you concentrate on not fucking up through nerves, the more likely you are to fuck up. You just have to sort of keep reminding yourself that you can actually play well.”
Alex: “We played Jools Holland last night and that were really nerve-wracking. I find doing TV stuff, or even radio, more difficult than gigs a lot of the time.”
Nick: “We did a couple of tours with Eagles Of Death Metal. They’re a bit older. They’re just like the exact opposite of us. They don’t give a shit, they just get on stage every night and do these Jagger moves and everything. They’ve got great confidence. So a bit of that rubbed off on us.”

Back to Suck It And See. How would you describe the new album?
Alex: “I think it’s a good representation of exactly where we are right now. It’s got an element of each of the other records that led us to this point. It’s like a flag-in-the-ground sort of thing.”
According to Nick, it’s very much an album rather than a collection of 12 individually downloadable tracks. “I quite like albums to be as connected as they can be,” he says. “I do like the idea of an album. I think it’s important to try and keep that. Because with all the technology today, the idea of the album is dying. I like the idea of 12 tracks – or whatever. And we really struggle with our records. It’s never, like, neat and tidy. There’s always things branching off into other territories. I remember when I used to buy an album, I’d always listen to it from start to finish. Really give the whole thing a chance.”
While musically it’s a not-so-straightforward rock ‘n roll affair, thematically the songs on Suck It And See don’t stray far from tales of sex, love, friendships, relationships and the stuff of everyday life. As always, though, it’s the way Turner tells them. “That’s not a skirt, that’s a sawn-off shotgun,” he croons on the title song.
On the same track, he sings, “I poured my aching heart into a pop song/ I couldn’t get the hang of poetry.” A funny admission from a man rumoured to have the name of the legendary Bard of Salford tattooed somewhere on his body?
“Have you heard that one, too?” he says. “I really love John Cooper Clarke’s stuff, but I don’t have his name tattooed on me arm! A few people have said that to me, actually. Maybe I should get one! It’d be a great tattoo. Or even just a couple of lines from one of his poems. From ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ or summat.”
Any other poets that admire?
“No. I read a little bit of Dylan Thomas, but I don’t know a great deal about poetry, to be honest.”
Surely song lyrics are a form of poetry?
“I suppose, yeah,” he shrugs, looking unconvinced. “That’s one way of looking at it.”
Do you carry a notebook around?
“More and more, yeah. Though I don’t really bring the pad out with me anymore. With our first album, I used to write things down on me phone. I did carry a notebook around with me for a bit, but I dunno if that’s me. I usually don’t write that much down anymore. I’m a bit like Jay-Z or someone. It’s all in my head. Like, when I got into the studio, I realised that I didn’t really have that much written down.
“And when it is written down, it’s always more like an equation than something you could read,” he continues. “It’s all these words with arrows coming off them. You get to a certain point and it looks more like a diagram. I found some of my old lyrics, and they’re never how a song ends up. The words get all jumbled up.”
Are you sole songwriter or do the rest of the band throw in a lyrical line now and then?
“I sort of work on the lyrics, but I’ll always ask the guys. I tend to have a lot of options. For one line there’ll be three options and I’ll offer it out and say, ‘Which one should it be?’ And sort of sound it out from there.”
Although music industry legend has it that The Arctic Monkeys were the first band to break through thanks to viral online marketing, they totally deny that that’s how it happened. They were actually signed to Domino long before they ever went mainstream.
You’re known as the MySpace band...
“We actually never really had all that much to do with MySpace,” says Nick. “It were just summat
that happened.”
Alex: “The funny thing is that with our first and second records, there weren’t even that many downloads in proportion to the, like, physical sales or whatever. It was a lot more physical than online.”
Do you Tweet or do Facebook?
“I’m not into Twitter,” says Matt. “I can understand why newsfeeds and things like that could be interesting, but so much of it is rubbish. People tweeting what they’re up to. It’s like sending everybody in the world a text message.”
Nick: “No, none of us really do any of that. I like the idea of Facebook if people use it right – to keep in touch with friends when you’re away. And it’s good that it’s free and everything. I was using it a bit when I was away in America so I could talk to some friends, but you’d get back an alert and it would be someone telling you what they’d had for dinner and stuff. So I just went, ‘I can’t be dealing with this!’ He’s having fajitas. Oh right, that’s great!”

Internet piracy has more or less destroyed the record-selling business in the last decade. Does it bother you that you missed out on the golden age of royalty payments?
Alex smiles: “Yeah, but then you’d have been in the Eighties, wouldn’t you? What you gain there, you lose in hairstyles and trousers. But yeah, I suppose it’s not like it was in them days. But it’s all sort
of relative.”
Matt: “The side of it we’re interested in is still active. We still make records and go on tour, which is great fun. If we were interested in making loads of money, we’d probably feel that we missed out. But it’s not the reason why we got into this.”
Even so, you must have made a few quid at this stage. Are you flash?
“Not really,” says Nick. “We bought houses, I suppose. We feel very fortunate to be able to do this. And I feel very fortunate to be able to do this with three of my mates. That’s summat that not everybody has. There’s a lot of talented bands out there that never got a break.”
Although Turner is currently based in London (where he’s shacked up with his TV presenter girlfriend, Alexa Chung), the band all own houses in their native Sheffield.
You’re homebirds, basically...
“Yeah, I’ll probably stay in Sheffield forever,” says Jamie. “I’ve got a house there and that. It’s great to have somewhere you know to go back to after a tour and stuff. Like, I’d never get settled anywhere else. If I moved house now, it would take me ages to get comfortable somewhere else. I like having somewhere I know with my friends and my
family about.”
Are you all local heroes there?
Nick laughs, “Yeah, everyone just knows us there, so no-one really gives a shit! It’s only young kids of 13 or 14 who’d make a fuss or ask for autographs or a photo, but everybody above that age has seen us around for so long that they’re not that
fussed, really.”
Alex: “We’ve all been there for a good few weeks recently. It’s the first time I’d spent any length of time there for a while. Had a good laugh. Really enjoyed it.”
You lived in New York for a while...
“Yeah, I was there for a bit. I love New York. We’re going back there next week and I can’t wait.”
While Alex refuses to discuss his relationship with Chung, Matt is a lot more forthcoming about his unlikely friendship with the artist previously known as Puff Daddy.
“I met him in Miami around the time Humbug came out,” he explains. “I went with James Ford to this DJ thing he was doing in New York and then he had to go to Miami, so I came along for the adventure. So he ended up inviting James to his house, and I went along and James introduced me to him.
“We got talking and he seemed to know who we were. I was like, ‘here we go’, thinking he was just saying it, but then he started talking about obscure B-sides of ours and stuff like that. So he was genuinely aware of it. The next day, he gave me a go on his jet-ski. He gave me his number and so I’ve known him ever since.”