The Ladies Boy

Being disturbed while on the job can be annoying at the best of times. But when the said interruptee happens to be none other than the living, breathing pop legend that is Brian Wilson, even a chart-topping outfit like Barenaked Ladies are forced to down tools and take five.

"We were working at Cello studios in Los Angeles where people like Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys used to record," explains Jim Creeggan, the Ladies' bassist. "Brian was working there at the same time and he dropped by to play us his own version of our song 'Brian Wilson', which he'd just recorded. It was bizarre. Here's this guy who's given so much to pop music culture and he's asking us, 'is it cool guys, do you like it?' Needless to say we were knocked out that he sought out our opinion."
Another pop legend the band came into contact with recently was Burt Bacharach, who they met when they were asked to perform at Radio City Music Hall in New York in a show that became known, on album and video, as One Amazing Night.
"We thought it was going to be a tribute to him," Creeggan offers. "We didn't think he was going to be so closely involved with putting together the show. At the rehearsals we came up with this version of 'Close To You' that was quite fast paced. He wasn't satisfied with it apparently and we got subtle messages from various assistants that we couldn't do it that way. It ended up OK in the end and we did a version that was pretty faithful to the original."
Meanwhile the Ladies' new album Maroon, the follow-up to their 1998 breakthrough Stunt, has just been released (Curiously Maroon is also the title of the Webb Brothers album, released on the same label and featured in the last issue of hotpress). Produced by Don Was, Maroon points to a more mature approach for a band known for their wacky sense of humour on hits like 'Be My Yoko Ono' and 'One Week'. Certainly tracks like Tonight Is The Night That I Fell Asleep At The Wheel and 'Helicopters' suggest they d like to be taken a mite more seriously.
"We found in working with Don that the process of making the record is the important ingredient in making it sound good," Creeggan offers. "He's a fan of traditional recording methods but he's not afraid to delve into the new technologies.
"We recorded all the basic tracks in two weeks and everybody was in the studio all at the same time. If anything, Don brought a more relaxed feeling to the whole thing. He was encouraging us to go with the first take and to pay close attention to the things that we do naturally. He was great at capturing what the band is about."
Barenaked Ladies standing as a zany live outfit has developed through a decade of hard touring with much on-stage improvisation. Do they regret their reputation and the notoriety that their risqui moniker has brought about?
"The name wasn't meant to be shocking at the time," Creeggan says. "It was the name of the band so early in the game and it came from a sincere moment. It's about looking at things from the perspective of a kid which was a valid one.
"In our live shows there's a lot of messing around and we have a laugh but we don't think of ourselves as wacky when we make a record and there's always been a deeper element to the band which is often ignored."

Maroon is out now on Reprise Records