The Schoolkids Are Alright!

THE LOCATION is Blackrock, Co. Dublin, my house to be precise. Your reporter is playing host to guitarist/vocalist Annie Tierney and drummer Lucy Clarke, both of Dublin teen-rock combo Chicks (the third little bird, bassist/vocalist Isabel Reyes-Feeney, is suffering from flu and will be contacted later by phone, although in the interests of continuity, we'll include her contributions alongside those of her comrades in the main text.)

Annie and Lucy, resplendent in their Loreto uniforms, are scoffing chocolate biscuits and coffee at my kitchen table. It'd be any scuzzy rock hack's dream, except I'm painfully aware that these subjects are closer to the age of my eldest daughter (watching The Simpsons in the living room with Supremo Records honcho Phillip) than my own.

So, Chicks in yer kitchen—whatcha gonna do?

Ask 'em some questions is what. But first, some background.

Most of us initially heard of these teenage Atari riot kids through last summer's four-track debut EP Criminales, Coches, Pistolas Y Chicas, a rough, but very ready collection of tunes that married Shangri-Las naivety to New York Dolls sleaze-rock. It was a pretty intriguing calling card, and before the EP was even released in the UK, Radio One's Steve Lamacq made it his priority record of the week, while colleagues Mark Radcliffe and Jo Whiley both picked up on "Let Me Go", putting Chicks on daytime English radio, the kind of coup most Irish acts of any vintage would kill for. As if that wasn't enough, Whiley then famously invited the trio to play live on the last show of her 1998 Channel 4 programme, in front of guests like Huey Morgan and Brian Molko. Three starlets were born.

The next six months saw Chicks playing support to the likes of Sonic Youth, the Manic Street Preachers and Ash (indeed, Tim Wheeler was particularly generous in his praise of the band when Hot Press interviewed him last October) and no less than Huey the Fun Lovin' Criminal popped up again, DJ-ing at one of the group's summer shows in Eamonn Doran's.

1999 looks equally good. So far this year, the band have played the NME Brats show, made the cover of the Melody Maker, and now comes a second EP entitled Little Monkeys With Money (available on lurid blue vinyl as well as CD), a hormonal surge of a record featuring the X-Ray Spex-meets-early-Blondie riffage of "Daria" alongside other equally impressive bubblegum bolts like "Feminist" and "Jackie Chan". To cap it all, the trio will be premiering their new monthly club Mutant All Stars at Eamonn Doran's on March 18th.

But back at the kitchen, there are more than a few motions on the table, and precious little time in which to cover them. So, without further ado, out of the mouths of babes . . .

Item 1: The Little Monkeys With Money EP
Annie: We were supposed to put this record out last summer or something, there's been almost a year between the two records! I just think it's a really good title—even the sound of it.

So what held up the release?

What didn't? We did a couple of recordings . . . the first time we recorded the first single, it was pretty crappy in places, there was loads of mistakes and stuff.

Lucy: Like, a little shed, one couch and about ten people . . .

Annie: . . . screamin' and shoutin' for like two or three days. But then, the next time we went back, it was much more, "Let's spend maybe a day on a song", and it just didn't turn out well for us. There were still mistakes, but it was like people trying to make it more polished, which just sounded like arse. So we eventually just went in and did it ourselves, just put it down the way we wanted to.

And who is this mysterious Daria in the title of the song?

Annie: There's a character in Marvel comics called Jubilee, and Daria's this girl who appeared a couple of times and helped her out. She's just really mysterious. Kids were writing in going, "Bring Daria in", cos they really liked her, and we just wrote a song about her.

Presumably you're big Jackie Chan fans too?

That's just arse really! We went through a phase about a year and a half ago where we used to watch his films all the time. He's still cool, like, but that song is a heap o' shit! It's a really shite song! It was like, "Oh, we have to write a really shite song expressing our painful love for Jackie Chan!" It's awful!

Item 2: The British Press
Annie: We always thought everybody would hate us, cos they didn't seem to like Bis—not that we think we're like Bis. But they're gonna turn just as quickly, like, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. They will, we keep waitin' for it, cos at the start, only the people who like you are gonna bother writing about you, but once you're worth writing about, those who don't like you write about you as well!

Item 3: That Appearance On The Jo Whiley Show
Isabel: I suppose it was a shock, but I don't think it hit us. It was fun and everything, but it turned out crap, cos we didn't really know what we were doing. We were just going along with it.

Lucy: The majority of it was really bad. We broke up anytime we watched ourselves on that!

Annie: It was good fun doin' it, but you saw the result! We always went on instinct without worrying too much about the consequences, but when you see it, you kind of go, "Oh, shit!" It was fuckin' awful. I think those people had really good intentions, but when you watch it, you're like, "It's not me! That's completely not what I thought I was doing at all." Performance-wise it was terrible, the singing was out of tune, we looked terrible. I mean, it was the right thing to do. No fun to watch, though!

Item 4: School
Lucy: Some of the teachers really are convinced, like, "Oh yeah, I know you've got a band, it's gonna be hard", but it isn't at all. I really love school.

What about their mates?

They aren't really enthusiastic, but they wouldn't be against it or anything.

Annie: All the cool kids just hate us, like fuckin' hate us. You know the week Placebo were playing? We were down there (the SFX), I was never so fuckin' scared. The amount of people who were all shouting, "Fuckin' Chicks! Yer fuckin' shit!" Kids just pushing us over, tripping us up: "You're fuckin' dead!" Never mind when you're on stage or in band mode, but we'd be walking in our school uniforms going to the bus stop with these kids running after us! I understand it, like, I'd hate us too—fuckin' Catholic schoolgirls runnin' around, can't play their guitars, thinking they're the bees' knees! It's funny.

Item 5: What's The Deal With Dreamworks?
Lucy: We're signed to Supremo, but we're doing a bigger licensing deal with Dreamworks.

Isabel: I don't know if it makes much of a difference. I'm glad that we're still with Supremo working with Phillip and Conor. It would be hard to imagine going into a big company, you wouldn't be used to it. Big tables!

Item 6: Youth
Annie: Well, like, I'm 18.

Lucy: We're not that young, like, y'know?

Are people protective of them?

Annie: I don't know if it's so much because we're young, but we don't do a lot of things other teenagers would if they were just thrown into rock 'n' roll. It's never had to be stated—whenever we're on tour we just give off the vibe naturally that we don't do certain things. It's weird cos I keep saying to people we know, "Do you go up to people saying, 'Don't be sleazing onto Isabel or offering a toot in the toilets'?" And they're like, "No". We're not like innocent little shits—on the Ash tour we were the fuck-ups. Nobody would be scared to say anything in front of us, like.

Item 7: Parents
Isabel: My Mum is crazy, she cuts out all our press stuff and sticks it in a book. They're all really happy about it.

Annie: (tongue firmly in cheek) My mother said, she doesn't care if I toot, if I take cocaine, so long as I don't sleep around! I was really pissed off!

Item 8: Dublin
Lucy: All I ever knew about Dublin was all the crap about, "The Dublin Rock Industry—keep away from it". Not keep away from anyone in particular, but keep away from associating yourself with it. Like, everyone's going, "Oh, so you're gonna sign a record deal? Don't think that'll make any difference. You'll be back on the dole in six months' time." We're a bit young to remember, but I'm sure there was a bit of that going on before.

Item 9: The Club: Mutant All Stars
Lucy: We're starting our own club in Eamonn Doran's the day after St. Patrick's Day. It's called Mutant Allstars. It's a club where we get a band to play and we DJ in it, as well as Johnny Pyro. It's gonna be really big.

Annie: It's not gonna be really big, it's gonna be small!

Lucy: Okay, it's gonna be small. Eamonn Doran's is in our new song "Daria"—"I met her downtown in Eamonn Doran's / She was stoned drunk". And Bambi are gonna play. You should come! Bring your records, we'll let you spin a tune!

The Manic Street Preachers
Annie: The Manics are our favourite band. They're the only band still going that we would kind of follow. I wanted to meet them, and just be like, "Fuck, I met the Manics!", but I didn't want to have a few beers with them or anything. I mean, James Dean Bradfield's a bit like that, knock a few beers back or whatever, but obviously the other two are a lot more strange. We met them and it was great, and I'm really glad we did, but I'm also glad it was only two dates.

Lucy: The day the single got to number one, we were in Belfast supporting them, and afterwards they were all in their dressing room in the Ulster Hall drinking champagne. We were actually peeking through the crack in the door watching them, and next thing James Dean Bradfield sees us and says, "Come on in", and we're like, "No!!!"

Sonic Youth
Annie: They were really nice to us. They were all running around minding their kids. And because we were supporting them, the crowd were all (folds arms and affects bored pose) and we were like, "Fuck you!" And Thurston (Moore) comes in and goes, "Oh yeah, the crowd are very arty". Totally not what you'd expect. They were just taking the piss with us. And they were all drinking Ribena or something.

Lucy: They all came into our changing room separately. Because we didn't know who any of them were, we were saying hi to anyone with an American accent!

Fun Lovin' Criminals
Lucy: They asked us to tour a couple of times, but we couldn't do it, cos we're at school, like.

Annie: Sometimes there'd be posters of the Fun Lovin' Criminals up on our friends' lockers, and I remember comin' in once going, "We were out with them at the weekend", and they're like, (disinterested) "Oh yeah". No-one lets us talk about it, they just switch off if you start talking about something to do with the band.

The Corrs
Annie: I like the idea of them, but I really hate some of their lyrics: "We're so young that scares me!" Some of the words are so . . . freaky. They're obviously all talented, and really good-looking—actually scary to look at. But I like the idea of that kind of image of Ireland going out around the world. It seems really together. I prefer that to bloody Boyzone or whatever. It's just that some of the lyrics scare the shit out of me. "I never really loved you anyway"? It doesn't make any sense.

*Chicks' Little Monkeys With Lots Of Money EP is released on March 19th on Supremo. They play Tower Records on Sat 20th March at 7pm, and the Virgin Megastore on Thurs 25th at 6pm. Mutant All Stars opens in Eamonn Doran's on the 18th. Interested parties should submit tapes to the venue.