The Shape Of Things To Come

When the anthemic Yeah OK was released in December, Not Squares were hailed one of the most exciting dance acts in the country. So it makes perfect sense that I meet the threesome as they prepare to perform to a packed Button Factory. First things first – between them, Mike Kinloch, Keith Winter and Ricki O’Rawe have played with seven bands in as many years. What makes Not Squares different?

“The initial idea was to form a party band,” Winter explains. “We were even called Party Band! There weren’t many people in Belfast you could phone up and say, ‘Come play at my party!’ It was pretty serious at the time and it
still is.”
I can’t wait to hear the victorious Yeah OK in the flesh. So there’s no time to dawdle. To my delight, the Not Squares live show proves to be a sweaty mix of dirty synth, futuristic beats and demented whoops. A couple of days later, I call Winter for a follow-up chat and to thank him for successfully dilating my pupils without the use of Class
A drugs.
The Button Factory massive delighted in seeing Kinloch and O’Rawe flipping between bass and synth throughout the show. Even Winter plays about with synth triggers on his drums. In fact, it seems like the Richter Collective signees spend a hefty portion of their time onstage cheating on their long-term instruments.
“That’s one of our secret mottos, definitely!” Winter exclaims.
On top of all this shapeshifting disco, there are hooks to be sung and all three voiceboxes are required to make those booming, warlike choruses. I was barely croaking along and my throat’s still a little pink, so I’m guessing that Winter shares my pain.
“For me personally, by the time I get to ‘Asylum’, which is usually at the end of the set, I feel like I’m about to die! I try to join in when I can. But I’m also trying to drum and just stay alive. The vocals are pretty wild. It’s good when people know ‘Asylum’ and sing along with the chorus. It’s a
nice break!”
I have to ask how it felt taking this ungodly bellowing from the stage to the recording booth.
“There’s a certain knack to getting a good vocal,” Winter agrees. “It sounds better if it’s not forced. There’s no fear. We’re not worried if something’s right or wrong. We just jam out an idea. It’s very democratic. It’s nice to be in a
jam band.”
Winter is responsible for most of the lyrics on Yeah OK. Still, I should point out that the LP contains significantly less words than this here interview.
“There is narrative in there,” he laughs, “ but there’s also a lot of gobbledygook. Both of those things work. Some of it is actually trying to portray some kind of meaning. There’s a song called ‘Ojos Para Volar’, which is Spanish for ‘I Am Flying’ … or something. It was as close as I would get to writing a poem. It’s expressing that leftfield Marxist feeling about society. It’s a little bit dark. At the same time, put that over a dance beat and a dance melody and it works!”
It’s precisely this contradiction that makes Yeah OK so exciting to listen to. To borrow a phrase from the post-haircut Justin Timberlake, it’s dirty pop. And what of the gobbledygook? With song titles like ‘Bi Kan Na’ and ‘De Na Na’, it seems Not Squares have developed their
own language.
“All I can say is that sometimes there are Chinese whispers!” Winter laughs. “Somebody’ll mishear something and that’s what it’ll become. That’s kind of how our song titles have come about. Like ‘Release The Bees’ – we had originally called it ‘Release The Beast’. However, a friend said, ‘I really like that song ‘Release The Bees’’. And we thought: ‘That’s so much better!’”

Yeah Ok is out now on Richter Collective. You can listen to 'Release The Bees' on hotpress.com now.