Turn On Tune In

It was August of last year when the eponomously titled Wireless 3 album exploded from my Wharfedale s. A vanilla-scented hand grenade containing 11 tracks of barbed, wired rock n roll, it was saved from clichi status by a canny mastery of song structure and a use of melody that can only be described as cute. There are echoes of the Pixies, Fugazi, and Therapy? but the overall sound is all Wireless 3.

Fast forward to a rainy January night in Whelan s and I discover that I ve got their influences spectacularly wrong.
We all come from very different musical backgrounds, explains singer/guitarist Jonathan Levis, who points out that he isn t related to the jean-genies. I m not really sure that the music that inspires you, that you listen to for pleasure, should necessarily be the only music you can contemplate making I m influenced by Neil Young, Asian Dub Foundation, Reggae and lots of other musical forms. I don t hear a lot of that in what we play, and that s okay.
Bassist Sid Nolan agrees.
What makes Wireless 3 entertaining for me is that the others come from a different place so it s not a case of trying to sound a certain way. I m a punk rock fan. We re really never quite sure what we re going to come out with.
How did such a motley crew end up together?
What we have in common is an appreciation of music, writing, playing and recording, says drummer Declan Clarke. Plus we enjoy the hell out of it! We recorded the album in six days, with money we borrowed from the Credit Union and we ve already paid them back. We ve posted the album on two web-sites, musicunsigned.com and cdbaby.com in the US, and we re getting hits. We ve shifted nearly 400 CDs at live gigs and in shops in towns we ve gigged. We ve been approached by a couple of majors just feeling us out. And now we re talking to hotpress. It s fun, but we re in this for the long haul.
Jonathan agrees.
I see us as the kind of band that Placebo or the Foo Fighters are, it s quality stuff but it can go anywhere. The album is basically us live, no samples, no frills, but that s a snapshot of where we are right now. It s always going to progress. I want to do mellower numbers, acoustic numbers, maybe bring in beats in the future. I really feel that s possible within Wireless 3.
While, at least for the moment, the bands music is uncompromisingly rock n roll, the melodies and lyrics often contain a subtlety that hints at a softer, more introspective side. What sort of issues are they writing about?
Love, hate, happiness, sexual frustration, losing touch with friends, losing touch with yourself, muses Jonathan. Again it s almost an unconscious, maybe a sub-conscious thing. I hear these phrases or melodies in my head while going about the place and I think yeah, that d work . I do think that it s possible to write intelligent lyrics in a rock song I d get very tired of singing Bay-bee-e, Yew look so fai-yai-yaine a dozen times a set.
Sid interjects with a comment that confirms his punk predilections.
There s also a political element to some of the songs, more personally political than Bertie-political. In some ways coming from Wexford means that we ve got more time to think than we would have if based in Dublin. We re kind of removed from the gig every week get loads of press mentality that s easy for other bands to adopt, simply because we re largely removed from the day to day music industry machine.
The gig later is a blistering affair that features all the tracks on the album as well as five new numbers. The pace is unrelentingly frenetic, the players feeding off each other s energy and obviously having fun. The angelic waif-like Levis is perfectly complemented by bassist Nolan s almost-aggression, and Clarke s powerful playing acts like an engine powering the performance. Stand-out tracks include When I Go Away and Frustration , while The Day You Got Me Wrong suggests one more influence. Wedding Present, anybody?
All too soon it s over, and after yet another pint and a shared smoke I
bid them goodbye. I had a ball and though the guys seem pleased that I liked the gig, I get the impression that they couldn t really care less what a Dublin music journalist thinks about what they do, cos they re gonna do it anyway. Know what? I like their attitude.
Wireless 3 is available from [email protected]