Wordy rapping hood

I love my 77-year-old mum to bits, but bloody hell, why did she have to be born on the same date as The Rapture made their headlining Irish debut in The Village? I’ve checked my diary and no birthday, wedding, funeral, barmitzvh or religious retreat is going to stop me seeing San Francisco’s post-punk funkiest when they return here for a Sunday night appearance at Oxegen.
Although relative newcomers to the festival circuit, the quartet’s ability to make even the most reluctant of bottoms wiggle, points to them being one of the weekend’s big success stories. And if they do bring the house/tent down, no one will be more pleased than Paul McGuinness who’s recently added the Rapture boys to his Principle Management stable.
“How did we come to be managed Paul McGuinness?” reflects singer/guitarist Luke Jenner over a decidedly un-rock ‘n’ roll bottle of Ballygowan. “We found out through as many people as we could talk to that he was the best in the business, and harangued him until he said ‘yes!’ We also had the added benefit of having an Irish A&R man who had contacts at Principle.”
I’ve never had my career handled by him myself – let’s talk, Paul! – but the impression I get is that he only works with acts he’s really into.
“That’s the impression we get too, which makes the whole thing even more flattering,” Jenner continues. “People think he’s this Peter Grant-style Svengali who dangles you out of the window if he doesn’t get his own way, but he’s actually really gentle.”
“In a commanding ‘Make no mistake about it, I’m in charge’ sort of a way,” proffers The Rapture’s other singer and bassist Mattie Safer. “It’s obvious from the millions he’s made with U2 that he doesn’t need the money so, yeah, his primary reason for taking us on is that he’s a fan.”
What sort of sage-like advice has he given them?
“Stay true to your heart, never give up and everything else will fall into place,” Luke resumes. “I’m not for a minute suggesting that we’re in the U2 league, but I think we have the same attitude as they did when they were starting off. We’ve no problem with being one of the biggest bands in the world as long as it’s on our own terms.”
Formed in 1998 by Jenner and his boyhood drummer pal Vito Roccoforte – give that man a part in The Sopranos immediately! – The Rapture’s big break came when they relocated to New York and hooked up with the DFA (Death From Above) production team of James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy.
“I was doing a philosophy degree I really didn’t care about and spending all my student loans on records, so I jumped at the opportunity of going full-time with the band,” Jenner reveals.
“I went to college for a year as well, decided that it was better to play music than study it and thought, ‘Yeah, let’s go for it!’” says Safer ‘fessing up to his Kids From Fame past. “I’ve no problem with the education, but ultimately it’s something I’d like to study on my own rather than go through the rigid 9 to 5 structure of becoming a gigging jazz musician or whatever.”
The Rapture were given a reminder of their college days last month when they appeared at that orgy of dickie-bowed excess, The Trinity Ball.
“It brought back some horrible memories of my Prom Night,” Jenner winces. “My girlfriend at the time went with somebody else and I ended up having to talk her down from the roof. She was puking her guts up and wouldn’t let anyone else near her.”
Sounds like a nice, well-adjusted young lady. “Normally she was, but that night she drank herself into oblivion and lost it. It made me realise that perhaps this wasn’t the girl for me!”
While the 1999 EP they recorded for Sub Pop, Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks, pressed all the right indie buttons it’s 2002’s DFA-assisted Echoes album that turned The Rapture into genuine contenders – and led to accusations that they’d surrendered creative control to Messrs. Murphy and Goldsworthy.
“They help push us in some ways and we push them in others,” Safer proffers. “We’re less involved now because we’ve gone touring, but for two years the DFA studio was this really idyllic place where everybody made music together. They’d do things for our record and we’d do things for other DFA artists. It was just a bunch of friends in a basement.”
It doesn’t seem to bother people here, but in the States there’s considerable debate as to whether Echoes is the work of a rock band that likes to go clubbing, or born again funk merchants who’ve opted to hang on to their guitars.
“When we were recording it, we were thinking back to albums by people like David Bowie and Roxy Music that don’t have the same songwriting on every track. Our record isn’t clear-cut dance or punk. We weren’t trying to do just one thing.”
If dispatches are to be believed, the New York underground is as vibrant now as it was back in the old Warhol/CBGBs days.
“Not being around in the ‘70s I can’t make the comparison but, yeah, there are a lot of really creative people by-passing the recognised music industry and doing their own thing in places like Brooklyn where you don’t need to be super-commercial,” Safer continues. “Gabe, our saxophonist, used to run a club with a transvestite singer so we know a few of the more colourful characters.”
What’s the strangest gig they’ve played in NYC?
“A Doc Marten’s party which seemed like it’d be normal, but wasn’t. You had this cunt of a gay celebrity journalist annoying everybody by asking stupid questions, and a guy on the microphone shouting, ‘Hey, hipster with the black hair, fuck you!’ This big corporation wanted to improve their image by ‘getting down with the kids’ and got more than they’d bargained for!”
Stablemates of theirs that they now are, have The Rapture inherited any of U2’s celebrity fans?
“Actors and supermodels you mean?” Jenner takes-over. “Not that I’m aware. We’re not like other groups you read about who have Courtney Love backstage spitting beer on them, and shit like that.”
I don’t know about him, but if I saw Courtney Love coming towards me I’d run like a fucking demon.
“She’s more woman than I could handle, that’s for sure!”
Courtney may be banned from their Oxegen dressing room, but if fellow Sunday performers The Cure want to drop by and say “hello”, that’s fine.
“I just met Robert Smith at the airport coming over. He looked exactly how I thought he’d look from six inches away, which is what you want from your heroes. If they’re after somebody to jam on ‘A Forest’ or ‘Charlotte Sometimes’ with them, I’m their man!”b

The Rapture play the Oxegen Ticket Stage on Saturday July 10