BEAT POETS

Imagine playing your first ever gig in the heat of a major competition and winning it. Imagine playing your second gig at the semi-final, and winning that too. Surely, capping off a dream weekend in the final, with your third live appearance, and finishing as runners-up, is too much to hope for. Not to mention playing your fourth gig in a week as support to The Dust Junkys in the Mean Fiddler.

The stuff of fairytales, you might think. Not so for Dublin four-piece Electro, who did just that at this year’s Heineken Green Energy Festival, winning £3,000 of recording time into the bargain. Formed just five months ago, the band have spent more time in the studio than on stage, working on their intriguing blend of beats, guitars and social commentary, which has since been described as dance/rock crossover, among other things.

“People who haven’t seen us are just throwing the whole “dance” label at what we do. It’s easy to do that and it’s just bad journalism really,” explains vocalist Karl Hendrick. “We want to be seen as a band in our own right, just using the technology available to us. We want to get away from the ‘electro-rockers’ tag. We write songs the way anyone writes songs, but we treat them differently.”

“We all grew up listening to dance music, and every other sort of music,” says bass guitarist John Colbert. “Bands who started 10 years ago wouldn’t have had dance as an influence, so it wouldn’t feature in their music. It’s just another of our influences.

Reference points on Electro’s collective musical upbringing include The Stone Roses, The Verve, Leftfield, Massive Attack, Bowie and U2 (“all people who are striving to create a new sound, and who have really good songs”), yet they are wisely wary of citing the above acts as influences on their sound.

“I don’t actually like the term “influence”, says Greg O’Hanlon, programming and keyboards. “It means that you’re taking something from somebody else and you’ve put it out your own way.

“I was knocking out breakbeat, deeper house and techno tracks long before I met these guys and I just got sick of it. It was too regular all the time. Now we don’t use loops, we use samples from everywhere and I cut and paste them. That idea started with hip-hop and drum ’n’ bass, but we have our own particular slant on it.”

“Dublin’s got a horrendous reputation for crap bands, unfortunately,” interjects Karl. “They’re hiding behind a load of technology and they’re not exposing themselves, or else they’re going the other way, getting an acoustic guitar and just being a wanker. There’s a degree of dignity and honesty that people identify with Electro when they see us live. People know that we’re for real. We’re not up in Digges Lane studio trying to learn dance moves.”

Electro are quick to point out that they’re not just about getting the groove right, and that the lyrics play an important role in their songs. “Lyrically, what I’m trying to do is reflect what’s going on that is relevant to today,” muses Karl. “I’m trying to steer clear of clichés and also to make it relevant to the music. I guess our songs are a voice of discontent, but not in an out-to-shock-you-way.”

While, by their own admission, Electro tend to create their music in the studio, they still maintain that the best way to understand them is to see them play live. You can judge for yourself on July 31st when Electro headline the Temple Bar Music Centre on what should be a huge party night for the band, with the gig being broadcast on the internet and live on 2FM, in a multimedia extravaganza.

Indeed, embracing technology such as the internet is a key element in the band’s makeup, and they have a website up and running.

“The internet seems to be one virginal source of multimedia that hasn’t yet been swamped by the industry. It’s a place where genuine fans can access genuine bands,” offers Karl. “We’re going to try to get some music on the internet. We want to cut out the middleman.

“The whole rigmarole of album-promotion-tour just pisses me off, ’cos there’s just so many bands doing it. Every band is going around saying they’re the best band in the world. We’re not saying that – we’re saying ‘listen to this, check it out’. If you’re good, it shows, and that’s the end of it.”