Fight Like Apes Interview

"My sister said to me last night, 'Do you want to go for dinner later? I'll get some prosecco.' I was like, 'Deadly what's going on?'. 'Eh, you're releasing your album tomorrow??!" laughs MayKay. The Fight Like Apes lead vocalist is seated with Hot Press and bandmate Jamie Fox on the eve of their eponymous third album hitting the streets and the mood in the camp is pleasantly serene.
“I think because we’ve had it for so long there isn’t such a big build up,” she explains.
It has been five years since predecessor The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner. In the interim they parted ways with label Rubyworks and navigated a stormy but successful FundIt Campaign (the band received much negative feedback for their Eur20,000 target which was deemed excessive in certain quarters).
“The fact that we did FundIt meant there were 501 other people who were really part of this project,” explains MayKay. “We felt an obligation to them to make this album the best it could be which is probably why it took longer.”
The turbulent gestation saw the band experiment with a variety of different styles.
“There were definitely songs that didn’t make the cut in the end that were pure hip hop,” admits Jamie. “We also flirted with getting a lot more electronic. In the end the album kind of found us in a sense.”
“Also, we were going through a very difficult break-up,” he adds. “We were at the end of our relationship with Rubyworks. At that point we didn’t really know if the album was going to go out.” The cracks only began to manifest themselves in the relationship with the Dublin label during the writing process for the current album.
“I remember the exact email I received when I realised things were starting to go south,” notes Jamie. “We had sent them a demo for a song which is actually on the album, ‘The Schillaci Sequence’. They replied saying the music was really great but could we have another go at the lyrics? I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, are you actually going there?’ That was it for me.”
“Looking back on the albums I think the label felt the songs on the first were really catchy,” muses MayKay. “On the second I remember they said, ‘We’re going to do this whatever way you want to do it’.
I thought that was amazing. So that was the punt they took on us. I think the third time around they thought, ‘We can’t afford to do this again’. They shouldn’t have tried to interfere with the creative process but in a way I don’t think they really had a choice.”
They subsequently licensed the finished album to UK label Alcopop Records who had been wooing the band from afar. The decision to retain this level of control over the LP is reflected in their decision to produce it themselves also.
“We got to a point where it just felt like we were good enough to do it ourselves,” says Jamie. “We had learned enough from mistakes on previous albums. In fact a lot of our criticisms of our previous two albums have been that the first album was over-produced and the second album was under- produced. We wanted to take all the blame for this one!”
“I just felt like I’d rather take a gamble on us than take a gamble on somebody else,” agrees MayKay.
Over the last year the band have been active on the gig circuit flexing their live muscle and although they can’t divulge details expect plenty of festival activity over the summer. The new songs have already been given plenty of live airings including a Stateside blast in SXSW.
“That was such a great experience!” smiles MayKay. “Me and me fella slept in a closet for the week. Every morning we’d arise to sniggers of ‘You’re coming out of the closet again!’ (Rolls eyes upwards) ‘Good one lads, good one’.”
One of the highlights of their Austin visit was sharing the stage with the rest of the domestic contingent which sounds like a true Irish love-In.
“One really, really special gig, which I’d love to relive is the Irish showcase at BD Riley’s, I’m actually getting goose bumps thinking about it,” she says. “We played before Le Galaxie, who I joined for a few songs, and that was great because they have been friends of mine for years. After that All Tvvins went on, who are just amazing and then Girl Band, who I am just obsessed with. There was such a great feeling, I remember thinking ‘Irish music is deadly!!!’. We were so proud to be part of that lineup.”
“Also...that old phrase, they’re really great ‘for an Irish band’. You never hear that any more, that’s gone.”
So what does the future hold for Fight Like Apes?
“We want to be a band that’s just touring,” states MayKay. “I know that sounds simplistic. It’s so important for us to be out there playing.”
“Actually this album has really made a distinction for us between the art of recording versus the art of playing live. In contrast to the first two records we play this quite differently live. I’m loving performing these tracks. Plus it’s a fucking relief to play new songs!” she laughs.