Roo are confident, savvy and unflinching in their aim to make remarkable music. There s something about their looks and attitude that remind you of George Best in 68: blessed with handy skills and unfazed by older, less talented rivals. Roo are the best new prospect from these parts. They can be funny, too.
I didn t actually realise until a couple of weeks ago that we were making good music, says Phil Casey, the drummer. I thought we could make it on our cute asses.
We ve had managers of bands saying that they don t want us playing with their acts, claims his brother Gerry, who sings and plays guitar. They think we sound too much like Sonic Youth. Just because we do that guitar noise thing - we don t just play straightforward chords from start to finish. But it s just sour grapes.
And you sometimes get the likes of: why don t you play some blues on that bluesy guitar? explains Scarlet, another guitarist and singer. It s like, no, fuck off.
Ah yes, the impetuous slam of youth. Roo, based in Belfast, have either dropped out of college, muddled along in art school or - in the case of Gerry - scraped through a politics and history degree by writing a nasty essay on the supposed authenticity of Paul Weller and Michael Jackson. Now they ve found time to concentrate entirely on the band s future, and aren t wasting time on self-doubt.
Northern Ireland doesn t get any encouragement, Gerry snorts. People have to push themselves to be a big Northern Ireland band. And what scraps there are thrown, everyone just bites everbody s legs off for. Because you live here, you don t get your expectations up too high. You don t think that you ll be in the limelight. At most you ll be like That Petrol Emotion - you ll get maybe a single on The Chart Show, that will whizz by once and then that s you.
But hold on, hasn t the success of Ash been an inspiration to some? Roo utter a collective hmmmm . . .
We supported Ash a few years ago when we were called Butlip, Gerry remembers. We weren t anywhere near as good as we are now; we had just enough songs to cover a set. And then they made it huge. We were sitting going, but, we can write songs, we ve got imagination. We re fucking good enough. So we took some time out and tried for a change. It pushed us a bit, to show that we could do it as well. We weren t gonna be written off as Ash s mates, way back when.
There s certainly a connection to be made between Ash during their Trailer period and the present Roo vibe. Both acts have delivered precious tunes, hacked out with noisy guitars and an ear for the unconventional.
But if anything, Roo are the more experimental - often butchering a potentially swoonsome pop song with avant garde intent. Time signatures become all jazzy and foreign. Guitar effects are unmuzzled. Marty plays some great Bootsy Collins basslines. The singers bellow and give voice to seemingingly abstract lyrics about steamed cauliflower and stuff.
You mention Captain Beefheart to them and they smile, because it s been said before. But no, they haven t got any of those records, although they do admire Deus, who were well into the Capain s scheme. Roo also deny any knowledge of the C86 bands such as Stump, The Shrubs and Bogshed (remember Bogshed?), although there s some kinship there too. Instead, Roo enthuse about Sonic Youth, Mercury Rev, Palace, Beck, The Beasties and Perry Farrell.
We try and write melodic pop songs, says Gerry, but really fuck with them. Not just with different distorted and squealy noises, but with structures as well. Instead of repeating things endlessly we try not to have as much repetition as that. So you get into a tune and then it changes into something completely different, just to keep us interested as much as anyone else.
In the wrong hands, this plan might have resulted in some unlistenable twaddle. But Roo, who have yet to release anything other than a mad demo have deservedly been exciting a few record labels (as well as the Ash management) with their facility to bring the noise and the pop together in some edgy accord. Bridget for example is nearly all chorus. Maestro on the other hand, has barely two lines that directly relate to each other.
And yet it works. Gerry is excited that Radiohead s recent single may have expanded the public s acceptance of left-field ideas in the charts. I almost came when I heard Paranoid Android , because I was thinking, wait until they hear us doing Masetro .
So Gerry, are there any other local bands that you rate? We played with Everso and they were interesting. Then again, we ve played with a lot of bands who weren t doing anything exciting. We try our hardest to be interesting if nothing else. If you don t like the tunes or get the ideas at least you won t be bored. We ll play jazz-hillbilly and then a funk instrumental.
We try to play everything that we like. But all that stuff people do with acoustic guitars and their legs spread, singing my daddy worked in Harland And Wolfe - he got laid off with all the others that s boring. Earnest is bad. And it s just tedious going to see bands that don t do anything. Literally fuck-all. Almost apologising for playing on the stage in front of you.
So Roo don t have any of that baggage? Nah. We re out to annoy people from the start. You re gonna fuck up and listen to us whether you like us or not. It ll be worthwhile in the end. n