Out of the valley of darkness

Okay, so last year saw them cracking Beirut, but by and large 2001 wasn’t too kind to Derry’s favourite block-rockers Hedrock Valley Beats. Long-fancied to make a cross-over impact with their primary coloured big beats, the trio of Decky McLaughlin, Frankie Kane, and Kevin Fox instead found themselves stuck in a recording limbo with a label that would eventually, and on the eve of release of their first single, lose the faith.

It was a blow that could well have proved fatal, but after a period of re-evaluation and experimentation Hedrock are back, a little more battle-hardened and, as they hope to prove, an awful lot better.

“We probably should have realised things weren’t going to work out when we didn’t even get a signing party,” says Decky, the group’s main arranger, reflecting on their decision to sign for Infectious Records in 1999. “We were hardly ever over in their offices and were asked to constantly remix the same tracks and use different vocalists. We were told, when we signed, that we’d have full artistic control and that was one of the reasons we went with Infectious. But then they started to push their ideas and tried to cut cost by bringing in vocalists and things like that.”

While keen to stress that Hedrock had few problems with anyone at Infectious on a personal level, Decky makes it clear that the trio made a mistake signing for what is essentially an indie label.

“I don’t think we’d do it again,” he says. “At the time we thought, because we were a live band, we’d get the proper support from a label that had other bands signed to it. But we found out dead quickly that we needed proper contacts in the dance scene and Infectious just didn’t have the right contacts for our type of sound. Even though they had Paul Oakenfold’s Perfecto under their wing, it just wasn’t the side of dance music that we were used to. Infectious were good at what they did, all the same. They landed us a few good gigs that we really enjoyed.”

In fact the Infectious link-up had a host of beneficial perks for the boys - seeing them play Glastonbury, The Big Day Out in Australia, and Homelands, while they found themselves on the blower to house legend Arthur Baker, who was keen to lend a remixing hand to one of their tracks. Their debut single ‘Coming Thru (My Stereo)’ also ended up going top five in the British student charts and number one in dance airplay charts in America – turning up as a hit in, of all places, Lebanon.

Which is quite an achievement, considering that Infectious dropped the band one week before its planned release.

Equally galling for the boys was the fact that at the time they were handed their cards, they had practically an album’s worth of material waiting to be tidied up for release – including tracks marked-off for collaboration with the likes of Mark B and Spek from Definition Of Sound. “It was just very frustrating,” Deccy admits.

However, the trio were quick to get back on their feet – releasing a limited single ‘King Of Rock’ on UK breakbeat label Freakaboom towards the end of last year – and as 2002 begins Hedrock’s thoughts are very much concentrated on finally putting out their first LP

.

“We are revamping everything and we have a few new tracks for an album. We will probably loose some of the older tracks and go for the newer material. We always had our own sound: ‘The Hedrock sound’. So I’d say that whatever direction we are headed, it’s Hedrock’s. I’ve been doing a few Dirty Tech-House type tracks, as well as hip-hop and disco type songs. I’m looking for a few vocalists to sing on some tracks I’ve written and have asked local Derry hip-hop outfit The Sirocco MCs to lend their vocal talents for a hip hop collaboration. We want to have a whole fresh experience on Hedrock Valley Beats from now on.”

First indications of this new deal comes with the release of ‘Funk It (In Da House)’, a typically up-tempo number that, in one stroke, will reassure fans that last year’s set-backs have not inflicted any terminal damage. Sometimes there’s nothing like starting all over again.