The empire strikes back

We used to rehearse there when it was just sawdust, no lights or anything, we just needed a place to play," explains Bipolar Empire's Callum McAdam. "It was a shame because we had only packed up four minutes before he came in."

"Bono was just walking in to check out the place, to see what the venue was like, and we happened to be there," adds guitarist and vocalist Shane O'Reilly. "And he goes, 'Real rock 'n' roll!'"
Callum: "His mate, I think it was Guggi, goes, 'What kind of sound are yiz lads?' and before we could even answer Bono turns around and goes, 'Well it's kind of like Beach Boys harmonies and early Revolver.' He'd only heard one song but it was mad that he was able to describe it to his friend. He was a lovely bloke."
For the recording of their debut album Feel That You Own It, Bipolar Empire decamped to LA to record with one of this country's most celebrated producers, Pat McCarthy, whose CV includes Madonna's Ray Of Light, Patti Smith's Gone Again and a slew of REM albums.
Callum: "It was quite nerve-wracking when we went over and we were told how fortunate we were to be working with such an iconic producer. He's got so many ideas but he doesn't push you into a corner like Joe Meek, doesn't hold a rifle to your head or anything crazy, he just has complete faith that you'll get the best out of yourself by the end of the recording."
Was he a hard taskmaster?
Shane: "He told me at the start, 'You'll know when I'm angry. I don't go mad – when I'm angry, I go quiet.' And there were a few times when he was overly quiet, I'd be getting carried away for a few hours on a guitar riff, and he wouldn't say anything. Eventually he was like, 'Aaagh! It's been five hours recording guitar overdubs! There are more important things to be doing! The main vocal isn't even done!' But he's very, very creative. He wanted to capture the air in the room. I think he only works with artists if he has a connection with them. He seemed to have a lot of respect for Patti Smith, he was talking about doing a tribute album of Patti Smith songs for the RED company."
Ask the Bipolar boys for their impressions of LA and they'll quickly scotch hopes of anecdotes about dropping acid in the Mojave or trawling the Sunset Strip. Their recording schedule was so brutal they didn't get beyond the mixing desk.
Callum: "I had all the drums done in a couple of weeks but the lads were working sometimes 12 or 16 hours a day. The work they put in was insane. I'd go in at 12 at night and they'd all be hating each other, looking up at the monitors."
Shane: "It was intense. When it starts it's great fun, but there comes a point where if you want to have a chance of getting the album finished, you need to be in there for 14 hours a day. I remember we left at half seven in the morning, our flight was at half nine to go back to Dublin, and we'd been in the studio for two full days doing vocal takes."
Even at that, the band's perfectionism resulted in film scorer and Kíla man Lance Hogan coming aboard to put the finishing touches to the record.
"What Pat did was fantastic, but there was a certain edge that we wanted to try and get," Callum explains. "When we got back it didn't sound as modern as it does now. The drums had a bit of an older sound and there weren't as many effects used on the guitars. We gave it to Lance to see if he could come up with any ideas, and he did some great things that complemented what Pat had already done.
"Sometimes when you are so involved in something, recording and producing and mixing, you can get too much inside your own head," Shane adds. "Lance was like an outsider who came in to offer a second opinion. He didn't have to do much, on some songs we did edits, but what was recorded was recorded absolutely brilliantly. Most of what Lance did was simplify things: where there were three guitars, he put in one."
The first fruit from those sessions was the band's single 'Tempomanic', released last October, with a video shot by legendary director Kevin Godley.
"Suzanne Doyle our manager was friends with Kevin for quite a few years," Shane explains. "If she wants something done she'll get it done. We were in England last year and he was doing this World Band project. The guitar player let him down for it, and Suzanne asked if I would do this for him. Eventually all of us got to go out to Pinewood Studios and dressed up in mad clothes and we did all the video footage and they used our images for the software."
Callum: "Originally it was a pilot for a kids' thing where they learn instruments, like Guitar Hero. They had Matt Bellamy and Shirley Manson from Garbage, there's 46 infra-red cameras and they can project you into anything, it was insane. I was projected like a lion on the screen, playing drums. Kevin was working with this guy who did all the special effects for Avatar, and Alien Resurrection was shot in this room as well. Kevin's so approachable and down to earth you felt like you had known him your whole life, you could mess around with him and slag him off.
"But from there we asked if he'd mind doing our video for 'Tempomanic', which was shot in Grouse Lodge. And it was low-budget, so Kevin went into Woodie's and invented his own device, he got these shower wires and made a sort of ribcage device out of it and put these three HD cameras on it and two iPhones and two digital cameras. He could move it around so it saved time, he could get six angles all with that one device."
For the latest single 'Feel That You Own It', the band retained the services of Godley and upped the ante in the form of a cameo from World Boxing Champion Katie Taylor.
Shane: "That was Suzanne again. She just had this idea: wouldn't it be great to get Katie Taylor in? Just on a whim. We managed to get the song to her and she liked it. It was hard work to get her on board 'cos she has a lot of commitments. She didn't have to do what she did for us, it was very much a favour on her part."
Callum: "She did it on her day off as well. She has such strict diets and routines and training, she only had a certain window to come in. Such a lovely girl, so down to earth and approachable. She came to see us a while back in the Odessa club and stayed for the whole gig."

Bipolar Empire will play The Jägermeister Freezer Sessions with Fight Like Apes, The Shoos and Dead School in Cork on Thursday, June 9 at The Pavilion. Feel That You Own It is out now.