Therapeutic for the People - Therapy? Interview

Therapy? weren’t very bandwagonesque.

Twice, within a matter of years, the musical movement of the day seemed to draw alongside and offer a  lift – and, on both occasions, the Antrim boys declined the invitation because they were too busy enjoying the walk.
Take grunge. If ever there was a scene that looked custom-made for a noisy three-piece saturated in US hardcore, you’d assume that was it.
Then there was Britpop. If all those Trimm Trabbs could make it to Cwmaman, surely Larne wouldn’t prove too far a leap?
It was never, though, quite as straight-forward as that. Therapy? were too clued-in and smartly sanitary for the barking, self-loathing types of grunge. As for Britpop... well massive choruses were not a problem. Still,  let’s go back to those influences again: Big Black, Black Flag, Replacements, Husker Du. Commercially speaking, it was never going to end well, was it?
Given the contrary, inquisitive nature of the band, however, it’s difficult to know exactly what kind of wagon they actually could have hitched up to.
There have been times when they flirted with Nine Inch Nails-style industrial noise; times when they made a bee-line to the kind of abstract art-rock Slint, Mogwai and Godspeed were producing; times when they even batted eyelids at a scary, scraped-away folk. There have been splashes of jazz, tropicalismo, techno; there have even been covers of songs from The Muppet Show.
The basic template has remained the same, but it’s proven to be a remarkably elastic and durable (Bob) mould.
The tunefulness, the power, the noise, the wit – all could be guaranteed. Everything else was up for grabs.
Which was the point, really: all the things that made Therapy? awkward, were all the things that made Therapy? great.
Next month at the NI Music Prize Awards, Therapy? are being presented with the ‘Oh Yeah Legend Award’, in recognition of their career. I’m not sure what their opinions on these kinds of things are, but I hope they take it in good grace. That they’re planning on playing the whole of Troublegum, their commercial high-point, on the night suggests they will.
It’s only right that we celebrate their impact.
Not only the internationalism (and have you ever seen the size of some of the gigs they play in Brazil?), and their on-going durability, but  the aspects that have earned them respect at home.
And whether it’s been ‘mentoring’ Ash, giving David Holmes one of his first gigs in a recording studio, or even keeping the Ulster punk flame burning by constantly bigging up Rudi, The Outcasts and The Undertones in interviews, their practical contribution to music here has been stellar.
So go along. It should be some night. Therapy? have never really turned up for other people’s parties – they’ve always preferred throwing spectacular ones of their own.