Oceansize - London, UK, Spring 2002
By: Toby L
'We went a bit mental at a gig in Glasgow, and it got a bit messy,' lingers Mike, frontman of Oceansize, smiling warmly at the recollection. 'The reaction was great there, an optimistic crowd...' He stops for a second, however, his face losing its immediate shine. 'I sense that, tonight, it might be a bit more folded-arms...'
'We went a bit mental at a gig in Glasgow, and it got a bit messy,' lingers Mike, frontman of Oceansize, smiling warmly at the recollection. 'The reaction was great there, an optimistic crowd...' He stops for a second, however, his face losing its immediate shine. 'I sense that, tonight, it might be a bit more folded-arms...'
Well, what do you expect? This evening, Oceansize's feat is to overcome the London crowd - one that is notoriously arsy, unappreciative and small-minded. Yet, this ain't just the usual London crowd scenario - nope; instead, this much-talked-about Manchester-based quintet will find themselves playing the Astoria - a 2,000-capacity theatre - and playing support to the fast-rising Cooper Temple Clause... Pressure? Maybe for other groups - but not this lot.
And this is why Oceansize have gained the praise they have in the last few months - because they can battle against such conditions and reign victorious in the face of a challenge. Thus, it's only fitting this evening that by the time their set halts to a meteoric thudder, even after technical-failures, they walk offstage with a crowd-reception that even the headliners could find themselves struggling to achieve. It just goes to show what can happen when musical-talent, wild invention and a fierce live-performance all lay within your reach.
In case you're wondering what the fuss is about, the very simple and vital thing that makes them so incredibly fresh and musically enigmatic is quite simply their sound. Muse? Rage Against The Machine? Radiohead? Tool? The Backstreet Boys? OK, well, maybe not the last one, but certainly the preceding names are just some of the shadows you'll experience when absorbing their breathtaking and relentless, huge creation. It's odd therefore, that in person, rather than the artist-snobbery or aloofness that one might expect, you can't hope to meet a bunch of nicer, down-to-earth characters.
The 'Size, at the time of interviewing, were unsigned. Despite this, though, the A&R reaction in the UK - and even in the US, following a successful appearance they demonstrated at Texas' South By SouthWest Conference - has been astounding, but - much like their unique song-writing process (more of which will be revealed later on) - they haven't been in a hurry to allow the right things to occur in regards to their future development. As a result, their growth is being carefully nurtured and cultivated - so you'll pleased to note that you've still got your chance in the next year to see them in sensible venue-sizes as opposed to vast warehouses...
We meet them today in their dressing-room, which, in its spare time (when not being clogged up by pesky musicians) doubles up as the Astoria's caretaker-cupboard (probably anyway, judging by the poky size). Yet, despite such an unlucky encumbrance, there's room for a couple of chairs in which singer and guitarist Mike and Gambler - another guitarist would you believe - are located. Conversation begins on the current tour...
'It's been mad - really, really good,' enthuses Mike, who proves to be the group's natural spokesperson. 'The audience that the Coopers attract is kind of obsessive, I think - there's people following them all over the f**king country!'
He pauses momentarily and reflects on the fan-base. 'They seem quite loyal and dedicated... This kind of music lends itself to that temperament, because you either really like it, or you really hate it: I don't think anyone can just think it's OK.'
True - to rate an act such as Oceansize as merely OK would be a substandard way of presenting a view; but - 'this kind of music'? Just what kind exactly? Such is the difficulty to describe the product on offer that people have resorted to 'prog-rock' - a genre many don't wish to associate to... Clearly, these guys don't mind the title.
'I think all rock music should be progressive,' reasons Mike. 'The Sex Pistols, in a funny, little way, were actually f**king progressive - developing from what had gone on before them. We don't think we're enormously original, or rewriting 'The Bible' or anything - we're just doing what we really like doing, and if we didn't like what we were playing, then we'd drop it. That's why we've written so much music and dropped so much in the past, because we've outgrown it perhaps...'
With the songs in mind, despite the fact that the mere word 'songs' doesn't so much as sum them up as 'compositions', just how long does it take to put together each musical-piece?
Mike smiles. 'You wouldn't believe how much work we have to put in! For example, we're playing a new song tonight - and it's taken us six months to decide whether we like it or not! We've never played it before, and it's just a kind of leap of faith where we've gone, 'Right, we just need to play this and get it out there,' because we've been dicking about with it for so long!'
'Yeah,' agrees Gambler; 'We've also been playing the same set for, like, a year and a half or something, so we just needed a change.'
How many songs have you put together now in total?
'About twelve,' Mike ponders briefly. 'But, there's only about eight of them that we'll actually be able to play live... We've got loads of shit that we can't wait to use for album-tracks or for b-sides, or whatever, but they're more mood-pieces that are less dynamic, you know?'
It's all very well writing an article such as this just trying to depict the incredible energy and focus that the group possess - but, surely, they've heard it all before?
The main-speaker is certainly tuned into what's being suggested. 'An interesting one that someone told us was that we sound like a farm that grows music! It's probably because it's like an organic thing that's all about messing about with ideas, getting a bit stoned maybe, and experimenting with the noises that you can make and with the stupid beats that the drummer can come up with, just fitting it all together...
'Everyone's just shitting out ideas,' he clarifies, explaining, 'It's just keeping them together and putting them into practice... We have to keep a record of every single practice that we do because, otherwise, we just forget what we've done.'
'From a gig point of view as well,' raises Gambler, 'It's more of an experience rather than anything else: you just have to watch it from the beginning and really get into it, and stay with it until the end.'
'With a record,' continues Mike, 'You can spend time with it; and, maybe some bits are going to be really immediate, but some bits you'll have to spend time to make the effort to get into it. With a gig, we do sort of demand full attention; you can't just drift off now and again, and then come back to it: if you want it to have full effect, you've got to watch and give it your full concentration. We tend to make everything more dramatic when we play live in order to maintain people's interest...
'To make it even more exciting,' he elaborates childishly, 'When we're signed to some kind of huge major-label in ten years' time, we'll have loads of aeroplanes coming down from the skies into the audience, f**king lasers, too; actually, the audience could play laser-quest during the gig!'
A momentary laugh lets up at such a proposition, but - whilst on the matter - just what are the fundamental differences between Oceansize live and on record?
'We try to get down on record what we do live,' reveals the tall guitarist, 'Because - in the beginning - we were very much a live band, and everyone says, 'Your live-shows are fantastic,' so we really try and get that down on disc; I think it comes across really well...'
'Yeah, that was the idea,' nods Mike: 'To try and capture something that wasn't actually recorded live, because it's quite hard to mix, and then...'
Gambler cuts him off mid-flow. '... But we just didn't want it to sound like a Prince record! You know, really polished or whatever! It had to have some raw energy.'
Unlike Prince? Hmm. A shame... Raw energy-wise, however, their hopes thus far seem sufficiently healthy, though doesn't it all feel like its amassing to something: an album, maybe?
Mike frowns, indicating a frustration to commence work on the project.
'Specifically,' he utters, 'we'd just like to have the right people to work with and do it, a team behind us that would decorate the music we've already written and make it as powerful as we want it; it's not something we've talked about loads yet, but it's something we've been thinking about and have wanted to do for a lot of time - it'll probably be out at around January of next year... The excitement of doing that and making something that we're all real proud of is gonna be great... Obviously, we're gonna have a few fisty-cuffs about what songs are gonna end up on there, because we can only put, maybe, an hour's worth on - which, to us, is about eight tracks.'
Yeah, but numbers aren't everything; one success of Oceansize's output - as proven on last year's limited-edition release, 'A Very Still Movement', is just the fact that their mammoth opuses never succumb to the temptation of self-indulgence or unnecessary, twiddly fodder. As demonstrated on the sumptuous 'Catalyst' and 'Saturday Morning Breakfast Show', their seven-minute-plus arrangements are consistently thrilling, intriguing and brave - yet melodic also, so as to create appeal.
'I think it's better when there's people like Radiohead out there who are basically opening doors, and there's more room when you've got bands like Mogwai coming in off the back of it,' contemplates Mike, on the amount of experimental bands currently available. 'I think they were all influenced from that idea of trying out different things. But I probably think that we're a bit more extreme than that and more difficult to listen to; I don't tend to do very much singing for instance: I only really sing when I feel it needs singing over, otherwise I just won't bother.'
Gambler follows this point on. 'That's where the obsessive fans come in; a lot of the fans tend to be musos, and you can tell they play an instrument, because they start talking to you about the music in such a way!'
Oh dear; more worrying, however, is the prospect of them becoming attached to the 'Manchester Scene 2K' - presently clinging to Haven, Elbow, Badly Drawn Boy and similar new talent such as The Rain Band and Kinesis.
Mike sneers at the proposal. 'That's a bit of a strange one because we've been accused by people on little chat-rooms of a bit of nepotism, because we've got bands like Haven, though we don't know them, and Elbow, who we've become quite friendly with, that, when they're asked what bands they like in interviews, they tend to say, 'Oh, Oceansize!' The problem with that though is that some people then say, 'Ah, look at that lot - just getting a helping-hand of their mates!' But we didn't f**king know the bands at that point; I mean, we know Elbow now because we've got hammered with them after certain gigs, but still!'
'There was also a bit of a backlash also,' adds Gambler, 'Because people were saying that Manchester has got such a great heritage of music because of The Stone Roses and all the baggy stuff, and now we've got Oceansize - but that's just living in the past... Oceansize aren't gonna carry on the tradition of all the great Manchester bands from back then... I mean, none of us are actually from Manchester anyway - we just live there!'
'It's true,' laughs Mike. 'We're from anywhere but Manchester! We're from Birmingham, Leeds, Scotland... And we're not that kind of band that are gonna tell you how to have your haircut, or what kind of jeans you should wear... We all like different things: I'm mainly a metal-fan - I like listening to a real racket!'
Bearing in mind your appreciation of different things, individually, what do you bring to the band?
Gambler's eyes widen disturbingly. 'I bring sex, sex and sex!'
Mike guffaws, responding, 'Steve brings a lot of questions, John brings a lot of, 'No, I'm not doing that', Mark brings a lot of trouble, I bring a lot of arguments, and he (points to Gambler) brings a lot of silence!'
'Yeah,' admits the bandmate, 'I just sit back and watch it all!'
But what is there for us to just sit back and watch - is there a masterplan for the band's development?
'Just to be the best we can be,' the frontman replies simply. 'I don't want to big us up too much, but everyone in this band can f**king play and is very accomplished in their instrument; we're really blessed with having a f**king amazing drummer, and a lot of bands aren't blessed with that, and as such, their bands can't work as well... The shit we've got in our heads and what we're able to translate, if we're given the time to do it, we can do anything, man...'
So what's coming up next?
'We're gonna record a new EP in June, and that's gonna be out in August, September, and we'll be doing a toilet-tour to promote that at around the same time... And, then, well, then what?'
Conveniently, their manager walks in and provides the answer. 'For the rest of the year? We're planning to record something, tour it, tour it again, record the album, get that out, tour it, tour it again, and then headline next year's Glastonbury on the Saturday night.'
Mike's clearly happy with the arrangements.
'Wow - the future looks so damn bright, man!'
You don't need to tell us.
Artists in this article: Oceansize