The Rapture - London, UK, Summer 2002
By: Toby L
In the blaze and bustle of 2002's ample, alternative music-scene, the underground has been reacting. Skinny, white men with particularly ironic vintage T-shirts and equally ironic, big hair-cuts have been furnishing a guitar-based groove that has been bubbling under the public consciousness for a few years. It's loud. It's ass-grindingly funky. And, what's more, funk-punk is helplessly trendy.
Spearheading the nu-wave of bass-driven power-anthems have been NYC's The Rapture. A quartet that hones in as much emphasis on moody, scattered, 80's guitar-pedals as it does on deep and brooding sax, the four-piece have earnt accolade in recent months due to live-shows commonly depicted as a love-feast of worryingly exciting levels and a series of 12"-vinyls released under the unquestionably now and beyond stylings of The DFA. Melodic, yet dark simultaneously, they're the antithesis of mundanity/predictability, and bring forth with them an open-minded, almost warming, humble attitude to the work they produce, a far cry from the self-celebratory swagger that has defined latter times.
We catch up with them as part of their first ever overseas tour-schedule in the UK, a location that has been swift to display its admiration for their artistic-endeavour. Bassist and vocalist Matt Safer and saxophonist/percussionist Gabriel are present within an aircraft-hangar alike sports-hall, backstage at Crystal Palace's Sex Pistols/Jubilee reunion-show. They have literally just come off-stage and are visibly exhausted, perhaps exerting extra effort to ensure that the thousands of previously-spectating punks were able to open their minds for a mere half-hour to allow a genuine, genre-defying performance into their viewing-schedule. And, even in such a tough scenario, The Rapture succeed, groups of Mohawks and cider-downing adults dancing in unison to the wiry likes of 'Modern Romance', or their cult-hit, 'House Of Jealous Lovers'. A triumph, then.
Yet the band's history has stretched into the wayward mists of time - line-up changes, and the such - so doesn't their new-found recognition seem frightfully overdue?
'No, not really,' declares Matt blankly, nesting on a concrete wall. 'I think it's a really bad headspace to get into when you feel like that; a lot of bands that play together for a while and don't achieve the level of success that they wanna achieve can become quite bitter about it... Once you start feeling that you're owed anything after a certain amount of time, it can only ruin what you're doing.'
Suddenly, a familiar face pops into view - Carl Barat from The Libertines, an act also sharing the bill for today's event. Matt and Gabriel greet him and ask how his performance was. He frowns, adding, 'It was a bit f**king messy actually... Bit of a shambles - me and Pete have been playing together for about seven years and we still can't even play in time with each other.' The bands share casual dialogue about a festival they both played in Mallorca and Carl realises that an interview is taking place. 'Oh, sorry boys - I'll let you get down to it.' He then proceeds to have a go on a pole-vault located in the corner of the room.
On the prior subject of the band's history, Gabriel assesses the past. 'Luke (Jenner - vocalist/guitarist) and Vito (Roccoforte - drummer), have known each other since they were pretty young; I don't really know their whole history, but they started The Rapture in San Francisco in May 1998.'
How has it evolved?
'I think it still makes sense how things have changed since then,' ponders Matt. 'I don't think there have been any enormous out-of-character skips or jumps, but some of it's really practical - like, in New York, we didn't really have a keyboard-player, which was a very big part of the band on 'Mirror', and 'The Chair That Speaks' 7" (two early releases) to a certain extent as well. Things just opened up that way.
'When I personally joined the band in New York, my influences were different from what the other bass-players were influenced by. The band was expanding in a similar direction; that's why, at the time, when I started playing with them, they just seemed like the people doing the most interesting thing around - and I wanted to be a part of it.'
And the saxophone?
'It's very latter-day Rapture,' informs Gabriel. 'I started playing with the band a little more than a year ago, playing some shows last summer, but then I stopped playing with them for a bit, because they went on tour and I couldn't join them at the period - though I got back together with them a little later, and did some of the new recordings with them.'
Has there been an adjustment in your attitude to what you're performing, on the basis of rather favourable press-coverage of late, not to mention high-profile shows with the likes of Doves and a now-legendary set at the Monarch when you played alongside The Polyphonic Spree?
Matt shrugs his shoulders, answering vaguely, 'I think we're just doing what we always do.'
'We're comfortable playing music,' adds his band-mate, 'we're comfortable being musicians, and we're comfortable playing the music we're playing; these songs we've been playing over here, these are songs that we've lived with for a while. So, when we come over to a place like this for the first time, we're just really figuring it all out - we don't know shit about how the music-scene works in this part of the world.
'You are conscious of how you're being received and how the crowd is receiving you, but - in the end - you just wanna play your songs, and we wanna go out there and play the songs the best way we can. Something like today, for example, we don't usually play outside to a shit-load of people, and that's been happening a lot more in the past few months than it has ever before. It's a new set of challenges, and there is a lot more pressure, because there are a different set of expectations - but that doesn't change the way you do what you do, and it doesn't change how you do what you do.'
This travelling back and fore to different locations - does it give you a new spin on the way you go about presenting and writing your music?
Gabriel pauses. 'I'd say no...'
'Well... In any kind of art that you're doing, you're always gonna be influenced by the world that you're immediately surrounded by,' raises Matt, 'but, obviously, whether you're conscious to the changes or that, that's a different matter.'
Relevantly, with your shows over here, are there any differences you've noticed with the way your shows have gone down with audiences?
'I'd say, pretty consistently over here, we've played more dance-clubs and alongside more DJ's than we have in the States,' observes Gabriel. 'And, being in London a lot of the time, being around a certain amount of hype and press-exposure, there's a hipness that we're less surrounded by in the States; but maybe we get that in New York as well, though that's been a very organic thing, and what I mean by that is that it's existed through just the sheer playing of shows and putting records out - and much less press-exposure. Back home, there are also less people hitting things back at you with opinions, or how to pigeonhole you or whatever... We've been called many more things here in a shorter amount of time than we have in the States.'
Do you find that derogatory? Do you wish people would describe you more on an adjective-based level, as opposed to scene-style?
Matt squirms. 'That's just how it is, though, you know...'
'Yeah,' nods his co-member, 'people are just basically doing their job... In the same way, though, it's nicer when people do more in-depth interviews where they're just interested in the music, and not trying to do a quick thing, or just asking you who you know from New York.'
Immediately, you get the sense that The Rapture are the last to believe the wave of publicity surrounding their efforts to date; the first to dismiss the hyperbole around them, and the most likely to laugh off any claims of their being remotely en vogue, their reticence to indulge in similar shenanigans and self-promoting, media-hugging strategies as employed by their peers works out to their idiosyncratic, integrity-fuelled advantage.
So, enough of the world around them - what about their own sphere and orbit of activity - after all, you seldom hear sounds like these...
Matt becomes coy. 'I just really like our band, you know! Yeah, more than any other band that's around... I think that there aren't a lot of other bands that are really doing what we do, or even in near the same way; there are a lot of studio-dance acts that are starting to play live, and there are more live-bands starting to incorporate dance-music aspects to their work. Aside from that, I guess we do it pretty well - and it does seem to be in a kind of unique way.'
Have there been strands of experimentation that you've conjured newly in the studio which you'd like to incorporate elements of for the future?
'To some extent,' considers Safer, 'but not in working it into the live-set as much. For the past six months, we were recording our album, but in the studio we were playing with a lot of stuff that we hadn't really had the time or access to before... I think it was a really good experience for us.'
Certainly, between the media of live and recorded Rapture, the former evokes a more rugged, raw finesse, whilst the latter can often prove calculated, complex - take second single-proper 'Olio' as evidence of this, its arrangements too bold for the stage at present.
Matt: 'I think it's good that how we sound on record is slightly different to how we play live; they both put across different kinds of energy. The thing is, though, if you play live by trying to imitate exactly what you've done in the studio, then it can become a little cold, a little impersonal - but, at the same time, if you just go in and try to record a live-record, it gets very difficult to put across any meaningful energy. As a matter of choice as to what people would hear first out of the two - I don't know; hopefully both.'
With the advancing year ahead - what do you want set up for yourselves, creatively and commercially?
'Creatively,' struggles Matt, 'it's difficult to predict the future.'
'Yeah, but we do have some goals,' reasons Gabriel. 'As far as I can tell, everyone in the band wants to expand on the live-set by experimenting a bit more with the way we're playing our songs, and playing more songs that we haven't really been playing as much - some are older songs, some are newer, and we need to figure out how to put those together so they're right when we play live... I can foresee, in some respects, the live-set as a whole changing a little bit, although we want to maintain the same sort of energy we have for the most part. Recording-wise, we'll just see what happens... We just all have a lot of ideas right now, and I think there are going to be changes. There's certainly going to be an evolution to the way things work.'
As an overall concept, however, what feelings are you trying to broadcast to the end-user?
There's a momentary pause.
'I guess that the simple answer is just some sort of inspiration,' aspires Matt, 'in terms of our approach. I think the best thing that I could hope for at least, is to inspire other people to do creative things, either in music, art, or even thinking. I don't know if there's any real specific mood that I'd want that to take the shape of - hopefully not violence, I guess!'
Inspiring people possibly through 'thinking' - do you yourselves possess any personal-philosophies?
'I'm pretty damn sure we don't have one philosophy amongst us all,' grins Gabriel, before turning to his press-officer nearby, and asking, 'You got one?'
The man sits back, assured in his response. 'What you take, you eat... You can use that in any situation in life...'
There is a break in conversation. Gabriel fills the silence perfectly, blurting, 'That's a bunch of hoopla!'
'It does mean something,' the originator pleads, 'just like anything can mean anything...'
Gabriel sighs. 'Yeah, well - that's because you're a spin-doctor! My personal philosophy I don't think would be similar...'
'It would probably involve hummers and hash,' Matt laughs gently to himself. 'Nah, for me, it's a bit of a difficult question - I don't think I have a personal philosophy; I just hope that when I'm making decisions, I'm using my head, and really thinking shit through...'
'I'm just hoping that I'm going to be able to keep learning things, and to keep finding joy in learning things,' finalises Gabriel. 'Whether they're useful for a short period of time or a long period of time, I'll figure it out later - but, basically, just to have some joy in doing everything I do in life.'
Remaining introspective and mildly abstract for a moment, what are the fundamental ideas that people need to understand about The Rapture from your perspective?
'To our fans,' opens Gabriel, 'just don't be scared.'
Matt hesitates in his response. 'Erm... Well... I'm kind of shy... If I look like I'm upset or frowning, I'm probably not - I'm just chilling, you know..? Don't worry: come up and say hi... Yeah, just buy me a hard-lemonade or something like that...'
Gabriel stirs in his position, perplexed. 'Buy you a hard-lemonade?!'
'Yeah,' outlines Safer, 'like a Smirnoff Ice, or something... I don't really like beer.'
So you're not trying to create a barrier between you and your audience?
'In the States, it's the way you grow up with music,' explicates Gabriel. 'We're just all fans of music, and we all play music, because we love music, and when you play, you just get to meet people who are interested in your music, and you get to know people at the shows...
'That's probably one of the drawbacks of playing in places where there's been a lot of press before-hand; there's a separation between you and the audience in some way... More-so in London than anywhere else in the UK - but it's always nice to meet people our age, or kids who are into it.
'We play a show, and one of the goals is just for the audience to f**king get into it, for them to feel it, and for everyone, including us, to really enjoy themselves. Afterwards, it's just like, 'Let's hang out now,' you know! Even when we're playing, I like to think of it as if we're hanging out with everyone that's there, as if it's just part of the night. That's the thing with music in general, there's always this star-power - but that's never made sense with me, and I guess it really depends on the reception, but I'd like to stay as far away from that as possible.'
'The one thing that potentially worries or scares me is that a barrier is put up in some way,' notes Matt. 'It really isn't about stars; it's about writers writing stuff, and everyone having a good time... It shouldn't get in the way of the time you can have with people.'
'We're not special in any way,' concludes Gabriel, affirmatively. 'People may listen to our music and feel something very special from that, and that's all we're trying to do - to play music we also get a special feeling from. If someone really loves it, and says, 'Wow, you guys are brilliant,' we're not - we're just four dudes playing music, trying to be creative and trying to figure out to work together, and figuring out how to play in front of people around the world. Also, because we've all been playing music for a long time, hopefully, we'll be able to make a living from it, because it's a really natural thing to do.'
In a music-climate so populated by egos and, simply, unmemorable attempts at igniting a crowd, The Rapture are our glistening haven of unpretentious, honest musicianship. Awe-enticingly original and diligently dynamic, they're a band you can trust - and, trust us too, for they will rock your world.
Artists in this article: The Rapture