Fight Like Apes

If Fight Like Apes had their way, Shannyn Sossamon (of 40 Days and 40 Nights fame) would sell their merchandise at gigs. It doesn’t matter that “she probably wouldn’t even be able to count”, I’m told, because she is “an absolute ride”. No, seriously, she is a babe. “Google Images her, it’ll change your life”. That’s the best thing about Fight Like Apes. Everything is allowed, as long as you’re really into it. There’s no need to justify something, all that’s needed is enthusiasm. Whether it’s bad movies – “When we were recording the album, we watched a series of movies featuring Tom Selleck. Anything with a decent moustache. We’ve probably plagiarized his entire career by this stage.”- or songwriting. In response to a quote which opines that “their songs allude to hate figures and love figures and there is virtually no in between”, MayKay laughs and muses that “I don’t see the point about writing about something you’re not really pushed about.” They wear their influences on their sleeve, but just as quickly shrug them off. “At the moment we’re listening to Johnny Foreigner and Los Campesinos!. We’re trying not to be prejudiced against bands that get really hyped up, but at the same time, some of them are actually amazing.” Finding new music is less a game of hipster top trumps, more an actual game – “When we were recording in Seattle we had this game called ‘Brave New Bands’. You had to go into the bargain bin in a record shop, and pick out some CD’s. Then, you brought them back, and we all listened to them. But, you weren’t allowed know who you were listening to. If you liked it, you liked it. We found out about a load of bands through that - like McCluskey, Your Code Name Is Mylo, Rilo Kiley.”

‘Recording in Seattle’ refers to the period that Fight Like Apes spent in the U.S. recording their (as yet) un-named debut album. The band flew out to Seattle to record for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was a lot cheaper than recording in Dublin. A lot cheaper. Secondly, and more importantly, it was so John Goodmanson (Wu-Tang Clan, Death Cab For Cutie, Bikini Kill) could produce the record. “We got John Goodmanson to produce the album, because we’re huge Blood Brothers fans- especially ‘Crimes’. We just asked him to on the Blood Brothers button. We chose him because everything he’s done has been really posh, but also a bit raw.” They’re honest about their lack of studio skills – “We were such melons when we were recording the EP. We kept saying ‘just make it louder” - but at the same time, they were no naïve ingénues at the mixing desk. “The recording was really natural. The first day he asked us to just play live, and he took notes. He had these massive opinions on songs he’d just heard, so we’d fight a bit. Generally everything would work out very easily.”

The origin of their name comes with a cheeky anecdote. “I tell everyone that the name came from ‘Battle of the Planet of the Apes’. Truth is, I stole it off a friend of mine. He wanted to call his band ‘Fight Like Apes’, and I took it instead. We had a laugh about it.” True to form, what began as a something between friends, has, to borrow the title of their next single, become ‘Something Global’. At the same time, there are some fine business minds at work. They tour all over Ireland – “3 of us are from Dublin, and Mary’s from Kildare. A lot of Irish bands spend a lot of time in their home town- saying ‘yeah, we’re playing Galway next year’. From the outset we played everywhere we could.” - and the new single ‘Something Global’ is definitely the most radio friendly thing they’ve written so far – “I’m not going to lie. Obviously we’re going to use the most radio-friendly thing as a lead single. But we didn’t write or record it just for the radio. We wanted something quick and snappy and easy as pie.” They’ve also straddled the commercial and the collector’s market, in terms of record sales versus downloads. “You can pre-order our new single buy text message, which is pretty amazing. The vinyl thing (‘Something Global’ will also be released on a limited run of special yellow vinyl’) was certainly something I wanted to do, plus it looks great.” It’s cheering to see (especially in the Dublin hothouse of bands getting too big for their Chuck Taylors) that no matter how big Fight Like Apes are getting, or - judging from the packed Whelan’s show they played after only a year of gigging - how big they’re going to get, that they haven’t lost their sense of humour. A second after detailing the plans for the limited run of vinyl singles, MayKay giggles and says – “We should have called our album Only Cunts Buy Vinyl.”