Percolator

They’ve got My Bloody Valentine comparisons coming out of their ears. Paul Bond chats to the upcoming Waterford band.

“We are Ian, Jason and Eleanor. We’ve known each other for a good while.” So says Ian Chestnutt, guitarist and vocalist of Percolator. They’re based in Waterford which, as Ian admits, “is a pretty small place and most musicians here know each other or know of each other.” From their Waterford base they’re currently polishing their debut EP while notching up some live gigs. Not that they need the experience. Ian and Ellie Myler (who plays drums and also sings) know each other from being in Dae Kim, the band formed by former Ten Speed Racer drummer Terry Cullen. And to round them off Percolator’s final member Jason Grant, on bass, is on loan from another Waterford based group Dinosaur Petshop.

They sound nice and muddy. Rough, feedback laden, sometimes quite dissonant, but with some dream pop touches too. Remind you of anyone? Just to get it out of the way I put it to them that My Bloody Valentine comparisons will be inevitable. Ellie responds: “Yep it’s an expected comparison I suppose. Ian sure does like a jazzmaster or jaguar sound and a good an’ bendy tremolo arm. On top of that there’s the girl/boy vocals. We’re a bit more stripped down though.” Which is true, I’ll give them that, and as Ian says “we prefer for each instrument to be more defined, and for the songs to be straightforward.”

Apparently though they never made any conscious decisions about their sound. Ian says, “It’s just how we play. Ellie drums from a musician’s perspective, Jason uses overdrive on his bass and plays chords which can make it sound like another guitar. I use alternate tunings so the chord changes are strange and also make the guitar sound bigger.” Overall it’s a versatile sound that can go from stomping to serene at the flick of a switch, or as Ellie puts it “from song to song we can go from almost aggressively noisy to fuzzy and melodic and at other times eerie.” For Ian at least, Percolator is just about enjoying playing music and “playing our instruments, trying to make something that’s different to other Irish bands.”

Their first EP Lead Salad should be out in March, but don’t bank on a definite date, as Ellie points out “since this is our first release we’re sort of playing it by ear as far as the release date goes. All the recording is finished, we did that in Ilya K‘s house in the Cork countryside. We’re mixing it with Spud from Ilya K, and John Haggis from Granny It’s Ok is doing a couple of mixes too.” It will be released on vinyl and CD, but more importantly they’ve got material to follow it up. “Right now we probably have enough songs for another EP” said Ian, “we could even have it recorded by the time Lead Salad comes out, then again we could hold off for an album. It all depends on how our first release is received, really.” I expect it’ll go down well.