Having associated themselves with a major label in Universal, and seen their debut album ‘Hither Tither’ nominated for the Choice Music Prize (we wouldn’t bet against this year’s follow up ‘Vitreous’ doing just the same), Munster superstars O Emperor are a growing force on the local music scene. Their melodic, sonically experimental indie walks a fine line between sweeping, obvious soundscapes and the kind of quirky, orchestral or occasionally synthetic productions that stack the interest factor high. The group are accessible, but much like their Dublin contemporaries Villagers, able to flitter gently into a captivatingly leftfield niche.
This year’s release, Virteous, arguably perfected that sound, in part because of the band’s more physical development: a recording studio to work freely in combined with a happy mess of a mixing technique. “With Vitreous it was very much written and recorded in a more defined period”, singer Paul Savage tells us. “We built our studio so had the luxury of being able to write and record at the same time, so a lot of tracks were built up from basic idea to finished mix in a sort of haphazard way. Some worked out and some didn’t, and we scrapped them or started again but in the end it produced a more spontaneous, slightly unconventional sound that was a nice surprise. I think if we had written and toured the songs before recording them like with ‘Hither Thither’, it would have turned out dramatically different, maybe even a little safer in places. It was nice to not have a formed picture of an album before going to record it, it made it more open to new sounds and experimentation. Not having a label for the duration of this recording also meant we could produce whatever we wanted. We could take our time and kind of had an underlining urge to better what we had done before because it was now our own independent undertaking.”
The studio, in particular, suited the band down to the ground, and was a labour of love for the band. “Having our own studio really was the critical factor in making this record”, Paul explains. “I don’t think we would have gotten anything near the same results had we been in another studio and under pressure with time and money. Ha! We’re very lazy stubborn bastards and don’t like being rushed on something. Having the space meant we could pop in and out as we felt the need too and often recorded at night when we would finally get functional and awake. The building took about two weeks and bit more to paint it and move the gear in. We enlisted the labour of some of our Dads to come a help us with it. By help I really mean, we held the wood or hammer while they did all the complicated stuff. They are available for any ad hoc carpentry jobs you have!”
The result also leant on some inspiration that the Dads might have enjoyed while pulling the studio together, and one even ended up chipping in on the instrumentation, too. “We started listening to a lot of late 70s, early 80s stuff like Talk Talk, Brian Eno, T Rex, 80s David Bowie etc”, Paul recalls. “We liked the sometimes over the top, elaborate production on the records and some of the early anologue synth sounds they had. We were very fortunate that Alan [Comerford, guitar]‘s dad had an old Roland Juno synthesizer in his attic at home, which we dusted off and used a lot on the record. The sounds on it are really cool, even a little poxy at times but it has such a nice character. It being very old too, it would sometimes go a little mental and have a mind of its own, sometimes just randomly changing sounds during takes, it added to the whole bizarre haphazard approach we were taking on recording.”
Given those instrumental issues, it’s no surprise, perhaps, that the recording dragged on, eventually forcing O Emperor to self-impose deadlines and edit out a few of the complexities. “The main problem was getting rid of the stupid amount of stuff we put on the tracks”, Paul explains. “Cowbells, saxophones, 20 odd synth sounds, even Beverly Hill’s cop style electric drums at one point (that very nearly made it onto Contact). After about 6 months recording and in that time, mostly dickin’ around we decided that it would be done in the following two months whether it’s shit or not. We even booked the mixing so as to get us under a bit of pressure. Thankfully it did get us to finally commit to getting the job done and know what was in or out in terms of songs and parts etc.”
Responses have been excellent, with The Irish Times waxing lyrical in calling the album “an artfully display complete originality, ever-progressing creativity and plain old fashioned musical brilliance”, while Hot Press waxed lyrically about “vintage, gnarly fretwork and dreamy harmonies”. Unsurprisingly, O Emperor are thrilled. We’ve been delighted with the response and particularly how everyone has welcomed the progression in sound on Vitreous from that of Hither Thither”, Paul explains. “We’ve noticed from the start of going back on tour that people were already behind the new tracks and songs like ‘Grandmother mountain’, ‘Contact’ and ‘Holy Fool’ quickly became strong anchor points for the show. It’s always nice to get good critical reaction too, as it still has a lot of pulling power for people who may not have checked out the band before but see some good reviews to rouse their curiosity.”
Now, the decision to abandon that eye catching connection with Universal suddenly looks extremely smart: most commentators view labels as increasingly irrelevant when it comes to a career in music, and O Emperor milked the major for its contacts before setting up their stall alone. Of course, there are other benefits to being independent, too. The decision, in fact, was very well thought out, as Paul explains: “With Universal we had licensed ‘Hither Thither’ to them for Irish release and while it greatly helped build up the name of the band and let us gather many contacts in the industry, when we came to this record we didn’t see the huge benefit of releasing a record through a label for such a small territory. We felt ‘Hither Thither’ had been restricted in some ways with just a single territory release so this time we wanted to release Vitreous worldwide for everyone to hear. Of course we don’t have as much muscle behind us this time, but doing it yourself has a certain satisfaction to it and a lot of people have responded to this record because they feel a more personnel connection with how the music is being made and given to them.”
“Being a five-piece band that all writes together, I think our style or influence is always destined to change, but we enjoy that evolving process”, Paul argues. “It’s nice to now have two albums and see a journey through a body of work. The Choice prize was fantastic in getting the recognition for our album, especially amongst such other great acts. Being our first album we were immensely proud and relieved it didn’t get ripped apart by the critics, so the nomination was a bonus really and a chance to have a mighty piss up.”
From the outside, three years between a prize nominated album – in which O Emperor put out just two EPs – was starting to look like a missed opportunity. Within the band, with time dedicated to finding a new sound, to putting together a studio and (of course) to gathering an ever more loyal fan base, it all starts to make sense. “Our styles and our influences are always destined to change”, Paul argues, “and since ‘Hither Tither’ we’ve had a lot of interest from Europe and the US. We started working with The Windish booking agency in America, who are planning some tours for us next year, so we’re really looking forward to that and another fine party.” This, it seems, really was worth taking time over.