J. Willgoose, Esq from Public Service Broadcasting has just averted a crisis: going to make a cup of tea he discovered that there was no milk. Now, out of breath, but milk firmly in hand, he can relax. This is the calm before the storm: Public Service Broadcasting are about to embark on a tour of Europe, Australia and North America. “It’s not even that calm, though!” corrects J. The tour will be in support of latest album ‘The Race For Space’, which, in trade mark PSB style, weaves archive sound-clips and footage from the exploits of the U.S.A and U.S.S.R. around drums, guitar, synths and brass to create a compelling, danceable narrative.
“I originally thought it would be another EP. I didn’t think it would stretch to an album but as I got into it and started researching various stories I realised there was actually too much stuff to leave out, so it grew into an album quite naturally”.
This is the second release around a cohesive idea, after 2012 EP ‘The War Room’, which was based around World War Two broadcasts and propaganda. So, which comes first, the material or the theme? “Nine times out of ten the idea will come first and then it’s a case of looking for the material. NASA are famously open in the way they post all of their mission audio logs and stuff, so I knew there was a wealth of material there. I was more concerned about the Russian stuff, thinking ‘how the hell am I going to get my hands on that?’, when I had a chance phone call to the BFI where I was asking if they had any HD NASA stuff, as I had plenty of the low quality stuff, and they said ‘no, but we have just inherited a massive collection of Russian space material if you want to use that’. It was unbelievably perfect”. And so ‘The Race For Space’ began to take shape.
In person, Wrigglesworth (drums) and J (everything else), the two members of Public Service Broadcasting, resemble college professors from the Seventies – all corduroy and bow ties - which suits their image as purveyors of historical drama for the dance floor. One would wonder then, whether the title of their first album, ‘Inform-Educate-Entertain’ is a bit of a mission statement for the band. Not so, according to J. “It’s much more of a tongue-in-cheek nod towards the BBC, being called Public Service Broadcasting. It’s all about entertaining – we don’t expect people to be coming to our shows and taking notes! This is what happens when you try to put an ironic spin on things”. Perhaps ‘Entertain-Entertain-Entertain’ would have been more appropriate? “Exactly!”.
Sampling historical broadcasts is certainly the current calling card of Public Service Broadcasting, but they haven’t ruled out moving away from that model. “It’s important to stay open to new ideas and not get bogged down in working the same way all the time. I do enjoy working that way - I find it very satisfying - but I certainly don’t think that has to become set in stone”.
For two men to create the racket that J and Wrigglesworth do seems a daunting task for the live show. How will they pull it off? “We scale it up and down as and when we can. Between the two of us we manage to create the most of the sounds and still make it feel live - after all the aim is to provide a good live show and make it musically engaging. We have been looking to expand musically and we have added a touring member on keys, bass and trumpet. On the UK and Ireland Tour there will be four of us, including our visual artist so it’ll be a busy stage.” Indeed, during their performance on Other Voices in Derry the band made use of a number of vintage TV sets showing some of the archive footage. They will feature again. They also have a custom giant TV set and a “space-related prop”. It sounds intriguing. “We’re hoping it won’t be our Spinal Tap moment!”, says J.
If you haven’t seen the video for latest single, Gagarin, you’ll find it below. It’s a bit of a Daft Punk moment for the PSB boys as we see them put on full sixties-style space suits and break out some impressive dance moves. When we ask J to confirm whether it is in fact himself and Wrigglesworth dancing in those space suits, with tongue firmly in cheek he tells GoldenPlec that they’ve had to sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to disclose the truth. It’s a cleverly designed choreography, because, at least until about half way through, you really can’t be sure if it’s them or not. It’s when they start pulling somersaults that doubt starts to creep in…
Still it must have been the fulfilling of some kind of childhood aspiration to pull on those suits? “When I was really young the first thing I wanted to be was an astronaut”, says J, “until I realised that I was (a) probably in the wrong country for that and (b) a complete coward.” Well, it’s all worked out in the end.
Public Service Broadcasting play The Button Factory, Dublin, on 5th May 2015.