Words: Vanessa Monaghan
Bitches With Wolves are about to unleash their debut offering Hurricane on the world. I caught up with James O’Neill as part of the Arthur’s Day celebrations. The fast talking frontman easily lights up the room as we talk about the release of Hurricane E.P., popstars and his favourite movie
First up I have to ask you to clarify the myth about how Bitches With Wolves was born.
James: Basically it was a party that was thrown for me, cos I used to live in London and it was almost like a homecoming. I was there with a pack of my mates and we were hanging and this guy turned around and said ‘Oh my, you guys look like you should be in a band, you could be the new Bananarama or something, you’ve got a great look!’.
So I was there, totally taking the mick out of him and I said we were in a band, we were called Bitches With Wolves and that we had a song called ‘You can’t piss to this’, from our second E.P. which was called Red Lipstick Massacre Part 2, which you could only buy in Stockholm. Totally taking the absolute mick out of him but he bought it. It turns out that he was actually a club promoter so he booked us for a show in a place called Jaguar Shoes in Kingsland Road in London and that was my first ever gig.
I came home and I hooked up with these guys and said ‘Crap! I’m going to have to write a song called ‘You can’t piss to this’ now and the rest is history.
That’s like something you’d hear on one of those conman television shows.
This is actually the God’s honest gospel truth of how it all started. I had always wanted to be a singer but I suppose I just didn’t have a name like Bitches With Wolves before.
Were you writing before this happened?
Yeah, I was before and one of the songs I perform in my live shows called ‘Tip of My Tongue’ is the first song that I ever, properly wrote as an adult. I did stuff when I was younger, when I was in school and stuff. One of the first songs that I properly wrote that I still perform.
I used to work in this shop in Bond Street and this melody just kept returning to my head so I just kept on writing it so the song is kinda all about escapism I got from going out and going crazy at night in London.
I like the way you said ‘as an adult’.
(laughing) I feel very mature.
A lot of people seem to even in their twenties or later, go back to stuff they’ve written and take little pieces from it and update it.
I think I maybe would revisit it but I just have so much going on it my head anyway, that there’s not really the necessity to go back to those kinds of things. I think the person that I was when I was younger is very different to the person I am now.
I got some photographs done when I was that young and even looking at the photographs, Oh My Word! I’m dressed on a rooftop as a pirate, pretty much with a giant blonde mullet. I’d say for its time it was pretty whopper but I definitely don’t think I’d wear those kinds of things, my hair would not be the same.
But you are known for your style and being a style icon?
Thank you very much, that is a very nice compliment.
We need some pop stars and we need proper pop stars. The reason Smash Hits died is because the ‘pop stars’ didn’t have any history, they all came from manufactured back rounds..
I think very much, the reason why Smash Hits died was because it was a product of its pop stars so therefore, pop stars in the noughties, became, after the Spice Girls, everything became super super super bland and people became tired of pop stars. That’s such a large reason why pop music died for such a long time. There was no one to get interested in or excited about.
If you had to convince people that you were going to be THE pop star for the twenty first century what would you say?
I’d say ‘Just take one look at me’. Nah, I’m only joking, I’m really bad at trying to convince people of things like that and I don’t really like trying to convince.. you’re either into it or you’re not it and that’s O.K. either way. What I would say that I do is try to make things much more entertaining and exciting than your average person.
When you’re an artist trying to break though, when you’re doing interviews and media things, it is like you’re on the sell though, how do you balance that if you don’t want to push things on people?
You’re on the sell but I think it depends what kind of person you are. Naturally, I’m an open person so I’m quite willing to talk to people so for me, it’s like second nature to sit down and have a chat with a stranger and if you want to ask me questions about myself, that’s totally fine.
Who does your hair, I need to get a new hairdresser after the last butchering I got?
A guy called Anthony Usher does my hair, who’s a friend of mine and he’s been a friend of mine for a couple of years. He works over in London now and he does Kate Moss and Lily Allen so I am SOOO lucky to have him. I think if it was now and I was going up to him, he would tell me to get lost.
We’re talking about hair and style, do you mind that it goes hand in hand with your music?
No I don’t mind that it goes hand in hand with my music, I think initially the visual draws people in and what makes them stay is the music so I don’t really mind talking about my clothes all that much but I obviously prefer talking about my music.
I think the first time I saw you live was in Marley Park opening for Fatboy Slim.
That was my second ever gig. I remember I was opening it, even thinking about it, it was so long ago. Yes, I do remember it I remember it well!
Since that you’ve done some fantastic gigs and opened for some fantastic people, like Erasure!
Erasure was absolutely amazing, even standing on stand and having their sign behind my head was absolutely mental! I’ve been really really lucky, I’ve got to open for Calvin Harris, Example, Hercules and Love Affair, which was amazing. Loads and loads and loads of really great strong international artists which I’ve been really privileged to do.
Which is always good in the lead up to your E.P.!
Which is super great in the lead up to my E.P. I can’t wait for it. It’s out on the 14th of October and it’s called Hurricane. I’ve been working towards it for maybe the last two years, building up to the release of it. So to finally have something to actually release, for me anyway, is so exciting.
Hurricane is such a.. it’s gets in your head and stays there all day.. it’s an earworm!
I wrote that song with a guy called Neil Thomas and it’s one of my favourite songs that I have and one of my favourite songs to perform as well because there’s so much emotionally in it that you have to deliver so it’s a really great one to work through when you’re performing and I’ve just seen the finished video as well which we shot for it, which was so unbelievably exciting to do so I can’t wait to get it all properly out there.
Who did the video for you?
It’s a performance video because I figured for my first video it should be a performance video because a massive thing for me is the performance. It’s almost like a calling card as to what you can expect perhaps, from one of my shows and me as a performance on stage. We did it in my spiritual home which is Andrew’s Lane in Dublin, which is where I run a weekly club night with two other guys called WAR, which is absolutely bananas crack, it’s great. It made sense for me to start off as if I’m rehearsing, building up and by the time the chorus kicks in, there’s the crowd and everyone’s going crazy and it develops on from there.
How much work was it to get the E.P. Together, do you work on your own or what way do you do things?
I work with producers, the way it works for me is I’ll have a song in my head and I’ll start working on that, then I’ll go in to work with a producer and we’ll sit down and talk through it. Or, we’ll start on something from scratch and we’ll go from there.
The E. P. has taken absolutely ages, like we’re still working on the final mixes for everything which is gas as it’s so close to the bone now.
That’s half the fun of a first release, there has to be a little bit of panic in there.
(Laughs) Exactly and let me tell you there’s a little bit of panic! Loads of work has gone into it and it was really great . We’ve had loads of songs to choose from but what I thought would be really nice was to tell the story of the end of a relationship and how you move on from that. So it starts off with Hurricane and you’re having that scrap with your lover and you’re telling them how much you love them and not to give up on what the two of you have and that’s what that song is about.
The second song leads into the fact that the relationship is over and you can’t move on from the relationship and you’re still looking for ‘Electric Love’, which is what the song is called and you’re still trying to move forward. That’s another one of my songs that I really really love.
Then you get into the stage, you know, for a while you really don’t want to be with anyone after when you break up with someone. You’re left so numb and so cold and so bedraggled by the whole experience. Then it moves into a song called ‘Strictly Pleasure’, which is all about having someone that you are with and basically saying to them, ‘We’re just Strictly Pleasure and that’s it’.
The idea for that song come from ‘Working Girl’. ‘Working Girl’ is one of my favourite movies ever. It’s just so amazing, the clothes, the hair if nothing else. There’s a thing that she says when she’s totally off her face on valium cos she’s really nervous going into this kind of networking meeting and she meets Harrison Ford for the first time and he’s totally coming on to her at the bar and she says (in an American accent) ‘I’ve the head for business and the body for sin’. I just thought it was the best line I had ever heard so I had to write a song about it so the first line is ‘Head for business and a body for sin, only one thing I need you for’. And that’s it!
If you have the story running through the E.P. Would you consider doing some sort of concept album?
I would totally consider a concept album but in order to do a concept album, I think, mentally, you need to get your head around a lot of things. As a new artist, it’s not something I’d be totally adverse too but I’d like to try and make really strong secure pop songs before I’d try to think about doing an over arcing theme, just so as I don’t shoot myself in the face before I’ve even started.
What I did was, I took the month of August off to do a lot of writing because I haven’t really sat down and thought about a continual sound for anything. I’ve already started working on my album also songs that aren’t on the E.P. That I perform live will be on that aswell.
When you’re working on ideas with producers do you have an idea of what you want to sound like or how much of the producer do you let into your music?
I always have an idea of what I want it to sound like and (laughs) you can ask my poor manager Brian, I’m very hands on, I suppose is a good way to describe it but I think it’s important when you’re putting your face forward for everything. I think sonically it should always be totally you and I don’t really see the point in doing it any other way because it would just almost seem false and send out a cover version, like I do cover versions in my show but it would only ever be something I would really really absolutely love, I don’t think I would ever necessarily sing someone else’s new song. It just wouldn’t feel genuine enough for me.
A huge part, for me, of what I do is that I get to invest a lot of myself in my music which I really really enjoy doing and I don’t think I’d be able to do that if someone else had the control. So thank GAWD I’m not signed to a major label yet where they’re going to tell me what I have to do and what I don’t have to do!!
If you did sign to a major label, what are you going to do, are you going to balance it or are you going to say Nah! and go with a little indie?
That’s a very good question and I’m trying to weigh up the pros and cons of that at the moment – what would be great to do. I think the way things work nowadays, is that an artist and it’s a great thing, major labels don’t have the money to invest into developing an artist any more, so that means you have to take the initiative and do it yourself. It’s actually a really good thing because it weeds out the weak from the strong.
So by the time you do need a record label behind you, which is where I’m moving towards now, then you know you are, you’ve done all the developing yourself so therefore you’re in a much stronger position to figure out what direction you want to take your music in and who you want to work with.
By the sounds of it BWW is ready to take on the world and win! Hurricane, the debut E.P. from Bitches With Wolves is out on October 14th.