The Bridges of Madison County are a guitar-bass-drums-trumpet combo who play ugly, heavy noise-rock presided over by majestic trumpet bleats and what sounds like the rantings of an escaped mental patient. Following the release of last year’s The Divil Wears Prada EP, their first full length, Beastenders, sees the light of day on the 9th of August, with a launch gig upstairs in Whelan’s the same night and a Galway date in The Roisin Dubh the following night. We caught up with trumpetmeister and occasional drumlad Thomas Parkes as well as Rocky, his friend’s dog, for a chat. Us in bold, him in plain.
I might answer everything from the dog’s perspective.
So just ‘woof’.
Yeah and then the translation after or something.
Can you give a brief synopsis of The Bridges of Madison County thus far?
Well, Paul and Kieron were playing songs together for a while, then I got to know Paul from him playing in Hands Up Who Wants To Die, and then he asked me if I wanted to join. Then I just kinda met up with them and jammed for a good few months before we actually even gigged. Then the previous drummer left and we got a new drummer, so yeah it was a good coupla years before we actually started playing gigs or anything like that. Then two years ago we went in to record an album and now we’re just getting it done.
You’re releasing the album as a print with a download code, is that purely for economic reasons?
Well ideally it would have been better to release it on a physical format. After the recording process we had no money really left to even get it mixed so we had to mix it ourselves. If we were doing it ourselves, there wasn’t really the option of putting it out on CD or vinyl because we couldn’t afford it and because we don’t play enough gigs to make money back, it was the only option really. Especially because Kieron’s living in London now so it’s hard to get a tour together or anything like that, to self-fund the band. I think more people would buy it, there’s still a reluctance for people to just buy a download.
What was the recording process of the album like?
We booked four days and we tracked fourteen songs and from that … we were never going to use all fourteen tracks, so we kinda picked what the album tracks would be. Because we were originally thinking of doing it as a vinyl so we worked out what the two sides would be and that dictated what songs wouldn’t make it. So the songs that didn’t get put on the album ended up being on the EP. Now that it’s only coming out as a download, we could have put more songs on it but there’s already one song that’s on the EP that’s on the album, and we didn’t want to do … I think more than one is a bit … it devalues the EP.
Yeah, it’s a valuable EP.
Yeah, it’s one of the most rarest EPs in Ireland I think. But yeah so like I was saying, we didn’t have enough money to mix it in the studio, so we just ended up mixing it ourselves which is probably why it took so long as well.
What’s in the future for Bridges at this point?
Eh, I’m not sure. We were supposed to do live musical accompaniment for an opera based on a dog. But the dog died, so I dunno if they’re gonna replace the dog or not, we haven’t heard back about that yet. We’ll probably just release the album and then google our own band name for a year, and then put it out as a free download.
Could we just add in a bit, can I just tell you how I came to look after the dog?
Yeah.
So my mate Sean’s gone to Sicily so he wanted me to look after a dog, so I’ve been kinda looking after him for the last coupla days, we’ve been getting on like a house on fire. I let him out for his morning shits and stuff. I actually played him the album earlier on.
What was his reaction?
He just shit on the carpet, and then he started eating his own shit and then kept vomiting it out and then eating it again.
Was that what you wanted to happen?
No, I wanted him to like it more than anybody. But y’know, you’ll never find a truer critic than a dog.
Do you think you’ve developed a special bond with him?
Yeah. He’s a great dog like. He’s a really good dog.
He is. He’s very fluffy.
Yeah.
He’s like the carpet in my granny’s house or something, that’s what he reminds me of. In a good way. What’s your favourite brand of dog food actually? There’s Pedigree Chum … Pal is pretty good.
I’d say I favour dry dog food because the shits come out drier, it’s easy to pick up. It’s harder to pick up half a litre of dog shit, in liquid form.
Dogs always look kinda sad when their heads are hanging over the edges of things like that.
He sleeps with his eyes open which is kind of mental. I think dogs have an extra set of eyelids so they can sleep with one of them closed, but it still looks like their eyes are open. The first night I got him he was just lying beside me for hours, just looking into space with his mouth open. I thought he was really depressed but he was just asleep.
I’ll give him a little doggy massage, he’s looking kinda tense. He looks a bit like a llama from behind, when he puts his head up like that.
I took off one of my socks and rolled it into a ball, because Sean didn’t give me a toy for him or anything, I could tell yesterday he wanted to have a play so I took off my sock and rolled it up into a ball and I threw it and he fucking legged it and he got it but he just shook violently for three minutes like he was trying to kill my fucking sock.
I’d say you’d let him destroy your sock, just to see him … get his fill.
Ah yeah, definitely.
The Bridges of Madison County play upstairs in Whelan’s at midnight on Friday the 9th August, with support from the excellent :Hounds:. Entrance is free as long as you stick your name down on the guestlist on the Facebook event or are in Whelan’s before they start charging in at 10.30. They play Galway the following night upstairs in The Roisin Dubh, with local lads Ilenkus. Doors are at 9pm and entry will cost you a measly 4 euro.
