Imagine the potential joy of a record shop lucky dip. You thrust your hand into a paper bag and might pull out any gem from any given era or genre of inspirational music. You might pick a kosmische classic, an ambient masterwork, an indie-pop opus or a jazz juggernaut. You might also, theoretically, be lumbered with Nik Kershaw’s Radio Musicola. 202s offer this lucky bag thrill of the unexpected with none of the risk. Grope blindly at any track on their debut self-titled album and you’ll have as much a chance of finding a winner as an Italian match fixer. Born in a studio from the ashes of a former project some time in 2007, the pair gel like Brylcream to create a sound so self-assured and cerebrally appealing you’d swear they’ve been at it since the 70s. With ears already pricking up to listen, the band are preparing for the launch of their debut, and some suitable support slots with Mancunian post-punk deities A Certain Ratio, and Krautfunk killers Fujiya & Miyagi. Speaking of whom…
Mike: Great band, seen them a couple of times. I wouldn’t count them as an influence, but I think we share the same umbrella of influences- Neu! and Can, and so on. We both put our own spin on things though.
I think there’s a resemblance in your textures. Did you spend as much time texturalising the album as you did on the songwriting?
M: That’s true enough. We’re big into sounds, and finding new ones. We’re both just big music fans, so it’s important for us to represent the different things we listen to, and moreso to serve the song best. You know, you’ll have one song that has a 60’s surf song vibe, and you find a group of sounds that fits in with that.
It’s very much a studio act, right? It started up in the studio, and you’ve spent a lot of time there.
M: I wouldn’t say it was a total studio thing. I think the idea of using the recording process as part of the songwriting process is completely natural for us now. The guitar-and-synth-and-laptop guy is just as natural now as the guitar-and-harmonica guy was 40 years ago. The problem with most bands is everybody wanting to play something all the time, everytime. We’re much less like that. There doesn’t have to be lyrics, there doesn’t have to be vocals, there doesn’t have to be anything.
When did the label [Le Son De Maquis] pick up on you ? How does a boutique French label come across an Irish band with no material out?
It was a fluke really. We recorded the album over the course of a year. Every couple of months when we had the money, time and ideas we’d go in for a couple of days, and put the finished tracks online. These guys found them, and sent us message one day saying “We really like your stuff, can you send us the full album maybe?” We said “Eh, thanks very much, but we don’t actually have an album.” We like the stuff they put out, it’s quite diverse- Afrobeat, electronic, spoken word stuff, psych comps… So we kept in touch, and when the album was finished they said the wanted to put it out.
Any chance of getting a free trip to Paris out of it?
Heh heh, actually yeah, the album’s already out there so we’re going over in a couple of months.
It was a bit strange that Tony Fenton played one of your songs, of all people.
M: Hahaha, that was strange, but I can kind of see where it came from. There are definitely pop songs on there, but there’s also stuff I don’t think Tony Fenton would go near with a bargepole. We’re delighted that anybody likes it at all. The main goal for us is to make music we’d listen to if we weren’t the 202s.
What kind of stuff is it you do listen to then?
M: At the moment a lot of Robert Wyatt. All the albums were reissued recently so I’m working my way through the back catalogue bit by bit. It might sound like a really obvious thing to say, but the main aim of the band is to make music. You would think that’s obvious, and people who’ve been in bands will tell you that. A million and one things get in the way of that. That’s why someone like Robert Wyatt is so great. He’s 70-something and still doing his own thing, in his own bubble. If he wants to do jazz, if he wants to electronica, he’ll do it. And that’s what we want to be like, off in our own universe and not let anything fuck that up.
Is there a certain kind of affect you want the music to have on a listener?
M: I suppose the point is for it to have an effect, whatever the effect is. If it makes a person feel any emotion it’s a success, in my eyes. It’s not music to contemplate to, or to dance to, or anything specific like that.
Steve: [sarcastically] It’s music to hang picture frames to.
M&S: Hahaha.
S: Don’t quote that, it might be the only part somebody reads.
Whoops.
