Tallaght three-piece Bipolar Empire have emerged as a serious band to watch over the last year. In the two years since forming, Shane (vocals/guitar), Joe (bass/backing vocals) and Callum (drums) have clocked up a few hundred gigs, including slots supporting The Blizzards andThe Dykeenies.
They’ve ended up in London via Los Angeles where they recorded with legendary producer Pat McCarthy (REM, Madonna), so we’ve got frontman Shane to write a weekly letter home to keep us up to date with what they’re up to as they aim to get signed and make their musical presence known to the world at large.
This week has had its fair share of ups and downs, probably not worth mentioning the downs though. We played the Boogaloo for the second time. I’m stil waiting for Shane MacGowan to get up on stage with us and sing a tune. Well we’re there for two more months on the last Tuesday of every month, so you never know. We do a fair version of Dirty Old Town.
This gig was definitely better than the last one. You can’t beat a crowd. A responsive crowd at that. We played a few numbers at about 10.30pm for about 40 minutes. A solo artist and slightly psychedelic band played before us. I remember one of the lines being, ‘Take me to the moon’. It was definitely inspiring.
What’s good about this place is they’ve got an old school mixing desk so we got to DJ ourselves for the first time ever. Can’t go wrong with Led Zeppelin and Van Morrison.
Well I may as well talk about the downs, so. London is proving to be a hard place to live. The music, how to find the time to play? Is it worth our while being here? A part of me thinks ‘stick it out, stay’ and the other wants to go back and rehearse for two months. What to do? It’s all up in the air. Being over here makes you question what you want from music and what you’re doing it for. Are you doing it for the sex, drugs and rock n roll? To make money? To get signed? Or because you’re trying to deliver some kind of message or opinion? And for me it’s the last one. Well maybe a bit of the first one??
The days we’re now living in are different from the days of old, apparently. And it’s not a matter of just being heard and the magic wand being waved, and all of a sudden you’ve a number one selling album. They’re trying to tell us the romantic days are over. What we all need is a good message, though, isn’t it? Something with a bit of honesty, a bit of passion. Turn of the century, they say there might be a revolution on the way. One things for sure there’s room for change. Is Rock n Roll dead? Was it ever alive?
We’re in this download age – does that mean the end of the album in a way? Then again an album was just an idea, and maybe it’s an old idea if it’s not working anymore. That’s probably a ridiculous comment but it’s something I think when I think of music downloads and the fact that we’re going to have to accept them as the new technology. In many ways it’s great you can never scratch a downloaded song.
So how are we going to fit in with this new world of music technology? We are definitely still thinking in terms of the 60s and albums and are in a way obsessed with the idea of recording an album. Maybe it’s going to be better that you don’t have to tour for two years playing the same 12 songs. Maybe bands are going to have to produce more work to keep going. Release 25 songs a year like they use to. People haven’t been releasing enough music like the way they use to. That’s a big part of the reason why bands aren’t as good musicians as they were 30 and 40 years ago. It seems for the last 20 years that they haven’t needed to be. Haven’t been pushed as much. Jack White’s probably the only modern artsist I know that releases as much as The Beatles or Led Zeppelin would have. And his music seems to be getting better with every album.
I’m not saying I have a clue about how things are going but all we’re going to do is go back to basics and start writing all the time. The equivelant of three albums by the end of the year. All I know is I want this music thing to move forward. To do it I think it’s going to have to take all the hard work of years ago and apply it to these days. We’ll see if we’re still here next week… Take care if not.
Shane O Reilly
