Fight Like Apes - Interview

Fight Like Apes are well known for their energetic concerts, having fun, and not at all taking things too seriously. Bradley, our intrepid reporter has been a fan of theirs for some time. When a chance came up to interview them, specifically May Kay, we told him we had someone else in mind to do it (yes we can be cruel like that, but we just wanted to see his reaction), but it was obvious he was the man for the job! And despite “technical difficulties", soldiered on.

People looking at the interview may not have heard about you before, how would you describe your sound and the sort of music that you produce?

“I think the best description I’ve heard of it was fight-pop. We’re just very obnoxious…”

Your band name you got from a friend, and the Planet of the Apes movie, what other band names did you come up with before hand? Why did you choose “Fight Like Apes” in the end?

“I was so excited when the name was suggested because it was just the type of music we were looking to play and stuff. It was, it was that like, animalistic aggressive sort of music so it was perfect. It’s a great line from a really crap movie and we’re all big pop culture reference snobs so that was a bonus as well. I don’t think that there were any other names that I can remember – I think that was the first suggestion and everybody was like, yeah perfect! Our new bass player, actually, it was him that we stole the name from originally, and now he’s joined the band it’s like he was always destined to be in Fight Like Apes no matter what we did.”

You’ve discussed your influences before as B movies, computer games, kung-fu and wrestling – which computer games and B movies are your favourites?

“Wow. Erm. I’m the least computer gamey of everyone – I have no interest. I was never allowed to have game consoles when I was little – so I missed all that. B movies however, into loads of zombie movies… let me think of examples… Evil Dead 2 I’d be a big fan. So, anything with zombies or terribly bad acting or…”

So bad that it’s good?

“Yeah yeah exactly (laughing). I think it’s a really funny the world has worked that people have managed to be so bad that we start to appreciate something about them. It’s kind of a positive way to look at the world now, I suppose. We’re finding good things in the worse things.”

Can you tell me how this tour is bigger and better than other shows that you have played previously?

“This tour well, the thing is we haven’t been here in so long – for a couple of years we were over and back constantly and doing all the festivals during the summer and everything. And then we were in Ireland and we really overplayed ourselves there so, this one’s going to be amazing because we were worried that people would have kind of forgotten about us – which they haven’t, which is great. The new album’s songs seem to be going down really well. It came out here like last week and at Manchester last night there were loads of people that knew more lyrics than I know or can ever remember!”

Don’t tell them that!

“(Laughing)Yeah yeah. So, that’s amazing. It’s kind of good as well that we left, I think it’s good that we haven’t been back because in such a long time it’s good to see guys looks and people’s faces again and no “oh, we saw this last month” – you know what I mean? It’s been absolutely amazing. It really has. We’ve two new musicians with us as well who we didn’t have last time – they’re just great to play with as well, so…”

Recently confirmed for Glastonbury and the John Peel stage – congratulations, by the way!

“Wow!”

Is it just “another gig” to play, or does Glastonbury have a bit of special significance for you?

“Well, it’s the kind of thing like if I said to my dad; “I’m playing T in the Park” he’d go, “what?” or if I’m playing Lattitude festival – but Glastonbury, for everyone, kind of all generations and, you know, every age or wherever you’re from, everyone knows Glastonbury, you know? And to get the John Peel stage is just amazing. We’ve done a couple of… we’ve played twice before, but we were on the kind of rookie stages, you know? So, to get this stage that we got is just as important as actually playing the festivals because you’re… you know, it’s a bit of a cool thing to be moved up to a better stage and, yeah…

I love Glastonbury; the lads don’t like it as much, because it’s so big. We’re like, we’re like used to our comforts like you just sitting in one place and you can see everything; there’s a drink here and there’s a box of smokes here and everyone you want is just there. So, they’re not big fans the size of the festival. I bet we’ll have a ball; it’s going to be great.”

How would you say the reception in England is different to that of Ireland? Is there an added pressure when you play in Ireland because it’s “at home”?

“Yeah… I think because they know us so well at home that they’re used to all our tricks you have to keep shaking things up and everything. And here, I feel like we’ve nothing to lose because we’re not a big band here at all, so I feel like it’s less pressure here except for, we’re just like broke so we probably should be playing really good gigs so we can come back and do bigger places!

But, yeah, I think like, we’re playing Oxygen Festival in July or whenever it is and that’s like, ten minutes my house so that’s like a hometown gig, and that you want to be good at because like, people are just… you know, you get to play for like forty minutes or something in front of three or four thousand people and there’s no excuse for not nailing it!”

You have been described previously by thepost.ie as one of Ireland's “most mesmerising front women" in recent history – how does something of that accolade make you feel?

“That’s an amazing thing to say, actually. I’ve never considered myself particularly “mesmerising” – that’s a far too romantic word to be put on me!(Laughing)But, it’s cool, like, I’ve, like, a lot of, you know, my favourite bands in the world – I suppose it’s the same with most people – are down to kind of a “mesmerising” type figure, I mean it doesn’t even have to be the lead singer – it’s anyone. So, yeah, to have had that effect on anyone is a big compliment, yeah.”

Your albums have both got interesting and memorable name – can you describe your thoughts behind both of them?

“No – there weren’t any thought in them at all!(Laughing)

We… the first album [Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Gold Medallion] is from a… do you have Mr. T cartoon? And it was called “the Mystery of the Golden Medallion”, like, there was no mystery; it was one of these amazing cartoons where, like, you see the guy pick up the medallion and leg it so there was no mystery at all! We just, thought it was funny the idea of us being anyway involved in a… any type of crime solving thing like that!

The second one, Jamie from the band and his friend were talking one night and they said “the body of Christ and the legs of Tina Turner” and they said it to us and we were just rolling around and laughing for ages. Like, our record label were worried that we were going to a lot of stick, like, people saying that it was offensive and stuff. There’s nothing… it doesn’t mean to be anti-religion at all, it’s just kind of a funny image – it’s so childish, like, the idea of the body and the legs… it’s literally it. That’s how deep and meaningful that whole process was!(Laughing)”

Speaking of your albums, Andy Gill produced “The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner", how much influence did he have with you, or did he get carried along by you instead?

“Yeah, but in a really good way, I think, in various… intentionally he… what we wanted was… is that?”

At this point, the recorder pack that I was using had stopped working, prior to this interview May Kay had explained to me that she and her family had had previous knowledge of all of the, and quote; “journalistic equipment”.

It’s fine, it’s fine. I thought that it had stopped a minute ago!

“Oh no! The first half [of the interview] is all screeching and the second half just doesn’t exsist! That would be like a really standard first interview story to tell!”

So, you know – I’ll make it up

“Yeah (Laughing)! We got along great though – totally fine! Andy was exactly the right person for this job he, John Goodmanson who produced our first album, he’s an amazing guy and actually, an incredible producer and we were very much in our nappies, you know in that, like, we didn’t know what we were doing – we didn’t really go in to record the first album know what we wanted to sound like, we just knew we wanted to record an album. With this one, we really wanted it to sound as, kind of, good as… as close as we would sound live, that’s a path, that’s the whole charm I think. Plus, people will be wanting their tickets back if they hear really polished album and see us live and we’re like BLEUGH! So Andy was like, perfect; he really just let us do what we wanted to do, he would tell us if he disagreed with anything and we said “no we wanted”… there’d be no arguments. He was like, great. He just nurtured us, like you know. He didn’t try to steer us to sound like himself – so many producers, they just want their stamp and people will recognise it as theirs – he didn’t at all.”

You’ve supported numerous artists throughout your career – can you describe how you feel when you’re told that they want you to be involved in their shows?

“The best thing that ever happened was we were at the ferry port going over to maybe one of our London shows, I can’t remember, and our manager rang and said “oh, like, Liam Howlett called” and where like, like, “The Prodigy, Liam Howlett?” and he said “oh yeah, he wants you to do the tour” and that like, so often, it’s like booking agents picking what band would suit, but to have had him, personally ask for… that’s amazing; that’s really amazing!

I first time I ever played here, I think it was the first time I ever played here, was with the Von Bondies, they’d ask us to come on tour with us as well – it’s really really cool. Especially for people like that, you know, who I’d never have thought of Von Bondies or The Prodigy listening to us at all – so yeah, it’s great.”

I saw you when you supported The Ting Tings.

“Oh yeah! They were incredible. Whenever we see them at festivals they’re like ‘how are you guys getting along?? If you want any help with anything or you need us to do whatever” – they’ve just been so supportive!”

If you could support anybody – past or present – who would you want it to be? And why?

“It’s kind of funny; you and me sat in a toilet whilst the microphone squeals at us(Laughing).

I guess, it would be cool to do a support for like, Pavement or someone like that. They’re Jamie – Pockets’ – favourite band, and he’s a man so I’d quite like to see him turn into a tiny little… squeak! That would be the main reason! And I think because he’s such a huge influence on him, if you know the band, you can see in his writing and stuff and I think that it would be really interesting… we sound completely different, but I think it would be interesting to see how we’d go down with the Pavement fans – that would be kind of cool if they enjoyed it.”

Recently Poly Styrene passed away, do you think modern music is lacking those same inspirational pioneers and is instead, opting for “safe” X Factor commercial money grabbers?

“Yeah… I think I was quite happy how many people knew of her though, you know? I really didn’t think that she was, that people were that aware as they are. As horrible as it is that she has died – it’s nice to see that people did notice.

Yeah, I think people are definitely going for a good looking, safe bets these days, you know? But, I suppose, it’s up to us as much as the lads buying the CDs, you know? They were probably having the same conversation twenty years ago when all the riot stuff was happening, it’s up to everybody – I’m certainly not going to be whinging about X Factor and stuff or I’ll end up kicking a wall! (Laughing) No…”

So, you won’t be watching the new American one then?

“Oh! I will! (Laughing)- I don’t hate it that much. I find, actually, I have to admit, I’m, surprisingly… I’m a total junkie for silly reality TV shows. We were watching old X Factor auditions, the only just did it in the room, they’ve really lost the magic of that. Like, there was so many ridiculous people on that. So that would be cool. It’s all gotten a bit sugary as well with Cheryl Cole and all these people and all this, “he’s really stupid and he’s really bad" – but I’m not laughing, he’s on stage in front of a massive crowd! It’s just embarrassing!(Laughing)”

You can visit Fight Like Apes website here: http://www.fightlikeapesmusic.com/