Introducing

It’s Saturday afternoon and I am in a grimy warehouse. It’s the place to be of a weekend. Other people might prefer to spend their Saturday afternoons doing a spot of light shopping or watching the football results churn away. But not me. Oh no.

The attraction of the warehouse lies in the fact that I am about to witness the creation of something rather special: Irritant’s second video. To contrast with the blistering white light of their first video for “Old Bones”, the video to “The Voice of the Siren”, a song from their “Good Evening from the Machine”, will be a dirtier, grubbier and messier affair: hence the warehouse.

The Industrial Age

Old oil and even older dust mingle freely with the new arrivals of wires, cameras and audio equipment. It’s cold, a stale smell of rusting machinery hangs in the air, but there is also an excited buzz as musicians, camera crew and promoters busy themselves lugging equipment around and setting up shots.

I get my chance to chat with the band just before they get down to filming the first take. They explain what the finished video will look like. Unlike “Old Bones” which was essentially a film of the band performing, this video will have a story to it.

Ghost Stories

“We’re going to look like ghosts who have broken into a warehouse to do the song. There’ll be people watching it on CCTV and we’ll keep disappearing. At the end a security guard will arrival and there’ll be no one there,” explains Niall, bass guitarist and lead vocalist.

The band are enthusiastic about their work. While other band members have come and gone off to university and other new pastures, the current line up has deferred a life of daytime telly and traffic cone theft in favour of a life committed to their music.

Rock and Roller Coasters

They delight in explanations of their songs. Jack, Rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist, takes pride in the fact that one of their songs took its inspiration from a ride at Alton Towers. Another song is heavily influenced by music more typically played on cathedral organs. ‘Baroque and Roll,’ says Pete, the bands drummer. Well, quite.

A few moments before the interview, Jack could be heard playing blues. It was something of a surprise coming from a member of a band more readily associated with ear splitting metallic power chords. Andy, the band’s promoter tells me that the band sometimes play blues for a sound check just to confuse the metal purists in the audience.

Concepts

The four lads explain in detail how they want to get the feeling just right for the EP they have recorded. It’s not quite a concept EP, Niall explains - that might be saved for later. But it’s not far off. ‘The songs on this CD are all about the industrial world,’ he adds.

The title track, “Good Evening from the Machine” (a possible nod and a wink in the direction of Pink Floyd in sound as well as name) reflects this, as does final track, “Dark City”.

The four track EP is certainly their best to date - which is no mean feat given the quality of “Old Bones”. Irritant have honed a style somewhere between metal and prog rock and have embraced it wholeheartedly.

The dark, gothic tinted lyrics (“The light from her eyes destroying the night sky”) mesh with the glorious guitar work to produce something majestic. This band are something special indeed.

They are more than pleased with the art work that will appear on the CD and are keen that the accompanying video is just as good. There’s something of a professional eye for detail here that other bands would be less concerned with.

Their Space

I ask them how useful they feel the internet is in helping them to promote themselves and their music.

‘It’s invaluable,’ Will, the lead guitarist says. ‘Before, you’d have to send flyers around everywhere. Now you just have to have a Myspace site and you’ve already got a good way to publicise yourself.’

He is concerned that some bands abuse such sites by trying to generate hits on their pages: ‘But when you see them perform they aren’t that great.'

By contrast, this band seem to be striking a good balance between style and substance. They know that flashy websites and a decent number of hits on Myspace will only mean anything if the music is good enough to stand on its own.

Big Name Interest

And their hard work seems to be paying off. The band have generated a great deal of producer interest. They talk of people who have previously worked with Iron Maiden and the Rolling Stones. These boys mean business.

The filming of the video is, everyone agrees, laborious, although Pete says he does find it interesting to see how it is filmed and which shots will get used. There is a lot of standing around in the cold. Hard looking guitarists begin to look a little less hard when they complain about the chilliness. It hardly does anything for their image, but they do have a point.

Switch the Sunshine Off!

Soon the band trail off and get ready for the filming of the video. There are concerns that sunlight can get through the corrugated roofing above them. Later, a burst of sunshine floods the warehouse and ruins a take. ‘Can someone switch the sunshine off?’ shouts Matt the director.

I think I’ll leave them to it.

Irritant will be launching their new EP, Welcome to the Machine at their gig at the Gloucester Guild Hall on Saturday 10 March. Visit their website for more details.

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