NOISE: Simon Cowell offers you a 1 album deal on his new label, but insists you have to ‘tone down your sound’ – do you take it?
TRON: Yes but only if he agrees to tone down his rigid ‘fader’ haircut and stops wearing those horrible v-neck tshirts. But once he’s up for that then I’m game. Anything he wants as long as he keeps the money hose turned on. Although maybe you could play hard-ball. Kick in his office door and knock over a potted-plant, shouting “THREE albums Cowell, you ASS HEAD”. Then when he agrees to that, change it to 6.
BOY: No way, I ain’t changing our music to please that high-jeans wearing music slag. We would sound shit, get rich, then get dropped and become hopeless sickos playing on a cruise ferry like all the other poor unfortunate xfactor humans.
NOISE: Why don’t IEYF want to be lumped in with the metal scene?
BOY: Because far more people than the metal crowd dig us. Best gig I ever played with was supporting DJ scotch Egg to a load of sweet party people and we went down unreal, plus I wanna play all types of gigs, getting to play with Dj’s and other types of bands is sweet out. Keeps it interesting.
TRON: It’s nothing really against the metal scene or metallers at all, it’s just we really aren’t a metal band. If you play metal gigs all the time you restrict yourself to certain venues, the crowds are way smaller and women don’t really show up. I guess calling the band “I’ll Eat Your Face” was a bit stupid as it sounds pretty metally. Maybe something the hipsters would like. Something about “8-bit” or Primavera festival, possibly.
NOISE: Describe the new album in your own words.
BOY: A hot sick adventure that explains how sick and bogus my last year of living has been. I made some hot mistakes, its depicted in the equally as stupid riffs.
TRON: The new album is called HOT BRAINS TERROR and is a conceptual piece loosly based around a super MILK SWAMP and the Wolf Priest (and his POWER BRAINS that he controls) which live within. Basically he commands these brains to do his bidding using his searing WOLF THOUGHT SOUP (which is invisible), exacting revenge on his enemies by proxy using their hemispherical brain-blasting slug ray that melts and freezes you at the same time, as well as consecutively. There are other characters in this concept that pop up in the album, such as the PRAWN MASTER or the EELS OF LOVE LAKE (which are eels that trap you with love using their amazing love enfeelment technique). There is also a song about the MAGIC BEAST POWER held within an eagle’s subconscious which enables it (in times of stress/trouble) to actually reverse itself so it’s organs are on the outside and it’s face is pointing in at itself. But backwards and upside-down. Like being inside-out but sort of in the wrong way and reversed, kind of. But the other way around and backwards.
NOISE: Are ‘genres’, as identified by the music press, a necessary thing or should people be allowed to make up their own minds…are people idiots?
TRON: I don’t think people are idiots but I can’t understand this rain-man stuff where you have to have everything in it’s box. I heard a guy calling Modern Talking “Italodance” or “Eurodance” or something recently – I mean, come on. Maybe it’s a male thing – like hoarding vinyl or collecting facts about soccer players. We have to call ourselves something so we just say “marvellous grind” or “SUPER POWER MUSIC” or something, but really whatever we come up with goes in – if it’s not typical “grind” or whatever then it doesn’t really matter. There’s a place for artistic expression – if you were a plumber it would be inappropriate to mend pipes in your own unique style using creativity and for the enjoyment of others, wasting water and breaking people’s sinks and so on. But with music it’s okay.
BOY: Genre’s are a waste of time I reckon, the other day I was sucking a mean soup and a pint of chips in the PAV and I saw a poster for a band and they were labeled as no wave. How lame does that sound, sound like they even hate there own music, thats probaly their cool edge, ha ha ha.
NOISE: Is there ever a chance IEYF will add to the line-up or are you cosy out as a twosome?
BOY: I’ve had some bad threesomes so I’ll stick to the twosomes for now
TRON: No we are happy out. And anyway, what kind of question is that. Would you ask that of Milli Vannilli? Or your parents? “Hey Dad, you and Mom seem pretty solid, but why not add another member to your lineup? Think of the possibilities”. Actually, that would be kind of good -you could always get a lift when you needed one and there’d be another income too.
NOISE: What inspires you non-musically?
TRON: I like cats and dogs with human clothes on. I like to put stuff on my cat and look at her trying to walk around. My friend had a border collie and he would dress him up in a hoodie and a pair of fawn chinos with a hole for his tail. I remember looking at his sad dog face and thinking “that’s it – I am inspired”. I think we also take a lot from cartoons – there is a riff in the last song on the album that comes direct from the nausea brought on by watching that 80s show Henry’s Cat which was drawn with Magic Markers and made you sick if you looked at the horrible vibrating colour scheme. So cool.
BOY: The total master Virologists who work in the Atlanta CDC. What a mad job, I cant think of anything better to do with your life.
NOISE: Is the Cork music scene too inward looking?
TRON: Maybe – but there is less music coming here than there would be in Dublin or UK, so you have to make do I suppose. One thing I would always say about Cork is that it is a small place and there is no music “industry” carry-on here so you get bands playing on strange bills and making for cool line-ups that maybe you wouldn’t get elsewhere so much. In a bigger place you would be pigeonholed by a “genre” and rarely come across these bands, I would think.
A version of this interview appeared in the Evening Echo, Sept 15, 2011
I’LL EAT YOUR FACE release their second album HOT BRAINS TERROR on 1st October at ill-eat-your-face.com and play the Pavilion on Oct 22nd with special guests Time is a Thief.
http://www.ill-eat-your-face.com
