INTERVIEW Fight Like Apes

Punching like primates


Ciara Moynihan

The new album from electro-punksters Fight Like Apes – ‘The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner’ – is out this Friday, August 27. The much-anticipated follow up to the band’s ‘Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion’ (2008) is already causing a stir among their fans.
Last Wednesday, ahead of the album release and an upcoming Galway gig, I caught up with front woman Mary Kate ‘MayKay’ Geraghty and keyboard player Jamie Fox.
When asked about the genesis of the album, Jamie admitted that the writing process did not run as smoothly as they had hoped. A few weeks in a farmhouse in Offaly did not get the creative juices flowing in the manner expected it seems – good times got in the way of work and productivity:
“We tried that and it didn’t work … We did get a few songs out of it, but then we went back to having two or three months of doing absolutely nothing with our lives, just sitting around at home and getting bored of being bored … We find you only get creative when you’re so bored with real life you have to create something else.”
Once they finally did get the 12 new songs written, they headed to London to record the album with respected producer Andy Gill, guitarist with post-punk band Gang of Four. So what was it like working with Gill?
“He just kind of let us off to do our own thing, which was great,” said Jamie. “He gave us some guidance along the way.” “He was fantastic,” MayKay chimed in. “He let it be ours and let it sound like us. He encouraged us to sound like ourselves and not compromise on anything.”
So, is the album a departure from ‘Golden Medallion’ or is it in the same vein? “Anyone who’s heard it has called it a departure,” says MayKay. “We’re definitely bridging the gap. There are songs on there that people will recognise as the same kind of thing we’ve been doing for the past couple of years, but yeah, I think there’s something in it that’s definitely quite new … I’m not quite sure what it is …
“I think it’s just back to basics with us. It sounds a lot more like what we were recording on our first two EPs [recorded in 2007] than our first album [Gold Medallion] … actually yeah, we’re regressing! – That was not the plan!”
The first single from the album will be the incredibly catchy ‘Hoo Ha Henry’, a song in which MayKay rants at a soon-to-be-ex lover about how she’d rather be with any one but him – “Anyone with heart disease, anyone with short sleeves … Anyone who wants me a little less than you do.”
Famed for their quirky videos, I asked whether they’d shot ‘Hoo Ha Henry’ yet. “Actually, we shot it yesterday!” said Jamie. I asked if they could describe the video, but they were very cagey, preferring to keep their cards close to their chest. MayKay did divulge that ‘Jamie’s wearing a suit’. A suit hey? But then Jamie jumped in – “We can’t give anything else away.” Having seen several of their earlier vids – the hilarious ‘Jake Summers’, the visually accomplished ‘Tie Me Up With Jackets’ and the realistically vicious ‘Do You Karate’, I was intrigued, but I could see I wasn’t going to get anywhere.
Moving back to safer ground, I asked how the band’s new drummer, Lee Boylan, is fitting in. (The band has a reputation for being feisty and causing mayhem; on-stage wrestling – with each other and with fans – features at many of their gigs.) Did he struggle to adapt to the FLApes culture, or did he come in throwing punches from the start?
“Luckily for all of us, Lee’s been very much a part of our strange lives for a long time,” MayKay explained. “He has his own studio, and he recorded our first two EPs … so we’ve known him for a long time and he’s very wise to our ways. He’s more than able for our on-stage antics. In fact he’s quite dangerous.” Would she trust him with the pots and pans they sometimes use on stage for percussion then? “No, not at all,” she said firmly. “I don’t trust him at all.”  
There’s been one more change in the band’s line-up, The Mayo News can exclusively reveal. Liz, a skinny blonde often seen cavorting on the stage with MayKay, has retired from the music business. A mannequin’s head with a crutch for a body, she was a big part of FLApes for a long time. “We got scarily attached to Liz,” MayKay admits. But not to the point of care, it seems:
“There was one gig we played a few years ago, I think it was the [Hydro] Connect Festival, we threw Liz out to the crowd … and then we all got really panicked about her afterwards … I went to the security guards and was like ‘pleeeease, you have to find Liz, you have to get her back!'”
And did they get her back? “Yeah, but then we lost her again,” said James. “I’ve no idea where she is,” said MayKay, kind of wistfully. “I think she went back to her parents in Leeds,” said James. A quieter life undoubtedly.

Fight Like Apes are playing in the Róisín Dubh, Galway, on Saturday, August 28, at 8pm. Their new album, ‘The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner’ will be released this Friday, August 27.

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