London four piece Sisteray kicked off their ‘Sisteray Said’ EP release tour on the south coast, Brighton to be exact. Lead guitarist Dan Connolly and Bassist Mick Hanrahan were kind enough to sit down with me and have a chat about their significant popularity in the music scene after their show at The Hope and Ruin. We headed to the Green Room to chat and throughout the interview the other band members joined. Top lads, humble and a great laugh.
G&G: Always start with a quick introduction to the band please boys.
M: I’m Mick. (Bass)
D: I’m Dan. (Lead Guitar/Vocals)
D: We used to work together.
M: Long time ago, we worked at a college and we used to sneak out every 5 minutes for cigarettes. Dan would constantly say I’m going to start a band, one day. I was like ‘yeah, OK then mate!’ and then one day he called me and said ‘I’ve started that band, do you wanna play bass?’ and I was like ‘alright then’.
D: He’d barely played the guitar before, so he practiced the bass lines on a guitar an electric guitar and the first time he hit a bass was our first ever show.
G&G: Where was that?
D: Camden Rock, which isn’t around anymore.
M: Gone, doesn’t exist anymore.
G&G How do you know the other two boys?
D: Niall and I met at a Fresh Metal gig in Denmark Street at the Twelve bar club which isn’t there anymore and Calum joined about a year ago.
M: Calum used to play for a band, we met him outside a Last Shadow Puppets gig and just got chatting to him. He gave us a CD of his band and we put his band on at one of our nights. We saw him play and just thought this guy is ridiculous so we asked him to play with us and he’s been with us for the last year.
G&G: What would you say your influences are as a collective?
D: It’s hard, it’s really weird like me I get deep into things and obsessed. I ‘m reading Non Chomsky’s book about anarchism and I’ll get really obsessed with that and then it’ll come out in the song writing and a lot of the stuff is like we read and we see comes out in the songwriting. As for musical influences like me personally it would be Pixies, Nirvana, Sonic Youth and then Niall might be listening to…
[CALUM ENTERS]
C: Oh are we recording, sorry!
G&G: No come in, come one come all.
D: So Calum might be listening to The Grease soundtrack.
C: Most of the Grease soundtrack mixed with West Coast Hip-Hop.
D: Which might sound like we’re lying because he’s just burst in the room but its true.
C: 100% true. I fucking love The Bee Gees.
G&G: Is there one track that stands out for you Calum?
C: Hopelessly Devoted To You.
D: It’s weird ’cause we get thrown into this genre of punk band and we don’t just listen to the Sex Pistols you know.
C: OK but if we had to pick one album what would it be?
M: Well that’s not going to work as we’re all going to pick separately.
C: I disagree with whatever he says.
D: ‘Sonic Youths – Dirty’ album.
M: If we’re talking about a general album, we all listen to different shit but as a band the closest thing we are to is…
C: ‘Beatles – Revolver’.
M: No it’s got to be The Clash.
D: That’s so generic though.
M: Well we are.
D: Well we never sit there listening to Clash.
C: Anyway this is how music conversations go in our band.
D: I mean I have a Clash tattoo for fuck sake.
C: How about ‘The Jam – Sound Affects’?
D: I would say we’re more of a modern day Clash than The Jam. I see enough bands imitate The Jam so much that they near enough sound the same but we’re more of a modern day version.
C: If The Clash had played The Jam songs I think that’s what Sisteray sound like.
D: We’re trying to be more 21st century but the lyrics are very much influenced like The Jam’s were because of the times. Margaret Thatcher and all that.
M: So if there was one band that influenced us it would be Sisteray.
G&G: First album you bought?
D: Mine got bought for me and it was ‘Stanley Road by Paul Weller’ in ’95 but I wasn’t into Weller at the time so I rediscovered it later on. Do you know what I was really into as a kid? Hear’Say. I loved Hear’Say. Do you remember them? Embarrassing isn’t it.
M: Ever bought for me was ‘Kaiser Chiefs – Employment’.
C: Wow, that was late!
M: First album I ever bought myself was Nizlopi.
G&G: JCB Song!
C: Fuck me. First album bought for me was either ‘Snoop Dogg – Rhythm and Gangster’ or ‘Justin Timberlake – Justified’. First album I remember going into the shop and buying was ‘Guns ‘n’ Roses – Chinese Democracy’ it was fucking awful. It’s a good mix but Justified sticks out for me, fuck me there’s some tracks on there.
[NIALL ENTERS]
C: Niall, what was the first album you ever bought?
NL: Erm it was actually ‘Be Here Now’ by Oasis.
C: Fucking stereotypes.com. This is the funniest interview ever, we’ve all come in at different times.
G&G: Mine? ‘Stereophonics – Performance and Cocktails’.
G&G: One by one can you tell us what you’re wearing?
C: Right my ones been planned since Dan told me you were coming. I’m wearing a Pickle Rick, Rick & Morty t-shirt which was bought for my birthday last year before the pickle Rick episode came out and it was off the back of the season 3 teaser that’s how ahead of the game we are. I’m rocking some River Island jeans that my Mum bought me this morning because I ripped all my jeans last week, I’ve gone down a waist size which everyone’s very happy about. Some Vans too which were gifted to me at House Of Vans actually last time I was there, big up Tony and them for treating me so well.
NL: I’ve gone for an Andy Warhol tomato soup t-shirt that’s a nod to our last EP ’15 Minutes’, just an old leather jacket from UNIQLO I think and some Cheap Monday jeans. Some Vans gifted by Tony too.
C: Tony also works for Cheap Monday, let’s represent
M: I’m wearing GAP jeans, charity shop shirt and a pair of Converse kindly gifted to us by the kind people of Converse.
D: So these gifted vegan Doc Martens were gifted to us by Dr Martens when we played a gig at their store in Camden. We’ve all been gifted. White rip jeans from somewhere and shirt from Topman, jacket I got off of Depop and it was like thirty quid. Ironed on this patch myself too, got it from Brick Lane but it always comes off.
C: What about the Marlboro one that promotes smoking!?
G&G: What’s the next release for you? Obviously we know you’ve just released the EP.
C: Yeah released the EP a month ago, to be honest we’ve not looked past this tour and the end of October. We’re always writing anyway.
M: You’re missing one big thing, we’ve got one more single release from this EP.
C: Sometimes in rehearsal if we’re a bit sick of playing the same songs over and over we’ll always be writing whether there’s a project or not what that all goes towards we don’t know yet but eventually there will be some sort of plan in place.
D: The new songs are really exciting because I remember when we wrote ‘Rumour Mill’ thinking this is great and we still think it’s amazing but the new stuff we’re writing even knocks fucking that out of the park.
C: We don’t pay any attention to anything we don’t think isn’t a step up to what we’re already doing. So there’s lots of shit we play in rehearsal and we love but we’ll leave it for months and if doesn’t get our attention the next weeks rehearsal that says something to us going forward. If we go back to it that really says something to us and we know that’s going forward not necessarily sure what it is yet but it’ll play a part.
NL: There’s a clue on the vinyl.
C: On every vinyl there’s a clue about the next single.
NL: First person to put a picture up on Facebook wins tickets to the 100 Club show and the next release for free.
M: Well half price.
G&G: Lastly any band recommendations?
D: Calva Louise.
C: Fine Creatures who supported us tonight, check out The Cyrkle from the sixties. The American version of The Beatles if you will. The Lemon Twigs.
G&G: One fact about the band that you’re fans wouldn’t know?
D: I’ve got this weird scar on my belly.
NL: That’s not about the band mate.
C: Whats that scar from?
D: I had an overgrown muscle there.
GARMS&GiGS. 