Interviews

Ikara Colt

Alex Worsnip 07/07/2004

Ikara Colt need no introduction, being the fiery young upstarts they are, and they return soon with their second album. We caught up with manic drummer Dominic Young to see how everything's going...

GodIsInTheTV: Being such a fiery, loud band, do you feel out of place in the UK indie scene? What do you think the state of it is at the moment?
Dom: "There are some bands at the moment I relate to but I can`t remember their names...Blood Valley and Help They Can`t Swim spring to mind...but if the music's good I don`t care about their name; it cuts it in the the genre it inhabits or it doesn't, simple as that. today's indie scene is a bit lightweight for me: not enough obsessive compulsive disorders running through its veins. I listen to the past more than the present: less polluted by MTV and the industry as a whole. It's all about hype and big companies' money now, force-feding the youth with sanitized rock 'n' roll: it's a farce if truth be told, but I have faith that some new bands will react to this and act accordingly".

GodIsInTheTV: This in mind, do you still feel your style is very much English, and London-based?
Dom: "It's ok if you lose your way a little but we're still on the M6 rather than route 66: The Beatings singing about a jailbreak made me laugh, I was under the impression that it was called a prison in this country".
GodIsInTheTV: Do you feel that the US scene is more in tune with you? Do you buy the NME's 'new rock revolution' or not?
Dom: "I listen to Lightning Bolt, Washdowns, The Rapture, The Locust, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes. Its just the usual contemporary suspects like The Datsuns, Jet and Kings of Leon that with respect are bollocks. Americans are always kicking musically: Queens of the Stone Age flew the flag. We shouldn't try and compete, just do our thing, we've been good at that in the past, but even that has gone sour. British indie to me was The Smiths, New Order, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, My Bloody Valentine, Blur, Elastica, Silverfish, Faithhealers, Minxus, PJ Harvey, Gallon Drunk, World of Twist, Pulp...stuff like that all had personality regardless if you liked them or not, but now we have bloody soap operas created by the media to sell a couple of good tunes a band once had and seem to have nothing to say. The media and the kids must be desperate".

GodIsInTheTV: There's been hints of politicism in your lyrics before. How do you feel about world events today?
Dom: "They're Paul's lyrics, so no comment. Personally I feel that countries will always argue, fight and kill over the technicalities of religion, race and politics; they just love to and will always love to; it makes their leaders feel like leaders; only sheep follow leaders".
GodIsInTheTV: What direction have you taken for the new album? Do you think the two singles represent its style well? How has the sound evolved from the first album?
Dom: "To a point in relation to singles question. We recorded 24 songs and chose 12, so its a matter of taste whether we chose the right twelve. The new album has more diversity than the first and is more mature and sophisticated for better or worse. It's in dialogue with the first but differs in that the first was unpolluted youth spitting spite in all its glory: it would be pointless to even try and recreate that passion and conviction; I will leave that to a kick-arse new band who means it. The band is older but not necessarily wiser; the album is more reflective and inward-looking in nature and reflects the band at the time of writing and recording".

GodIsInTheTV: What made you choose Alex Newport (At The Drive-In, Icarus Line) as your producer? Are you fans of those bands?
Dom: "His track record suggested that he could do a good job. I like At The
Drive-In".

GodIsInTheTV: You've got some European festival dates lined up. How about UK festivals?
Dom: "We're playing Download: hardly the place for arty types but it's going to be a real pleasure and we'll be kicking. No news on British festivals yet, ask our booking agent, haha..."


GodIsInTheTV: Has your new bassist changed the dynamic of how the band works?
Dom: "It's more more mature and sophisticated and Tracy's fitted in well to her credit but John contributed so much to Modern Apprentice as the the credits testify that that it makes me sad how things worked out".

GodIsInTheTV: Many are amazed that you haven't imploded from your sheer energy yet. Are you?
Dom: "We nearly did".

Thanks to Dom for this interview. Modern Apprentice is out on June 7th, preceded by new single Wake In The City which comes out this Monday (31st).