Therapy? Returns to America

by Daniel Durchholz for Wall Of Sound (April 25th, 2000)

Andy Cairnes of Therapy? has two major tasks on his plate these days: reconquering the United States and learning how to be a cool rockin’ daddy, in the literal sense.

More on the former matter in a moment. As for the latter, Cairnes explains, much of his time these days is spent doting on his 6-month-old son. “That’s what I was doing all day today,” he says with a laugh from his home in London, where he lives with his wife. “I was out buying some new toys. He’s already bored with the ones he has.”

“It’s fine,” Cairnes says, regarding the adjustments he’s had to make in his rock and roll lifestyle to accommodate his family. “I never thought I would say this, but I actually go on tour to get some sleep these days. I miss him when I’m away, but it’s bizarre—I actually find that my energy is completely concentrated on the show, the playing, the writing. All the sort of extracurricular activities have been curbed. It’s really good fun, though. It’s good to have someone to come home to.”

When we delivered this over-embellished, cello-driven, gothic-poetic kind of thing and then sat there in a meeting with them with fake moustaches and sunglasses on, they thought, ‘What the hell is this?’

At the same time, Cairnes and bandmates Michael McKeegan, Graham Hopkins, and Martin McCarrick have more reason than ever to leave home, specifically to come to the United States. Their latest album, Suicide Pact—You First is their first release to be distributed in the States in four years.

“The last one that was officially released there was Infernal Love,” Cairnes says. “Troublegum [the band’s 1994 breakthrough] was a pop-punk kind of thing, and the people at A&M were expecting to cash in on the Green Day-Offspring thing with the next one. When we delivered this over-embellished, cello-driven, gothic-poetic kind of thing and then sat there in a meeting with them with fake moustaches and sunglasses on, they thought, ‘What the hell is this?’ Shortly after that, we parted company with them in the States.”

For Suicide Pact—You First, the group signed to the ARK 21 label and turned in an album that is raw and unadulterated rock. “We kind of decided that, when we started, we were pretty much a hardcore rock and roll band,” Cairnes says. “Very much American-influenced, very garage-influenced. After Troublegum, we drifted into that trap called ‘alternative rock.’ We decided [that] with a new deal and change of approach, we wanted to go back to what we do best, which is high-energy punk rock and roll.”

I don’t want to be one of those dads that have to lie all the time—‘My friend in school said that daddy once took his clothes off and went into the woods and that daddy was a drug addict and worshipped Satan.’

Suicide Pact—You First (the title comes from a T-shirt worn by a character in Rupert Thompson’s novel The Five Gates of Hell) was recorded in just two weeks and accomplished with the sort of high jinks you’d expect from a band like Therapy? For the song God Kicks, the band drew inspiration from The Blair Witch Project, set up microphones in the woods, and recorded the song in one take. For Hate Kill Destroy, the group tried to break the tension of the moment by stripping naked and finishing the song in the buff.

“If things really get on our nerves, we’ll do something about it,” Cairnes says. “We find that, as a band, if things aren’t working out, if you change the environment, that can help. If you’re in the studio 24 hours a day and you’re locked in the same place with each other for two weeks, cabin fever can set in. And that’s when going to the woods and stripping naked tend to take place.”

Even if you’re suddenly somebody’s dad?

“I’ve got to watch that,” Cairnes allows. “I don’t want to be one of those dads that have to lie all the time—‘My friend in school said that daddy once took his clothes off and went into the woods and that daddy was a drug addict and worshipped Satan.’”

Related Interviews

Reviews of ‘Suicide Pact—You First’