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Interview: Mike Got Spiked
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The Mic: What got this band together and started in this business?
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Conall: We've all been good friends for many years, due in part to our
shared passion for music. We had played together in many different line-ups but
in 2002 we decided to combine forces and start "mike got spiked". It began as
something to do for fun and to blow off steam after work, We'd rehearse a couple
of times a week and play a show every couple of weeks but after a while we
realized that we were beginning to get quite a following in our home-town of
Dublin so we started to take it all a little more seriously. We started touring
the country and in 2004 released our debut single. Thanks to our relentless
touring we got it into the top 30 so we decided to follow it up with a
full-length album in 2005. The album was pretty successful for us on an
underground level but unfortunately Ireland does not really have many
resources for hard rock artists. The fans really loved what we were doing but
the "Brit-pop"-obsessed music press just flat-out ignored us. It was then
that we hatched a plan to quit our day-jobs and set our sights on relocating
to America. And the rest - as they say - is history!
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The Mic: Who writes and produces all the material for the band?
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Conall: Every member of the band has a hand in the writing and
production of our music. We're all multi-instrumentalists with at least a
rudimentary understanding of how to play each other's instruments so any
member of the band could write and arrange a full song. However, we tend to
work on the system where one member will come into the jam-room with a riff or
an idea and we'll bash it out until we have something that reflects the
personalities of all four members. Quite often the finished result is a
million miles from the original idea! This can be a very time-consuming way to
write material and many's a blow-up or screaming match may occur during the
writing process but at the end of the day the finished song is something we're
all proud of and much better than any one of us could have written as an
individual. As for song lyrics, when we have a piece of music roughly arranged
we usually let one member take it away and write lyrics but then we all go over
it afterwards and fine-tune the words, melodies and backing vocal harmonies.
Every song is a collaboration with us.
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The Mic: The band played in front of or with any acts our readers would
know from the mainstream?
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Conall: Our first support slots with bigger, signed acts were back in
Dublin when we played with "Kerbdog" (Ireland) and "Biffy Clyro"
(Scotland)... they're not exactly super-famous acts over here but extremely
well respected on the Irish underground scene. Bigger bands we have played
with include, "Anthrax", "Head Automatica", and our stint on the Vans Warped
Tour where we played alongside acts like "The Dillinger Escape Plan",
"Thrice", "The Offspring" and a host of other great and influential acts.
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The Mic: Any embarrassing moments on stage?
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Conall: We're not easily embarrassed. In fact, one might think that
we deliberately seek out embarrassing situations for the sheer comedic value
of it, I'm reminded of a show in Eugene, OR where we played our set while
surrounded on stage by large girls in very small outfits shaking their jelly
rolls around while our drummer, Dave played wearing nothing but a Speedo....
Or an impromptu Paddy's Day gig in Kearney, NE when our bassist, Jonathan,
was so drunk he kept falling off the stage - He still managed to play
reasonably well though! I did something similar myself back in Strabane, Co
Tyrone in Ireland... I was rocking out like crazy and next thing I know the
room started to spin and somersault around me... Next thing I know I'm lying
on my back on the floor, feet in the air looking up at the stage. I didn't
stop playing though... the show must go on no matter what! I once broke a
tooth on stage back in Dublin trying to do a Jimi Hendix on it... I was
playing away with my teeth when I stumbled and bashed my mouth off the
fretboard. Next thing I know I'm spitting blood and lumps of tooth out while
trying to look like nothing happened.. still, nothing says 'Punk Rock' like a
bloody mouth! Of course Gavin had to go one better at a show in Elyria, OH
and actually break his leg on stage. He jumped off the drum-riser and landed
awkwardly bashing his knee off his monitor... We were a little confused at
first as to why our lead singer was unconscious on the stage instead of
singing the song but, yet again, kept playing until he came round, dragged
himself up onto the drum riser and screamed his way through the rest of the
set... it was a very emotional and pain-filled performance... very striking!
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The Mic: Any good stories you want to tell us?
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Conall: So many crazy things have happened us on the road here in
America, it's hard to pick just one story to tell. One particularly interesting
experience though was our encounter with the Woodland Police Dept on Northern
California last year. We were driving back to Sacramento after a show in an
unregistered van, towing a trailer with a busted tail-light so we were kinda
expecting some trouble but were confident that with a little Irish charm we'd
be able to talk our way out of it. We were about eight miles from our
destination when we finally saw the flashing lights in our rear-view mirror...
"Oh well, here we go!" I reached for the glove-box to get licence and
insurance et cetera, only to be greeted by a blast from the loud-speakers;
"Put your hands up! Keep 'em where I can see 'em!" Then I noticed a whole
bunch of cop cars screaming to a halt around us, they stopped traffic in both
directions on the highway and took defensive positions around us. "What the
hell?" The loudspeaker barked into life once more; "Driver! with your left
hand remove the keys and place them on the roof!" - Not the procedure we were
expecting. Then, one by one we were ordered to get out of the van and march
backwards toward the police with our hands in the air, were pushed to the
ground, hand-cuffed and frisked quite vigorously. As I was manhandled back to
my feet and turned around I almost shit my pants at the sight of no less than
sixteen guns pointed at my head. "Wow!" I thought, "These guys don't mess
around!" We were pushed into the back of the cop cars where we sat, in
extreme discomfort, trying to work out what the hell was happening as the
cops once more got on the loudspeaker; "You in the van! come out with your
hands up or we will open fire!" - "Oh crap!... there's nobody else in there!"
I sat in horror, waiting for them to riddle our van with bullets... all over
a busted tail-light?
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Eventually we were told what was going on. Apparently someone had robbed a
local store at gunpoint and made his escape in a black van. I decided that it
wouldn't be a good idea to point out the impracticality of stopping to pick up
a trailer during a getaway. Thankfully the store owner in question was brought
down to the scene where he confirmed that we weren't the guys they were looking
for.
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After that the whole attitude of the cops changed dramatically - "Thanks for
your cooperation!" eh... no problem officer!
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Then it was all smiles and jokes, "Oh, you guys are from Ireland? I love
Ireland!... You in a band?" We laughed along, mostly in a surreal sense of
mixed terror and extreme relief. We posed for photos in our hand-cuffs, even
sold a couple of CDs! Afterwards as the cops were retreating we got back in
our van only to discover that it wouldn't start... "Eh.. Excuse me
officer... any chance of a jump-start?".
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The funny thing was that in all this madness the subject of our lack of
registration and our busted tail-light was never raised even once!
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