Belfast's Stillpoint Discuss How To Put On A DIY Tour Of The UK & Upcoming Releases (Interview)
Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Written by Daniel Lynch
Once upon a time, crossing the threshold of Messers Courtney and McKendry heralded the starting point of a raucous night of partying and music. Jack Courtney (bass) and Dave McKendry (guitar and vocals) have been a musical partnership since their mid-teens in bands such as Custom Gauge, but this latest manifestation of their combined talent is the most progressive, most exciting and most promising to date. As front man, McKendry is the leader of the discussion, taking conversation where he wants it to go in the same way he can control an audience. Conversely, bassist Courtney sits back and takes everything going on around him in, like his bass playing he’s always there, but not always in the foreground. Only when it has been carefully considered does he enter the dialogue and when he does you make damn sure you listen.
The trio, completed by drummer William Woods, have just returned from a five week Do-It-Yourself UK tour. This time, business was on the agenda as I met up with two thirds of Belfast rockers, Stillpoint, for a chat about their recent UK tour, upcoming releases and much more.
So tell me about the tour, how did it come about?
Dave McKendry: We’ve been talking about wanting to do it for ages, it sort of felt like the next thing we had to do. Finally, we got to the point where we said ‘Ok if we don’t do this now it’s never gonna happen.’ We didn’t even have a van but we started booking gigs, so we had to make it happen when we had the gigs booked.
Jack Courtney: I think that’s what it took to actually get it done- setting the dates forced us to really make it happen. I think, instead of building it up and then booking shows, just book the shows, knowing you have gigs is a bid motivator to make you get a van and the ferry booked.
Did you directly contact promoters or did you go through bands local to where you wanted to play in order to get the gigs?
D: We just contacted promoters and venues and did it all ourselves really.
J: We used the unsigned guide which is a book and an online thing. Both are really helpful and if you want to do it yourself like we did, it’s the best thing to have.
D: We got rejected from venues a few times, we got a couple of outright ‘no’s which you’re actually grateful for because most people just don’t bother to reply to you. Getting a no is almost as good as a yes, because then you know and you can move on.
Was a UK tour the next logical step for Stillpoint, or do you think a new EP or gigs in N. Ireland could have been enough?
J: For us it was a learning curve really, just to get out there and see how it all works and how you cope with it personally. Meeting new contacts and new bands is all part of the experience and it’s great to have the opportunity to do that.
D: From the point where we decided we wanted to go, we just wanted to make it happen and make it as big as we possibly could. We also know that we had to make it happen for ourselves, because what’s the point in waiting around? What is that cue you wait for, how long do you spend gigging in Northern Ireland and maybe down South for a bit? We just wanted to get stuck in and do it ourselves; we knew if we didn’t do that, it might never happen. If we didn’t do it, it wasn’t critical, the band wouldn’t have fallen apart over it.
When you start out you’re thinking ‘Why aren’t people listening to us? We’re brilliant!’ but now we’ve got to the point where we think ‘maybe some people know about us, and that’s kind of cool and you’re happy when people turn out to gigs.’ So we don’t really know, or even consider how big or well known we are here, we don’t think we’re that well known. Part of me questioned whether we were going on tour and saying ‘fuck you Northern Ireland, we don’t care if you don’t like us, we’ll take our chances,’ or if people were looking on at us thinking ‘why are you going on tour, only like three people like you!.’ We just wanted to do it, whether it was the right thing or not. I’m glad we did it.
Well the fact that you actually made it happen shows a belief and a self confidence that many bands lack. It shows that you’re totally committed to making this happen.
D: We know we want to make it big so we had to take the step at some stage and we knew that actually doing a DIY tour was a statement in itself. We aren’t the only band doing what we did though, just look at A Plastic Rose and Rams (Rams Pocket Radio) touring pretty consistently, and Event Horses were on the same ferry as us! Gaskan Rukus are in Europe at the minute. It’s not that we want become a part of that class of bands who are touring from here, we just want to take it as far as we can take it.
Are there any plans for more touring soon?
D: Well we have part of our next tour booked of the back of that last one, just from the contacts and bands we met. So we should be back on the road around September again. We’ve learned from the first tour and we hope to get more gigs in a shorter space of time, hopefully less time on the road will mean the van will be less likely to break down this time!
Five weeks living in a van must have been tough, were you not constantly at each other’s throats?
J: Well you do....get to know everybody a lot better than before. But that’s all part of it I think, you need it to develop as a band.
D: We knew we wanted to tour and make it as big as we could, so if you’re going to do that you need to know that you can stick each other. What’s the point in spending three years here and maybe going on tour in the fourth year only to find that you fucking hate each other? The first couple of days were horrible and we had genuine fears about lasting another five weeks together. But it did get better.
J: It’s great for learning how to communicate properly with people in the band. If you aren’t together too often you can ignore issues and differences, but in the van you have to deal with situations and confront them. It’s awkward but you have to sit down and say ‘ok what’s the problem here?’ because with however many weeks left you can’t let it linger.
D: Yeah, even when you come back, it’s not like we weren’t mates before the tour but now you can just cut the shit and you can be more direct with each other. You sort out issues early and kill them before they become too big of a problem. It was really good for developing our friendships.
As you’re more used to playing to people in Belfast or Derry who know you, was it a big shock to play to people in England or Scotland who had never heard of Stillpoint?
D: It was actually really nice because anytime anybody came and spoke to you it was awesome to hear their thoughts. It was a great sense of achievement for me anyway, because it’s different to playing at home where people may know you, even just a little bit and that could influence whether or not they approach you, but when people didn’t have a clue and still came to talk to us it was fantastic. It was mind-blowing. One thing I will say, not to blow our own trumpets or anything, but one thing that really stuck with me was that every bit of feedback we got was awesome. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of people who didn’t come near us which is fine, our music is like Marmite, you love it or hate it and we accept that. One thing we were worried about playing in England was ‘what if we’re only liked in Northern Ireland?’ but everybody that spoke to us was really positive, it was great.
Was the attendance at gigs in England and Scotland better than back home?
D: I don’t think it’s much different, it depends on the bands really and the attitude of the bands on whether people come to see them and that’s the same everywhere.
J: I did notice that it’s the same as in Belfast, people are typically drawn to the clubs instead of live music events. We got lucky, as a lot of the venues were ‘rock’ venues, so people knew what to expect and came maybe without knowing who the bands were, but they knew that the music would be a style they liked. There’s nowhere in Belfast, maybe except for the Empire sometimes, that people just go regardless of who’s playing.
D: We noticed that in Scotland especially, we were turning up to venues thinking ‘wow if Belfast had one of these it’d be great!’
J: Yeah, skeletons on the walls, Marshall stacks everywhere!
D: We turned up at Mooring’s Bar in Aberdeen, there was such a good vibe about the place. It was just crazy, girls lying back on the table and guys drinking shots out of their belly buttons! The closest thing we had was people smoking in Lavery’s alleyway but it’s not like that anymore.
J: It’s all good fun though, there was just such a great vibe and everybody was involved and it was great!
So will there be another EP this year?
D: We haven’t fixed a date yet but we’re hoping to set it for about a month from now.
Prior to the tour the lads had released an eponymous three track EP which has been played on BBC Radio in Northern Ireland and generated significant support for the band. The highlight of the EP, 'White Bullet', a stomping in your face rocker, was accompanied by a self shot video. This, naturally, wasn’t as straightforward as setting up a video camera and a few amps.
D: That was nuts, we were meant to be playing a gig in Warrenpoint and we got all the way down there and I think the soundman was really drunk so the gig was cancelled. So there we were in Warrenpoint, with a mixture of being gutted and raging and had to drive back to Belfast. We were sitting having a cup of tea, like after midnight by the time we got back and just decided to go make a video! Micheal, our former bassist, was down to record the gig, so he already had the camera gear. So we already had the gear in the cars and set off to Belfast’s docks to look for a place to shoot the video. The Harbour Cops appeared, searched our gear and told us we couldn’t do it there. So eventually we ended up in Ballymena (hometown of drummer Will) at 3am rushing the video to beat the sun. Using the car lights to light it, you can see how rough it is! So then the car batteries died and there’s us, 6am in the morning trying to push start our cars to get home to Belfast! Hopefully we’ll plan the next one a bit better!
Do you think shooting a video is as necessary as making music available on things like Facebook and Bandcamp?
J: With Youtube and stuff, you need to go visual with your band. If you want people to pay attention you have to do more than just put music online.
D: But the live show, as long as you’re good is where you’ll make money, but you can’t gig every day like you can use social media. You have to balance the two and you can’t just saturate.
J: The beauty of it is that it’s accessible and people do stumble upon it. We’ve seen people from Taiwan and stuff have been listening to our music. Compared to years ago when people relied on just the radio and Top of the Pops for music, now you’ve got social media, but the problem there is that everybody has it now! If you plant the seeds people will pick up on it.
Just a few months before embarking on the tour the band had been a four piece. I asked Jack and Dave how the change in line up came about and how it ultimately affected the band’s sound.
D: It wasn’t actually our idea, it was actually Michael, our bassist at the time, who suggested to us that he take a step back and we become a three piece. He put it to me first and at first I was like no way!
J: At the time, our sound was evolving and getting heavier and I think he realised that it could be better with just one guitar and bass instead of two guitars.
D: It was extremely noble of him, but it scared the shit out of me. I don’t consider myself a competent guitar player, so with only one guitar I was freaking out! I never ever wanted to be in a three piece, but I had a couple of days to think about it but I eventually started to come around to the idea. So we put it to Jack and Fra (Frances, former drummer) and their initial reaction was exactly the same as mine was. But we talked them round and Michael took a step back. I don’t think Fra ever really got used to it, she was still more of a fan of the old stuff. We’re all still in contact though and it was Michael who shot the video, and within a day of Fra leaving we found Will on Fastfude.org, a local music forum. It was so lucky that we got him.
J: When we became a three piece we just wiped the slate clean and started from scratch. I like to think of it as a completely new band, just with the same name. The whole sound’s different now. We took a good couple of months just to write a whole new set.
D: Will joined last September, and we didn’t gig until December. We had songs prepared but Will coming in gave him the opportunity to put his mark on the songs. It made us feel much more solid as a band with the contributions from all of us in each song.
So the writing process is pretty democratic? How would the average Stillpoint song develop from being an embryonic idea to a complete song?
D: Typically one person, usually me, will come in with an idea and we’ll just throw it open and everybody contributes. I don’t like to finish songs alone, I like to bring it to practice and get everybody involved. If I have an idea of where I want it to go I’ll share that, but I think the best work we do is when everybody has a contribution.
D: D is a musician, a songwriter. I play my instrument and no matter how much I’ve tried I just don’t think I have that in me, whereas he can start ideas from scratch.
D: It works though, if we were both trying to write we’d be at logger heads. It works that I bring an idea and the other two guys can put their own ideas into that. It works really well.
So as you became a three piece the music developed and with fewer instruments did you have to work harder to make the sound full and complete?
J: It’s actually more exciting for me because although I’m on bass now, being lead guitar before was becoming redundant, as it got heavier there was no space for the solos I was used to doing. The opportunity to play a new instrument made it more exciting for me. I’ve grown to prefer the bass, I went through this process of my hands being in agony as I learned to play. People underestimate it because there are fewer strings, and it’s totally different being closer to the drums as the bassist.
D: I remember you crying during practice once, refusing to go on. But yeah, it gives me more space and freedom, but one thing with a three piece is you hear everything. When you practice or gig, if one person makes a mistake you’re immediately aware of it. It pushes you to be better, so that mistakes don’t happen, but at the same time it makes you so in tune with the music.
J: There was always the fear of having only one guitar would make the sound thinner, but Dave got himself two amps and uses them together so that there’s just so much more depth to the sound.
D: I have a Fender and a Marshall set up with an A/B switch to use them individually or together. I always use the Fender and then use to Marshall to boost the sound. It’s pretty unique for local bands to do that, but it seemed natural for me to do that. I wanted to maintain the balls of the sound of two guitarist, but with only one guitar player I had to use two amps. The combination works really well. And I’ve developed my style too so that I play as much of the guitar as possible. Every now and again I get a soundman moaning about me using two amps, but generally they’re ok.
Jack, have you done anything on the bass to beef up the sound like Dave has?
J: Yeah I use an overdrive pedal just on the heavier bits just to give it a bit of a boost. Dave has a great, full sound, so I don’t really have to do much to add to that.
As 2012 has already been a huge year for Stillpoint I asked what the plans were for the rest of this year and what they would hope to have achieved by this time next year?
D: Another tour would be great, and I’d like to be planning another and hopefully talking about even more recording. I’d like to be on tour four times next year to be honest and I’d like to get to Europe at some point too.
J: First I’ve heard of this! (Laughing)
Have you ever considered working towards an album?
D: We;ve talked a lot about it recently but we just don’t think it’s the right time to do it.
J: If you think back to when you were younger, and Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, those albums were so well planned and they hit you like a brick wall. If we were ever going to make an album we want to make sure it works as an album and not just a collection of songs.
D: Especially now when most people don’t really pay attention to albums, it’s more single focused now. Maybe that’s just a natural progression or maybe bands have just released albums full of fillers. But we’ve all agreed that when we do do an album we want it to be a solid as fuck punch in the balls to anybody who listens...in a good way of course! We want something solid but fluid and that flows from track to track so that you won’t want to miss a single bit of it.
Is the writing process constant or do you focus on gig preparation and tightening existing songs?
J: There are a few shells of song about but nothing complete yet.
D: We sort of set writing aside to prepare for the tour and we haven’t got back into that yet. And now with recording coming up we’ll be practicing to prepare for that. But before the next tour we plan to get writing again, not stressing about it, but letting it come naturally. We’ll tour the new EP which will be released maybe late June or July but we’ll also have some new tracks too. I could see us living like this and working this hard for the next four or five years and still not really ‘making it.’ But that doesn’t discourage me, I just know that that’s how it is. It’s not straightforward, you have to bust your ass continuously and hope that somebody, and not just anybody, the right person, takes a chance on you and doesn’t screw you over. The only real drawback of being in Northern Ireland is that as soon as you book a tour you immediately have £400 cost of a ferry there and back, and it’s a real kick in the ass. Just look at how frequently big touring bands come here, it’s a nightmare for them. But the internet made the world smaller and that’s how we’ve worked and worked to get where we are. Never be afraid of asking, if somebody’s done it go and ask them and they’ll usually help you.
J: The worst thing a band to do is to record and get a good, solid set and then just wait for something to happen. You just want to say to them to go and do it themselves, there’s nothing stopping them. Don’t ever stop and wait for something to happen because it’s not going to, you need to go get it! It’s a learning curve, we used to think we’d get signed after one gig, but reality kicks in and you realise you have to make it happen for yourself
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The trio, completed by drummer William Woods, have just returned from a five week Do-It-Yourself UK tour. This time, business was on the agenda as I met up with two thirds of Belfast rockers, Stillpoint, for a chat about their recent UK tour, upcoming releases and much more.
