MUSIC

... but do carry on, Julian Owen requests of The Hysterical Injury, ‘the Sonic Youth of our generation’.

A pig’s ear is a silk purse in comparison to the hash Rock Desk made of arranging an interview with The Hysterical Injury. As it is, the former is in Bristol, the latter in Bath, Alexander Graham Bell on course for a royalty cheque, and we’re very sorry. “Don’t worry, it’s been a haphazard week,” assures singer/bassist Annie Gardiner. “We weren’t sure we should do a gig, then decided to do it against all odds: hiring cars and losing money, that kind of stuff.” A far-flung gig, then? “No, only Bristol. But we insist – I insist – on bringing my amps everywhere. We’ve been had by bad sound so many times, I like to make sure I’ve got my own stacks with me.”

Important things, those stacks. From them pulsate great barrels of propulsive riffs, skronks of feedback, almost incongruously sweet sounding pop vocals, broiling drum rolls, echoes of Pixies, Mary Weiss, Sonic Youth, Hella, and just the occasional unhinged scream. ‘Echoes’ being the operative word there – far as THI are concerned, if something’s been done before, what would be the point of doing it again?

Drummer Lee Stone explains his love of ace 70s experi-troupe Swell Maps. “I liked their DIY attitude, the fact they didn’t fit into any genre. The way they’d go from doing a real nice punkish two-minute song to something long and droning. It’s a similar attitude to us: music as music, not a genre – this doesn’t sound like anything we’ve ever done before, but let’s give it a go.”

It’s an attitude that’s served them more broadly, too. Once upon a time, THI were a trio. What happened? “Rob moved to Exeter,” says Lee. “That was it, really,” he adds in a tone suggesting slight bewilderment at the line of questioning. Well, says Rock Desk, for most bands with a guitar/bass/drums line-up, we’d suggest the majority might think ‘Right, time to get a new guitarist’.

“We didn’t think we could replace him,” explains Annie. “We had some gigs booked, thought ‘let’s see what happens’ and dived in. It was a challenge to us. A band we like, Lightning Bolt, were a three-piece that turned into a two-piece.” Your voice must have a little more room in the sound? “A lot more room, and for things I perhaps couldn’t do when Rob was in the band. There was suddenly big space to run around in with the melody. I’d never done effects on the bass before, but the fuzz pedal makes it sound really guitar-y. And Lee makes up a lot of the tonal qualities with his drumming.”

Though hardly driven to drum (“fairly recently my friend gave me a drumkit he’d had in his loft. I thought ‘If I’ve got a drumkit, I should probably join a band’”), it seems the man is a natural. Having taken lessons, both he and his teacher auditioned for THI. “The teacher was a lovely guy, but completely over-complicated what I gave him to play,” recalls Annie. “Lee just played what was needed and could hear and experiment, playing for the song, not for the rudiments.”

Annie, conversely, grew up in a musical house and learnt violin and piano. “I didn’t want to do that because my mum taught piano. ‘I’m not gonna do that, Mum, I’m gonna be a brain surgeon’.” The rebellion was muted. Or, rather, not. “I made my first band when I was about ten, mucking about with a drum machine. We were called Battery Acid or something stupid. Then my Dad got really pissed off with me one day because I said I was bored. ‘If you’re bored, you’ll learn this’, and he threw me a bass guitar. That was that.”

Beneath the radar, THI have become one of our most widely respected acts, beloved in ever increasing circles from local label man Dave Artscare (“the most enthusiastic person we’ve ever met,” marvels Annie) to being interviewed by Tom Robinson on 6Music to being touted as “maybe the Sonic Youth of our generation” by Chicago’s women-in-arts mag, Venus Zine. Haven’t women found their place in rock yet, queries a devil’s advocating Venue? What’s the worth of your playing Ladyfest London next month? “It’s really important that Ladyfest continues showcasing music from all things that aren’t mainstream,” says Annie, “whether you’re a woman, queer, or just awkward in some way – the importance is that it levels the playing field across the board. I’m not an overtly aggressive feminist, but I think it’s really important that the way music’s viewed is fair, not something that’s packaged and marketed, and women aren’t just a slab of meat or puppets or what have you.”

THE HYSTERICAL INJURY PLAYED TIMBUK2, BRISTOL ON FRI 15 AND THE LAMB, TROWBRIDGE ON SAT 16 OCT. FFI: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEHYSTERICALINJURY
 

Copyright Julian Owen 2010

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