Interview NewsfeedThe Cooper Temple Clause
Interviewer: Matt Jacobs
Bands always seem to have four members. That amount provides just enough people to play all of the necessary instruments and a fair amount of symmetry, so it must be right. Despite this irrefutable evidence laid before you, The Cooper Temple Clause have six members and it works. Without each and every one of them, their unmistakably robust and powerful sound would cease to exist.
This year, the Coopers finally get the chance to spread the rock Stateside after being denied a U.S. release of their first record, "See This Through and Leave." The band is renowned for their energetic, heartfelt performances and the first few dates of their tour have been very successful. It's easy to lose yourself in the moment as band members gyrate, seduce ladies and contort their faces -- all while playing what seems like five instruments at a time. twenty/forty had the chance to sit down with Ben Gautry, the Coopers' lead singer before a nearly sold-out performance at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Ben spoke about the band's days as a Mariachi band and when they were forced to slaughter a small goat in Uganda. Okay, these are lies, but Ben does let us have a glimpse of what it's like to be in the Cooper Temple Clause.
t/f: Welcome to the United States.
BG: Thank you.
t/f: I'll start out asking you what it's like to be playing to hundreds of people instead of thousands. Essentially, what's it like starting over?
BG: I don't think we really look at it that way. We look at it as our chance to finally come to America and play. It's great to finally get the chance after four or five years to come to America and play in a country that's renowned all over the world for the bands it has produced. It is strange coming back and playing a venue like this. It's small, you know? We're used to playing much bigger venues, but it's quite nice to get back to basics because we haven't played venues like this in a long, long time. We're quite interested about the songs from ["Kick up the Fire & Let the Flames Break Loose,"] how they translate in venues this small and if they still work and they do. So, we're having a lot of fun.
t/f: That's good. I know you have a very big sound and playing in a small venue must be different. Is there much adjustment in terms of the playing?
BG: Well, Fish has already blown up an amp on the first day because it wasn't big enough. There's not much adjustment, it's just the main problem is between me and Ditz, because when he sings he needs to come in and I have to move my left shoulder backwards so that he can fit his bass around. That's the main problem.
t/f: Exactly. It seemed like it would be tough having six members and trying to fit on these small stages again. You can barely move, it seems.
BG: It's just tough because there's too many of us and, yeah, it's a bit odd.
t/f: It must make you pity the Polyphonic Spree and their 23 band members.
BG: Well, I'd say hardly any of them play anything, they just stand.
t/f: That's true. Yeah, they're just singing in the background.
BG: Really just a tamborine and a lot of smiles.
t/f: A lot of smiles. They love smiling.
BG: Or ecstasy. [laughter]
t/f:
BG: Well, we don't really get up before 3.
t/f: I guess that doesn't give you much time to do anything.
BG: We tend to visit the bars more than the sights, that's why Dan keeps buying the postcards in each town. Then, when we go back we can show them the postcards and lie through our teeth and say, "Yeah that was really great. I was on top of that building. Great view."
t/f: Statue of Liberty was great.
BG: Yeah, I loved it. [Laughter]
t/f: So it's more about getting out there and spreading the music than crossing the pond.
BG: Yeah, we just want to get out there and play a good show and show people what we're about. Show people that we can play live and hopefully we can come back again.
t/f: Do you feel that you're at something of a disadvantage by not having the first record released here?
BG: I wouldn't say disadvantage. Obviously it would have been nice if it had come out but it's available on import. We quite like that. Even now when we look for new bands we find that the best bands are the ones where their CDs aren't readily available, where you have to go and hunt for it. We've already met a few people who have the first album and they seem to be fans. I think it's quite good that it's out there and that not everyone knows about it and some people do. It's like it's a nice...dark secret.
t/f: Like a secret club.
BG: Exactly, a secret handshake. I'll show you later, off camera (ed. note: the interview was being videotaped for a documentary). Not everyone can see it.
t/f: It is a secret.
BG: It is a big secret.
t/f: Coming back to the first record, it seems to me that the records are similar enough in style where if someone goes out and buys the the second record they won't be missing the gist of the band. Oftentimes you'll buy a record, then search out an earlier one only to find out it has a completely different sound. You guys seem to be following a pretty clear path.
BG: I think so, I think there are differences in the two albums but you can definitely tell it's the same band. I think that ["Kick up the Fire & Let the Flames Break Loose"] is a lot more focused and a lot more melodic and that's just something we wanted to do.
t/f: So that was a conscious decision?
BG: Yeah, we all hate bands that keep making the same record because it gets boring and stuff. It was a conscious effort to definitely get more melody. I think we had shied away from it. It had always gone on the b-sides of the first album and we wanted the new album to have a better balance of what we're about.
t/f: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard that after this tour you'll be heading back into the studio to record your next album.
BG: Yeah, we're just putting ideas down. It's nothing serious yet. There's no time schedule, but we're at least going to see what comes out of it.
t/f: Where do you see you guys progressing?
BG: I can't say. We don't go in with an idea of how we should sound. We just want it to be different from the last two albums. We want to progress.
t/f: So the Cooper Temple Clause will not have a concept record anytime soon?
BG: No. Maybe about "Back to the Future."
t/f: I would hope so. Will it be a trilogy then? A three-disc set?
BG: It could well be, but we have to speak to Michael J. Fox and see if he can come in.
t/f: That's fair. When you play live shows, do you feel obligated to do the trite concert sayings, like "Hello New York?"
BG: I never yell out "hello New York," or "hello Philadelphia" or wherever. It's just so stupid. A lot of bands come to England, especially if they're from a different country and they go, "Hello London." It's just stupid. A live show has to be unpredictable. We give our all when we play because there's nothing worse than seeing a band who are bored when they play, like they're not enjoying their own music.
t/f: Although it is a job, it should be your life and your passion.
BG: It's life and passion first. Then you're lucky if you're able to make it into a job, I suppose.
t/f: Related to that, I personally have a dislike for the modern encore and how it's expected. What's your opinion on encores?
BG: We never do encores. I think it's like, taking the piss. It's as if you're expecting the people in the audience to like the set so much that you're expected to come back on. It's just lame.
t/f: If the crowd just wouldn't shut up, would you come back out?
BG: We haven't yet. We've played shows where we've gotten an amazing response but we feel that you should show people what you're about and how well you play and not come back out and play another song. We think you should come out and give your all and that's it.
t/f: I respect that. Something I noticed is that you're often compared to Radiohead or other bands from the UK. Is that something that bothers you or are comparisons just a natural way for people to classify you?
BG: Well, you obviously have to be compared to bands if you want people to find out about you. We've been compared to everyone. It seems in America we've been getting compared a lot to Radiohead, which is a big compliment because they're an a amazing band. I wouldn't say we sound like them, but I'd say we share a sense of wanting to experiment and wanting to push music forward. There's no way you could say Radiohead sound like any other band, especially after they did "OK Computer," which is a fantastic record, and they could have just made it again and sold just as many but they decided to do something that really turned them on and that's something we really appreciate. They give 100% and do what they want to do, and we share that philosophy.
t/f: Has your record label been respectful of that? Oftentimes they'll say, "Hey this is a hit single, do the same thing again for us."
BG: We've been very lucky with our record label because they can get the money of Five or Christina Aguilera so that we can record. No, we haven't had any pressure and that's why we went with this record label. We didn't want to just have one hit and that's it and self-destruct. We want to keep going for ten years, fifteen years, develop and tour the world.
t/f: You want more than just fifteen minutes of fame.
BG: Yeah, we want to keep making albums, keep making music.
t/f: Have you noticed any major differences between American crowds and British crowds and how they respond to your music?
BG: There's been a bit more dancing in America and I don't know if that's because people are stoned.
t/f: That's highly likely.
BG: There's a lot of hip-shaking, especially yesterday in Philadelphia.
t/f: Philadelphia likes to shake their hips.
BG: There's not that much difference at all, but it's only been two shows.
t/f: Are you happy with the way you developed as a band?
BG: We grew up in a town with no venue and being in a band is a bit hard, especially when you want to be a primarily a live band. We just like what the bands used to do in the 70s when there wasn't MTV or music videos or much radio play. Bands just toured and toured and went to as many towns as possible so they could show people in that town what they're about. So that's what we did when we got signed, we went on quite a few tours across Britain, playing every town and venue we could. We built things up like that so we could have a better sense of what we're about. So when we went to record the first album we had a better sense of what we wanted.
t/f: So it seems you kind of found your way through touring.
BG: Yeah, we got signed after having only played about ten shows and we were really bad.
t/f: Switching gears, would you consider yourself a political band in any way?
BG: We're definitely sensitive, but not in our music. Maybe that will come later. Especially when there are six people in the band, there are six people with different opinions, so it's tough to get a...
t/f: Unified voice.
BG: Yeah, a unified voice, a shared opinion. And when bands delve into politics and write something they're really pationate about, it may distill what they're singing about. I think Rage Against the Machine did it really well, and the Clash did it in a way, Primal Scream did it in a way and maybe Radiohead is gonna do it in a way but I just don't think that many bands can do it well. If you're gonna do it, you're point has to be brought across so powerfully that's it's very hard to do. That's not saying we won't give it a go, but at the moment, as a bunch of 23 year-olds, I think we're all trying to grasp what we're trying to say and how we'd say it well.
t/f: So how do you guys write your songs?
BG: For the last two albums we build the music up first and get a mood for the song and then someone puts lyrics on, mainly Fisher. He manages to somehow...we all get a sense of the music and he manages to get lyrics that just...
t/f: fit.
BG: Yeah, that just fit. He's just a very talented lyricist. I think Tom wrote a few on the last album and Ditz wrote a few that went as B-sides. I think people are starting to get more confident. Confidence is the thing when you write lyrics.
t/f: It's tough to put yourself out there.
BG: Well, it's also tough to write something that means something so that it doesn't sound like you've just come from the sick ward or that you're fifteen years-old and the girl you've just kissed has suddenly kissed your best friend or something. It needs to be something a lot more deep and meaningful.
t/f: It comes through you're a sonically-oriented band, that that's what drives the song.
BG: Yeah, I think so.
t/f: To finish things up, I'm curious to hear what bands you're listening to these days.
BG: Well we also listen to absolutely millions of different bands, but in the last few I've been listening to Pink Floyd's "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn." I'm a bit of an Aerogramme fan, I don't know if you've heard of them.
t/f: No, I haven't.
BG: There absolutely unbelievable, you should check them out. A band we already like and have been able to play with are a band called Oceansize and they're really good. They're like a mix between Soundgarden and Mogwai. Stellastarr* is another band we quite like.
t/f: Statesiders.
BG: Yeah. [laughter] Kieran and Fish have been listening to a lot of acts on Constellation Records. They just love everything that comes out of that label and just love the whole independent feel and the way they just do everything themselves. They're just a massive b-side to the rest of the world. The music they come out with is incredibly atmospheric and incredibly powerful.
t/f: Are you guys planning on doing a big shopping spree while you're here?
BG: If we can get up in time.
t/f: I think Virgin Megastore is open until midnight, so you should be okay.
BG: Well, we prefer to support independent record stores.
t/f: To finish things up, I'd like to end with a word association, if that's no okay with you.
BG: That's no problem.
t/f: I'll just say a bunch of words and you say the first thing that comes to your mind. Monkey.
BG: Kieran
t/f: Apricot
BG: Ape-ricots?
t/f: That too.
BG: Century.
t/f: Haircut.
BG: DIY
t/f: Williamsburg
BG: Pennsylvania
t/f: Milkshake
BG: Vanilla
t/f: Emo
BG: Eskimo.
t/f: Valid. [laughter] Unless you've got anything to tell me, that's all I have for you.
BG: Just come over later on and say hello.
t/f: Well I appreciate you taking the time to do this.
BG: No problem, enjoy the show.
t/f: Thanks.
Photos by Alyssa Scheinson and Matt Jacobs. Thanks to Maggie Wang at BMG.