With NME suggesting
we should thank our
lucky stars for their
existence and Rolling
Stone declaring their
single Renaissance Kid
to be the greatest song
ever it should come as
no surprise that Mackem
quartet The Golden
Virgins are not exactly
what one might call
lacking in confidence.
In fact they’re a band
on a mission “to create
some of the greatest
singles and albums in
the history of recorded
music”. Michelle Annable
caught up with front man
and self professed
genius-boy-poet-rocker
Lucas Renney to chat
about messy break-ups
and comedy North East
accents amongst other
things.
How did The Golden
Virgins come to be?
Me and Neil (Bassett)
our drummer started
playing together about
fifteen years ago. We
were just kids and to
begin with it was just
the two of us. Not
through choice but
simply because he had
some drums and I had an
electric guitar and we
didn’t know anyone else
who was into the same
kind of stuff that we
were. David (Younger,
keyboard) didn’t join us
until later on but he’d
lived in the same street
as me since I was a kid
so I’d known him since I
was four years old.
Allan (Burnup) our bass
player is the most
recent addition. He
joined a couple of years
ago after our original
bass player left to go
on to bigger and better
things.
That original bass
player is none other
than The Futureheads
Ross Millard. Do you
feel any jealousy
towards the success
they’ve had?
A little. It’s only
human. If you see your
mates enjoying that
level of success you
think yeah, I wouldn’t
mind a bit of that. It’s
completely natural.
There are no hard
feelings between us
though and we wish him
all the best. They
deserve it. The thing is
they’ve had to move to
London to get it. So
when the record company
rang up saying we need
you to play at this
venue in Camden tonight
or whatever, they were
in a position where they
were able to do it. We
weren’t because we
didn’t move to London.
Maybe it was a bad move
but I’ve got no regrets.
Do you think the
success of The
Futureheads and Maximo
Park will highlight Tyne
and Wear as the hotbed
of musical talent us
locals have long known
it to be?
Well, we got a single
out before either of
those two so I think we
paved the way for them!
(laughs) Seriously
though, I think it
already has to an
extent. I mean, no
disrespect to Maximo
Park, but I think that
their success is partly
a by-product of The
Futureheads success.
They’ve both got that
comedy North East accent
thing going on when they
sing and I think that
may be part of what
attracted the record
companies to Maximo
Park. Of course, accent
or no accent it wouldn’t
work half as well if the
songs didn’t stand up on
their own and both of
those bands have got
that going for them.
You’ve had fantastic
reviews from the critics
for your debut album
Songs of Praise (and no,
before you ask, despite
the album title they’re
not one of those
Christian rock bands).
Why do you think the
record buying public
haven’t really picked up
on it?
We weren’t written about
enough. Also, I don’t
think it was advertised
well enough. The record
company didn’t spend
enough time promoting
it. To get people on
board they need to read
interviews with the
band. There were plenty
of magazines that gave
us good reviews and we
are thankful for that,
but none of them
followed it up with
anything else. We were
really happy with the
single and album reviews
we got from the NME but
they seemed to be more
interested in writing
about the next Jet video
shoot than they were in
talking to us. The
people who go out and
buy or download records
want to know who a band
are and what they’re
about. We never really
got a chance to let
people know what we’re
about.
Well, according to
your press release
you’re about “creating
some of the greatest
albums and singles in
the history of recorded
music”. Do you stand by
that?
Yes, although it is
intended to be a
slightly tongue in cheek
statement. To work in
this industry you have
be a little bit
arrogant. You have to
believe that what you’re
doing is good otherwise
you can’t expect other
people to believe in
you. When we said that
the idea we were trying
to get across was that
we were confident in
what we were doing. If
you look at a band like
Teenage Fanclub, they’re
really modest and people
love them for it. Cases
like that are very few
and far between though.
Generally speaking
people like bands to
have a bit of swagger.
How would you describe
your sound?
I don’t think we have
one kind of linking
sound that you can hear
in everything we do.
(When pushed for an
answer he decides on a
mixture of electro-pop
and new wave.) What
there is however in our
songs is a recurring
theme of love, sex and
romance which links
everything together. Our
songs are all about love
gone wrong, messy
break-ups, men and women
being horrible to one
another, and they can be
really horrible to one
another believe me. When
a relationship
disintegrates it can get
really viscous.
It
sounds like you’re
speaking from
experience.
Well, in a sense I am,
yes. I’ll have to be
careful what I say here
or I’ll end up getting
into trouble. Put it
this way, when I’m
writing I always have to
try and disguise things
so I might not write it
in the first person for
example. By the same
measure I’m not going to
call a girl a bitch in a
song. Mainly because I
don’t want to have some
disgruntled
ex-girlfriend come up
and smack me in the face
because I said something
unflattering about her
in a song.
What are your plans for
the future?
At the moment we’re
trying to sort out a new
record deal. We’ve had a
few offers but nothing
that really appeals to
us. We’ve had offers
from record companies
who say they think that
we’re great and that
they’d love to put our
next album out but who
aren’t willing to help
out with the cost of
recording of it and we
simply can’t afford to
do that ourselves. We’ll
keep looking for the
right deal though. In
the meantime we hope to
have a single out in the
next couple of months
and have some gigs
coming up in September
and October. Funnily
enough we’re playing
Club NME at
Middlesborough Empire
(laughs).
www.thegoldenvirgins.com
Michelle Annable
