June 2011, Spindle Magazine Issue 4
Welsh rockers Innercity Pirates make the kind of frenetic pop punk whose complex melodies and acerbic lyrics, delivered in front man Russell Toomey’s rasping shouts and growls, are fuelled by a surge of anger that makes you feel that their debut album ‘Cutting Noses, Chasing Tales’ is flipping you off. If you ever had a run in with the band, it probably is.
“I would say when it comes to the bones of the music it’s very punk, but I think the non intentional anger that comes through probably steers it that way. We go for melody straight off the starting line then usually someone or something has given me reason to feel like shite so can’t help but write about it. I’m not an angry person it’s just I think a lot of shite comes my way.”
Toomey built up a strong and lingering fan base with his previous band ‘My Red Cell’, who are just delighted to see him back with a vengeance in his new incarnation as a Pirate; so called because “We used to busk a lot and taking money from people in that fashion made us feel like Pirates.” In his time away, he hasn’t lost his edge. Just to clarify, they’re not your traditional pirates. “No parrot, peg leg or ship sorry.” But they’re not short of their own quirks, choosing an old ambulance for a tour bus before it met an untimely demise. “It was slow, noisy and smelly but it was our slow, noisy smelly beast. It would break down almost daily, we had the RAC on speed dial. ”
If you weren’t already following Toomey’s career after ‘My Red Cell’, you may well have first become acquainted with the Pirates through the medium of your television, from the Google and Guinness ads they lent their sound to; apparently, they make the kind of noises that advertising execs go nuts for. However, they have their standards. “No smoking companies, I do smoke but I wouldn’t want to think I helped in getting someone to start.”
Now, soon they will be offering up fresh material for your ears, as they have already started on writing the follow up to ‘Cutting Noses, Chasing Tails’. What can you expect? “Some really minimal dark slow tracks I’ve been writing on an acoustic and piano and some tracks that you will want to dance to. The dance tracks are really basic as in they only have drums, bass, one guitar and vocals but it seems to be working. The drums and bass are basic, fast and driving and the guitar and vocals are taking it easy, it’s two ends of the spectrum energy wise but they seem to compliment each other.” And if it’s anything like their debut, it will all be rounded off with lashings of their ‘fuck off’ attitude.
