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Interview: The Whip - Metal Law

When the name of your band is so easily adaptable to puns it is hard not to get carried away while thinking of a title for your second record. Manchester's dance dynamo's, The Whip, are already inundated with suggestions from fans including Whipstream, Fish'n'Whips, and one which frontman Bruce Carter enjoys because it has a slight bondage feel, Whip It Into Shape.

Previous album, X Marks Destination, released in 2008, was a huge success and prompted a global tour. What caused the extensive dates was an expansive sound. While many bands throw a synthesiser into the mix in an effort to add an electro element, The Whip sit somewhere closer to Soulwax than the New Order tag which looms over them. The trio have been trying out new material on the road for the last two years and are now eager to get it onto disk.

Sitting inside their local diner in Levenshulme with a fry up, it is apparent that the band are hungry, and not just for hash browns but also to get the album out and whet the appetite of fans.

Q: After an incredible amount of touring and trying out new material on the road you guys are ready to press record. Why has it taken so long?
Nathan Sudders (guitarist): "We wanted it to be out this time last year really and we had all these ideas for new songs but they were too fragmented and Jagz [the producer] has come along and given them more of a shape. Jagz basically came along and said this isn't a song, this is a million ideas in one space."

How are you finding working with Jagz Kooner after trying out a few producers before him?
Bruce Carter (frontman): "Imagine the album as a bunch of sausages," he says while eyeing up his breakfast. "Jagz has trimmed the fat off them and then minced it all into sausages and now all we have to do is cook it."

Q: So the new one will be full of bangers?
NS: (laughs) Yes definitely. It feels huge at the moment we're all really excited about it. Jagz totally gets the band. It's not about him, it's about us. He isn't trying to put his print on it."
BC: "The new stuff just sounds bigger, they're definitely stronger songs. This album sounds a lot bigger than the first one."
NS: "People said with the last one that it sounded better live than in the headphones and it is hard to capture such a big sound in the studio but this time we've got it and it's sounding big."
BC: "Everything's sounding bigger. I don't know what you're supposed to do by your fifth album, keep making it bigger!"

What have you recorded with him so far?
NS: "Shake and Best Friend are two we've been working on. When we got into the studio Shake just turned into this new big thing and we were gobsmacked. Jagz played it to Tom out of The Enemy and he was stunned too.
BC: "It's definitely a heavier beast this album, you can just sense it. When we play Shake live you can see people are beefing to it. For something they don't know, just hearing it for the first time and there still being a bit of a ruckus in front of you, that is a really good sign so we couldn't be more excited."
NS: "We got labelled with that indie/dance tag early on and we still get compared to New Order but this one is a lot more dance orientated."

Do you take New Order comparisons as a compliment? Surely they must be tiresome.
BC: I've always liked New Order but I don't think it should be a reference point just because we're from Manchester. The comparisons are constant and if you listen to us there's so many other sides that it's not justified enough to be constant.

Q: How has the time on the road affected your development?
NS: "In a weird way we need that time to get across what it is we've been through, there's only three of us now. There's been a year's worth of backwards and forwards with the songs and not knowing whether they were right or not and now we really feel that this is where we should have been but everything's just been a real rollercoaster."
BC: The other thing is we've been playing demos of these songs like Metal Law and Shake for a while now so when we bring it out the new stuff will have a famililarity to it.

Q: What is the working title?
BC: I like Metal Law. I have an image in my mind of this leather fist (a little worrying considering his earlier bondage comment)
NS: We're in the studio now until the end of the year and then hopefully it'll come out around February or March.

Visit The Whip's myspace here or their website here. Or follow them on Twitter

Tour Dates

9 Oct 2010 16:00 53 DEGREES (DJ SET) PRESTON UNITED KINGDOM
15 Oct 2010 16:00 FREE FORM FESTIVAL WARSAW POLAND
29 Oct 2010 16:00 NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS (DJ SET) LEEDS UK
30 Oct 2010 16:00 WAREHOUSE PROJECT MANCHESTER UK
4 Nov 2010 16:00 LA RIVIERA MADRID SPAIN

6:13 AM | 06/09/2010