We caught up with Le Galaxie’s Michael Pope to talk about their new album, beards, the recent marriage equality gig, playing music to kids in Waterford and much, much more.
Le Galaxie have firmly put themselves up there as one of the best live bands in the country, just ask anyone who’s been to one of their gigs. Their second album, Le Club, is due out in the autumn and everyone in JOE Towers cannot wait to get stuck into it.
To find out a bit more about how it’s all come together, JOE recently caught up with Le Galaxie’s Michael Pope.
JOE: Hey Michael, how’s the form?
Michael Pope: I’m okay, but I’m a bit pissed off with JOE.ie, I didn’t win best beard in Ireland but I suppose Ronnie Drew was always going to win that wasn’t he?
JOE: Maybe you’ll have to grow it out a bit more?
Michael: Bushier maybe, bushiness seems to be the winning style.
JOE: Well it takes me three months to grow a bit of stubble so I have no advice for you I’m afraid.
Michael: I’ll keep working on it so lads.
JOE: You do that and keep us up-to-date. Lets talk about your lovely music… So what’s the story with the new album?
Michael: It’s done! We’re just back from LA, finished it there a few weeks ago and it’ll be out in autumn. We’re excited about getting it out to the fans because they get to see a lot of live shows but not a lot of recorded stuff, it’s been two years since the last EP so there are 13 songs on here for them. If you are a Le Galaxie fan, you’ll definitely be happy.
JOE: How did you guys find the whole recording experience, good fun?
Michael: The process took a bit longer than I thought it would, I genuinely thought we’d get it done three times as fast so that was a bit frustrating but we obviously couldn’t release it until it was ready. I’m a very impatient dude so I wanted to get it out before the summer; but apart from the time scale we’re delighted with the final recorded product. It’s 13 songs that we’ve worked on for three years so it’s amazing. (He laughs) To be honest, my manager had to tell me to ‘relax the cacks’ a few times.
JOE: You heading to Los Angeles to finish off the album, did that change the sound of final product in any way at all?
Michael: The whole thing was pretty much done so it didn’t change too much. We were there to mix and Eric Broucek did a brilliant job, he’s LA born and bred. Eric said he thought it was funny that we were Irish but we were obsessed with his city. The album is summery, up tempo, colourful and there’s lots going; it’s a fun record.
JOE: I’ve seen you play live three or four time and it’s always been great and the last time was Indiependence last summer. My abiding memory of that gig (apart from the deadly set) was the 10 year old kid who was up on his dad’s shoulders at the very front of the stage. He was going nuts to the music, do you remember him?
Michael: I remember that kid, he was great. That reminds me of a gig we played in Waterford a few years ago. It was a music and arts festival and we ended up playing to a load of kindergarten kids for an hour and they were going crazy, it was a buzz though, one of those early starting out gigs.
JOE: So, Le Galaxie coming to a creche near you soon?
Michael: (Laughs) Yeah, you can quote me on that.
JOE: I’m sure your new album is the most played music in the band at the moment but what other sort of stuff do you guys listen to?
Michael: Todd Terje is on a good bit at the moment, a lot of up tempo disco. Maybe on the way home from a gig in Carlow, we’ll throw on some Sigur Ros (laughs) if we’re feeling particularly down in the dumps. It’s mostly high energy stuff; Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip, all that kind of stuff.
JOE: I know you guys held a gig a few weeks back to raise some money for Marriage Equality, how did that go?
Michael: It went well, there hasn’t been a gig with that type of buzz in a long time, there was a real feel good vibe in the air, everyone was there for the one cause. Loads of people turned up, great buzz, great show and we raised a lot of money for the cause. There was a lot of cheering and whooping because everyone was so happy that we’ve come so far but we’ve a long way to go.
JOE: And Finally, the big well thought out, clever question. You have to choose one of the following; A Galaxy Caramel, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or a Samsung Galaxy phone?
Michael: I’m going to rule out the chocolate bar straight away and I think I’ll go for the credible answer, although I would like a phone, no it has to be Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and I have reasons. It’s as funny as it is smart, I grew up with it in book form, radio form and in TV form. I love it.
JOE: They are brilliant reasons for picking that. Thanks for the chat, Michael.
Michael: No hassle.
Le Galaxie performed at the recent launch of Vodafone’s Centre Stage music and comedy festival programme 2014 . Centre Stage is an interactive festival hub offering daily doses of festival themed content!
The launch also marked the announcement that Vodafone is teaming up with music and arts bash Castlepalooza to create Ireland’s first festival fancy dress day. Planned for the final day of Castlepalooza, Sunday, 3rd August and inspired by festivals overseas, the inaugural theme is Kings and Queens with festival fans being encouraged to think Elvis, think Marie Antoinette, Cleopatra to Prince(ss) … and anything outside the (dressing up) box!
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