“The advice might seem obvious: do the thing you talk about you want to do, that is the key,” says James McGregor, singer, songwriter, guitarist and thinker of four-piece rock and rollers The Clockworks.
Obvious advice indeed, except that McGregor and his fellow Galwegian guitarist Sean Connelly, drummer Damian Greaney, with Limerickman Tom Freeman on bass, followed their own advice: instead of talking about selling out gigs in the Róisin Dubh and using that momentum to move to London to get picked up by a record label, they went out and actually did it.
The four former NUIG students were picked up by the rebooted Alan McGee of Creation Records’ fame no less; the Scottish maverick who signed My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and Oasis at the peak of Cool Britannia in the 1990s. Apparently he travelled to Galway to hear The Clockworks live, and was impressed by a hyperactive performance.
The Clockworks sound similar but different to the Britpop rock of yesteryear. Definitely more bolshie, and the Irish linguistic influence is strong. McGregor’s rapidfire lyrics overlay speed rhythm punkrock, but slow to bubble through thoughtful ballads of the Everyman. There is a hint of The Clash in ‘Bills and Pills’ with some wizardy work on a six string, although ‘Enough is never Enough’ does hint at early Oasis – think ‘Champagne Supernova’ and the scene is set. 'Mayday Payday' screams Arctic Monkeys crossed with The Streets.
McGregor himself is happy with a suggestion he sounds like an Irish version of Artic Monkeys’ singer Alex Turner. “I think my teenage self could only have dreamed at that,” smiles the thoughtful twenty-nine year old.
The band began together as teenagers at St Raphael’s College in Loughrea, with Freeman later replacing earlier bass players. They lived together in Galway for two years, pestering Róisín Dubh booker Gugai to grab twenty minute slots on slow Tuesdays. Eventually they were selling-out the 280-capacity venue.
“F Scott Fitzgrald said something about never tell anyone about something until it’s done,” says McGregor, who upped sticks in 2019 and moved to London with his bandmates. In this respect, their first full album Exit Strategy, produced by Bernard Butler of Abbey Road Studios last November, is part autobiographical, part fictionalised journey of a young lad, ‘Danny’, decamping from the west of Ireland to seek his fortune in England. On the vinyl edition, Side A is marked Galway; the other London.
“We wanted to make something cohesive. This was a long-form project, with narrative; start, middle and end,” recalls McGregor. “We wanted to make something different to the sum of its parts,” adding that the album artwork by Asher Isbrucker forms an integral part of the finished article.
Exit Strategy is a cinematic vision rife with encounters with manipulative bosses, evil ad agencies, a broken pact to flee to Australia, run-ins with the law, cheating boyfriends, drug fuelled youths, heartache, paranoia, social media anxiety and a drunk singer dressed as Jesus. It is a twenty-first century version of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man if James Joyce sound-tracked his first novel with an alt-rock version of The Pogues fronted by Kendrick Lamar after a bottle of Buckfast.
McGregor cites a number of albums as narrative inspiration, with Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black a conspicuous addition. He describes the band’s musical influences as “fluid”, and that the tastes of each individual band member form a Venn diagram which largely overlaps. One suspects there is however a deep musicology behind The Clockwork’s offerings, with McGregor citing Chopin’s ability to “play with rhythm around ‘the beats’ as opposed to on the beat” as currently attracting his interest. This delicateness is surprising in a rock frontman who once reportedly broke his mic stand during a frenetic performance.
“We liked Ernest Hemingway's iceberg theory of removing important info so the reader has to fill in the gaps,” McGregor cryptically remarks of the band’s first EP. Exit Strategy is an album destined for deeper reinterpretations on subsequent listenings. Rolling Stone called it “searingly ambitious”.
The Clockwork are set to tour their new album around Britain and Europe this year. They have previously supported Kings of Leon, Inhaler, Pixies and The Reytons. Ironically, holding Irish passports in Brexit UK makes travelling to the Continent to play gigs less complicated for he Clockworks than some of their British contemporaries, notes McGregor.
As part of its European tour in 2024, the band returns to Ireland to play in Kerry, Dublin and Galway. The homecoming gig will be back at the Róisín. “We used to live in there – as punters,” exclaims McGregor. “It’ll be like coming home to a hug.”
The Clockworks play The Róisín Dubh on Thursday, February 22, at 7pm. Tickets €17.45 plus fee from www.ticketmaster.ie or €16/€14 from www.roisindubh.net .
