“I DON’T think of our band as a folk band - many of the other members would disagree with me - I think we’re a punk rock band,” O’Death bassist Jesse Newman, tells me over the phone from New York. “We know how to have a good time on stage and off.”
Brooklyn quintet O’Death release their third album Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin on Monday on City Slang before bringing their raucous, punk fuelled, take on American folk music to the Róisín Dubh on Friday September 26 at 9pm.
O’Death were formed in the State University New York Purchase College in 2003, which at the time was a “very artsy school” according to Jesse. Originally the line up was Greg Jamie (vocals/guitar ), Gade Darling (vocals/various instruments ), Bob Pycior (fiddle ), and David Roger-Berry (drums ). Jesse knew of the band in college, was impressed by them, but did not know the other guys personally. Once he got to know them, he wanted to join as he felt he had “something to contribute”.
“I had seen them a few times and thought ‘I could add something to that’,” he says. “I think everyone in the band thought that and that’s why each of us joined.”
Part of the attraction in working with each other was that the various members had wildly different tastes in music. Bill Monroe, Prince, Dock Boggs, Neil Young, and The Misfits were various favourites of each member.
“Different personalities can tend to conflict,” says Jesse. “We got lucky. It melded quite nicely. Everybody’s influences came together. I was always into rock and heavy metal. I saw The Who and the Rolling Stones when I was three. I didn’t get into folk music until High School. I had to have my eyes opened up for me.”
While O’Death would become a folk band, the influences from hard rock, punk, and funk, make their presence felt and contribute to the band’s unique take on traditional American music and song - as evidenced by the albums Carl Nemelka Family Photographs (2004 ), Head Home (2006 ), and now Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin - and on stage, where their wild, high octane concerts have sealed their reputation as a thrilling live act.
Yet in certain quarters there is surprise that a group of New Yorkers would even think of playing folk, never mind playing it with the drive and energy of O’Death. Have these same people forgotten that New York, and particularly Greenwich Village, was the centre of the US folk boom in the 1950s and 1960s?
“I think a lot of people have this image of New York - even New Yorkers have it - that New York is so f*****g hip and that if you’re playing junk drums and a banjo then you must be hipster assholes who don’t really know what they are doing,” says Jesse. “I’ve no time for people who say we’re not authentic. They’ve no understanding. They could never drink as much whiskey as we can.
O’Death’s vision of folk music is similar to that of their Southern counterparts Hayseed Dixie and would not be unrelated to the approach to Irish folk of The Dubliners or The Pogues.
“Punk rock and folk are very similar,” says Jesse. “People have this image of folk as prim, cloying, and gentle but there are folk singers with huge, powerful, killer voices and raucous, wild music. That’s folk music and we try to retain that.”
The band’s vision is also reflected in their name - O’Death - culled from a very old American folk song. “In those songs you personify death so you can beg it not to kill you,” says Jesse. “We have a morbid sense of humour and the name is the opposite of our music which is life affirming and having a good time.”
Yet death haunts Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin. The band suffered a tragedy before it was recorded when David Roger-Berry’s fiancée Eliza Sudol died of an aneurysm. The album is dedicated to her memory and track ‘A Light That Does Not Dim’ is about her.
The song ‘Fire of Peshtigo’ commemorates another tragedy, a fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, in 1871 in which thousands died.
“At about the time of the Chicago fire there was a similar brush fire in Wisconsin,” says Jesse. “What happened is that people were trying to get onto the lake to escape the fire but the fire spread around the lake coming at them from the front and behind. The fire didn’t receive the same publicity as Chicago even though thousands more were killed.
“The only account we found of it was by a holy man. His description of it was heavy handed and frightening so our song is about a natural disaster from the point of view of the preacher.”
The band is proud of the album. Jesse describes it as “more cohesive” than previous releases which “captures our energy and there’s some beautiful stuff on it”. However Jesse, and the rest of the band, feel that on-stage is where they are at their best and can be best heard.
“When we play shows man, if I’m feeling sick before a gig with a fever, once I get on stage, I’m not sick anymore. Music heals you. People screaming at you is good as well. It’s such an adrenaline rush.”
Also expect to see a few unusual instruments. “Any time David gets bored in the studio he’ll go out looking around dumpers and for car auto parts - anything he can bang sticks off - to use as drums. He even came back with these old chains that were so dirty that the moment touched them, your hands turned black!”
