Despite losing a founding member to Dirty Pretty Things, The Cooper Temple Clause remain on form with a new album and recent European tour. James Fanning speaks to bassist and keyboard player Keiran Mahon and drummer John Harper about their hometown of Reading, their musical influences and getting sneakily wasted at Live8

The Cooper Temple Clause have always had a reputation for being somewhat different. In a British music scene where haircuts are often more important than musical innovation, The Cooper Temple Clause are a diverse proposition, treading a fine line between indie-cool posturing and the vital aggression normally associated with punk or post-hardcore. Having lost founding member Didz Buchanon to Carl Borat’s Dirty Pretty Things and with a new album imminent, these are exciting and challenging times for the Reading quintet. Yet as new material and their scintillating performances on this tour testify, they appear to be stronger than ever.

A few hours before they took to the Leeds Cockpit stage, I met up with Kieran Mahon (keyboards, bass) and John Harper (drums). Despite being visibly exhausted due to a gruelling European tour, the pair remained warm, friendly and incredibly talkative. The two seemed equally at home discussing the serious issues of the looming third album and Didz’s departure and discussing John’s drunken escapades at Live8.

“It was a very dry festival, but I managed to sneak in quite a lot of booze. I wore very baggy jeans and strapped it all to my leg. I seemed to have a better time than most, but I got quite wrecked and had to take myself home before Pink Floyd. I ended up watching them in the pub, which felt a bit wrong.” When I ask for their views on Pete Doherty’s performance, John smiles. “I went to the loo when Elton John came onstage, I thought that was the perfect time for a wee…”

Offering me a beer and scrounging a cigarette, they seemed more like a particularly laidback pair of students than successful musicians. Dressed in a bomber jacket and sunglasses, there was a distinct Top Gun-ish vibe coming from John. Kieran, conversely, with his neatly trimmed beard and floppy hair, looked the consummate rockstar, being the only man I’ve ever met who’s worn a wifebeater without looking like a knob.

A Cooper Temple Clause album can be a baffling experience. Kick Up The Flames And Let Loose juxtaposes metal riffs with electro-breakdowns and showcases anthemic punk-indie alongside poppy melodies. Perhaps this is the logical (if insane) musical result for a band who cite Pink Floyd, Sonic Youth, Kraftwerk and At The Drive In as immediate influences. My proposed definition of the band as “a manic blend of grunge, electronica pop and post-hardcore” is greeted with laughter. “I think that defines it pretty well,” says John. Warming to the theme, Kieran interjects. “Exactly what you said…erm, electro, alternative, indie, punk. Anything that generic is usually a mistake. Every song for us is a different adventure. We always try to avoid being pinned down by genre.”

Avoiding expectation and pigeonholing pops up again and again throughout the interview. As Kieran suggests, this apparent disregard for musical conventions can be traced to a stagnant music scene in their hometown. “There’s more shops than anything else in Reading. We were always lucky to have the band as friends so we’d retreat into our own little world to be creative, rather than relying on Reading as a place to go and check out music”. In the same vein, it is important to remember that unlike many guitar-led British bands, The Cooper Temple Clause write everything together. John sees this as the source for their “ecleticism.”

“With everyone writing their parts, it ends up a strange mix. Sometimes Tom (Bellamy, vocals) will be on his laptop for weeks working on some electro, then he’ll bring it to us and we’ll put our parts on it, or me and Kieran will be jamming away live. Every song is born differently. We’re proud of how someone will hear one song and think ‘They’re a rock band’ and then hear another song and think ‘They’re an electro band.’”

This is the great strength of the band; at the gig tonight there are punters scissor-kicking each other in true metal style, then the song changes and everyone begins raving. Dance-moshing? It’s surprisingly fun. When I ask the two how they think this cross-pollination has affected their popularity, they respond with infuriating modesty. “Well, hopefully everyone will like something they find in the mix” Keiron replies, and John simply laughs. “We’re just covering our bases really.” They seem almost casually indifferent to the fact that they are in the process of shaping a new genre of music.

For a band who have played to colossal audiences all around the world, the decision to promote Make It Your Own by playing toilet venues like the Cockpit may seem bizarre. It is a rarity to see so successful a band within getting hit in the face by flailing guitar distance. John admits there is an aspect of “testing the water” after the band’s three year hiatus “I mean you don’t want to book yourself into a massive room if only four hundred people are coming” but maintains that these smaller gigs are important for them.

“As we’ve been been away so long, we wanted to do fan shows. We advertised the gigs before they got to press through our website. It’s just about putting on a really great show for the people who’ve been there since the beginning.”

Live8 was a very dry festival, but I managed to sneak in quite a lot of booze… I wore very baggy jeans and strapped it all to my leg and seemed to have a better time than most.

A lot of bands tend to talk up their relationship with “the fans” but with The Cooper Temple Clause there does seem a genuine affection between audience and band. Tonight John is seen happily mingling with fans after the show, even sitting outside to have a beer with a fan who had been ejected by the bouncers for “ballroom style antics”.

New album Make It Your Own apparently signifies their passage into maturity. The band even abandoned ‘Dress Up Thursday’ (a weekly ritual on their last album, involving dressing up as women, pirates and Motley Crue) for the more civilised pastime of poker. Kieran laments this shift, complaining about the “distinct lack of cross dressing on this album.” John interjects. “We’ve just got older and dressing like women didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. I mean how can you take your bandmates seriously if they’re dressed like 80’s rock stars?”

This newfound maturity also affected chief lyricist Dan Fisher (see the band’s website for his superb elephant costume). John suggests that Fisher has progressed as a songwriter: “He’s chilled out a lot from the crazy Dan we used to be scared of and his lyrics are much more emotional. He’s always had a dark edge, but he’s progressed away from that and become less dark. I think he’s in a better place emotionally.”

The tracks circulating on the internet certainly seem the product of a band who have finally come to terms with their musical abilities. ‘Damage’ and ‘Waiting Game,’ for example are tighter, punchier and more instantly accessible than their older material and it seems they are perfecting the art of writing the four minute pop-rock song with an added twist.

However, there is the niggling doubt that this newfound ability to write songs reflects a desire for the extreme commercial acceptability that has so far eluded the band. John says, “There’s always businessmen in suits talking to you about radio and TV and there’s always that nagging in your ear. But it’s still very eclectic. There are the friendlier tracks, then the downright dirty tracks you’d expect from us. The album is a huge journey.”

The Cooper Temple Clause had a lot more time and resources to spend on this album, spending the first six months constantly writing and recording demos in their self-built recording studio, Bleak House. They even worked with Depeche Mode producer Dave McCracken, whose influence can be seen in the electro-punk of new tracks ‘Head’ and ‘Connect.’ The two clearly enjoyed the ability to record and write at leisure, as John states.

“It was a much better process of writing. Whereas with the first two albums the label needed a record, this time we had enough time and freedom to work on them until they were perfect. We wanted to work on getting the songcraft to a much higher state of being, so we spent a long time, writing, listening to other people’s opinions, basically taking on all kinds of different ideas and just jamming the songs through various formations until we got to exactly where we wanted to be.”

Although The Cooper Temple Clause may be where they wish to be musically, for many fans the band will not be the same without founding member Didz Buchanon. John admits that with six song writers in the band, Didz was somewhat squeezed out. “I don’t think he had the scope within our band to show his talents. His songs kept getting pushed off the radar. He’d also been spending less and less time with us as he’d had a kid. It got to the stage where Karl asked him to join the band”.

Despite their obvious disappointment, the pair recall Didz’s antics on tour fondly. John remarks that Didz never failed to be sick in his room and Kieran laughs that the bass is much tighter now owing to Didz’s propensity for guitar slinging acrobatics. It’s refreshing to see a band affectionately discussing their friendship with an ex-bandmate, rather than resorting to the name-calling and childishness that often typifies such splits. As Kieran says at the close of our interview, the strength of the friendship was such that getting a new bassist was inconceivable. “There was the option of getting a new member. But we always thought the idea of a band is quite precious, it’s about friendship not just about replacement.”

Watching The Cooper Temple Clause that evening in the wretched hive of sweat and villainy that is the Cockpit, the loss of Didz seems to have affected the band more emotionally than musically. The band play an intense and exhilarating set, with the sledgehammer riffage of ‘Promises, Promises’ and the sonic wigouts of ‘New Toys’ banishing any doubts about their future as a five piece. It’s the new material tonight that really shines with the superb piano refrain on ‘Waiting Game’ and the frankly unnerving electro-indie of ‘Head’ making previous tracks like ‘Panzer Attack’ seem fairly juvenile. Musically muscular and powerfully diverse, the new songs combine poppy melodies and hooks galore with the experimental insanity that initially made the band so exciting. This is a band in its stride.

Electro, pop, grunge, indie? I doubt any of the sweat soaked fans retiring to the bar with ear-wide grins on their faces really care for definitions. The Cooper Temple Clause are themselves, and they’re bloody good for it

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