CABLE BOY

The very exciting goth-disco outfit Cable Boy’s debut album Forever is out now. I discussed the band’s journey with all five members: Semilore Olusa, Corneille Tshibasu, Jason Aikhionbare, Liam Murray, and Fionn Maguire O’Loughlin.

Since your first EP Whole, released in 2019, Cable Boy was basically reborn. Let’s talk about that process.

Semi: Three of us who are in the band now weren’t back then. It was a very different thing. We released the EP, played two shows, and then nothing until 2021. I was doing solo music and didn’t really know what the band was anymore. I had been remixing songs with Corneille before he joined.

Corneille: I didn’t even know they were Cable Boy songs. He just sent them to me, I worked on them, and sent them back.

Semi: I remixed a song that we already had, and then Corn did a double remix of what I had remixed. I was like, “Maybe we should just do this.” After the pandemic, Liam messaged me about applying for Ireland Music Week 2021. I was like, “Bro, we haven’t played a show since 2019,” but he had already applied. Then we realised we didn’t have a keyboard player.

Liam: I thought we’d just figure it out.

Semi: I’d known Jason since 2015, he learned everything quickly, and that’s how it first restarted.

Corneille: Funny enough, the newcomers’ first shows were all big. Jason’s first was Ireland Music Week, Fionn’s was Electric Picnic, and mine was The Button Factory.

Semi: Even the very first Cable Boy show was on the main stage of Whelan’s. It’s never been chill. After Electric Picnic, that felt like the real beginning. Once we decided to take it seriously, it just kept going.

If you picked two tracks from Forever, one easiest and one hardest to create, which two would they be?

Corneille: The easiest was probably “Silo.”

Fionn: It stands out because it’s less aggressive and rocky than the others, which made it easier in a way.

Semi: When we got into the studio with David Tapley, we had already recorded a few songs. Once we got Fionn in, we're like, “You need to redo everything.” On “Something in My Head,” the drum section at the end was all him. I was like, “What?!” Every idea he did was really good. “Silo” was already the quietest song, his approach made it even more gated. Then we added acoustic guitars, and that really changed it.

Corneille: That one definitely started a lot of the character that is prevalent in the album, like our vocal approach and layering.

Semi: The hardest for me was “Purple (End of the World).” I just didn’t enjoy recording it.

Fionn: Semi had already made full demo versions of all the songs before we played them as a band. He had to hand his babies to the room.

Liam: “Drought” was tough for me. It had been around since we were teenagers.

Semi: Since you were a teenager. I was 24!

Liam: We almost overworked it. Eventually, we realised the best way was to play it live and capture that energy. That’s how it ended up the way it did.

Semi: For whatever we do next, it’ll be more live-based. Fionn’s gonna engineer our records, and I know he's a good live producer. We’ll probably plug in and record that way. We're so good like that.

You seem to be having a lot of fun in your music videos.

Semi: We’re five very goofy people. Even if I'm having a bad day, I'll come to practice, someone will say something dumb, and I'll start laughing and forget about it. Then we’ll leave practice. I'll be like, “Wait, I was annoyed, wasn't I?” When it's time to get serious, we get serious, but-

Corneille: [laughs.]

Semi: I don't know why he's laughing. [all laugh.] Make no mistake, Deniz: We don't fuck around.

Maybe we’ll make that the title: “We don’t fuck around.” [all laugh.]

Semi: For the videos, our director, Oisín (Vi) Brennan, turns up with his camera rig, and we just have fun after. People ask us, “How did you get this take?” It’s all really simple. There was one video with only six or seven people on set.

Corneille: [gestures the viral “67” meme with his hands, making everyone laugh.]

Semi: I have fun doing music with the band, purely because we're friends. Honestly, that's what it is.

Corneille: Our chemistry is unique for the type of music we play. There's this hyper fixation on being cool, putting shades on on stage and turning your back on the crowd. If you do that the whole time, you miss everything else.

I see that a lot in Berlin, where I live: Artists trying so hard to seem cool that it becomes difficult to connect.

Semi: That doesn’t really work in Dublin, or even Ireland. No one’s trying to act like a celebrity. If your music is good, people will treat you that way anyway. You don’t have to force it.

Liam: It comes down to intention. If someone’s quiet because they’re shy, that’s one thing. If it’s a kind of holier-than-thou attitude, that’s different.

Do you keep dream journals, and do dreams influence your music?

Semi: Not really, but I used to write what I thought each song would do, like whether people would mosh or sway. It had more song aspirations.

Liam: I have dreams sometimes where I'm sitting at Connolly Station or something, and there's not a full song but a bit of a melody playing on the intercom. When I wake up, I'm recollecting it in a vague way. I have a practice piano in my room, and I'll get it down in a voice memory so I don't forget.

Corneille: I used to struggle with sleep, so I’d imagine performing a full set of original songs in my head. I’d think through all the sounds, chords, and progressions until I fell asleep. Sometimes the ideas would be sick, and I would keep playing the same progression in my head. I also have a practice keyboard at home. I would play and record on that, just logging whatever I think is interesting.

Fionn: I don’t really think in terms of dreams or long-term aspirations. I’m here because I enjoyed playing drums as a kid and decided to pursue it. If I think too far ahead, I’ll get lost. Taking things step by step is the only way it works for me.

Let’s imagine we’re at a Musicians Theme Park 100 years from now. Which one of your lyrics would you like to see written on Cable Boy’s memorial?

Corneille: From “Icarus”: “Ebony’s cool, keep me in my place.”

Semi: “Icarus” is about ambition. You only go as far as society will lowkey allow you. I would also say that a lot of the album is not me. I'm writing about specific situations, or, sometimes, things that get projected on us as a band. There's three black people in our rock band. People get really weird about that. In an interview we did, the first thing the guy said was, “When I saw your picture, this wasn't what I expected to hear.” I was shocked, but as a band, we can only control our output, not people’s expectations.

Jason: Someone once called us “Marvin Gaye with shoegaze.”

Semi: There's so many things we heard. If we weren't such goofy guys, we would be more angry. We called our music “goth-disco”. No matter how much you want to define things for yourself, people will find a way to define it for you. I would do

a disservice to the band if every time I was met with that, I'm like, “Let's change our shit!” We do it for ourselves. Otherwise, what's the point, you know?

Forever is out now. A longer version of this interview is available at thegoo.ie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rpHHYE2FjE

Words: Deniz Ekim Tilif