In 2006, De Rosa‘s debut album, Mend, was released to a storm of critical applause, and support slots with established Scottish acts, Mogwai, Idlewild and Arab Strap, soon followed. Subsequently, De Rosa have spent the past three years, arguably, becoming one of Scotland’s most talented and vital underground acts.
This week, the band released their long-awaited follow-up to Mend – the atmospheric and assured Prevention. After listening, it’s hard not to imagine De Rosa setting sail from Glasgow’s underground towards the greener pastures of widespread recognition. Strong acclaim is, once again, rolling in from all corners of the press, while guest musician, Barry Burns of Mogwai, states: “I seriously count it as one of the biggest honours of my career to have been asked to play some piano on this sublime recording.”
I caught up with guitarist Chris Connick to discuss the new album, Glasgow’s music scene and chocolate-based treats.
Stereokill: In your own words, how would you describe Prevention?
CC: Ten tracks of misery and place, from Lanarkshire.
Stereokill: You joined the De Rosa shortly after the completion of Mend in 2006. How did it feel to finally record an album with the band?
CC: I played some bass for a few sessions on Mend, but it was a more direct “play the given part” type affair. Since joining the band proper we have, as a group, got a lot more confident in taking [vocalist, guitarsist] Martin Henry’s original ideas and experimenting with our own parts around them. As a result, recording Prevention was a much more involved experience for me, and one which I hopefully added to in a positive way, musically. I also got really good at Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo (the definitive format) as the recording studio lounge had it set up.
Stereokill: How does this album differ from Mend?
CC: Besides from being a more involved affair in terms of writing as a unit, Prevention differs sonically from Mend quite a bit. The songs are more layered, and we used a lot more electronics and beats on this album. There’s also more emphasis on the albums coherence as a whole, and I think it plays better as a collection of songs than Mend did.
Stereokill: The album features artwork from renowned Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray. How did this come about?
CC: Our friend Sorcha Dallas (and wife-to-be of Robert Johnson from Life Without Buildings, who played on our album) is an art dealer and gallery owner based in Glasgow. She helped put us in touch with Alasdair regards the cover art. Being a huge fan of Alasdair’s writing and in particular books such as Lanark and 1982, Janine, I was really excited and a bit scared when the sittings for the portrait came around. It was really cool to meet Alasdair and he turned out to be a lovely and engaging man, so I can thoroughly dismiss the adage “Never meet your heroes” as absolute bollocks.
Stereokill: What are the band’s plans for the remainder of the year?
CC: We will be touring Prevention throughout the UK and Europe, and have a few festivals lined up in the summer. There’s talk of a possible mini-release later on in the year, and we’ll start work on recording album three by the end of 2009.
Stereokill: De Rosa recorded “Steam Comes Off Our House” (featuring words by writer Michael Faber) for Roddy Woomble’s Ballads of the Book. How did the band get involved in the project?
CC: I think Roddy contacted our label Chemikal Underground and put the initial idea to them to see if any of their bands would be interested in the project. We were keen, so we were given three of Michael’s poems to choose from. Martin wrote the music and chose to arrange the words from “Steam” around it. It was recorded in one day at the Chem 19 Studio, in Hamilton. Throughout the whole process we never met Michel, but I did read an interview in which he said he liked what we had done with his words, which came as a relief.
Stereokill: How does it feel to be included on the Chemikal Underground‘s roster?
CC: Chemikal Underground were a huge influence on my musical tastes when I was growing up. It was really exciting to hear bands such as Mogwai, The Delgados and Arab Strap, all guys who grew up in the same place as myself, write such amazing music, get played on the radio etc, and do it all off their own back. I hugely admire the members of The Delgado’s for starting Chemikal and affecting Scottish musical culture in such a positive manner. In fact, it was probably The Delgados that made me want to be in a band, so to have them as your ”boss” is a uniquely warm feeling. To even be considered in the same category as any of the label’s bands is a total honour and I am very proud to be linked to Chemikal Underground’s esteemed heritage.
Stereokill: Are De Rosa concerned with commercial success?
CC: I think the party line on this one is: no we’re not. Although, personally, it would be nice to have a sustainable career and modest income from the songs we write, I’m not particularly interested in mincing about town with a camel skin jacket and Cuban cigar in hand. We certainly don’t compromise in terms of song-writing or worry about writing a “catchy chorus”, and commercial success has never been a topic discussed between us.
Stereokill: What’s your take on the music industry these days?
CC: It seems almost too easy to say that the music industry, on the whole, is fucked, so I’m not going to. I think the music industry will be okay in general if they embrace new technologies and find ways to adapt to new mediums of listening to and obtaining music. It’s quite funny to watch major labels shit themselves at the prospect of downloads etc. and introduce awful ideas like DRM, and removing sound from their artists youtube videos and the like. As ever, it will be interesting to watch how the smaller independents deal quickly with the climate over the next few years and just how slow the majors will be to react to obvious solutions. My predictions are that CDs will be scrapped and everything will be downloaded onto your phone, or directly into your brain or something. Vinyl will still have it’s place no doubt. And flying cars can’t be too far off either, which is pretty exciting.
Stereokill: Where do you see yourself in ten years time? Is there anything that you’d like to achieve?
CC: Besides owning a flying car, I would like to do at least one more album with De Rosa, and play gigs in as many cities that I have not yet visited as possible. I don’t really have any other musical agenda beyond that, and as long as I continue to enjoy writing and playing music I hope people will still help me release it.
Stereokill: What’s your take on Glasgow’s underground scene? Are there any upcoming bands that our readers should be listening to?
CC: The music scene in Glasgow seems to have been permanently vibrant since I was old enough to go to gigs, and the quality of bands have, in the main, been very high throughout this time. To be fair it’s probably the same in all the major towns in the UK, and the cycle of interest just works it’s way round them in turn over the years. It seems currently that Glasgow is again enjoying its fair share of the limelight in terms of bands getting national recognition, and there’s definitely loads of great bands kicking about town currently. Two of my favourites right now are Mitchell Museum and My Cousin I Bid You Farewell. Go MySpace them, go on, do it. And tell them I told you to so they have to buy me a drink when I see them in the pub.
Stereokill: Do you prefer performing live or recording?
CC: I would have to say playing live is my favourite. Although, I enjoy the focus and creativity that comes from being in the studio bubble, and it’s certainly the more rewarding experience in the long term. I love the challenges faced by bringing the songs to a live format. The singular nature of a live performance, from the differences in the space and sound you are performing in to the actual playing of the songs really excites me, and we use quite a lot of equipment these days, which can be fun to see if it’s all going to fit on stage sometimes. When it all goes to plan it’s a really satisfying thing to do, but when you fuck up a song you’ve played hundreds of times over you can start to wonder what wrongs with your brain.
Stereokill: Who are your key musical influences?
CC: I bought my first electric guitar at high school because I got really into Jimi Hendrix, it was a sunburst Stratocaster which I think I swapped with Martin for a flying V when I was 17, and regretted it ever since. He knew more about guitars than me, mind you, and definitely fleeced me for a bargain. In terms of guitar playing I’d say Joey Santiago (Pixies), Marc Ribot (Tom Waits) and Graham Coxon (Blur) have influenced me the most to date. Musically, in general, I have dirty pop ears and love Prince amongst other things, some that I’d be too ashamed to admit in public, but I think it’s a useful tool and a healthy alternative to have within the band. And given half the chance, I’d sneak in a pop chord whenever no one was looking during the recording of Prevention.
What are your favourite albums of all time?
CC: My favourite is without a doubt What’s Going On? by Marvin Gaye, which is the most lyrically/musically perfect and coherent album I have ever heard. It’s also good to listen to with a nasty hangover and always cheers me up. Then I could take my pick from any one of Tom Wait’s albums, which at the moment is probably Nighthawks at the Diner. It’s an excellent reminder of how good Wait’s is live, and the performative nature of his music and character is a joy to listen to.
Stereokill: Finally, is a Twix a chocolate bar or a biscuit?
CC: I would suggest that for tax reasons a Twix should be considered a biscuit, although I’m not sure I believe that’s technically correct. A Twix can be many things to many people. Sometimes it can even be more than one thing to the same person. For me, it can serve as a tasty snack with a butter cookie centre, caramel topping and milk chocolate coating. I have also on occasion utilised the Twix as a full blown meal in itself, sometimes with a side of chips. For those trying to shave a few years off your shitty life, why not try a Twix deep-fried? It’s a tasty calorific nightmare. Have a few cigarettes after it too for added kick. I would however like to state that there are many other suitable varieties of snack out there and De Rosa do not in any way endorse the Twix brand.
Prevention is out now through Chemikal Underground and Gargleblast records.
For tour dates, check the band’s MySpace
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Andrew Lindsay is a Glasgow-based singer-songwriter and deputy editor of Stereokill. 
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