O’Death have been touring Europe and the States for some time now and haven’t seemed able to stop. With only a handful of days off from an incredibly long tour I expected them to be exhausted, bowed and generally worn out. But I found them so far from fatigue it was hard to keep up. We settled down in the smoking area of the Hoxton Bar And Kitchen, hustled by fans and drinkers, to find out a little more about the inimitable O’Death…
Greg Jamie
BCR: So you’ve got another 42 dates before Dec 4th which is …
Greg Jamie: That’s exactly right, 42 scheduled gigs.
Gabe Darling: 43 actually, we’ve just added another one.
BCR: Do you expect to live through to the end? It’s seems gruelling
Greg Jamie: I don’t know, I hope so. It’s a busy year
Gabe Darling: You putting a curse on us?
BCR: Do you guys feel more comfortable on the road than at home now?
David Rogers-Berry: I do, I hate being stuck in New York.
Greg Jamie: When you’ve got a new album you’ve got to tour behind it or you won’t get anywhere.
BCR: Yeah, but you’ve been touring non stop since 2005…
Greg Jamie: Yeah, well we’re still waiting for the pay off but we’re enjoying ourselves, I think. As long as we stay getting along. We have a month here and there. This has probably been the most full on year so far and next year’s gonna be… It’ll eventually be unnecessary to keep our jobs.
BCR: Have you still got your day jobs?
Greg Jamie: As much as we can.
Jesse Newman: I’ve got, like, two labouring jobs at home and sometimes it’s still not enough which is why I still live with my fucking parents.
BCR: Surely that’s just accepting that this is a part of your life that should be as big or bigger than anything else in your life.
Greg Jamie: The trick is seeing it out as fully as you can, the project, and also have enough money to survive. And trying to do the two things at once is a tricky thing. But right now this is the priority.
Jesse Newman
Jesse Newman: Look at this fuck!
[Drummer David Rogers-Berry appears out of the crowd and joins us]
David Rogers-Berry: Our violin player is stuck in the crowded auditorium.
Gabe Darling: Which I’m worried we won’t be able to get into. Nothing is going to be fine. It’s all going to fall apart.
David Rogers-Berry: It’s all going to turn out horribly.
Gabe Darling: We should mention that our van either got stolen or…
Jesse Newman: We hope it got towed…
Gabe Darling: Back in the states since we’ve been over.
BCR: So this isn’t The Gladiator?
Jesse Newman: Oh The Gladiator! You know about The Gladiator?
David Rogers-Berry: The Dirt Dog.
BCR: Why is god against your vans?
David Rogers-Berry: We do very well with our vans. We just run ‘em into the ground, that’s all.
Greg Jamie: The Gladiator was wounded to begin with.
BCR: So you limped across the states with a broken horse?
Greg Jamie: Ha, yeah, exactly…
Gabe Darling: We don’t know about our van at the moment, hopefully it was towed.
Jesse Newman: I lost a bunch of gear as well…
David Rogers-Berry: A lot of bands have bad luck. When you put together five guys…
Greg Jamie: When you put together five downer dudes you’re gonna find some bad luck…
BCR: Have you been listening to country music sir?
Greg Jamie: [this part is to song…] This party’s depressing me, I’m gonna get wasted, beat up ma’ girlfriend, woah…
David Rogers-Berry: That’s a rough one…
Greg Jamie: No, no, there’s no spousal abuse…
Gabe Darling
BCR: So how have you managed to stay getting along with all this touring?
David Rogers-Berry: We ignore each other and don’t talk about anything important, ever.
Jesse Newman: I’ll pick fights with everybody, one at a time, and that gets everybody’s aggression out.
David Rogers-Berry: One tour at a time. Usually the fight is about a tour long.
Greg Jamie: To me this is like… a group of… brothers, ah…
David Rogers-Berry: A… band of brothers?...
Jesse Newman: David, no, you’re fucking this interview up!
David Rogers-Berry: I should have stayed inside…
BCR: So what’s been your favourite show?
David Rogers-Berry: This year?
Greg Jamie: Like the biggest crowd or?
BCR: No, like was it the Apocalypse Lounge days or…?
David Rogers-Berry: Those were the rough days…
Greg Jamie: Those were the hardest and weirdest times.
Gabe Darling: A lot of those down and dirty shows back in the beginning were some of the most fun.
Greg Jamie: Zero pressure, everyone’s crazy and you just get totally wasted. You’re in the basement of the seediest bar in Manhattan in the middle of the summer, there’s no air conditioning, there’s no anything. It’s just the hottest…
David Rogers-Berry: It’s like, 108 degrees in there.
Greg Jamie: It’s just disgusting. And you know everyone there is there because they want to be there. Because you can’t be there otherwise.
Jesse Newman: It was like, when you came down those stairs you hit a wall of solid funk.
BCR: Sorry, what? Solid fuck?
Jesse Newman: Ha, no, Funk.
David Rogers-Berry: A wall of solid FUCK, haha!
Greg Jamie: Solid fuck.
BCR: That’s a very different gig…
David Rogers-Berry: Yeah, we used to play orgies…
