The Emperor's new tunes

O Emperor's new album has a glittering array of influences, but the band have worked hard to carve out an uncanny core sound, writes BRIAN BOYD

YOU PROBABLY thought that you were safe in the conviction that this year’s best Irish debut album was by Villagers. Prepare for a real challenge, though, that emanates from the rock’n’roll killing fields of Dunmore East.

The Co Waterford five piece O Emperor have been going quietly about their post-rock/retro-rock business for a few years now, but the release of Hither Thither, ranging from spooky electronic and pop psychedelia to a blissed out West Coast FM sound, shows there’s a huge sense of ambition here.

"We sort of had to call the album Hither Thitherbecause we don't really have a coherent sound as such," says the band's vocalist and guitarist Paul Savage. "The five of us have equal input and there's just this big different dynamic of styles happening. Some people are bringing in reggae songs, others hardcore punk songs. Everything gets brought in. The job for us as a band is find a way to rein it all in and make sense of it."

All in their early 20s, the band started playing together while at secondary school in Waterford and continued when most of them ended up studying in Cork. “We all knew music was what we wanted to do so the courses we were doing were all sound engineering and sound-recording courses,” says Savage.

Playing wherever they could (mainly Waterford and Cork colleges), they battled to get a core sound together. “It was a good year or two before we finally settled on a sound,” says Savage. “Some members would be big Beach Boys fans, others would be into Radiohead, others again Aphex Twin. But we sort of found common ground – we all liked Elliot Smith, The Flaming Lips and Midlake. But when it comes to our own songwriting, what happens is an idea will be pulled apart and arranged different – so technically all the songs are written as a band.”

When they’re not flexing their post-rock muscles on the album, there are some memorable Laurel Canyon-era type tracks – and at least one of their songs wouldn’t sound out of place on a Steely Dan album. “We do have some strange reference points,” says Savage. “We love bands such as America and Bread – names that would be seen as very unfashionable but I suppose because they’re so unfashionable, they’re almost cool.”

While very much of the here and now, it's their ability to conjure up sounds and stylings from decades ago that sets them apart. The majority of bands their age have a uniformity of influences and a narrowness of sound, but tracks such as Heisenberg (which could be a Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd song) or Sedalia(which is pure 1970s soft rock) display an uncanny musical nous. "I suppose there is homage paid to a classic song-writing era," says Savage. "And we do work the vocal harmonies so the sound is going to be reminiscent of a certain time and style."

The niche music press will have a real problem with them. "We'd be reading Kerrang!or NMEand realising very clearly that we're not a band with our finger on the pulse," says Savage. "There is that very English music press thing of who's in and who's out, but for us it's always been a word-of-mouth build."

It was word of mouth that got them their biggest gig to date – opening for Mumford and Sons on a tour earlier this year. “It’s remarkable how big they are and what their level of support is,” says Savage. “I remember walking out into this big venue in Edinburgh and there was this massive cheer – the crowd thought we were them. Then when they realised, it went kind of quiet for a while.”

In the wake of the album’s release, O Emperor have scheduled a month-long countrywide tour. “The way it is with a first album, we’ve had these songs for ages – we’ve been playing them live for two or three years now,” says Savage. “We feel they are finely honed now and, yes, we do feel we have got to that ‘coherent sound’ stage. Now it’s over to other people.”

Hither Thither is released tomorrow

Read the album review in The Ticket tomorrow

See O Emperor on their Irish tour, details on myspace.com/oemperorofficial

Watch them play three songs live for State.ie at url.ie/7nto