Second first impressions

MUSIC:HOCKEY would probably agree with the view that F Scott Fitzgerald was talking through his hat. As far as the band from Portland are concerned, there are second acts in American life, writes JIM CARROLL

Right now, life couldn’t be sweeter for the four-piece. Their debut album is about to get a full-scale release from a major label. They’re touring so much that they can talk knowledgeably about the variations in backstage catering between France and England.

And the fan base is growing every time they play Too Fake, as people get hip to its fabulously funky, sleazy, infectious strut. Then, they play some more tunes and the wigging-out continues. Like we said, good times.

But as band co-founder Jeremy Reynolds explains, this is their second bite at the cherry. Back in 2002 when Hockey were just a two-piece, things were a whole lot different for himself and frontman Ben Grubin.

“We were doing more electronic, stripped-down, urban versions of what we are doing now,” he recalls. “It was all drum machines, keyboards and bass.”

The fledgling band attracted Sony’s attention and money. “We had a development deal with them,” says Reynolds, “but it just didn’t work out. For a start, there was the host of different issues which all bands go through. We were signed by one AR guy and he went somewhere else and we got passed from Epic to Columbia to some other label.”

There were some upsides. They recorded with Jerry Harrison, for instance.

"It was a really cool experience because we were such fans of Talking Heads," gushes Reynolds. "We actually recorded Song Awaywith him in 2006, and that's the version on the record."

But the Sony experience just wasn’t going to work out. “Being signed taught us that we didn’t have our end of the deal figured out. We realised that people are not going to roll over for you just because you have a record deal. When the lights go down, you have to make something really cool happen or people just won’t care.

“Not that we weren’t trying, but we came to a point where we knew it wasn’t working and we had to disappear and put a band together.”

One morning in early 2007, the duo packed a van, left LA and hit the road north. You could end up with a decent song out of that kind of scenario, but Hockey ended up in Spokane, Washington, instead.

“It was a really random pick,” says Reynolds. “We’d a friend we knew in university who was up there and he knew some people like Anthony who is now our drummer, and we met our guitarist Brian there too. It was sight unseen, a leap of faith. We just drove out of LA and never looked back.”

Swapping sunny California for the rainy Pacific Northwest worked out really well for the band.

“It was where we really began as a band. You can only go so far with two people and it made sense to have four of us writing songs and playing live.

“Spokane was an interesting backdrop in terms of the lyrical backdrop of the songs. There’s a couple of religious themes which come from living there and getting to know people who had a different view of the world to you.

“But I don’t think it had any real effect on our music. There’s an indie northwest rainy sound and I don’t think our style is part of that. We were always going to do our upbeat, dancey electronic pop no matter what. We weren’t going to sound like Modest Mouse.”

In between moving again from Spokane to a big shared house in Portland, Hockey recorded Mind Chaosand sorted themselves out as a band. "We're very much into experimenting when we go into the studio," says Reynolds.

“We’re influenced by a lot of dance music production, stuff like you’d get on the DFA label for example. But the songwriting and arrangements are definitely more pop.”

The band initially released Mind Chaosunder their own steam late last year. It attracted loads of positive reviews and, inevitably, record labels came knocking.

This time, though, the band were calling the shots. “Having the record done was a key factor,” explains Reynolds, “because we were not dealing with hypotheticals like having to get the album recorded or demoed or future recordings or all the other stuff which we had dealt with the first time around. The record said who we were and the labels had to deal with that.

“For us, we didn’t think too much about if it was an indie or a major. We went with what the universe gave us and didn’t go seeking out specific labels. We were in Portland and we were throwing a bit of a Hail Mary pass from there and didn’t feel like we had much leverage on our side. We had a friend we knew from LA who was doing scouting for EMI and she was one of the people we sent the record to. It was as random as that.”

As Hockey swagger out of the second- chance saloon, it seems that it’s now the right time for them. Anyone who saw the band play in Ireland this year – either blowing Passion Pit off the stage in March or rocking a tent at Oxegen last month – will know they’ve certainly got their live chops together.

Reynolds thinks this is probably a significant reason why Hockey version 2.0 are resonating more than Hockey version 1.0 ever did. “Myself and Ben have been working together for six-plus years now, so we kind of knew where we wanted to be as a live band. Now, all the live shows we’re doing are turning that map into reality. This year, we seem to have been touring non-stop and I hope the fact that we’re getting better and better comes across in the live shows. If it does, well, we’re doing what we set out to do.”

• Mind Chaosis released on August 14th. Hockey play Belfast's Spring Airbrake on September 21st and Dublin's Academy on September 22nd