An independent Lyf

Last year Wu Lyf caused a stir by refusing to do any publicity for their first album. They're still happiest doing things in their own way, bassist Tom McClung tells LAUREN MURPHY

Before your album came out last year, you declined interviews and released very little information about yourselves. That veil of mystery certainly got people talking, but in retrospect, how do you feel that approach worked?

There’s nothing I’d take back that we did, really. We ended up doing things a certain way because we didn’t really know what we were doing. Nothing’s gonna change in the future; we’re never actually gonna know what the right thing is to do, because . . . well, we don’t think it’s that important to learn. It’s gone pretty well for us so far. We can make another record, and we’re not crippled with massive debt. We’re all still getting paid, and we can all still travel, so it could be worse.

Being a buzz band is great, but at the time were you wary of the hype machine swallowing you up?

Not really. As long as we didn’t put massive pressure on ourselves to be what everyone else expected us to be, it ended up not affecting anything, really. The only thing that affected us was people saying that we were these Messiahs of music, or whatever . . . that was ridiculous.

You’d think it would be hard to maintain a level of secrecy in the age of the internet, but you managed it quite well.

I guess in theory it might be hard, but if you just don’t put a lot of effort into making a blatant personalisation of each band member, it’s easier. So it was actually less effort than to try to make yourself “famous”.

How did Wu Lyf come together?

Evans [Kati, guitarist] and Joe [Manning, drummer] went to school together, and I knew Ellery [Roberts, vocalist] when I was younger because we used to skateboard together. Ellery joined a band that Evans and Joe were starting, called Spitting Blood. I think they kicked their bassist out, and I stayed at their house one night and ended up just slapping my way in there on the bass. I said “Y’know, I can slap. You need me.”

Go Tell Fire to the Mountain is a very primal, impulsive-sounding record.

Did you have any particular sound or influences in mind when you made it?

We had certain albums in mind, but we didn’t really successfully put those elements into the mix – just because it ended up being quite hard to get the whole thing to come together and just sound as best it could. I think that’s the one thing we learned from it; all you can do is just sound like yourself as much as possible.

That album was recorded in a church. What’s the plan for the next record?

We’re gonna go into the studio, just because we wanna experiment with more sounds. Because there were a lot of things about the first album that I’m not sure did some of the songs justice. Also, we’ve never made a record in a studio before, so it’ll be fun. It’ll be different. It was really hard doing it in the church. It was cold!

Are you gonna produce it yourselves again?

I think we’re gonna get a producer. It sounds like I’m dashing all your dreams of indie glory here, doesn’t it?! I’m sorry . . .

But given Wu Lyf’s self-sufficiency up until now (they recorded and released the album on their own label, using funds raised by their fans, the Lucifer Youth Foundation), how are you planning to advance? Are you open to talking to an indie label for the next record, for example?

Personally, I don’t wanna do that. We’ve got to a certain level now, on our own, and if we’re doing that now, without any big-label promotion or industry trickery, then there’s no reason why we can’t just keep going like that. And also, I think a lot of the reason that people believe in our band is because it’s something that’s built with a real independent mindset. I’s not just an image thing, it’s so that we can do what we want – moreso than bands that are on a label.

You’re playing some new songs on this tour – how is the second album shaping up?

I think everyone wants it to sound pretty different. The good thing is that it’s happening quite naturally; I don’t want it to sound like we’re playing the old songs with a new pedal.

Do you feel with album No 2 that you need to show the naysayers that you’re not just some trendy flash in the pan?

I dunno. I think the second we start trying to get worried about some sort of hypothetical audience, that’s the time we start worrying about our music. And that’s not good. I think we’ll just improve. It’s a natural thing. We just have to let it happen.

Wu Lyf play Whelan’s, Dublin on March 19