North by north-west

Don't really know about this government funding of music thing, but I suppose for bands starting off, there's a big argument for taking it where you find it. In Dublin, the Ballyfermot Rock College has helped produce Mundi and Damien Dempsey - and you can make your own mind up on that. Up Derry Way, The North Western Musicians' Collective (now The Nerve Centre) has been working quietly behind the scenes for many a year and its biggest break to date is surely that one of its alumni has signed to the Geffen label, the same label that propelled Nirvana to the toppermost of the poppermost.

Cuckoo (Brian Deery, Andrew Ferris, Jason Flood and Ruairi O'Doherty) are but the latest in a clutch of north-western bands (Schtum, Scheer and Rare) who are inheriting the inestimable mantle of truly great bands like The Moondogs and The Undertones. Not much older than Ash, and displaying a healthy fixation with American guitar music, their debut Geffen album, Breathing Lessons, is a worthy - if flawed - blast across the bows. With a pedigree that includes having had John O'Neill teach them how to play the guitar and Billy Doherty once managing them, the band had a good start, courtesy of the North Western Musicians' Collective. But where they go now is anybody's guess, given that they were signed by an American label, they have an American style sound and their album won't be released over there until some time next year.

"We hope the America thing takes off," says Andrew Ferris from the band, "because back in the early days we were influenced by The Pixies and The New York Dolls and obviously the big guitar sound we have now isn't really in vogue in Britain." Strange, then, that arch Brit-popper and Suede producer Ed Buller worked on your album, when it really should have been more of a Steve Albini-type thing? "I suppose the record company and the band thought that getting Buller in would be a perfect mix of the two styles and we're certainly happy enough with it," says Andrew.

The album is a culmination of a lot of hard, self-financed work on Cuckoo's part. An early single on their own indie label, the marvellous Non Sequitur, didn't shift that many units but found itself on loads of Now That's What I Call Indie type compilations, where the Derry novices found their song sandwiched between Wonderwall and Common People. "Getting the song on so many compilations was great for raising money, as we weren't signed at the time and needed the dosh to bring out new singles," says Andrew.

With A&R people waking up and smelling the expense accounts, Cuckoo soon found themselves playing footsie with three major record companies at the same time, only for it all to end in tears. "Three major record companies and three broken deals," remembers Andrew with no little regret. Back to their own self-financed ways, they found themselves playing an In The City showcase two years ago, ran into some people from Geffen and signed along the dotted line.

The result is Breathing Lessons, an album that is getting far better coverage in Kerrang? and Metal Hammer than it is in NME and Melody Maker. "I suppose the rock press is less style-led and less fashion-conscious than the indie press. Of course I'd love to be on the cover of NME - but maybe we're just not right for this particular time, when it's all about Gomez and bands like that," he says.

Is the Northern Irish/Undertones angle played up much abroad? "No, I think it's different now and what with bands like Ash and Divine Comedy and Therapy? people have learnt to stop asking stupid questions about the North." Some Derry bands like That Petrol Emotion addressed the political situation around them in their songs while others, like The Moondogs, studiously avoided it. What's The Cuckoo line on that? "It's strange because I'm 21 and have been totally immersed in it all my life, so I suppose in a way it's difficult to be objective about it. Some people say that there are darker emotions in the songs than you find elsewhere - but whether that has anything to do about the place where we grew up or not, I still can't decide. Can anybody?"

Cuckoo's Breathing Lessons is out now on Geffen. The band plays Eamon Dorans, Dublin on August 6th.