Oppenheimer are from Belfast, but owe their success to embracing all things American, including lucrative spots on TV shows and commercials, writes Jim Carroll
ROCKY O'Reilly and Shaun Robinson have reached that stage where they can finish each other's sentences. One will start telling a story about what happened after that show in a warehouse on the wrong side of the tracks in Baltimore, and the other will finish it off with an anecdote about a show a few nights later in Birmingham, Alabama.
This has probably been going on for some time. Rocky and Shaun first hooked up during a recording session for Torgas Valley Reds, a band that featured Robinson on drums. Afterwards, the Belfast boys began chatting ("I think it was about synths," says Robinson), stayed talking all night, and Oppenheimer came into being.
That was in 2003. Since then, there's been a bouncing self-titled debut album, a few lengthy jaunts around the US, much love from the TV-making community, and a lot of tales to tell.
Today, they're talking about their new album for the first time. Oppenheimer recorded Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It in the Belfast building that houses the Oh Yeah music centre. "We recorded in absolutely every part of the building," says O'Reilly. "We even recorded in the elevator."
One thing's for sure: you won't find an album with as much boisterous fizz and fuzz this year. An action-packed box of tricks, Take the Whole Midrange is the giddiest rollercoaster ride in the park, a sugar-rush soundtracked by hyperactive melodies and harmonies. Each song is spirited and full-bodied, with wonder and awe between glorious guitars, synth whooshes and merry handclaps. It's easily one of the sunniest albums to ever appear from this rain-soaked island.
The pair are chuffed to bits with how it turned out. "We started by throwing all these stupid ideas together to see what came of them," says O'Reilly. "And some of them really did work out."
Like all of their recordings, the album was made with touring in mind. That's what Oppenheimer do: they get off their backsides, get into a van and tour.
"A small band like us is only going to survive by gigging," reasons Robinson. "Selling music is like a dying artform. People are very appreciative when you play live and they will buy the album afterwards from the merchandise stand, especially Stateside."
"But if people don't move forward and accept what is happening, they are going to be left behind," points out O'Reilly. "You can see a lot of people in major labels going crazy right now because they just don't know what to do. You have to embrace it. If 50,000 people downloaded our album for free in the morning, that's terrible for our labels. But they have to think about what's next. Before CDs came along, someone had to think of the next thing."
Oppenheimer's sights have always been turned towards the United States. Reading American authors and watching American movies meant their songs were soaked with American themes and motifs.
It was a mindset out of sync with their peers. "The psyche of bands in the north is that you have to go to London, you have to make a splash in London," Robinson says. "I've played in bands since the early 1990s and I've spent so many of those years back and forth to London.
"Fair enough, sometimes it does pay off to go all that way to play one show in front of five people. But you could also drive 500 miles to London to play a show and the label guy who is supposed to come to see you misses his train or his kid is sick and he doesn't make the gig. You're driving back, working out that it has cost you the guts of £1,000 and you're feeling terrible about being in a band and creating music. You should never have to feel like that about music."
When US-based label Bar-None came calling, Oppenheimer jumped at the opportunity. "They were the first label to turn around and say that they really liked our stuff. When they came along, we didn't even think what we were doing had legs. We just thought of ourselves as two chancers with keyboards."
Oppenheimer landed in New York for the first time in April 2006 and, three hours later, played a show alongside Hot Chip at the South Street seaport. Since then, they've put in the miles. Recently, on the back of a chance meeting at a gig in Dublin, they toured the US for three months with They Might Be Giants.
"It was three months of the same routine right across America," says Robinson. "Wake up, drive, unload, play gig, do merch, load out, sleep. It became a bit of a blur." But it's better than the alternative. "If you sit at home, no one is going to hear about you. But if you're out there doing things or looking like you're active, word will filter around about you."
Touring means TV and film music supervisors get to hear about you. The band have already had songs featured on a rake of US TV shows, including Ugly Betty, Gossip Girl and How I Met Your Mother.
"Getting songs on shows like Ugly Betty or on ads for Fujifilm saved this band," O'Reilly says. "We wouldn't have been able to go on tour or pay rent without that money. These things allow this band to exist and to do things like take three months last year to make the album.
"And it has other knock-on effects because people come to your MySpace site and download your songs and come to shows as a result. You can't go wrong with that."
See/Hear
See the video for new track Look Up at www.myspace.com/oppenheimer
Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It is released on May 23rd. Oppenheimer play Dolan's Warehouse, Limerick, (May 14); Savoy, Cork (May 16); Róisín Dubh, Galway (May 17); and Empire Music Hall, Belfast (May 18)
