No pun intendo

The Zen Arcade, formed from the ashes of The Strypes, released their first track 'Don't Say A Word' on October 30.

Pasted in the upper corner of The Zen Arcade’s Bedrock Studios, just over the door, is a by now yellowed-through-age set-list, a running order of tracks played by a fledgling Strypes at the fabled Gonzo Theatre.

It occurred months before their defining appearance on The Late Late Toy Show (2010), and light years from dashing through rain-sodden Soho streets, gear-in-hand, to play back-to-back shows at London’s The Blues Kitchen and Ronnie Scotts’.

The band was even in pre-Ross Farrelly infancy, a concert inhabited primarily by glowing mums, proud dads, close relatives, and closer friends.

“It was our first ever,” remembers Pete O’Hanlon, before recoiling from hindsight: “... and it was f**kin’ atrocious!”

The running order went from ‘I Got A Feeling’ by the Black Eyed Peas to ‘Whiskey in the Jar’, followed by the Ghostbusters and Spider-Man theme songs, the ‘Do You Like Waffles?’ novelty song and the end song from Jack Black’s ‘School of Rock’.

There are some redeeming features musters Pete- ‘You Really Got Me’ by the Kinks, and ‘Heartbeats’ by Jose Gonzalez, and an encore of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses.

“We leave it there to remind ourselves just how, at a point in time, we thought that was a good idea.”

Forged from the ashes of The Strypes’ end-of-2018 split, The Zen Arcade comprises of bassist Pete, Ross on vocals, and Evan Walsh as drummer and keyboardist.

If anything the set-list serves as a blunt reminder of just how much they’ve matured, both collectively and creatively.

The trip down memory lane is an unexpected diversion in the band’s fledgling journey approaching release of their debut track ‘Don’t Say A Word’, out October 30.

Recorded late last year with Damien Brennan, who previously worked with The Strypes, it was produced by Frank McGing and mastered finally by record producer Jon Astley, best known for his co-production work with Glyn Johns on The Who’s 1978 ‘Who Are You’ album.

The process was undertaken by Astley in Pete Townsend’s old demo room, utilising the same synthesiser purposed for iconic hits such as ‘Won’t Be Fooled Again’.

“Damien had done sound for us for years, so he’s on our wavelength. He knows how we play, how we interplay. He knew the references too, like if we turned to him and said we wanted to sound like Bob Mold, he had that wherewithal and tech as well to get that sound.”

‘Don’t Say A Word’ had its first official radio play on RTÉ’s Arena with Sean Rocks at the end of September.

The Arena airing was followed-up quickly with plays on Dublin City FM, as well as BBC Northern Ireland. Thus far reception has been good for the track, which will also have a limited release on cassette, the B-side being an exclusive shortened episode of the band’s self-promoting podcast, ‘Higher Fidelity’.

“It was such a strange relief,” Pete says of hearing ‘Don’t Say A Word’ broadcast for the first time. “It was this track we totally made ourselves, and had kept secret for such a long time. You squirrel away for so long that you forget people are going to hear it. So when it does finally get out there there’s this whole new excitement.”

‘Don’t Say A Word’ has been released under the band’s own record label - ‘Dental Records’.

It’s indicative of where they as musicians now find themselves in a post-Strypes world.

No longer is there a management or record company to appease, but neither is there safety-net of a well-oiled PR machine to push promotion.

While the working relationship between The Strypes and Universal concluded on a positive tone, admittedly the need to have every decision passed through a filtered layer of around 60 CC’ed execs had become draining. Undaunted by the mammoth task at hand, Pete, Ross and Evan are giddily energised by their new found autonomy.

The result has been a whirlwind 12 months of self-promotion, where every press-pack posted, stamp licked and page printed feeling like yet another step in the right direction.

What the trio did was build a liveable world for their fans around the band, through regular podcasts, self-published scene zine ‘Cro Mag Non’, and all remarkably at the same time, with no music to offer.

The DIY’ness is a badge worn proudly, and extends even to them staging a fake signing to their own label with the help of Joanne McGarrity Dental Practice in Cavan Town.

On the musical front importantly, Pete addresses inevitable comparisons to The Strypes sound that had gone before. He keenly rebuts that there would have been “zero point” playing a genre of music simply to try to be different.

“This is the type of music I’ve always liked. This is what I listen to. This is the music I’m always going to like, so why not play it?”

If anything, he suggests ‘Don’t Say A Word’ and other tracks The Zen Arcade are currently applying polish to for a potential future album, are an “extension” of where he hoped The Strypes would have ended up anyway.

“Your Dr Feelgood, graduating more into nu wave. Graham Coxon more-so than Nick Lowe or Dave Edmunds,” says Pete, who along with Evan, used the recent lockdown to co-produce an album for the first time with Texan trash-glam-punks, Lord Friday the 13th.

The multi-talented wonder-siblings Sloane and Felix Lenz first met The Strypes while the band toured in Nashville, and their new album was subsequently mixed and mastered by Brendan Benson of The Raconteurs, who for those fond of remembering, played Origins downstairs at McGinnity’s Bar in Cavan Town back around 2010.

Pete is talking to the Celt from his own home, surrounded by press-packs waiting to be mailed out.

There is no follow-up track in the pipeline, yet, but he says the band loves being masters of their own destiny.

“The buck stops where it stops. If something needs doing it has to get done, otherwise we’ve no one to blame but ourselves.”

He adds: “Where the band is at the moment, we’re totally satisfied with how it is being run. In a couple of months time if we need some extra help, we’ll answer that question when we get there. Right now we have a very consolidated vision of what we want the band to be.”

This unerring sense of self-confidence is a mainstay of The Zen Arcade.

The lengths gone to self-promote have been nothing short of remarkable. They vary from standing at the bottom on Dublin’s Grafton Street all manner of weather wearing a self-made sandwich board handing out zines, to switching their podcast to Zoom to comply with Covid restrictions and invite fans to take part themselves.

“People love when a band reacts to them, whether that’s a comment on Instagram, or a Like on Facebook or whatever. We’ve just gone that step further to get them involved. We’re in an age now with bands where, particularly for online promotion, it’s better to cater for the 50 fans who really care than the 5,000 who don’t in the hope you’ll bring more with you,” says Pete.

“We’ve managed to hold onto these people for almost a year even without music. By now we feel we know some of these people personally, and we do now know some personally, that to have them support us is lovely and to keep them on board is a prime objective. There’s one person in Chattanooga who prints off every edition of the zine, basically because she wants to support bands trying something new. It’s because the whole venture of the band is so independent, we may as well go above and beyond what we can give back for as long as we can.”