Brit-rock's odd men out are 'in'

By MIKE HOULAHAN

Gomez are "slightly odd" compared with other bands, singer-guitarist Ben Ottewell says ... and that suits him just fine.

The English five-piece - in Auckland this week - aren't the only ones happy to be following their own eccentric musical path.

Critics love them. The band's debut album Bring It On won Britain's biggest music award, the Mercury Prize.

And fans love them, too: three top-10 albums is proof of that.

"Our ambitions are slightly different to most people's.

"Most music today is produced to be played on the radio, but we don't do that. We just want to make great albums, basically, not something that fits on to the radio ...

"If I knew how it worked I might dash off a single," he laughs.

Not knowing how things work has been a virtue throughout Gomez' career. Olly Peacock (drums) and Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica) - who had known each other their entire lives - met Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar) at college, and decided to record some songs.

Ball, who had met Ottewell while studying at Sheffield University, roped him in to help, and rough demos were laid down.

Someone who knew someone who worked in a record store passed on the tape for them to listen to, and before they knew it - without a name or a live show to their credit - the band soon to be known as Gomez had a record deal.

"All we did was make a demo and drop it off to a guy we knew," Ottewell says. "We never expected anything of it, but it turned out he had a few connections and before we knew it, we found ourselves signed.

"I think we have changed since then, but I don't think in any quantifiable way. We are a lot more confident playing now, because we never really started out as a live band in the sense that a lot of bands do - they'll gig for a year and then maybe get a deal and somehow figure out how to become a studio band.

"We kind of did it the other way around - we hadn't actually played a gig at all before we signed. It's all about how you evolve as a musician I suppose."

The first step for Gomez was to get a name, a step which, like many in their career, was somewhat accidental.

At an early gig, when still not permanently named, they had put up a sign saying "Gomez, the gig is here" - what was meant to be a message for a friend was assumed by most to be a clever advertising slogan, and the name stuck.

Once 1998's masterful debut Bring It On was released the name was established with half-a-million albums sold.

However, its skilful blending of three gifted songwriters and vocalists with Brit-pop leanings and a love of vintage American blues and pop had Gomez targeted as revivalists.

It was a brand they emphatically denied with 1999's technology-drenched Liquid Sky - an album almost as experimental in its own way as the highly touted Beta Band's efforts - and this year's In Our Gun followed in its brother's illustrious footsteps.

"There are a lot of drum machines on the new one, and we've done a lot of sampling, sequencing and programming," Ottewell says.

"I always found it very frustrating when people referred to us as holding up this kind of trad thing - it wasn't true. Essentially the reason why that record Bring It On, which is the one they are referring to, sounds like that is because that's all we had to work with.

"Once we had a bit of money we were able to buy things and start exploring new areas, which is essentially what we do rather than go back over the part. Put a machine in front of us and we'll try to get a tune out of it basically.

"Army Dub on the new record is like that: it's basically Olly and Ian figuring out how to use this thing called the Roland 505 ... and they got a tune out of it.

"I reckon unfamiliarity with things is kind of inspiring. You've got no choice but to approach things differently because you've got no idea how it works. You're bound to get something different out of it."

- NZPA

* Gomez play at the St James, Auckland, tomorrow with support from Pluto and Chris Knox.