KERBDOG
Kerbdog were a big vibe in my teenage years. Not too heavy metal, not too indie rock, what grunge might have sounded like if it emerged from Ireland and not Seattle. For a while there, they were pretty much the summary of my music taste, distilled.
As with all the bands on this website, their time in the spotlight was all too brief. And yet it brings me much joy to say that since 2005 they’ve been a semi-active concern. What I’d really like - and I know I’m not alone - is a new album. I live in hope. Here’s singer, guitarist and icon to short-sighted types everywhere, Cormac Battle…
Hey Cormac. Kerbdog formed in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1991. This being pre-internet and Kilkenny not being the centre of the universe, what was your route to music?
“It was the movie Back to the Future that first inspired me. It made me realise that a guitar was a way to a woman's heart and also a way to impress people if you were shit at sport. So I got a guitar and eventually put a band together with a bunch of other non-sporty types. That's how Kerbdog was born. I was big on BMX back then. My worst injury? I chipped my front tooth going over a ramp and while I was on the ground another rider landed on my head. It's still chipped…”
Bloody hell. A brief aside. Away from ‘Indie Heaven’, I also run a weekly newsletter called Spoook. It’s about the paranormal, cryptids, true crime, folklore and other weird stuff. People can sign up for it here. What can you tell me about the Kilkenny cats?
“I think it's something to do with a witch who lived in Kilkenny hundreds of years ago who had a bunch of cats and wasn't the nicest person in town. I think I may have met her a few times late at night after a few beers.”
Okay, now that’s out of the way, tell me about your pre-Kerbdog band, Rollercoaster…
“Well, we were only a school band who never left the confines of Kilkenny, but they were magical times, just trying to be cool playing feedback to a bunch of people who were too cool to even watch us. That's the way it was back then. You had to pretend you didn't care about anything when in fact you were desperate for approval and love just like everybody else.”
Okay, VH1 Behind The Music time. Billy Dalton [guitar] joins the band - who are now Kerbdog - in 1992. He brings a metal influence to the band, who are otherwise in thrall to Sonic Youth and Spacemen 3…
“Big time. He was all about Metallica and a load of shite hair bands. He had an amazing guitar sound though, and we loved him as a human being. When Billy joined the band we went from indie shoegazers to grunge-metal titans.”
Also that year, you support Therapy? at Kilkenny's New Park Inn. With hindsight, just how important were Therapy? to your career?
“In the initial stages, seeing them playing in Kilkenny in a sweaty, oversold pub was one of the most exciting things we'd ever experienced. It definitely pushed us further into wanting to do the band thing full time. That lead to us sending a demo out, which led to a day at The Pumphouse in Kilkenny where we met 11 of the 22 labels that had got back to us. It was crazy. All these record execs flying in from around the world to see us playing in our local pub. It was the stuff dreams are made of, really. It was utter chaos. I remember an air conditioning unit being knocked off the ceiling by crowd surfers. We signed with Mercury because they were the first ones to offer us a deal - the next day - and we were nervous that they might be the only ones to do that so we wanted to get it done before they could change their minds.”
A year later you record your self-titled debut at Rockfield Studios in Wales. You made that with Jack Endino, a legendary name in grunge circles. He says you were writing lyrics right until the point you came to recording?
“He's right. I found writing lyrics difficult. In retrospect I should have put more effort into the lyrics. I saw my voice more or less as just another instrument at the time, so a lot of lyrics were stream of consciousness type stuff. That said, that approach didn't hurt Michael Stipe…”
Soon after you went on tour with The Almighty. Now, and then, that feels like fairly bizarre booking!
“Well, at the time The Almighty had a brief flirtation with the whole grunge thing. They were playing big venues and a lot of people who saw us on that tour became lifelong fans of the band. We became pretty good friends with them as well. We went on to share the same management actually.”
Then you make the second album, On The Turn, in LA, with GGGarth in 1995. I sat in on a Biffy Clyro session when they were working with him. He watched an awful lot of ice-hockey…
“He was an amazing person to work with and be around. I absolutely love that man. He is so kind and so patient, especially as we weren't exactly pro-musicians. He makes fantastic sounding records. He's a very big sports fan though. No question about that. Funny as fuck too.”
Sadly, Billy leaves Kerbdog a few months after you return from Los Angeles. Then, in early 1996, the Mercury Music Group is bought by PolyGram, and Kerbdog shift over to Fontana Records, Vertigo's sister label at PolyGram…
“With Billy, we all lost perspective out there for various reasons. Billy ended up parting with us when we got back home. It was all a big mistake and it shouldn't have happened. Friendship comes first. It was great to have him back again [as of 2014]. He's a great guy! With the label… Ah look, we had spent vast amounts of record company money and they had to make a decision to double down and spend tons more on promoting On The Turn or cutting their loses. They chose the latter option and we got dropped and broke up as a result pretty soon after.”
It still hurts Cormac, it still hurts. I read somewhere that Kerbdog actually considered relocating to the States at some point. How close did you come to that?
“Not close at all. But it's something I think we should have done right from the beginning. We were a band at odds with what was happening in the UK so that would have been the logical thing to do. But logic is hard to come by in a bunch of 20-year-olds trying to find their way.”
Wilt, the band you did next, formed in 1998, with Darragh [Butler, drums] and your friend Mick Murphy on bass. What are your thoughts on Wilt, looking back all these years later?
“I am very fond of what we did with Wilt. A lot of the songs are just Kerbdog tunes with the drive on the guitar amps turned down a bit. If Kerbdog had gone on I think we would have made heavier sounding Wilt albums.”
And then you went to work in radio, at RTÉ 2fm. How did that come about? And how long did it take you to come up with the name of your show, The Battle Axe?
“I got to know a producer there from doing sessions for them, and he told me that they were looking for an indie/alternative DJ. I had been dabbling in radio and had always had an interest since I was a child. I met the boss and he gave me a show. I couldn't believe that I had struck gold again. And oh yeah, literally ten seconds to come up with the name of the show!”
Kerbdog reformed in 2005, and you’ve sporadically done shows since. Was the plan to make the band your living again, or was it more about reconnecting with the music?
“The latter. There was no desire to get back into it full time. All of our lives had moved on and although we had a lot of good times on the road and so on, there can be a lot of darkness, pressure and insecurity being in a proper band. None of us are natural rockstars, anyway. None of us believe in hype. We’re friends first and bandmates second. We just happen to make a decent noise when we get together.”
Okay, here come the quick-fire questions… The Pledge: A Tribute To Kerbdog album, that came out in 2010. What's your favourite cover on it, and why?
“Frank Turner doing ‘Sally’. Simply because it's Frank Turner and he is an authentic person that we all admire.”
Next. You have the best taste in glasses of any rockstar I know. How many pairs do you own and just how bad is your eyesight?
“It's shit. I've had about 20 pairs. I was always inspired by Michael Douglas's character in Falling Down.”
Regrets are pointless - but tell me some anyway!
“That I didn't take it just a bit more seriously at the time. If I’m being totally honest, we barely had any work ethic never mind a strong one.”
Do you think there'll ever be a third Kerbdog album? It seems cruel and unjust that there's just two.
“I doubt it. I'd love to do it, but I'd have to be able to be financially secure for my family which is very unlikely unless I have a huge lottery win.”
Boo. What are the chances I'll get to see Kerbdog live again?
“Highly likely. Right now our two albums have been reissued on vinyl. Wez from Hassle Records was the label manager for Wilt, and recognised a desire for our albums out there again. I had my doubts but he was right. In a very big way. Life is full of surprises isn't it?”